Admissions Process Sidwell vs. GDS vs. Maret

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HATED the Sidwell admissions process. On our visit no one from admissions met us or explained to us the schedule. A student took us on a tour and then left us in the library where students had all the seats so we stood for half an hour. No one said anything to us and we thought we had been forgotten so I asked the librarian if she could call the admissions office and ask if we were in the right place. She sneered in a "not my job" way but did make the call, then telling us someone would come for us, as if we should have known this. Finally a teacher came to interview our DC and my DH and I stood in the library for the duration. Finally the teacher called us in and acted like we were imposing on her time.

We left thinking they expected us to come to them on our knees and put up with whatever they threw at us. There's really no excuse for that kind of treatment. I left really hating the school and there's no way I wold have sent DC there (who didn't get in, but this is in no way sour grapes. I considered withdrawing the application but didn't see the point.)

Maret couldn't be a bigger contrast. Everyone in admissions was friendly and they made us feel at home.

OP - youll hear this a lot. Sour grapes. Visit the school. Its just not true. More formal and less touchy feely than Maret yes - but you will hear this a lot from people whose DC didnt get in. For those whose DC was admitted, it is a professional admissions enviroment and not a hand holding process. Oh by the way - its called the real world, so maybe being salesy about a place of higher learning isnt appropraite anyway....

Pretty consistent with our experience at Sidwell and Maret, although we did not get stuck in the library. My kid didn't get into either school yet I have no bad feelings towards Maret.

We've toured top colleges and they are much more welcoming than Sidwell. So hard to excuse it by saying its "professional".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HATED the Sidwell admissions process. On our visit no one from admissions met us or explained to us the schedule. A student took us on a tour and then left us in the library where students had all the seats so we stood for half an hour. No one said anything to us and we thought we had been forgotten so I asked the librarian if she could call the admissions office and ask if we were in the right place. She sneered in a "not my job" way but did make the call, then telling us someone would come for us, as if we should have known this. Finally a teacher came to interview our DC and my DH and I stood in the library for the duration. Finally the teacher called us in and acted like we were imposing on her time.

We left thinking they expected us to come to them on our knees and put up with whatever they threw at us. There's really no excuse for that kind of treatment. I left really hating the school and there's no way I wold have sent DC there (who didn't get in, but this is in no way sour grapes. I considered withdrawing the application but didn't see the point.)

Maret couldn't be a bigger contrast. Everyone in admissions was friendly and they made us feel at home.

OP - youll hear this a lot. Sour grapes. Visit the school. Its just not true. More formal and less touchy feely than Maret yes - but you will hear this a lot from people whose DC didnt get in. For those whose DC was admitted, it is a professional admissions enviroment and not a hand holding process. Oh by the way - its called the real world, so maybe being salesy about a place of higher learning isnt appropraite anyway....

Take away my spin and just look at the facts. There's nothing professional about it. I'm another whose DC didn't get into Maret and I have nothing but good things to say about their admissions process. I don't need hand holding. A chair would be nice. Maybe an introduction so I knew what was going on. Maybe a tiny little bit of friendliness, some minute acknowledgment of respect. Like, say, a chair. it doesn't even have to be a comfortable chair. Just someplace to sit down.

[Anonymous]

Loved everything about the admission process at Maret. My son loved it from the moment he set foot onto campus. He got in off the wait list and loved his high school experience.

[Anonymous]

Do all schools do the half day visit like GDS? Was it intimidating for your child? Also, what made the Maret admissions process so much better than others for people who commented here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loved everything about the admission process at Maret. My son loved it from the moment he set foot onto campus. He got in off the wait list and loved his high school experience.

kum bay yah....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have 2 kids at sfs. The admissions process sucked but we looked past it and recognized the positives of the school. Don't the let process dissuade you, although it will hopefully improve now.

ITA. Our kids are also SFS students/grads, who applied to enter in middle school, and we also found the admissions process and staff to be less straightforward and friendly than at other schools.

[Anonymous]

As I write this, 5 of the top 6 threads consist of naval-gazing and debate about Sidwell .... Must be application season.

[Anonymous]

The Maret process was very painless, with a great admissions office full of warm and friendly people. They want to show you what the school is, and they are frank about the fact that they want to accept students that will succeed and be happy there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do all schools do the half day visit like GDS? Was it intimidating for your child? Also, what made the Maret admissions process so much better than others for people who commented here?

The admissions staff at Maret seemed to enjoy the opportunity to meet families and tell them about the school. They took a genuine interest, and we felt welcomed and encouraged, even knowing that the odds of getting in were pretty slim. At Sidwell and GDS, the admissions staff had an attitude, and I felt like a "necessary evil" that they had to endure. It's not necessarily reflective of anything else at the school, but it does leave a bad taste. (We had a good admissions experience at schools other than Maret, too, fwiw.)

Not all schools do a half-day visit, and at some it is optional. At GDS (for 4th grade) it was required, and yes, it was intimidating for my DD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HATED the Sidwell admissions process. On our visit no one from admissions met us or explained to us the schedule. A student took us on a tour and then left us in the library where students had all the seats so we stood for half an hour. No one said anything to us and we thought we had been forgotten so I asked the librarian if she could call the admissions office and ask if we were in the right place. She sneered in a "not my job" way but did make the call, then telling us someone would come for us, as if we should have known this. Finally a teacher came to interview our DC and my DH and I stood in the library for the duration. Finally the teacher called us in and acted like we were imposing on her time.

We left thinking they expected us to come to them on our knees and put up with whatever they threw at us. There's really no excuse for that kind of treatment. I left really hating the school and there's no way I wold have sent DC there (who didn't get in, but this is in no way sour grapes. I considered withdrawing the application but didn't see the point.)

Maret couldn't be a bigger contrast. Everyone in admissions was friendly and they made us feel at home.

OP - youll hear this a lot. Sour grapes. Visit the school. Its just not true. More formal and less touchy feely than Maret yes - but you will hear this a lot from people whose DC didnt get in. For those whose DC was admitted, it is a professional admissions enviroment and not a hand holding process. Oh by the way - its called the real world, so maybe being salesy about a place of higher learning isnt appropraite anyway....

Pretty consistent with our experience at Sidwell and Maret, although we did not get stuck in the library. My kid didn't get into either school yet I have no bad feelings towards Maret.

We've toured top colleges and they are much more welcoming than Sidwell. So hard to excuse it by saying its "professional".

We've toured top boarding schools and some were no different than some of the encounters in these threads. Either you want to go to a school or not. Yes, first impressions are lasting impressions but I suggest you try and get into the meat of it all....the academics and what's offered. I would never base my expectations of a school on the secretary and occasional misfit admissions person.

Would you walk away from an acceptance at Harvard because some chuckle head in the admissions office was a turn off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HATED the Sidwell admissions process. On our visit no one from admissions met us or explained to us the schedule. A student took us on a tour and then left us in the library where students had all the seats so we stood for half an hour. No one said anything to us and we thought we had been forgotten so I asked the librarian if she could call the admissions office and ask if we were in the right place. She sneered in a "not my job" way but did make the call, then telling us someone would come for us, as if we should have known this. Finally a teacher came to interview our DC and my DH and I stood in the library for the duration. Finally the teacher called us in and acted like we were imposing on her time.

We left thinking they expected us to come to them on our knees and put up with whatever they threw at us. There's really no excuse for that kind of treatment. I left really hating the school and there's no way I wold have sent DC there (who didn't get in, but this is in no way sour grapes. I considered withdrawing the application but didn't see the point.)

Maret couldn't be a bigger contrast. Everyone in admissions was friendly and they made us feel at home.

OP - youll hear this a lot. Sour grapes. Visit the school. Its just not true. More formal and less touchy feely than Maret yes - but you will hear this a lot from people whose DC didnt get in. For those whose DC was admitted, it is a professional admissions enviroment and not a hand holding process. Oh by the way - its called the real world, so maybe being salesy about a place of higher learning isnt appropraite anyway....

Pretty consistent with our experience at Sidwell and Maret, although we did not get stuck in the library. My kid didn't get into either school yet I have no bad feelings towards Maret.

We've toured top colleges and they are much more welcoming than Sidwell. So hard to excuse it by saying its "professional".

We've toured top boarding schools and some were no different than some of the encounters in these threads. Either you want to go to a school or not. Yes, first impressions are lasting impressions but I suggest you try and get into the meat of it all....the academics and what's offered. I would never base my expectations of a school on the secretary and occasional misfit admissions person.

Would you walk away from an acceptance at Harvard because some chuckle head in the admissions office was a turn off?

Seeing what a school offers academically should FAR outweigh the lack of social graces of an Emily Post. Ours wasn't the best tour but we knew going in of the schools academic rep and that's all that mattered. Even to this day after two years, I haven't run into the admission interviewer. That was a one time shot, DC got in, and that's fine by me.

[Anonymous]

Wow - our experience at GDS was very different from that of some of the PPs here. We felt warmly welcomed at every step. Same with Maret. Slightly less so at Sidwell. Our experience may have been different because we were applying at the middle school level.

[Anonymous]

The bottom line is do you want to be at the school or not? While you may not have been warmly welcomed, do you want to be there? That's the bottom line, period.

[Anonymous]

Everything changes once you are admitted and if you are deciding between two schools. DD was accepted to both Sidwell and Holton and Sidwell was over the top nice in trying to woo us. We liked both, but chose the all girls route. Sidwell seems to have survived.

[Anonymous]

Look. The SFS admin process sucked, but the school is great. The admissions head is leaving and I suspect things will improve. How much worse could it get?