M10 2024 Stats/EC Thread

Prep School Admissions
1

Feel free to post your prep school decisions on this thread!

The official 2024 prep school stats/ec’s thread. Credit goes to @atria and @ChoatieMom for the format

**Note: this thread is FOR RESULTS ONLY! Any commentary (congratulations, commiseration, etc.) shall only be spoken about on other threads. (Namely the Official 2024 Freakout Thread )

Format (copy & paste all thing below):
Accepted:
Rejected:
Wait listed:
Likely Attending:

Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT:
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted:
• Rank:
• Other stats:

Subjective:
• Interviews:
• Essays:
• Math Rec:
• English Rec:
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec:
• Principal/Counselor Rec:
• Sports (if any):
• Instruments (if any):
• Other ECs (if any):
• Hook:

Location/Person:
• State or Country:
• Current School Type:
• Ethnicity:
• Gender:
• Grade Applying For:
• Age:
• Financial Aid/Full Pay:

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?

(End)

General Comments:
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Please do NOT post your stats/ecs until you receive all of your decisions. Otherwise, the posts will be deleted without notice or comment.

3

Demographics:

Asian Male, 500k+ income, very competitive Jr./Sr. High School

Residence in NY

no hooks

Testing (ISEE):

Verbal - 58th percentile
Reading - 92nd percentile
Quantitative - 99th percentile, all questions correct
Mathematics Achievement - 99th percentile, all questions correct

2nd ISEE:
V - 90
RC - 75
Q - 88
MA - 99, all questions correct

Also took ssat but didn’t submit.

Grades:

6th - idrk, there are no letter grades in 6th, its based on 1-4 scale, but mostly 4s
7th - all As or A+ except for one B+
8th - quarter one is all As or A+, don’t know for quarter 2

Extracurriculars/awards:

Developer of discord bot that has a user base of 2500+

Solo developer of VR game developed in unity

Published author of a book about the Myanmar refugee crisis

Raising money to help suffering refugees around the world

Model UN refugee conference

Piano (7 years), perfect score on NYSSMA level 6 (only 117 ppl got this score in state), 2nd prize at tri-state level music competition (performed at Carnegie hall and Kennedy center)

Alto Saxophone (4 years), participant in All-county band x2, 5th chair

AMC 10 93

Co-founder and treasurer of Community Connect Club at my school

treasurer of Rubik’s cube club

one of main programmers at school’s FTC robotics team (made regionals once)

3rd at school level hackathon (for grades 7-12)

Squash (3 years), keeping vague but ~3.5 rating, top 2 in many bronze level tournaments

John Hopkins CTY Grand Honor Award

Captain of school’s mathcounts team x2, First place at chapter round (first time my school won chapter since 1987), 7th place at NY state competition, top 4 individuals at chapter

Essays:

Riverdale - very strong essay about my advocacy for Myanmar refugees around the world 9/10

Horace Mann - copy paste of Riverdale esssay

Andover - copy paste of Riverdale essay

Exeter - one essay was a copy paste of Riverdale essay, other one was just straight up trash 5/10

LOR:

Great relations with core subject teachers, shouldn’t have to worry about this part, other reccomendations from family friends & robotics coach

Interviews:

All pretty good except Exeter which wasn’t bad ig

Decisions:

Acceptances: none :frowning:

Wait-list: Andover, Riverdale

Rejected: Horace Mann, Exeter

Final thoughts:

I remember my parents told me that I could apply to more boarding schools after they thought I was ‘ready,’ but now they say that I’ll just stay at my current school until college.

Honestly I’m happy with staying at my current school, it’s still a very good school but not really as good as the private schools I applied to.

I plan to keep exploring CS and am creating a separate robotics team from my school’s team with the intention of being much more competitive and qualify for worlds real.

Ok I did not get enough sleep last night so imma cry myself to sleep now.

6 Likes
4

Accepted: None :frowning:
Rejected: EmmaW, Hotchkiss, EHS, Andover
Wait listed: Choate, NMH
Likely Attending: Not sure, applied to schools in other countries as well

Demographics:

  • Gender: Female
  • Race/Ethnicity: Asian/South Korea+China
  • Residence: China
  • Income Bracket: need full FA
  • Type of School attending: International
  • Grade/Age: 9th/13 (skipped grade 6)

Academics:

  • All A, A+ during 7th grade year
  • All A+ During 8th grade year
  • All A, A+, and a B during first sem 9th grade

Extracurriculars/Activities/Awards:

CTY High Honors

International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (China) Honorable Mention

International Mathematical Modeling Challenge Meritorious

USACO 2022 Gold Division

John Locke Essay Competition 2023 Commendation

Best Academic Achievement Scholarship (In school)

ABRSM Grade 8 Piano Performance Pass

ABRSM Grade 5 Music Theory Merit

VIVACE Piano Competition 3rd Place (China Regionals)

Franz Liszt International Piano Competition - Merit Prize (China Regionals)

Varsity U15 Volleyball Vice Captain

Ultimate Frisbee Team

Swimming Team in my previous school

Golf

School Clubs/community work :

  • Founded a Coding Club at school 2023-2024
  • Writing a blog for 3yrs+ on coding - sharing my knowledge, 2k followers
  • Curriculum Writer for CPI(Competitive Programming Initiative) 1.5yr+
  • Ongoing research with UIUC mini crowd research, published a paper together but got rejected

LORs:

  • English Teacher - Great relationship. We are really close so I think a 9.5/10
  • Individual and society Teacher - pretty good i think? Probs a 8/10
  • Math Teacher - no idea. He probs hates me or gna say im “average student” cuz im not talkative in class so 4/10
  • ICT Teacher - definitely a 10/10, she shared parts of the LOR with me
  • Personal Recommendation - Got it from the prof I was doing research with. (UIUC)
  • Science teacher (Bio) - I did improve a lot and got really close, maybe 9/10

Essays:

  • Excellent in writing, and pretty sure i have strong essays and personal experiences to talk about + political topics, identity and inclusion

Interviews

  • Andover: Went for only 32 minutes, interviewer didn’t ask/mention for parent interview (REALLY ODD. I FEEL LIKE IM ALREADY REJECTED). It was more like a q&a, interviewer said andover wants students like me and put all of the stuff i said in the interview to my app. (basically what everyone gets to hear).
  • Choate: average, wasn’t expecting the waitlist since I called them Hotchkiss (learned a lot from this mistake.) in the thank you email but figured out they put everyone on the wl so yeah
  • EHS: ehs was awesome, I feel acceptance but hehe got rejected
  • NMH: with alumn, so passionate abt the school, went on for 40mins cuz he doesn’t have enough time for zoom, and I feel great even though I got waitlisted
  • Emma: nothing special, I expected more but its just classic q&a kinda interview and just asking questions off a list and finish…?

Strengths: LORs and essays, some interview(maybe)

Weaknesses: my sports ec were not that great, piano not good enough for hotchkiss, no ssat/toefl, and needed full fa

2 Likes
5

Accepted: Choate, Deerfield, Exeter, Groton, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Loomis
Rejected: None
Wait listed: Andover, SPS
Likely Attending: Have to decide

Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: SSAT~2400
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted: No GPA at school but all grades are A and A+
• Rank: No ranking at school
• Other stats:

Subjective:
• Interviews: All of them were great except SPS (was online at 8 EST and AO was tired). Multiple interviewers told us that he was very mature and talks very well. Between 20-40 min.
• Essays: Very good writer 9-10/10 for most. Spent a lot of time which is key. Also SSAT essay was good for the short time.
• Math Rec: 10/10 . His teacher loves him and wants him to stay at LPS
• English Rec: 10/10 . Teacher loves him and thinks he is a great writer and helpful to his peers.
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec: 10/10 . She knew him for 2 years and strongly advocated about his non academic attributes i.e. character/personality
• Principal/Counselor Rec: 8-9/10 - No idea since no one has gone to BS from his school and they told us as much
• Sports (if any): Tennis -one of the best in town and went to state( but not really a high level player), Black Belt in karate
• Instruments (if any): None but accomplished in Voice. Went to state, multiple regional awards and sang at a national event
• Other ECs (if any): Debate: Went to multiple national tournaments and placed in top 4.
founder Debate club at school , MUN and a peer tutor. Lots of volunteering in community
• Hook: Founder of non profit addressing a very important aspect of life and its impact. the maturity he showed

Location/Person:
• State or Country: Southern US
• Current School Type: LPS
• Ethnicity: Asian
• Gender: Male
• Grade Applying For: 9
• Age: 14
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: FP

Strengths: Academics as evidenced by SSAT and school grades. His Non profit and volunteering. Well rounded with Debate and Voice. Interviews well

Weaknesses: Not a great athlete

Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted? Accepted because of his strengths. WL at SPS since it was late interview and both him and interviewer were tired. Andover- don’t know maybe very strong field and not a great athlete.

General Comments: Start early, SSAT/ ISEE are very manageable tests. Preparing for the test is key along with good knowledge base. Start the process in summer and read and revise your essays. You don’t have to have lengthy interviews, keep it on point and visit schools in summer if you cant go during school year. Also in parent essays talk about character and interpersonal skills of the student since they already know about academics from grades and standardized scores. Thanks to all the prior posters on CC- you were all very helpful.

4 Likes
6

Accepted: St.Marks
Rejected: Andover
Wait listed: Exeter, Groton, St.Pauls
Likely Attending:

Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT:81
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted: 3.9
• Rank: N/A
• Other stats:

• Interviews:10/10
• Essays: 9/10
• Math Rec: 9/10
• English Rec: 9.5/10
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec:10/10
• Principal/Counselor Rec: 9/10
• Sports (if any): Baseball and Basketball
• Instruments (if any): Piano
• Other ECs (if any): Debate, Model UN, Student government, Tutor, Some other STEM and leadership clubs as well.
• Hook: Recruited Athlete.

• State or Country: New England
• Current School Type: Public
• Ethnicity: Indian
• Gender: Male
• Grade Applying For: 9th
• Age: 14
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: Full pay

Strengths:
Really good at science and math and Recruited Athlete. Have a lot of chess awards and math competitions awards. Interviews.
Weaknesses:
SSAT
Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?
I either matched what the school wanted or I did not.

1 Like
7

Accepted: Exeter, SPS Rejected: Taft, Kent Wait listed: Andover Likely Attending: Exeter
Stats: • SSAT: 72nd Percentile • GPA: 3.87
Subjective: • Interviews: 10/10 Probably the best part of my application • Essays: 7/10 I’m not the best writer although I spent the most time on my Exeter and Andover Applications • Math Rec: 8/10 • English Rec: 9/10 • Personal/Extracurricular Rec: 8/10 • Principal/Counselor Rec: 10/10 • Sports: Ice hockey(main sport and playing varsity as a freshman at whichever I go to), Basketball, Lacrosse, Football • Instruments: Piano • Other ECs: Selected for program for Exceeding Latinos in my area where we did community service, visited university, and saw presentations on how our education impacted our advancement in the future • Hook:
Location/Person • State or Country: California • Current School Type: Catholic K-8 • Ethnicity: Latino • Gender: Male • Grade Applying For: 9th • Age: 14 • Financial Aid: Majority of Tuition, but my family is paying around 20k
Strengths: Athlete, Minority, Recommendations, Interview, First Generation
Weaknesses: Above Average writer, but not the best. Also a low SSAT score for the schools I applied to

8

Accepted: Exeter, Andover.
Waitlisted: Choate, Groton, Hotchkiss.

Stats:
Ssat 2400
Gpa 5 (weighted)

• State or Country: Canada
• Current School Type: Private
• Ethnicity: Chinese
• Gender: Female
• Grade Applying For: 9th
• Age: 13
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: FA

• Interviews:10/10 Exeter, Andover. 8/10 Hotchkiss, 2/10 Choate (terrible interviewer) Never had one at Groton
• Essays: 9/10
• Math Rec: 10/10
• English Rec: 10/10
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec:10/10
• Principal/Counselor Rec: 10/10
• Sport: Swimming. Provincial Champion in multiple events.
• Multiple Awards academic awards and in sport.
• Recruited Athlete.

10

Accepted: Exeter, Andover, Hotchkiss
Waitlisted: Lawrenceville, Taft, Deerfield
Rejected: None
Likely Attending: Exeter

Stats:

  • SSAT: 2292 (96th percentile)
  • GPA (unweighted): 4.0
  • My school doesn’t do ranks
  • Interviews: Exeter 8/10; Andover 9/10; Hotchkiss 10/10
  • Essays: 10/10
  • Personal/Extracurricular Rec: 10/10
  • Principal/Counselor Rec: 10/10
  • Sports: Swimming, Tennis, Running (placed well at state championships for all)
  • Instruments: Violin; selected for principal chair of multiple state-wide honors orchestras
  • Others ECs: Writing, Science Olympiad, volunteering (Red Cross, music quartet that fundraises for children’s hearing aids, etc.)
  • Hook: writing, but particularly my scientific spin on it
  • Location: Iowa, USA
  • Current school type: regular public school
  • Ethnicity: Asian-American
  • Gender: Female
  • Grade Applying For: Ninth
  • Age: 13
  • Financial Aid: needed lots of it and Exeter’s offering the most
  • Strengths: Minority, Essays, Interviews, Extracurriculars
  • Weaknesses: Required very heavy load of financial aid, impersonal relationship with one of my recommendation teachers (algebra 2 H)
11

Accepted: None.
Rejected: Andover, Choate, Deerfield, Exeter,
Wait listed: None.
Likely Attending: None.

Stats:
• PSAT/NMSQT: 1500, SAT: 1530
• GPA Unweighted: 3.6
• Rank: N/A

Subjective:
• Interviews: All went amazingly well. They all seemed extremely impressed, I established a personal connection with every interviewer, and they all had great things to say about me.
• Essays: Outstanding. The English teacher for my school’s advanced English classes (equivalent to third and fourth year college classes) reviewed them and said they had a “perfect” balance between action and description, tons of personality, and were better than most essays his students submitted for colleges.
• Math Rec: Excellent. I am one of his favorite students and he assured me he would portray me in the best possible light.
• English Rec: Good? I have a good relationship with him but there was a little dispute earlier this year, so that might have came through in the letter.
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec: Outstanding. She is familiar with these schools and wrote her letter to portray me in the best possible light, given what these schools are looking for. She also believes I will be a governor/SCOTUS judge in the future and implied so in her letter.
• Principal/Counselor Rec: Good?
• Sports (if any): N/A (physically unable to do them because of a crippling disability)
• Instruments (if any): N/A
• Other ECs (if any): Founded a large club, very experienced in another, have won many prestigious awards for my photograph.
• Hook: None.

Location/Person:
• State or Country: Underrepresented state.
• Current School Type: Magnet.
• Ethnicity: White.
• Gender: Questioning.
• Grade Applying For: 11.
• Age: 16
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: Full ride.

Strengths:
My profile.

Weaknesses:
Applying for full financial aid in 11th grade with no sports.

Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?
Financial aid needs, sports, and low GPA. I think the first two are understandable so I’ll stick to the last. My school is extremely rigorous, to the point where doing dual enrollment is seen as a way of taking easier classes. Every class I take is at a university level. Grades are often quite brutal, which led to my low GPA. I don’t think they are familiar with my school’s rigor, which could have caused them to toss my application out early on based on the GPA. If they were familiar, then they could have rejected for yield control (since my school is so strong that I have little impetus to move).

1 Like
12

Accepted:Shady Side Academy, Pomfret
Rejected:Concord Academy, Williston Northampton, NMH
Wait listed:WMA, Suffield, Brooks
Likely Attending:idk

Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT:7(9,8,8,6)
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted:3.5ish?
• Rank:no rank
• Other stats:none

Subjective:
• Interviews:9/10 have a really good interview with Pomfret and talk to the coaches
• Essays:8/10
• Math Rec:8/10 I think my math teacher probably wrote a okay letter
• English Rec:7/10 I didn’t do really well on English
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec:10/10
• Principal/Counselor Rec:9/10
• Sports (if any):XC, Tennis, have done a long period of figure skating
• Instruments (if any): flute
• Other ECs (if any): programming(4 years), bunch of clubs, I can’t really remember other ones
• Hook:none

Location/Person:
• State or Country:MA
• Current School Type:competitive public school
• Ethnicity:Asian
• Gender:female
• Grade Applying For:9
• Age:14
• Financial Aid/Full Pay:Full Pay

Strengths:Athlete

Weaknesses:low standard test score and GOA

Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?

I have an extremely well conversation with Pomfret. And my EC we’re fitting with Shady Side. I think I don’t have a good gpa for some other schools.

13

Accepted: Lawrenceville
Rejected: Loomis Chaffee
Wait listed: Choate, Hotchkiss, Peddie, St. Andrews, Blair
Likely Attending: Lawrenceville

Stats:
School Accomplishments

  • High achieving student: All “A”s in First Marking Period 2023-24
  • Consistently strong results: A and B+ grades in 6th and 7th grades
  • Activities: Choir/chorus (2+ years); Participated in a choir competition with choir class in Allentown, PA
  • Exceeded 10-hour minimum requirement for school community project (25+ hours)–activities included Green Team, canned food drives; clothing donations; and library work

Clubs and Volunteer Work

  • Environmental “Green Team” member (2+ years). Assisted with gathering and donating clothing for the underprivileged, trash pickup in and around the school premises, and planting vegetables in the school’s garden.
  • Volunteered weekly at a local library in Bernardsville during the school year. Helped categorize and arrange books/periodicals with middle and high school students.
  • Volunteers at St. John on The Mountain Episcopal Church (youth group); assists in hosting coffee hours, Sunday school, pancake receptions, and holiday pageants.
  • Leadership role as “Mary” in church holiday pageant; assist younger children with their lines and dress rehearsals.
  • Organized (with youth group) annual church holiday “Secret Santa” for underprivileged families; shopped for and wrapped winter clothing, stuffed animals, underwear, pajamas, board games and toiletries.
  • Board Director-- Student Council
  • Ran For 2023-24 Student Body President
  • Peer Leadership (8th grade)

Athletics/Extracurriculars

  • Basketball (7th and 8th grade). Strong 3-point shooter.
  • Dance Street Hip/Hop at GottaDance; Lead dancer in June 2023 7th grade recital
  • Dancing for 5+ years (various genres: ballet, tap, freestyle, hip-hop)
  • Soccer: Goalkeeper for 8th-grade soccer goalie of girls’ middle school team

Summer Programs

  • Attended the 2-week Peddie Summer Academy (academic and extra-curricular program) to experience boarding school
  • Won “Best Dancer” in Peddie Summer Camp Competition (2023)
  • Attended “Harbor Hills Day Camp” (9 years); various informal leadership positions with elementary students; currently in leadership training for the 2024 summer session

Other Programs

  • Attended a formal grief group program (“Good Grief”)in Morristown, NJ after the sudden death of my father in 2019. (Attended 2+ years); Leader of the intermediate peer group.

Personal

  • Self-taught contortionist and gymnast
  • Spanish and Portuguese–conversational
  • Played basketball for 3+ years
  • Played tennis for 2+ years
  • Danced for 5+ years (jazz, hip hop, tap, ballet)
  • Strong 3-pointer in basketball
  • Strong goalkeeper in soccer; team player
  • Saved 40+ goals in soccer (in Fall 2023 season)
  • Exhibited strength and developed resilience after losing my father at the age of 9 (3rd grade)

• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: 55th percentile (V 698/Q 713/R 620)
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted: no GPA
• Rank: no ranking
• Other stats: N/A

Subjective:
• Interviews: 8/10 my interviews were good I just choked on some parts tho

• Essays: 9/10 I think they were superb because I wrote about my family and how we strive for success and my ankle fracture
• Math Rec: N/A Well since it got me into Lawrenceville I’m guessing it was really good
• English Rec: N/A Well since it got me into Lawrenceville I’m guessing it was really good
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec: N/A Well since it got me into Lawrenceville I’m guessing it was really good
• Principal/Counselor Rec: N/A Well since it got me into Lawrenceville I’m guessing it was really good
• Sports (if any): Basketball, Soccer, and Dance
• Instruments (if any):
• Other ECs (if any):
• Hook: I am a 2nd gen immigrant whose grandpa is a former un diplomat and got my leg fracture and turned that into a dance solo

Location/Person:
• State or Country: New Jersey (north-central)
• Current School Type: Public
• Ethnicity: Nigerian-American (Black)
• Gender: Female
• Grade Applying For: 9th grade (Freshman)
• Age: 13 almost 14
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: FA

Strengths: Personality and essays were compelling and I was a great interviewer

Weaknesses: My SSAT scores because I was lower in the percentiles

Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted? I think I got into Lawrenceville because of my personality and my interests in STEM, Dance, and community service in general

1 Like
14

Accepted: none :confused:
Rejected: Andover

Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: n/a
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted: 4
• Rank: school does not rank

Subjective:
• Interviews: Very good, talked for 20 minutes over scheduled time. 9/10
• Essays: 7/10. I did good but could have planned it better
• Math Rec: 8/10, I think my teacher wrote a good letter
• English Rec: 9/10, My teacher wrote a good letter, 98% grade
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec: 9/10
• Principal/Counselor Rec: 8/10
• Sports (if any): basketball, school team, swimming, no swim team at school but practicing for high school
• Instruments (if any): clarinet, piano
• Other ECs (if any): Model Un, Math team (mathcounts, amc 8). Jazz band, chamber for clarinet. Others over the past 2 years; don’t remember
• Hook: none

Location/Person:
• State or Country: MA, USA
• Current School Type:public
• Ethnicity: asian
• Gender: male
• Grade Applying For: 9th grade
• Age: 13
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: some FA

Strengths: Athlete, good ecs, good interview

Weaknesses: c+ in art in 7th grade, b- in health this year (a, a+ every other grade)

Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?
I did not explain my interests well in my essays and I forgot to add many extracurriculars and achievements to my candidate profile :frowning::confused:.

15

Accepted: Deerfield, Taft, Kent, Brooks, Pomfret, St. Andrews, St. Georges, Hill, Canterbury
Rejected: None
Wait listed: St. Paul’s School
Likely Attending: not yet decided (between Deerfield, Taft, and Kent)

Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: 87%lle SSAT (2248)
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted: (school doesn’t release it until 2nd Semester, but here it is: 4.63/4.7)
• Rank: (school doesn’t have it)
• Other stats: all A+ freshman year, A/A+ with one B+ for 8th, and A/A+ for 7th; for middle school: high honor roll for 4 marking periods and honor roll for 4 marking periods (no sixth grade bc of COVID). for freshman year, all honors classes.

Subjective:
• Interviews: depends on the school here’s the breakdown:
Deerfield - 7/10, talked for a while, interview was good but could have been better
Taft - 10/10, interviewer really enjoyed talking to me and we talked about everything
Kent - 8/10, interviewer sort of just understood me as a person
Brooks - 7/10, again, talked for a while, but I met with both music director and squash coach
St Georges - 4/10, literally awful, interviewer kept asking about my family history in a really uncomfortable way
St Paul - 6/10, interviewer didn’t want to interview me (and it showed)
Pomfret - 9/10, super sweet interviewer who was invested in getting to know me better
St Andrew - 10/10, interviewer told my mom “if i could get her to come here now, i would”
Hill - 10/10, interviewer and i had many of the same interests and literally talked for 90 mins
Canterbury - 9/10, interviewer wanted to get to know me personally and we connected well

• Essays: wrote about my passion for philosophy and being ethnically/culturally confused
• Math Rec: 9/10, teacher is fine with me, i probably work the hardest in the class
• English Rec: probably an 8/10, teacher knows that I am passionate about topic
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec: definitely a 10/10, done by a very close person
• Principal/Counselor Rec: ehh, probably a 6/10, don’t really know my counselor
• Sports (if any): Squash (club pickleball)
• Instruments (if any): Mallet Percussion [4 years, main instrument, jazz band, 1st chair regional band, training in double mallets], Drums (2 years), Battery Percussion [3 years, did intensive program at state uni], Piano [6 years, variety of genres]
• Other ECs (if any): debate, newspaper and news channel, fashion, backstage theater, volunteering (program at middle school and at local temple), and business club (other stuff, I have to look at calendar)
• Hook: instrumental abilities and minority

Location/Person:
• State or Country: NJ, USA
• Current School Type: Parochial
• Ethnicity: multiracial [dad is from a nomadic community in west asia (georgia, the country, and afghanistan) and mom is south asian]
• Gender: Female
• Grade Applying For: 10th
• Age: 15
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: Full Pay

Strengths: very passionate about philosophy and religion, and interested to try many things.

Weaknesses: SSAT on the lower side, some interviews were meh, overrepresented region

Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?
The acceptances were definitely due to my capabilities academically and instrumentally. I guess I have a wide range of interests and the admissions committees were looking for someone that ticked those boxes.

General Comments: Don’t rejections/waitlists determine your self worth. I was waitlisted from every school I applied to last year, but I tried for boarding schools again. Sometimes, things happen for the better, and that place wasn’t meant for you. It’s hard to see it in the moment (and even weeks after), but there are many amazing schools/opportunities in the future. YOU ARE WORTH IT AND DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF WITH OTHERS!!!

2 Likes
16

Accepted: Exeter, Andover, SPS, Choate and Lawrenceville

Waitlisted: Hotchkiss

Rejected: None

Likely Attending: Not Sure Yet

Stats:

  • SSAT: 2352 (99th percentile)
  • Interviews: Here is the breakdown:

Lawrenceville- 8/10: The Interview went on for a while; it was good but could have been better.

Hotchkiss: 8/10. We talked briefly, and the interview was okay. After the interview, we all felt like the Interviewer wasn’t impressed with what we had to say.

Andover: The Interviewer and my daughter had many of the same interests, and they talked for over an hour. She also met the Volleyball coach at Andover, and we had great conversations with him.

Exeter: The interview went well. The Interviewer was very impressed with my daughter. After that, we all attended an Exeter volleyball game, where she had the chance to meet the players and coach.

SPS: 10/10. The Interviewer was impressed with my daughter; he said that he felt like he was talking to an adult during the interview.

Choate: It was a Zoom meeting, and my daughter’s interview went well. However, during our conversation with the Interviewer, we felt differently than we did after the Exeter, Andover, and SPS interviews.

  • Essays: 9/10
  • Middle School Grades: aggregated A+ (6th to 8th)
  • Personal/Extracurricular Rec: 10/10
  • Principal/Counselor Rec: 9/10
  • Sports: Volleyball
  • Location: Garnet Valley, PA
  • Current school type: regular public school
  • Ethnicity: Asian-American
  • Gender: Female
  • Grade Applying For: Ninth
  • Age: 13
  • Financial Aid: needed lots of it, and SPS is offering $48K (Heinz Scholarship Award).
  • Strengths: Interviews, Essays, Schools Teacher/s Recommendations, and recommendations from current volleyball coaches of schools that she applied.
  • Weaknesses: A hefty load of financial Aid, volunteering experience, and extracurriculars.
17

Accepted: Exeter, Andover, Choate, Cate
Rejected: None
Wait listed: None
Likely Attending: Exeter or Andover

Stats:
• SSAT: 99th percentile
• GPA: N/A
• Rank: N/A
• Other stats: GCSE Predicted Grades : Most 9s, a few 8s, some 7s on non-academic subjects

Subjective:
• Interviews:
Andover: 9/10
Exeter: 8/10 (I couldn’t really tell how it went, but my interviewer mentioned me during my friend’s interview)
Choate 5/10
Cate 10/10
• Essays: Exeter: 9/10 , Andover: 8/10, Choate: 7/10 , Cate: 8/10
• Math Rec: Not sure, my math teacher had only known me for 4 weeks (moved class)
• English Rec: 8/10?
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec: 10/10
• Principal Rec: 9/10
• Sports: Field Hockey (Coach at Exeter reached out, submitted reels for Exeter, Andover. I’m okay at it.) , Squash, Tennis, Surfing
• Instruments: Voice (Choir for 3 years), Piano
• Other ECs: Drama/Theatre, writing, math society, art history society, House Prefect, Social and Environmental Prefect,
• Hook: Go to boarding school in England, struggled with homesickness, but overcame it and became the House Prefect, awarded the top academic prize at my school last year.

Location/Person:
• State or Country: England/USA
• Current School Type: Boarding
• Ethnicity: White
• Gender: Female
• Grade Applying For: 9th
• Age: 14
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: FP

Strengths:
Languages (I take Spanish, French, Latin, Ancient Greek), super interested in Classics, love English, this sound cheesy but I love learning!

Weaknesses:
Math possibly, not really ‘exceptional’ in a singular area, more spread out.

Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?
I honestly have no idea, but mainly my academics? + experiences

18

Accepted: Kents Hill
Rejected: Exeter, Tabor
Wait listed: Deerfield, Mercersburg, Taft, Choate, NMH, Govs, Milton, Westminster, Masters NY
Likely Attending: Kents Hill

Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: 2328 (97th percentile)
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted: 3.96 UW
• Rank: n/a
• Other stats: past two years have been A+ to A- with maybe one or two B’s. The 3.96 was gained with mainly college level courses

Subjective:
• Interviews: All in all I think they went great. I was able to connect with a lot of my interviewers and had some clear passions/interests we could talk about. Worst one was definitely Exeter, it was a bit too structured and formal for me.
• Essays: 8/10 I had to write 12 and it was rough but a lot of them truly came from my heart and they were all very well written.
• Math Rec: 7/10 Did well in the class but only knew me for one term
• English Rec: 7/10 Same as Math
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec: 10/10 Known me for about a decade. I’ve done a lot of stuff with her and she’s seen me grow up and develop.
• Principal/Counselor Rec: 9/10 Known him for 5 years. He likes me and has always encouraged me, especially with this BS thing
• Sports (if any): Watersports (swimming, kayaking, scuba diving) but recreational
• Instruments (if any): Piano but not that good
• Other ECs (if any): Environmental Club, Debate, Coding/Comp Sci., Nonprofit Internship, Architecture (leadership roles in a lot of them)
• Hook: URM, and clear passion for architecture

Location/Person:
• State or Country: Caribbean Country
• Current School Type: Public
• Ethnicity: Black
• Gender: Male
• Grade Applying For: 11
• Age: 16
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: FA

Strengths: I think I’m a pretty decent all rounder but definitely have skills and achievements in certain areas. My biggest strength is my academics, I have a ton of awards and recognitions in various subjects. I also like to be helpful and am very involved in everything I do. Had a lot of leadership roles.

Weaknesses: Everything I do is sort of academia based. There was no real sport or music (like varsity or orchestra level). Besides that it’s just the normal: needing FA, 11th grade applicant, etc.

Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?
I credit it all to the 11th grade. I think I’m a great candidate, but as the cliche goes they can’t accept all great candidates. By 11th grade, schools have specific needs that I just don’t think I filled (except for my one accepted school). It’s an unfortunate situation but I’m not that mad about it. I think the amount of waitlists I got from really good schools shows that I’m qualified, just at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

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19

Accepted: Choate, Lawrencville, Loomis-Chaffee
Rejected: None
Wait listed: Andover Exeter Hotchkiss Deerfield St. Paul’s Middlesex Groton
Likely Attending: Choate

Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: 2298 97th%ile overall, November test
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted: >3.9 unweighted
• Rank: N/A
• Other stats: All A’s, few A-. 1 B+ in math (family emergency plus 4 music competitions that trimester)

Subjective:
• Interviews: Always max time or overtime. All interviewers commented how easy it is to talk with him and he’s a great and nice kid. 8/10 schools commented specifically “he’s going to do well” in his applications
• Essays: Talked about the emergency, his values, dreams, his failures and how he overcame them and learned from them
• Math Rec: Great
• English Rec: Great
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec: Robotic/STEM coaches and Music teachers asked him if he needed a rec before he asked them.
• Principal/Counselor Rec: Great
• Sports (if any): Nothing of note
• Instruments (if any): PIano, 14+ awards over 3 years, 1 performance at a major music hall
• Other ECs (if any): Founded several clubs at school D&D boardgaming engineering
• Hook: Knows what he wants to do and go in life, looking for the right school to get there

Location/Person:
• State or Country: CA
• Current School Type: private
• Ethnicity: Asian born here, US and foreign born parent
• Gender: M
• Grade Applying For: 9
• Age:14
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: No

Strengths: Academics, personality, self-starter, self-motivated. Interviews great, always been very likeable, makes friends easily, is naturally really kind and patient which people remark upon consistently. Bilingual + learning 2 more languages at school, likes languages.

Weaknesses: No sports, no community service, his SSAT Essay was ok but far from his usual level of work. His practice SSAT taken the prior spring actually had a much better essay, but we felt it’s not worth the time and resources to retake with a relatively early 97th percentile.

Why do you think you were accepted? Connected well with AO staff at local events and during tours and interviews, he really wanted a strong robotics program, the rest is in the tea leaves.
In his heart he really, really wanted Choate from early on and we parents also loved it. We didn’t write a “first choice” letter though

Waitlisted? Andover/Exeter we heard really value the SSAT essay or so we heard, he’s not a type A personality generally, otherwise not sure. St. Paul’s he has cousins who attended, Andover / Exeter he did the summer programs and got top marks and excellent written evals. Subjectively, we think some schools didn’t think we’d come if accepted given his specific interests.

General Comments:
We applied to 10 schools more out of nervousness but it was good to see all the different possibilities. We toured 12, eliminated 2.
We only let him apply to schools he could give us 3 good reasons why he would be happy to attend and no major negatives. If he gets into the last choice, he must still be excited to go. These are very different schools! but there was several things he really loved about each of them. He has a “wherever I go, I can make something good of it” attitude.
We all felt we had given it 1000% effort and anything happens is just fate.
We understand it’s not a competition, each school has many different slots to fill and we hope that one is a mutual good fit.

20

Accepted:
Rejected: Hotchkiss, Loomis Chaffee, St. Paul’s
Wait listed: Andover, Exeter, Choate, Lawrenceville, Groton, Nobles, Deerfield, Madeira, Concord Academy
Likely Attending:

Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: 1600 (SSAT), 112 (TOEFL), 1430/1440 (PSAT 8/9)
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted: 3.9 (UW)
• Rank: N/A
• Other stats: All A+ besides English (A)

Subjective:
• Interviews: I’d say most are around 8/10. Exceptions: I freaked out and stuttered in the CA and Hotchkiss interviews but I think I covered it? (6 / 10); didn’t get interview for Groton; SPS and L’ville interviews were only 15 minutes because I booked the latest time slot (7 / 10); the parent interview contradicted what I said in the Madeira interview and the AO pointed it out immediately (probably a disaster)
• Essays: worked w/ a counsellor and thoroughly edited main essays (probably 8.5 / 10). It’s kind of creative but def not super stand-out.
• Math Rec: likely 9 / 10 (the math teacher recommends me to self-study Precalc which prob means I’ll take AP Calc BC next year as 10th grader)
• English Rec: likely 9 / 10 (he told me he thinks I’m “special”… he’s such a nice teacher we all love him so much)
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec: 8 / 10
• Principal/Counselor Rec: 5-6 / 10 (he doesn’t even know me very well. I’ve also received several threatening letters from the administration saying I’ll be miserable if I leave)
• Sports (if any): Varsity Softball (didn’t contact coaches and didn’t send videos though)
• Instruments (if any): piano (7 years, submitted recording & got recs which was about 7 / 10 because the teacher said I’m not playing at a professional level) and hulusi (traditional Chinese instrument but didn’t go to comps – only did concerts at school)
• Other ECs (if any): maths (placed in Top 3 statewide for my HS; won international awards on the level of - qualifying for UKMT Olympiad from 300000 participants); programming (Top 100 worldwide in Oxford Uni Computing Challenge); founded International Students Alliance this year & grew to 25+ members in 1 month (our school is small - only ~300 students); piano; dance (headlined national dance newspaper w/ our ensemble); concert choir that performed at Georgetown U & American U; JV Scholars Bowl Team vice captain + top scorer in last tournament; Varsity SciOly Team (my partner and I placed 2nd in last tournament), school newspaper columnist, editor & ad coordinator; theatre (played lead in Winter Production); intensive French summer exchange in Switzerland; iDEA Entrepreneurship Certificate (equivalent to Duke of Edinburgh – yk if u live in UK); community service (organised charity sale to raise $10,000 to build 2 bookhouses in rural China, made art exhibitions, volunteered on supply trucks for orphans in Ukraine); also in MUN team that represents my school
• Hook: ? not sure what this means, but I’m just trying to show that I’m very adaptive & open-minded since I’ve lived on 3 continents, get adjusted to schools quickly and became conversational in 3 foreign languages in 1 year

Location/Person:
• State or Country: Alabama (live in Netherlands but has Chinese passport)
• Current School Type: Top 100 college prep private boarding school
• Ethnicity: Asian
• Gender: Female
• Grade Applying For: 10 (but said I’m OK w/ repeating 9th grade)
• Age: 15
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: Full Pay

Strengths: math & CS awards, very motivated, shows resilience (basically Type A personality), communicated w/ lots of AOs and teachers; I’d say I’m also a fine-ish writer?

Weaknesses: didn’t have 2nd standout area besides doing a lot of activities; not good at sports; some recs are prob really bad; essays could be more creative; also we’re not that prepared which means accidents like what happened in the Madeira interview;

Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted? Prob the weaknesses I just listed above. 9 waitlists is still kinda crazy tho and ngl I’m still struggling to understand why Madeira waitlisted me since my friend got in last year and she started her apps in MARCH. If anyone has good reason plz dm me or smth it will be soooo appreciated!
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21

As a current 9th grader, I have applied to be a boarder for the 2024-2025 school year. In preparation for my applications, I have read numerous forums discussing application results from other students and have reviewed the statistics of other candidates. However, upon comparing my own stats to those of others, I have noticed that mine seem to be lower. This has caused me to doubt my chances of being accepted into a boarding school, as I have seen others express similar doubts based on their own research. To provide some context, I have applied to the following 11 schools; these are my results:

nmh - accepted
loomis chaffee - accepted
milton - accepted

lawrenceville - waitlisted
exeter- waitlisted
deerfield - waitlisted
hotchkiss - waitlisted
middlesex - waitlisted
blair - waitlisted

andover - rejected
choate - rejected

Here are is my candidate profile:

  • Rhythmic Gymnastics: 9 years, 5 hours per week, 41 weeks per year, National level, European Vice Champion (Team)
  • Dance: 6 years, 5 hours per week, 41 weeks per year, National level, European Vice Champion (Team)
  • Advanced Math (CTY program): 1 years, 7 hours per week, 43 weeks per year
  • Visual Art (Painting): 7 years, 2 hours per week, 36 weeks per year, Hobby

Achievements and Goals:

I have been training rhythmic gymnastics consistently for nine years, a sport that builds on a combination of ballet, gymnastics and dance. Over the last few years, I have gained experience with all five of the rhythmic gymnastics apparatuses: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon, and rope. I have performed with four of them at a variety of difficulties winning ten gold, twelve silver, and three bronze medals. I tend to compete as part of a team, which has resulted in having to train for a large amount of hours each week. I recently attended the World Gymnaestrada 2023 in Amsterdam, organized by FIG. I also attended Eurogym 2022, where my team competed and became European vice-champions. In both events, my team was the only one representing Bulgaria, doing so at the international level.

Aside from sports, I enrolled in an Algebra II course at the Johns Hopkins Center For Talented Youth, aiming to challenge myself and improve my knowledge of mathematics. I am particularly proud of one of my assignments, which involved designing a new logo for a company using mathematical functions. Given the requirements and idea, I was determined to remodel the Amazon logo. I used elements of their current logo to create a new design that was both sleek and fitting, while using a large variety of complex functions to create the shape, leading to a great result.

I also had some solid interviews, and somewhat good essays.

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