<p>details would be great, such as
- how did you prepare for your SSAT
- What EC did you do
- grades?
etc.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I don’t think you should worry, just do the best you can. Don’t try and compare your stats to everyone.</p>
<p>My daughter:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Prepared for SSAT’s by preparing for SAT’s. She was taking the SAT for a gifted summer program and we had several SAT prep books that she used for prepping for the SSAT - the only difference I think is that there are analogies on the SSAT and there are no longer any on the SAT so you would either need old SAT books or an SSAT prep book.</p></li>
<li><p>She did public service locally, she participated in sports programs (soccer etc.) she took dance classes, she was involved with church</p></li>
<li><p>Grades were all A’s.</p></li>
<li><p>She also participated in MathCounts. I would highly recommend that even if you aren’t “mathy.” It’s fun!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>1) no SSAT prep- scored 95% overall
2) all As in school
3) ECs:
boy scouts: including things that showed community service AND leadership
lego league
robotics
student council
recreational (only) sports x 2
piano lessons</p>
<ol>
<li><p>i studied from a couple ssat books and i got a 91%. </p></li>
<li><p>my ec’s were: piano, cello, yearbook, school literary magazine, newspaper, tutoring elementary school students, honors club (lots of leadership roles in this), etc. piano, community service, and yearbook were my favorite and they did come out as my passions and i wrote about piano in one of my essays.</p></li>
<li><p>i got all a’s (but i attended a very easy public school, so that should be understandable). my classes were all honors classes and i did take high school math. </p></li>
<li><p>umm… i think that my interviews and my essays played a big role for my acceptances. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>don’t worry too much, there are many components of the admissions process where you can make up for what you feel you are missing.
oh, ha, and when a lot of people are asking to get chanced and stuff and you see their resume, do NOT freak out if there’s seems a lot better than yours.
(i got that feeling ALL the time…)
just try your best and good luck!</p>
<p>I’m a international from Peru and I was ACCEPTED (denied Financial aid) to Kent, Deerfield and Tabor. To my regret I will be unable to attend any. The thing is that I dont have the academic profile most people would think I have. In Peru the scale for grades goes from 0 to 20 and most of my grades were between 13 and 16. For the peruvian average that is good but not close to excellent. My SSAT was also good enough, it wouldn’t keep me in or out. I got 78% percentile. My TOEFL was perfect, I got a 117 out of 120, that definatley helped a lot.</p>
<p>Accepted to Exeter
Three sport athlete, varsity and Jv varsity dresser
all A’s in ADVANCED classes
great teacher recommendations
play an instrument
student council+“honors” program
71% SSAT!!! it is possible guys, you dont need a 99% to get in…</p>
<p>^ but you’re an athlete… i think it might a little bit different for us unhooked/unrecruited folk 
congrats, though!</p>
<p>Son was completely unassuming and honest. He has sometimes had to make his own opportunities to learn because local options are very limited. Other than his verbal abilities, I wouldn’t say he has any standout qualities. He’s not an athlete but he is a musician, but nothing earth shattering in his musical abilities. If I had to pick anything that would have made him stand out it would have to be that he is interested in just about everything, people like him, and he tends to see humor in everything. He tends to get very passionate about ideas and will debate them endlessly. Does drama and music. EFC was 0</p>
<p>No real hooks. Just a likeable, smart, nice kid. He’s pretty adaptable and easy going, with friends from different “groups”. Maybe that’s what they saw in him? I really don’t know. It’s hard for a mom to be objective, you know ;)</p>
<p>Okay. The next few lines of this will come across as BRAGGING, but that is BY NO MEANS MY INTENTION. I merely want to convey my stats and preparation to help future applicants.
I prepared using past SSATs (I’m not sure if they were past SSATs, or just practice problems) and was tutored in a group of about 12 students. I got 96% overall, so that definitely helped.
My average was about 95, and I was really close with my teachers, so they gave me very good recs. The more outstanding recs you have, the better - I included science and history recs as well, even though they weren’t required.
I participated in math (I’m a BIG math student), drama, orchestra, and soccer EC’s.
I also made sure to visit every school I applied to at least once (twice if they were closer) to show my interest. However, I know this may not be possible for everyone.</p>
<p>…and as for neato’s son, he writes great essays. If you read them and you were a BS admissions officer, you would fight for this kid. He is a gem!</p>
<p>I can tell you what I did that DIDNT get me into a bs. haha</p>
<ol>
<li>SSAT = 85%</li>
<li>Excellent Grades except for ONE B</li>
<li>Essays, I am a science geek so I failed on my essays. haha</li>
<li>I had 4 ecs but all were just 1 year activities. One volunteering position.</li>
</ol>
<p>Asking people this question won’t get you anywhere.
Just do the things that make you happy for extracurriculars, not just so that it will look good on an application. Schools want to see you doing clubs or sports with passion.
The SSATs don’t really matter. They just want to make sure that you’re not really stupid.
For grades, they just want to see that you care about academics, so basically anything considered “high” in your class is fine.</p>
<p>although i overemphasized sports in all my posts i think my essays helped me out alot. ALSO i think recs are very important. in some of my acceptance letters i was told "Dr. *** and Ms. **** spoke very highly of you, assuring us you have the ability to succeed at*****</p>
<p>Grades were very high 80’s and low 90’s. I prepared for the SAT (I applied as a junior) fora good 3 months, and most importantly got recruited for lacrosse.</p>