How much do school staff members read our threads?

[Anonymous]

Parents might want to consider telling their children that they (the parents) are choosing the best school for their child among the ones that are visited, rather than framing it as the school is choosing the child or not.

It's a small fib, but one that can save a lot of hurt.

[Anonymous]

Agree completely; that's the way we've framed it from the first. Thank goodness they're only 4/5.

[Anonymous]

8:46, exactly. I don't know about your kids, but mine asks about each school we had a play date at. We explain things to our kids, and we said that they would have a play date to check out the schools to see if THEY liked it. Didn't your kids ask, "um, Mom - why am I going here today?"

I mean, even at young ages they ask questions and we do our best to prepare them for new experiences.

They also have good memories. So, like 8:46, they would ask about the white cottage, etc.

Knowing the Maret and other lists are not "real," we could start talking up some of the other schools and getting him excited about the idea. And taking him to the school so he is familiar with the grounds and so forth.

8:30's comment shows that s/he is understanding our parenting perspective.

[Anonymous]

let's not get off track - schools should stop with the sham waitlists.

[Anonymous]

whoops, I meant NOT understanding

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As long as we're naming names here, I want to single out and congratulation the admissions director of Washington International School for being extremely upfront with parents about the chances of new families entering a particular grade this year. She was very blunt: we have an unusually high number of sibling applications for this grade and we will be only taking one or two new families. Case closed. Of course we did not get in, but then we did not expect to, and had additional time to make other plans.

This is in contrast, I might add, to the admissions director at Beauvoir who seemed to take great pleasure in being cagey about the whole thing.

Maybe we should ask the Beauvoir staff to apply the school's life rules to the entire admissions process (and the wait list, in particular)!

Is it respectful?
Is it responsible?
Is it honest?
Is it kind?

[Anonymous]

lmao

[Anonymous]

Seriously, I hope the schools ARE reading this thread because the bogus waitlists are just plain wrong, all the way around. Holding out false hope and attempting to prepare your child are two things as PPs have noted. On top of that, there is the financial juggling (turn in a deposit here and risk losing it? wait?) and figuring out the logistics (who has to make the commute to take the kid to school? who picks up? how long will it all take? do we have to ask for flexible hours at work to make this happen?)

I am not complaining about making all of these choices - it is FINE to have to juggle everything and we are willing to make the sacrifices necessary. But tending to these logistics and working things out is next to impossible if you are still waiting. And if you are waiting in vain, that's just the worst. If you really have a shot, that's another thing.

It's obvious the schools use these soft rejections so that people will continue to apply and give app fees. I'm not being brilliant by suggesting this. It is blatant.

[Anonymous]

I agree, I think Sidwell actually does it the right way.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone actually gotten off a waitlist from Sidwell for K?

[Anonymous]

Other threads suggest that children have gotten off the waitlist at Sidwell. Maret and Beauvoir and GDS probably have similar movement, i.e., hardly any. So even if each school waitlisted only 10 that would still be enough in case the one or two families decide to say no or move away. Also, all of these school extend at least one or two more acceptances than they really have space for so they really do their math and know what their enrollment will be even before they send out letters.