Now that it's over, tell me about the good and bad experiences you had with admissions offices

[Anonymous]

Saw someone posting about a lousy experience with GDS, unclear why. Can anyone elaborate? What was your experience with other schools and for what grade?

[Anonymous]

One of my DC's classmate's family had an unprofessional experience with admissions at Flint Hill. The admissions department acted as if they were just a number. They were so disorganized that the admissions person forgot about their scheduled interview. Their child attends a highly regarded private school and is an athlete and an excellent student. The child was accepted to every school they applied to: FH, Potomac, and GDS. They had originally thought their DC would attend FH, but after such an unimpressive showing by the admissions department at FH, their child is going to attend GDS.

[Anonymous]

First-hand experiences only, please.

[Anonymous]

I had a terrible experience with a faith based high school. I already have one child enrolled there and the second was applying. DC got in to the school but was also considering our comparably sized public school that has a similar offering to the faith based high school

I reached out to them several times via email with a few questions but never got a response. The lowest level person in the admissions office called me as the decision deadline was approaching to ask if I was going to submit my decision and deposit. I first informed them that I was waiting for a response to my email and also informed them that I was a current parent of a student. They said they would look at my email and then never responded before the decision deadline.

The office called the other day to ask me my decision and it was like having the same conversation as the earlier one. Needless to say I said "no my DC will not be enrolling there next year".

[Anonymous]

GDS had amazing virtual open houses, but the rest of the process felt very much like a brush off. The virtual student visit felt like a waste of time to me.

Sidwell was very ho hum through the entire process, but had a much more fun and engaging online student visit. Bonus point here for having read our application prior to our interview.

Those were the only two schools that felt super cold. Everywhere else felt warm, communicative, and helpful. Especially the Maryland schools.

The in person parent open houses and in person student visits were by far the best experiences.

It is all super interesting to me because I went in thinking that gds and Sidwell matched our family values the most and really became the least enchanted with them by the time decisions were set to come out.

[Anonymous]

We had a great experience with Holy Trinity. Very responsive, prompt, and receptive, and hosted both virtual tours and an in-person open house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS had amazing virtual open houses, but the rest of the process felt very much like a brush off. The virtual student visit felt like a waste of time to me.

Sidwell was very ho hum through the entire process, but had a much more fun and engaging online student visit. Bonus point here for having read our application prior to our interview.

Those were the only two schools that felt super cold. Everywhere else felt warm, communicative, and helpful. Especially the Maryland schools.

The in person parent open houses and in person student visits were by far the best experiences.

It is all super interesting to me because I went in thinking that gds and Sidwell matched our family values the most and really became the least enchanted with them by the time decisions were set to come out.

Gds for lower school. Person interviewing did not know a thing about us or our child. They hadn't read our application and was in a rush to speed through it. Pleasant experiences at other schools and you could tell ADs read the applications.

[Anonymous]

Maret admissions acted as if they could not care less (we ended up not completing our application, we were so put off), both in group info sessions and one-on-one. GDS and Burke admissions were wonderful and engaged.

[Anonymous]

Nothing but great things to say about the admissions department and process at Landon! Applied and got into LS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maret admissions acted as if they could not care less (we ended up not completing our application, we were so put off), both in group info sessions and one-on-one. GDS and Burke admissions were wonderful and engaged.

We had an amazing experience with Maret. By far the best experience for us.

[Anonymous]

Brief impressions: (9th grade)
Sidwell, the assistant always answered the phone and emails, the interviewer had clearly pre-read the application and was very helpful in connecting our kid with a teacher and a coach.
STA: lovely, always answered phone and emails. Also knew our kid's application at the interview.
Maret: Did not answer the one email question we sent. Interviewer was lovely.
GDS: Impossible to get in touch with anyone by phone. Did respond to email. Interviewer was lovely and super chatty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maret admissions acted as if they could not care less (we ended up not completing our application, we were so put off), both in group info sessions and one-on-one. GDS and Burke admissions were wonderful and engaged.

Had a similar experience with Maret for our DC applying for 9th--disinterested faculty interviewer, disorganized (albeit pleasant) admissions staff. Sense we got was that admissions had been largely (if not entirely) pre-selected...just going through the motions so to speak. That said, they could at least do a better job concealing their process.

[Anonymous]

We also had a really terrible experience with GDS admissions. We applied for two kids. We had two interviews with two different admissions officers and both were really disinterested in getting to know us. It was a huge turn off for our daughter who had previously been enamored with GDS. But in the end, I'm really grateful that the interviews were so awful because they forced us to broaden our search and we ended up finding schools that are really great fits for our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maret admissions acted as if they could not care less (we ended up not completing our application, we were so put off), both in group info sessions and one-on-one. GDS and Burke admissions were wonderful and engaged.

We had an amazing experience with Maret. By far the best experience for us.

We thought Maret was wonderful too (MS)

[Anonymous]

Gds open house was lovely everything else about the process was off putting. I know perfectly lovely families who attend but it is not the school for us. Child felt the same afterwards.