What are my chances?

ThePhoGuy
Wed, 21 Aug 2019 06:24:14 +0000

I am an 8th-grade boy from Vietnam applying for 9th grade. I’m aiming for top boarding schools (i.e. Andover, Exeter, Deerfield, Lawrenceville, Peddie, Choate, Hotchkiss, Middlesex, Milton, SPS, etc.)
The grades in my school are on a scale of 10. I’ve yet to find the full transcript, but here’s what I remember from last year:
English: 10
Science: 10
Vietnamese LA: around 8.5
Math: about 9.5
P.E, Art, and Music are pass/fail, which I passed.
Average: 9.0 (Idk how it converts to GPA, so help me out please.)
I’ve been in my school’s Gifted Math program for 2 years and will definitely join this year. I’ve published short stories which have been on youth magazines. My community service mostly includes serving dinner for cancer patients at hospitals during the summer and teaching English for free to small kids with my own club every weekend since I started school. Last summer, I spent every other weekend with my mom going on trips to exotic places. I’ll say I’m quite good at navigating a new neighborhood, even for only a few hours or days, and I’m really quick to adjust to a new environment, if that helps my case at all.
I haven’t taken an official SSAT, but my mock test scores are Q 685, R 760, V 645, adding up to 2090. I didn’t get a percentile score, so please guesstimate one if you can. I’m planning to take a real SSAT this October; any tips?
Apart from English and Vietnamese (my native language), I can speak conversational German as well (I’ll be sure to keep learning though). I’m learning French and Spanish and thinking about picking up Mandarin and Japanese. I’m interested to see how they and other languages are connected to one another, hence I’m into etymology and linguistics.
I play soccer, basketball, tennis, and badminton, but just for fun. I’m a tad more serious for swimming (I know 3 of the 4 common strokes, but just couldn’t get the hang of the backstroke for some reason >:( ), but I’m definitely not getting medals anytime soon.
I play intermediate piano and basic guitar and drums. I’m really into music theory, which I use to compose my own pieces. I’m focusing on classical and marching music right now (I already have a super-short piece up, it’s here: https://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/6a4fdf0e22b8bbe3ca0fd3ab014c1fd5dc0dcf4c . Tell me what you think!), but I’m going to expand to jazz, blues, and possibly rock in the near future.
I’m also amassing a database of the old Vietnamese Nôm alphabet, for one of my goals as an adult is to recover the Nôm and petition to make it an accepted witing system nationwide, on par with the Latin-based alphabet we already have.
Which of the schools I mentioned above would I stand the best chance of getting into? What do I need to work on? And do tell me about some equally excellent schools that I haven’t heard of. Thank you for reading through my post, and have a great day!