Hello, I hope to get some help on my situation from more experienced parents. My son is a 7th grader. Next year, he wants to apply to private high schools in our area, but the acceptance rate for the schools he is interested in is very low.
He doesn’t participate in any volunteering activities yet, and his ISEE or SSAT scores are likely to be around 99% in math but only 60-70% in language arts. He’s not a native English speaker, isn’t an avid reader, and dislikes writing. His current GPA is 3.7 (3.9 without art class). He doesn’t have any particularly fancy hobbies or leadership activities.
He’s passionate about swimming and math. He is currently on a swim team (practicing 5 days a week, B time) and enrolled in a competitive math class (80%-90%th percentile on US math competitions such as AMC8 and Kangaroo). I am proud of his results, but I understand that his results do not stand out.
- How can I help improve his chances of getting into a good private high school?
- How much should I be involved in helping him? Should I already be encouraging some independence, or is it a bit too early? He will be 13 when he applies.