Admissions surveys—how to handle?

[Anonymous]

We applied to four schools for 9th grade and have received admissions surveys from two of the three schools we declined. DH says ignore them. I feel like we should give them some feedback on their process/why we declined. That said, anything more than superficial feedback would out us at at least one of the schools so what’s the point? If you completed the surveys how much do you say?

[Anonymous]

They help the admissions offices a lot, but it’s the rare school that is going to look at the survey and make sweeping, immediate change.

I am a trustee at a school in New England that I attended. We get basic buckets of categories for students that say no from our admissions office. It’s stuff like “lack of diversity”, “access to sports team”, “academics” (which usually means kids feel they are too far ahead or behind for that school’s course progression), “financial aid”, “commute” and wanting same-sex vs co-ed. After a few years of lots of responses in one bucket, we do pay attention and think about long-term strategic change.

If something really bad happened during the admissions process, on the level of a racist comment, sexual harassment, or misrepresentation of something factual, then you should send an email to the admissions office and the head of school and division you were applying to. Otherwise, generalize and return the survey.

[Anonymous]

Thank you! Very helpful! The school where we had the negative admissions experience has a very long survey, the school that just ended up not being a good fit has a short and basic survey.

[Anonymous]

For our youngest, we declined a school where there was a personal connection (legacy) for a better fit for that child. Called the AO personally to discuss reasons and thank them for their time. Absent the connection, would have just filled out the survey (or not) and moved on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you! Very helpful! The school where we had the negative admissions experience has a very long survey, the school that just ended up not being a good fit has a short and basic survey.

Very long survey? I’m the first PP and I would be wary of engaging with that. If they’re asking more than 1-2 basic questions they know something is wrong, and you don’t want to poke around in that. There’s probably an admissions person trying to prove something to their boss or vice versa. Delete the email and move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you! Very helpful! The school where we had the negative admissions experience has a very long survey, the school that just ended up not being a good fit has a short and basic survey.

Very long survey? I’m the first PP and I would be wary of engaging with that. If they’re asking more than 1-2 basic questions they know something is wrong, and you don’t want to poke around in that. There’s probably an admissions person trying to prove something to their boss or vice versa. Delete the email and move on.

It’s 14 questions long, but most questions have several subquestions and there are about four or five free response questions in the mix. So not sure if that counts as very long in your estimation but compared to the other one which was three questions plus an option to add additional comments it seems long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you! Very helpful! The school where we had the negative admissions experience has a very long survey, the school that just ended up not being a good fit has a short and basic survey.

Very long survey? I’m the first PP and I would be wary of engaging with that. If they’re asking more than 1-2 basic questions they know something is wrong, and you don’t want to poke around in that. There’s probably an admissions person trying to prove something to their boss or vice versa. Delete the email and move on.

It’s 14 questions long, but most questions have several subquestions and there are about four or five free response questions in the mix. So not sure if that counts as very long in your estimation but compared to the other one which was three questions plus an option to add additional comments it seems long.

Yes, I consider that to be very long, especially the 4-5 free responses. You made a good decision to avoid this school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you! Very helpful! The school where we had the negative admissions experience has a very long survey, the school that just ended up not being a good fit has a short and basic survey.

Very long survey? I’m the first PP and I would be wary of engaging with that. If they’re asking more than 1-2 basic questions they know something is wrong, and you don’t want to poke around in that. There’s probably an admissions person trying to prove something to their boss or vice versa. Delete the email and move on.

It’s 14 questions long, but most questions have several subquestions and there are about four or five free response questions in the mix. So not sure if that counts as very long in your estimation but compared to the other one which was three questions plus an option to add additional comments it seems long.

That definitely seems excessive. When DC made a decision, the schools we turned down had 2 or 3 questions and maybe an optional comment box.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you! Very helpful! The school where we had the negative admissions experience has a very long survey, the school that just ended up not being a good fit has a short and basic survey.

Very long survey? I’m the first PP and I would be wary of engaging with that. If they’re asking more than 1-2 basic questions they know something is wrong, and you don’t want to poke around in that. There’s probably an admissions person trying to prove something to their boss or vice versa. Delete the email and move on.

This is a ridiculous assertion to make. Maybe the long survey means they are looking for meaningful feedback in order to improve. If you have no feedback, then don't fill it out, but if you do, what's the harm?

[Anonymous]

Skip the questions where you don’t have anything interesting to say and answer the ones where you do (if there are any). I would imagine that there are things about the process that would be helpful to note, in addition to the things about the educational offerings that PPs mention above, like communication from admissions personnel, quality of tours and admissions events, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They help the admissions offices a lot, but it’s the rare school that is going to look at the survey and make sweeping, immediate change.

I am a trustee at a school in New England that I attended. We get basic buckets of categories for students that say no from our admissions office. It’s stuff like “lack of diversity”, “access to sports team”, “academics” (which usually means kids feel they are too far ahead or behind for that school’s course progression), “financial aid”, “commute” and wanting same-sex vs co-ed. After a few years of lots of responses in one bucket, we do pay attention and think about long-term strategic change.

If something really bad happened during the admissions process, on the level of a racist comment, sexual harassment, or misrepresentation of something factual, then you should send an email to the admissions office and the head of school and division you were applying to. Otherwise, generalize and return the survey.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We applied to four schools for 9th grade and have received admissions surveys from two of the three schools we declined. DH says ignore them. I feel like we should give them some feedback on their process/why we declined. That said, anything more than superficial feedback would out us at at least one of the schools so what’s the point? If you completed the surveys how much do you say?

We ignored them. Out children are not identical. Good fit for one would not be good fit for another. There was no possible good outcome and many possible bad (future) outcomes from filling out the survey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We applied to four schools for 9th grade and have received admissions surveys from two of the three schools we declined. DH says ignore them. I feel like we should give them some feedback on their process/why we declined. That said, anything more than superficial feedback would out us at at least one of the schools so what’s the point? If you completed the surveys how much do you say?

We ignored them. Out children are not identical. Good fit for one would not be good fit for another. There was no possible good outcome and many possible bad (future) outcomes from filling out the survey.

Like what bad outcomes? Genuinely curious what you mean.

[Anonymous]

I did them when my older child applied, thinking that I had another kid who might apply in a couple of years. I made sure to be complimentary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We applied to four schools for 9th grade and have received admissions surveys from two of the three schools we declined. DH says ignore them. I feel like we should give them some feedback on their process/why we declined. That said, anything more than superficial feedback would out us at at least one of the schools so what’s the point? If you completed the surveys how much do you say?

We ignored them. Out children are not identical. Good fit for one would not be good fit for another. There was no possible good outcome and many possible bad (future) outcomes from filling out the survey.

Like what bad outcomes? Genuinely curious what you mean.

Often any survey will be traceable back to the family that filled it out. Never ever say anything negative.