What are my chances to get into a top high school like Exeter

[stalecookies]

@carpediem1234

i enjoyed my seventh and eighth grade with no worries and began my journey in the first year of high school.

That’s nice that that worked out for you.

Many of us realized that in order to get into the courses we wanted to in high school, we had to work hard in 7th and 8th grade.

If my kid were still in public school, they would have taken physics and AP World History freshman year. My kid would not have been able to enroll in those classes if they hadn’t performed very well in 8th grade. They would not have been in the accelerated classes in 8th grade if they had not worked hard and done well in their 7th grade classes.

@carpediem1234

you should be coming on this forum when it’s time for you to apply for college and when you’re discussing results for pre-college applications/scholarships, not for boarding school admissions.

I take it that you have a negative opinion of boarding schools.

@PigTiger

I am also aware that preparing for the interview is especially important and getting a high test score in something like the SSAT. I was just wondering what other things I could do in order to increase my chances into getting into these prestigious schools. Thanks.

I think that the best thing that you can do is make a list of the “top” schools you want to apply to. Make a list of what you like best about these schools. Then look for schools with higher admit rates that have some of these same qualities.

Doing such research will help you develop a deeper understanding of what you want in prep school, and what make the various schools unique. You might even find that you like some of the lesser known, higher admit schools!

This will make it easier to have interesting answers to questions like “why do you want to go to school here?” They’ve already heard, “It’s my dream” and “I like Harkness” a gazillion times.