I never thought I would do this...

Prep School Admissions
41

<p>Heres a little update on my school ECs, if you wanted to know :). Things are going pretty well - </p>

<p>Student Council Treasurer (Student Body) - Will be a strong applicant; essays required :smiley:
FBLA President - Very likely* Event: International Business *
DECA [Organizational meeting tomorrow…]
Poetry Club (Can’t think of a name - will be co-founder if accepted)
Math Team (Leader - possible, unless only Sophomores can)
Science Club (Co-founder - still organizing, should start around October)
National Auxilliary Arts Honor Society - (Running for secretary :p)</p>

42

<p>Chaos/tommiester, if schools want you, which I’m sure they will (thinking positive), it is possible they will offer you more than what any chart may show.</p>

43

<p>That’s what I’ve heard, so I hope so. How does that mesh with the school’s “no merit scholarship” philosophy, though?</p>

44

<p>When schools “want” an applicant (i.e. that applicant is in the top 10% of applicants) they will look “more carefully” at the written parts of the FA application.</p>

<p>When SSS calculates your EFC - they are pretty much using a formula based upon parameters you provide (income, assets, debts, expenses, etc.) There are also boxes to explain any “unusual” circumstances which affect your particualar living situation. This is where you explain that your mother is not currently employed because she is looking after your dying grandmother, or whatever else is going on in your household that would impact your ability to come up with the EFC.</p>

<p>SSS’s EFC is just a guideline that allows schools to award FA with a certain amount of equity across their applicant pool. It is not a magic number by any means. So top applicants may get a more generous review of their specific situation.</p>

<p>Another way “merit” creeps into “need based” FA is many schools cannot fund 100% of the match to the EFC for all FA candidates. As a result, candidates who are more “wanted” by the school get a higher percentage of that match or get the full match. </p>

<p>If a school is going to give a discount on tuition (FA), at least use that discount to attract the students that will improve your school’s academic/athelitic/artistic profile. </p>

<p>It may sound a little cynical - I don’t mean it to, but that is considered prudent use of the schools financial resources.</p>

45

<p>Goaliedad’s third paragraph explains it rather nicely.</p>

46

<p>Quick Question
-Does it help to apply to a schools summer program?</p>

47

<p>wow you are a nerd…i go to one of the top academic schools in the country and have found that poeple like you don’t make it here. you can be as smart as anything but you are going to break down if you keep trying to be involved in everything. it’s easy to do that right now because you are a frosh but eventualy it is going to catch up with you. i’d suggest you relax and be a high school kid. you will get into these schools if you stay involved and keep your grades up. colleges look for a complete person and you just seem too academic if that makes sense. get a job be normal and have a good time in high school</p>

48

<p>what school do you attend? ^^</p>

49

<p>Ah, I see, thank you.
Back to my astrophysics book. :D</p>

<p>No lol, joke. (not really). I understand what you are saying, and thus I’ve decided to [kinda] drop out of the running for student council. I am not the most patient of people to begin with ^_^. Also, I do not think DECA will be organized at our school; unless the meeting was just cancelled. I know for sure I will be in FBLA, Art, Math Team and Science. I’ll talk to my teacher tomorrow about Poetry. My goal is not to be involved in everything; instead it is to be involved in what I love. It may seem like a bit of a stretch at the moment, but I truly do love each of these things. I would spend my precious time after school every day sitting in some random classroom in some random school if I knew I was wasting time.
Who said I wasn’t having a good time? I’ve got astrophysics! :p</p>

50

<p>Chaos Thoery, I have no doubt that you have a love for P science. P science is a love of your’s, and it shows in a positive way. I commented right after you started this thread, that you must be careful not to come across as robotic. You’re better off with a smaller amount of interests that you stay with over time. I hope exeter works for you. It may be a good place for you.</p>

51

<p>When does the whole application process actually start out? You guys have given me so much more confidence. I believe for some, like Andover and Lawrenceville, you can apply online and they’ll send you the packet? Is this a good time to start? I’ll probably fill out the online form over the weekend…</p>

<p>Last year was a disaster… I started my apps in like December XD</p>

52

<p>goaliedad: thanks for your help on the FA issue. That’s pretty much like I thought it would be.</p>

53

<p>You seem to have your head screwed on straight, tommeister. Far more important than anything else.</p>

<p>Being successful at improving your educational lot (actually attending the best fit school possible - note the order of the modifiers), is a function of what you have - intellegence (as demonstrated by test scores and GPA), talent (as demonstrated by artistic/athletic), character (as demonstrated by volunteer work, leadership experience, and letters of recommendation) and unfortunately money.</p>

<p>Knowing what mix of the above you bring to a school and what mix of the above will get you successfully into a school is the key to getting those thick packets in late March.</p>

<p>I’ll tell you when we went through the process last year, I had to figure out a lot of these things. And it is difficult to get GPA/test score metrics out of most of these schools. The best you will find published is average SSAT scores. If you’ve studied statistics, you’ll know the average tells you very little about anything. You need to know the spread of the data (as measured by standard deviation and type of curve (bell or other).</p>

<p>I called several schools and asked admissions officers what the spread of SSAT scores (25th to 75th percentile) was just to get a feel for where we stood in the applicant pool. I only found one that was willing to divulge that information. Sometimes I feel like they thought it would be embarrassing to admit having someone with too low of a test score admitted.</p>

<p>BTW, universities have (and are generally much more willing to discuss) these types of statistics.</p>

<p>Fortunately for you, you seem far ahead academically of most of your peers, so you should have a broad range of options.</p>

<p>If FA is critical to your moving forward with a prep school education, then make sure to have a some solid safety schools in your application list. It is OK to be in the top 10% of your class, you know. In fact at many schools, the top students can get more help than those in the middle, as they do like showcasing their talent and placing their students in top schools when they finish (improving their matric list is always important to them).</p>

<p>I think that you know this too, but it can’t hurt to remind you. Ouch!</p>

54

<p>Sorry, who has that addressed to? :p</p>

55

<p>ChaosTheory, </p>

<p>My post #53 was addressed to tommeister. Although it is generic enough that it would be useful to many members here.</p>

<p>Sorry if I was unclear.</p>

56

<p>Ah, I see, no problem. I would assume it would apply to many students here. Thank you for your advice.</p>

57

<p>Thanks for the advice, goaliedad. I realize that it would make sense to apply to a wider range of schools if I was absolutely committed to going to a boarding prep school. However, I think that I would get a decent, though not outstanding, education at my local public high school. Because of this I am only applying to ‘first choice’ schools. I don’t want my parents to shell out a load of money if I’m not getting the best education that I can get, would not be happy at the school.</p>

58

<p>Yours is a very valid position. </p>

<p>It would seem that you are looking at boarding school primarily as a diploma name and classroom quality improvement and are considering the marginal cost of improvement when saying paying a lot of money for a relatively small amount of improvement (over your public school) doesn’t make sense.</p>

<p>It sounds like from your body of posts so far, that you are all caught up in the “lifestyle” of the boarding school as many posters her are. They seek the adventure as well as the stuff you are looking for. It is not necessarily attractive to everyone - and home may be a great place for you.</p>

<p>If that is the case, I say go ahead and swing for the fences then.</p>

59

<p>Any replies to post #51? :D</p>

60

<p>ChaosTheory,</p>

<p>Game is on for 2007-08!</p>

<p>Start collecting applications now. Start scheduling campus visits and interviews now. You can schedule the mid-October SSAT sitting now, though I would ask other members if there is an advantage to taking it later (more prep time?).</p>

<p>If your list is more than 5 schools, I would hold off on the major time consuming activities of applications (like the essay) until you have your visits and determine that they are on your short list of favorites. No use in wasting your days on paperwork for a school you may not like. </p>

<p>Plus, I found that teachers do have a limit on how many letters of rec they will write for a student. If you hit them with 10 forms from 10 schools, they will probably not do as good of a job on them (to your detriment) as if you did 5. Of course, YMMV.</p>