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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t apply this year, but when we applied to Lowell AD kept insisting that our DC should go to Lab School when she found out our kid has a learning difference. Our child had been in another mainstream private and the learning difference was not an issue there at all. It was really off-putting and frustrating that she wouldn’t look at our child with an open mind.

Lowell has a new AD now.

They do, but PP why would you not listen to an ADs advice if they are telling you it is likely not a good fit? Maybe they saw you leaving your other mainstream school and didn’t want you to leave Lowell too(making them have to fill in the spot the next year), which is a mainstream school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a GDS parent, I am so frustrated by the feedback I hear year after year about the admissions department. They are not organized and in some cases not even friendly to prospective families. I hear this all the time from friends applying across the different grades. In particular, the head of admisssions for the HS has been there forever and seems burned out.

There is an arrogance to it that makes me furious. It seems GDS's attitude is like - take us or leave us - we have a million applicants.

My kids love GDS and are getting a great education but I do not want ANY potential family with a great kid turned pff by the process!!

We should be marketing to every family and cultivating every potential applicant. Russell please listen to this feedback and make some changes!

I would definitely share your feedback directly with the school. We also had a terrible experience, with two different interviewers: one for lower school and the other for middle. I definitely got the impression they were not interested in getting to know us at all. Definitely felt very snobby and elitist. We left wondering if the interview would have been better if we were wealthier or more well-connected. It was ironic for a school with a social justice mission. We are not-white and I am the first generation to have a college eduction. Lots of different kinds of diversity in our family but at the end of the day, we felt like they weren't interested in any of that. Curious to know what their DEI focus is re: recruiting students?

I felt that way too and we are white and wealthy, so they treat everyone badly. It had nothing to do with who you are as a person or your situation. I was turned off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We met with the head of admissions at GDS for our son’s interview. We found her straight forward, curious about our son, and warm. I think information she wanted about us as parents she gleaned by observation with our interactions with our son. We shared what we saw as his strengths, but also where we thought he could benefit from a GDS education - that he was not getting in his public school. Honestly wasn’t sure if the interview was a ‘success’ or not. When we emailed the admissions office she promptly responded to the emails herself. My kid chose not to interview at other schools- so can’t compare to other admission offices - but the school felt right to him based on this experience and what he picked up from remote information. Think she is trying to figure out which kids will be the best fit for GDS, with her longevity quality of the students they are bringing in, expect she is doing something right.

Did he get in? What grade?

Yes, got in. Ninth grade, but don’t think it was obvious to anyone that would be the outcome. I think a good interviewer is paying attention to a lot of verbal and nonverbal information and sometimes taking notes. So, my impression is the focus is on ascertaining is this kid going to be a good fit, with the focus by the interviewer be on taking notes that to allow recall re: the details about this kid. That was my expectation, as opposed to an effort to present the school to the kid / parents who are being interviewed. There were many other venues for that during the application ‘season’. .

To

This is a great explanation of the approach. We were very impressed with the senior admissii ons person for the HS (not sure if she's the director, but definitely has been there a long time). This was the only interview where I thought the school actually used the interview to get to know our child (and not sell the school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My poor daughter had a horrible admissions experience. The school was fine, the kids were fine, but the admissions officer in the interview kept directing the conversation back to my daughter's social life (?) Asking her how many friends she has, how long she has had those friends, if she has trouble maintaining friendships. Where the school got the idea that my daughter had social problems, I don't know, but even if they thought that, why put a 14 year old on the spot like that? Why not ask me? Or her teachers? Good riddance.

Maybe there are social issues at the school and one bad apple can ruin the bunch. They want confirmation that she's normal and has and can maintain friendships. Coming off of the heels of a two year stint at a tiny private middle school that we are now leaving because of issues, I think this is important.

Your lucky. Our DS wasted his Freshman year at Flint Hill. We pulled him out as soon as the school year was over. What the school sells during the admissions process is not what they deliver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My poor daughter had a horrible admissions experience. The school was fine, the kids were fine, but the admissions officer in the interview kept directing the conversation back to my daughter's social life (?) Asking her how many friends she has, how long she has had those friends, if she has trouble maintaining friendships. Where the school got the idea that my daughter had social problems, I don't know, but even if they thought that, why put a 14 year old on the spot like that? Why not ask me? Or her teachers? Good riddance.

Maybe there are social issues at the school and one bad apple can ruin the bunch. They want confirmation that she's normal and has and can maintain friendships. Coming off of the heels of a two year stint at a tiny private middle school that we are now leaving because of issues, I think this is important.

Your lucky. Our DS wasted his Freshman year at Flint Hill. We pulled him out as soon as the school year was over. What the school sells during the admissions process is not what they deliver.

Why do you say that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My poor daughter had a horrible admissions experience. The school was fine, the kids were fine, but the admissions officer in the interview kept directing the conversation back to my daughter's social life (?) Asking her how many friends she has, how long she has had those friends, if she has trouble maintaining friendships. Where the school got the idea that my daughter had social problems, I don't know, but even if they thought that, why put a 14 year old on the spot like that? Why not ask me? Or her teachers? Good riddance.

Maybe there are social issues at the school and one bad apple can ruin the bunch. They want confirmation that she's normal and has and can maintain friendships. Coming off of the heels of a two year stint at a tiny private middle school that we are now leaving because of issues, I think this is important.

Your lucky. Our DS wasted his Freshman year at Flint Hill. We pulled him out as soon as the school year was over. What the school sells during the admissions process is not what they deliver.

Why do you say that?

The academics were no where near the quality that they said they were. They were no better than Oakton HS. If we wanted that, we would have saved the money and kept him in public school. Our son moved to GDS and is getting a much better education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a GDS parent, I am so frustrated by the feedback I hear year after year about the admissions department. They are not organized and in some cases not even friendly to prospective families. I hear this all the time from friends applying across the different grades. In particular, the head of admisssions for the HS has been there forever and seems burned out.

There is an arrogance to it that makes me furious. It seems GDS's attitude is like - take us or leave us - we have a million applicants.

My kids love GDS and are getting a great education but I do not want ANY potential family with a great kid turned pff by the process!!

We should be marketing to every family and cultivating every potential applicant. Russell please listen to this feedback and make some changes!

It’s about equity and equality, not warm fuzzy everybodies. Fight the injustice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a GDS parent, I am so frustrated by the feedback I hear year after year about the admissions department. They are not organized and in some cases not even friendly to prospective families. I hear this all the time from friends applying across the different grades. In particular, the head of admisssions for the HS has been there forever and seems burned out.

There is an arrogance to it that makes me furious. It seems GDS's attitude is like - take us or leave us - we have a million applicants.

My kids love GDS and are getting a great education but I do not want ANY potential family with a great kid turned pff by the process!!

We should be marketing to every family and cultivating every potential applicant. Russell please listen to this feedback and make some changes!

NP Our friends applied to GDS and they had a wonderful experience and really thought they would get in based on the warmth of the interviewer. They unfortunately didn’t, but it’s interesting that they had such a different (better) experience

[Anonymous]

WES Admissions was incredible. Super organized, warm and welcoming. They also offered quite a few very nice events and open houses to get to know the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being a confirmed Episcopalian and active in his church youth group made no difference to SAES, which offered DS a place on its WL for 9th grade. (Bullis accepted DS). SAES should just rename itself as The Andrews School and be done with it.

Agree with you. Sent kids to a Catholic HS instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being a confirmed Episcopalian and active in his church youth group made no difference to SAES, which offered DS a place on its WL for 9th grade. (Bullis accepted DS). SAES should just rename itself as The Andrews School and be done with it.

Agree with you. Sent kids to a Catholic HS instead.

Sounds like a selling point to me... Means they can choose who they want and they won't fill the class with the save kind of kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I found SAES to be involved, responsive, and helpful during all parts of the process. They had read our application before the interview, were warm and open in conversations, presented a great virtual open house, and gave multiple opportunities for parents and kids to come onto campus.

Thank you, SAES admissions intern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I found SAES to be involved, responsive, and helpful during all parts of the process. They had read our application before the interview, were warm and open in conversations, presented a great virtual open house, and gave multiple opportunities for parents and kids to come onto campus.

Thank you, SAES admissions intern.

You resurrected a dead thread to misconstrue my post from two months ago?

What parts of my actual experience as a parent applicant do you take issue with? I never said DC got in or that DC planned to attend. I just said the process wasn't as bad as other places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We applied Potomac (only) and got WL x2. Found them to be helpful and communicative throughout the process. Only thing that surprised us quite a bit was the 1:1 session with our K was extremely basic, with exercises on the order of drawing a shape using the right color crayon. I know it wasn't supposed to be an entirely academic evaluation, but still it was just surprised they weren't asking at least SOME questions to get a better handle on where DC was at in terms of math, reading, writing, etc.

That's not really what a school like Potomac is looking for in a K applicant. If you are interested in that kind of assessment, you should seek out schools with more traditional approaches to pedagogy.

Not sure what you mean by “that’s not what they’re looking for” but my assumption wasn’t that they’d be hyperfocused on academics, but at least show some passing interest in whether the kid can read or do basic addition, etc.

For K?

Yes, as indicated above.

You don’t understand progressive education.

My pre-K kid is reading at 3rd grade level and is mathematically more advanced than the entire lower school at Potomac. It's a shame they dont care. I'll send my kid to a school that doesn't only care about money

Ahh. Now I see what happened. One of two things- either you truly have a genius on your hands in which case they need a gifted school because they’ll be bored in a mainstream classroom or you’ve drilled your intelligent kid a ton to get then to this point and are super intense, in which case Potomac isn’t going to want to deal with you. Either way, it’s not a fit.

Potomac LS Parent here. I can assure you they are just interested in money and are more traditional than progressive in their teaching methods I'm sure your child is academically advanced and will do well at whichever school you choose. I, too, have an academically advanced child and Potomac's individualized approach to teaching, which ensures each child is met at their level, has been great. Our DC is far from bored. Like most schools, Potomac seeks children - and families - they feel will be a good fit for the community. As you didn't indicate otherwise, I assume your child did well during their assessment. Given that, and in light of your tone, perhaps they felt you (the parent(s)) wouldn't be a good fit. As I understand it, they are not interested in children whose parents push as hard as you appear to push your child. My guess is that you have a tutor working with your child or are working frequently with your child yourself. I've been told the school can tell. If the school determines they will have to help a LS child "unlearn" all of the habits/methods taught by the tutor (or the parents) that conflict with the methods used by the school, I believe there is a high likelihood they will decide the child is not a good fit at that time. That doesn't mean they won't accept the child later for admission to a higher grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We applied Potomac (only) and got WL x2. Found them to be helpful and communicative throughout the process. Only thing that surprised us quite a bit was the 1:1 session with our K was extremely basic, with exercises on the order of drawing a shape using the right color crayon. I know it wasn't supposed to be an entirely academic evaluation, but still it was just surprised they weren't asking at least SOME questions to get a better handle on where DC was at in terms of math, reading, writing, etc.

That's not really what a school like Potomac is looking for in a K applicant. If you are interested in that kind of assessment, you should seek out schools with more traditional approaches to pedagogy.

Not sure what you mean by “that’s not what they’re looking for” but my assumption wasn’t that they’d be hyperfocused on academics, but at least show some passing interest in whether the kid can read or do basic addition, etc.

For K?

Yes, as indicated above.

You don’t understand progressive education.

My pre-K kid is reading at 3rd grade level and is mathematically more advanced than the entire lower school at Potomac. It's a shame they dont care. I'll send my kid to a school that doesn't only care about money

Ahh. Now I see what happened. One of two things- either you truly have a genius on your hands in which case they need a gifted school because they’ll be bored in a mainstream classroom or you’ve drilled your intelligent kid a ton to get then to this point and are super intense, in which case Potomac isn’t going to want to deal with you. Either way, it’s not a fit.

[b]PP (post below) - fixing typo

Potomac LS Parent here. I can assure you they are not just interested in money and are more traditional than progressive in their teaching methods I'm sure your child is academically advanced and will do well at whichever school you choose. I, too, have an academically advanced child and Potomac's individualized approach to teaching, which ensures each child is met at their level, has been great. Our DC is far from bored. Like most schools, Potomac seeks children - and families - they feel will be a good fit for the community. As you didn't indicate otherwise, I assume your child did well during their assessment. Given that, and in light of your tone, perhaps they felt you (the parent(s)) wouldn't be a good fit. As I understand it, they are not interested in children whose parents push as hard as you appear to push your child. My guess is that you have a tutor working with your child or are working frequently with your child yourself. I've been told the school can tell. If the school determines they will have to help a LS child "unlearn" all of the habits/methods taught by the tutor (or the parents) that conflict with the methods used by the school, I believe there is a high likelihood they will decide the child is not a good fit at that time. That doesn't mean they won't accept the child later for admission to a higher grade.