Updated Chance Me! Applying for 11th grade admission

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

I’ve had 90+ grades for the last couple of years but I switched schools and started IB without semesters so this school year was a little rocky but I had all 90s on my midterm except for science and math for the first time ever :broken_heart: The schools thankfully let me send in new grades and I’m getting more recent grades back this week so I’m sending those in too!

Background: Black Canadian female, single father household. Not first gen for university education. Polyglot and one of my reasons for applying was being able to have more advanced language classes! Total biology and chemistry nerd, don’t ask me about physics…

SSAT: 90th percentile, perfect 800 on verbal

Athletics: Provincially ranked wrestler (number 1) and will be be competing at Nationals and Team Canada trials!

Community Engagement: I’m one of my city’s youth councillors and have been selected with 11 other members to work with an amazing foundation on a new recreational center downtown for underserved youth! I was on a talking panel for black youth in the school system. I’ve been consistently volunteering with my local food bank and outreach center. I forget if I mentioned this in my last chance me but I was also a volunteer counsellor at a girls STEM camp over the summer!

STEM: Not disclosing my research niche but I’m really really excited about how far I’m getting! I was accepted and am a part of the University of Toronto’s MedLinx program. I was accepted to one of the University of Waterloo’s outreach programs too and I will be staying on campus for a conference! I coded a website that designed workouts for astronauts in space and presented it at an aerospace event in front of various government officials and industry moguls, which was a great experience.

Work: I’m a lifeguard and swim instructor which has been absolutely amazing!

Interviews: All went stellar escpecially Hill, Milton, Blair and Suffield! Never got to thank my Choate interviewer unfortunately. Basically spent most of the time gushing about how much I love biology, obstetrics and gyneacology specifically, and how much I love learning about WW2. Also bonded over my love of books with most of my interviewers!

Essays: If I said they were my best pieces I’d be lying through my teeth but I poured my heart out for each of them so hopefully that shines through. Biggest issue would be AI, as sometimes when I write my vocabulary comes off like I asked AI to give me the 10 biggest words it can find, when that’s just how I write :sob: Seriously hoping the schools put my SSAT verbal score and my essays together to realise that I genuinely just know those words. Most were about dealing with my change in schools, my dad raising me on his own or my self identity throughout the years. Decided not to touch on my mom leaving as I had already discussed that in my SSAT essay and didn’t want to sound redundant.

Clubs: Co-Exec of my school’s cheer club. I previously did competitve cheer at my old school and was ranked provincially and nationally but my current school doesn’t have an actual team. I’m a part of robotics, quizbowl, biomotion, women in STEM, insert school name cares, and black excellence.

Reccomendations: Didn’t know my new wrestling coach enough at the time to ask for one but she said she’d still be happy to write one. Already know my English rec was great if not flat out amazing. Math on the other hand may not be the best because my immune system goes a little hay wire the second it get’s colder and I have a mildly severe (wow what an oxymoron) vitamin D deficiency that makes school a little hard on top of adjusting to 8 classes year round, my math performance this year wasn’t the most spectacular. I’ve thankfully improved and will continue to do so! I think my math teacher likes me as a person but not as a student :melting_face: So I’m unsure as to what he wrote. I got my history teacher to write a third rec too and I know that one was amazing so I’m praying it’ll even out!

I feel like I’m missing something but I’ll add it later if i remember. Please be as honest as you can possibly be!

2

Have you considered Wyoming Seminary prep school in Kingston, Pennsylvania ? Best female wrestling team in the USA. Won National Prep School championship as every female wrestler finished in either first or second place at the national tournament.

About one-third of the students are boarding students.

The male/boys wrestling team usually ranks at #1 or #2 in the nation among all wrestling programs.

This program can help you prepare for the Olympics. Lots of experienced coaches.

P.S. Just checked results from 2 wrestling tournaments this past December (2025). Wyoming Seminary girls wrestling finished 2nd out of 107 teams (Choate Rosemary Hall finished in 1st place) Beast of the East tournament.

Wyoming Seminary finished in 8th place out of 133 girls wrestling teams in another tournament that was more national in scope (included teams from the state of Oklahoma for example).

The best wrestling states in the USA tend to be Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oklahoma, Iowa, and New Jersey. At the collegiate level, Penn State University dominates.

1 Like
3

In answer to your request regarding chances for an offer of admission, I cannot imagine any prep boarding school denying you admission; based on your athletic & academic achievements, you might be accepted by every school to which you applied.

4

Yes, I’d heard about it, but I also wanted to go to a school that wasn’t rah rah wrestling. I’m already a part of my province’s high-performance team and will be going to the RBC Future Olympian trials this year to hopefully become a funded athlete. I was debating applying, but I also wanted a school with a less restrictive dress code. I made some exceptions for schools like Hill, for example, because their class offerings were really amazing. If I weren’t applying for FA (their deadline already passed) I may have thought it over a little more and submitted an application. Thank you for your suggestion!!

5

Why do you want to change high schools? It sounds like you are doing very well where you are.

Also, it sounds like you are probably solidly on-track to attend the University of Toronto, or the University of Waterloo, or pretty much any other university in Canada that you like (not including the ones that teach in French unless your French is as strong as everything else). The Canadian universities are very good, in many cases more reasonably priced than schools in the US, and also more straightforward and predictable for admissions (particularly for someone who would be an international student in the US). Also, it is very possible to get a bachelor’s degree in Canada and a graduate degree in the US. I know several people who have done exactly that (including a daughter who is currently getting a PhD at a very good university in the US, a sibling who got a PhD in the US, and two former coworkers who got master’s at Stanford, and one former coworker who got a master’s and a PhD at Princeton). Even the top graduate programs in the US understand how strong the Canadian university system is.

By the way, if you want to compare Canadian versus American universities, there are a few of us here on CC who have some experience in both countries.

If any of this implies the possibility of someday being a premed student, the medical schools in Canada are more reasonably priced compared to the US, and admissions to medical schools in the US is insanely difficult for international students. It is possible to graduate from medical school in Canada and then do your residence and then practice in the US, but most do not want to do this partly due to the cost of malpractice insurance and the amount of paperwork associated with being a doctor in the US.

I am sorry to hear about that. This is tough (and obviously is not your doing at all). It sounds like you have done very well and this has not stopped you from succeeding at pretty much anything that you wanted to do.

I agree with others that you are likely to get accepted to multiple prep schools in the USA, but I do not understand why you want to come down here for high school.

There is an old saying: “Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it”.

6
  1. For wrestling. Girls’ wrestling is TINY here; there’s barely any girls on the team I’m on right now, and the majority of the time, my practice partners are always guys, and I’m the only girl at practice, which I don’t mind, but they’re not the people I’m wrestling on the mat. So to have even one other girl that consistently comes to practice and is in my weight class would be nothing short of amazing.
  2. I’m in IB at the moment, and it honestly just doesn’t feel like the program is for me. It’s unnecessarily stressful. It’s quite restrictive when it comes to the courses I can take, contrary to the various honours and AP courses I could take at boarding school. I guess I could always go back to regular school, but it was unbearably boring,g and I never felt intellectually stimulated in any way, shape, or form. Literally got to the point where my teachers just let me do my own thing in all my classes (or nothing at all) and pushed me to take the gifted test every single year since 4th grade. I’m unfortunately only really proficient in verbal and quantitative math, not qualitative math; it just doesn’t make sense to me. The language situation is especially aggravating, as I feel as if I’ve been doing the same French since 2nd grade, and I’m more than ready for more, as I’m already fluent.
  3. Again IB related but it’s honestly kind of really useless to take because I’m not entirely set on going to university abroad. The only school outside of Canada I have my eyes on is Brown for their PLME program!
  4. School-specific. My current school is not all that supportive of its students escpecially student athletes, as the only “real” activity at my school is band, and I only play my violin and piano for fun now. I live quite far from my wrestling, and that makes time incredibly valuable for me, and being able to get both wrestling and school all on the same campus would be a dream come true! If there were more schools here in Canada that offered both non-IB and wrestling, I’d be jumping at the chance to apply!

Definitely understand why it would be confusing why I would want to go down at this time, but it’s only for my last two years of highschool and the combination of both better wrestling and more extensive curricula is something I can’t get where I’m at right now, unfortunately. Also, thank you so much for thism it was a great read, and I’ll be taking your points into consideration!

PS: Would like to make it clear that I can’t drop IB unless I’ve been at the school for 2 years, so I’d have to go back to my old, boring, way too easy school :broken_heart:

7

To me this seems to suggest that you would want to look very closely at whatever school you might consider attending. I would expect that this could vary quite a bit from school to school (although wresting is something I have not looked at – one nephew did this but I never paid much attention).

It is definitely possible to complete high school in the US and then go to university in Canada. One daughter did exactly that, and was 5 for 5 in university admissions in Canada (with merit aid, and she seemed to like where she went, which was a small primarily undergraduate university in eastern Canada).

One thing we did notice: Our daughter who attended university in Canada seemed to have fewer general education requirements compared to universities in the US, and was able to take more classes in her major or in closely related fields. This seemed to help her applications to PhD programs, although other factors were probably more important (such as research experience).

Would you continue French for the last two years of high school, or switch to Spanish or something else? French of course is not as ubiquitous in the US compared to Canada. Spanish is the most common second language down here, and is in fact quite common in the US.

To me it sounds like you are likely to do quite well in terms of admissions to prep schools in the US. The trick will be finding the school that is the right fit for you.

Best wishes.

1 Like
8

I’d be continuing French. I’m a little rusty with my Spanish, but I can hold a conversation quite well and read Spanish too, so I think I’d be okay. Speaking French thankfully translates a little bit into Spanish! Very happy to hear that the transition from the US to Canada is possible! I’m not really clear on this, but are you from Canada or the US? If it’s the former, was she still able to apply as a domestic applicant? The only real con I can think of when it comes to uni admissions on my end would be me not being able to take advantage of the provincial application process, which is much easier than applying like everybody else.

9

Yes(?).

I was born in Canada, and grew up in Montreal. Then I went to university in the US and stayed in the US and married an American. My daughters were born in the US, but were born with dual citizenship because I still retained my Canadian citizenship. At this point my daughters and I are dual citizens.

Both daughters graduated high school in the US and applied to universities in Canada, although only one went to university there. They were considered domestic applicants to universities in Canada, and we did pay Canadian tuition (reduced a bit by merit aid, which along with the exchange rate made university in Canada very affordable for us). However a couple of schools missed the fact that my daughters are Canadian citizens, and along with an acceptance also sent information on cost and visa applications for international students. I called admissions, pointed out that she was a Canadian citizen, and they were able to correct this very quickly and easily. I did need to fax them a copy of either her Certificate of Canadian citizenship or a Canadian passport (a Canadian birth certificate would also have worked, but we didn’t have this). Today a text photo would probably be used rather than a fax.

We did not apply to any schools in Ontario or further west. Applications to McGill, and applications to small primarily undergraduate universities in eastern Canada, was quite easy. In contrast applications to universities in the US is quite a bit more work.

10

As has been said, you will likely get into everywhere you applied.

I’m curious as to where you applied and why. Are the five schools you mentioned the only ones you applied to? Why them?

11

The OP, if she remains healthy and interested in wrestling, should receive a wrestling scholarship to a US university as it is among the fastest growing collegiate sports for females, therefore, comparing COA between US and Canadian universities should consider this aspect in the case of the OP.

12

Nope not the only ones I applied to! I applied to about 7 other schools, but for the schools afore mentioned Blair for obvious wrestling reasons, Hill because of the structure and although I’m not super keen on dress codes I wouldn’t mind theirs and the interviewer really solidified my decision as he talked a lot about concrete examples of community especially for black students at a PWI, Choate both for wrestling and their extensive curriculum, I also visited over the summer and the campus was stunning, Milton because the size is perf and I would love to get involved in the CEEP program and Suffield because their history class options are absolutely unreal and so are their languages classes, sciences are good too and the option of an engineering class seems very cool too! If I lived in the west of Canada I probably would’ve also looked at some schools on the west coast but the drive would just be wayyyy too far

13

Got it. With your background and accomplishments, there are other names that one would typically see on the list. But I don’t know how good those others are at wrestling.