Anonymous wrote:Just curious-what factors Contribute to the 90th percentile kids getting rejected? No personality or what?

To be sure, it's uncommon for kids with very high scores across the board to be turned down at most schools, but it does happen. A bland personality usually isn't a deal-breaker, but a *difficult* personality can be. One girl's essays came off as terrifically arrogant and impressed with her own brilliance. Despite work on them, she wasn't able to change the tone sufficiently, and I suspect her visit didn't offer much evidence to the contrary either.

Another applicant, one of the most capable writers I've ever seen, had a father who boasted during an interview about how much s**t he gave his son's old school. I'm not sure why the father thought that would dispose anybody favorably to his son's application, and it didn't. It's hard for a parent to torpedo a 9th-grade application all by himself, but this dad managed to do it.

Just curious-what factors Contribute to the 90th percentile kids getting rejected? No personality or what?

Everything counts. There is no formula. The norms of the SSAT and ISEE, pretty much by definition, are based only on the pool of kids applying to independent schools — so your child may score in the 90th percentile nationally, but only in, say, the 68th percentile on those tests. There are very few kids who score in the 90s on ALL of the subtests.

To answer the question more directly, it depends on the school. At the most competitive schools, it is common to see scores in the 90s, but that's only one factor that's assessed with many others. Advantages that I have seen offset lower scores include a parent who is an alumnus/a, siblings already enrolled, athletic prowess, and ethnic background or other diversity markers. At any given point in time, any given school may be more focused on one of those factors than on others.

I've worked with kids who had scores in the upper 90s across the board and were rejected (in most cases I saw those coming), and I've worked with kids with scores in the teens who were accepted at the most competitive schools (ditto). Everything counts. There is no formula.

The more hooks you have, the lower your score can be and still get in. Do you have any other hooks besides private k-8 and full pay?

Depends on the school. I don’t think 90s is the norm for many schools around here. This is a hard test and the peer group Is very very competitive. Did he take a practice test? If so, how did he do?

No, it is not true. Some kids are admitted with low scores, and some kids with high scores are not admitted; and vice versa.

DD taking SSAT Oct 19th. Applying to HS from k-8. Is it really true that so many people get in the 90s across the board? What is considered good scores? Not a minority and not applying for FA. Thanks.