How long to decide on WL offer??

[Anonymous]

We had 5 days to decide and hand in our forms.
For anyone that may be reading this thread and will be new to the lottery next year, I would do as any tours and open house as you can. After touring some schools we liked them much better than we thought we would, and after visiting other schools some really sank in our ratings. Seeing the actual school inside and maybe in action really helped us rank the schools in our lottery list. If we hadn't toured the schools our list would have looked much different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a low wl number for an upper grade at CMI. Since I didn't think we had a shot at getting in, I never toured it.

When I saw our wl number, I called and asked if I could tour. They told me no, only families that got in could tour. If we do get in, I will want a tour.

I ask this out of actual curiosity about your mental process.

Why did you list a school that you had never seen?

I did 12 schools and had only been in 2. What's the big deal? I would attend any of them.

If you had not toured them but would attend any of them, why would you need a tour before making a decision about accepting an offer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had 5 days to decide and hand in our forms.
For anyone that may be reading this thread and will be new to the lottery next year, I would do as any tours and open house as you can. After touring some schools we liked them much better than we thought we would, and after visiting other schools some really sank in our ratings. Seeing the actual school inside and maybe in action really helped us rank the schools in our lottery list. If we hadn't toured the schools our list would have looked much different.

Completely agree with this. And even if you get a bad lottery #, it's not a waste of time. We did this last year, got a terrible draw, but the research we did last year informed this year's rankings--and we got a great draw this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a low wl number for an upper grade at CMI. Since I didn't think we had a shot at getting in, I never toured it.

When I saw our wl number, I called and asked if I could tour. They told me no, only families that got in could tour. If we do get in, I will want a tour.

I ask this out of actual curiosity about your mental process.

Why did you list a school that you had never seen?

I did 12 schools and had only been in 2. What's the big deal? I would attend any of them.

Sorry I was a NP. Not the same person. Was just piping in my experience.

If you had not toured them but would attend any of them, why would you need a tour before making a decision about accepting an offer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a low wl number for an upper grade at CMI. Since I didn't think we had a shot at getting in, I never toured it.

When I saw our wl number, I called and asked if I could tour. They told me no, only families that got in could tour. If we do get in, I will want a tour.

I ask this out of actual curiosity about your mental process.

Why did you list a school that you had never seen?

I did 12 schools and had only been in 2. What's the big deal? I would attend any of them.

If you had not toured them but would attend any of them, why would you need a tour before making a decision about accepting an offer?

Sorry I was a NP. Not the same person. Was just piping in my experience.

[Anonymous]

We toured MV after getting a waitlist offer and ended up turning it down the same day.

It happens folks, but luckily they accomadated families after the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We toured MV after getting a waitlist offer and ended up turning it down the same day.

It happens folks, but luckily they accomadated families after the lottery.

Same here.

[Anonymous]

I ask this out of actual curiosity about your mental process.

Why did you list a school that you had never seen?

I admit, I'm curious about your mental process too. Not really curious, because it doesn't seem like it would be very complex, but, a little curious about the type of woman who thinks they are so well-prepped for elementary school.

If you must know, we ranked it high for geography, and because it is well-regarded by the people I know who have children who go there.

I would still want to tour it before sending a kid there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I ask this out of actual curiosity about your mental process.

Why did you list a school that you had never seen?

I admit, I'm curious about your mental process too. Not really curious, because it doesn't seem like it would be very complex, but, a little curious about the type of woman who thinks they are so well-prepped for elementary school.

If you must know, we ranked it high for geography, and because it is well-regarded by the people I know who have children who go there.

I would still want to tour it before sending a kid there.

Clearly everyone has the luxury of taking days off from work to tour every school on the Hill at the designated open houses. But you and I know the truth. The snarky poster to whom you replied doesn't have to take days off from work; she just needed to find time to leave the house and go to the open house. She'd not last 2 weeks in your life or mine. Ignore her.

[Anonymous]

NP here. I don't think up thread poster was trying to be snarky. Sounded like s/he was genuinely asking how the commenter was thinking about the choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I ask this out of actual curiosity about your mental process.

Why did you list a school that you had never seen?

I admit, I'm curious about your mental process too. Not really curious, because it doesn't seem like it would be very complex, but, a little curious about the type of woman who thinks they are so well-prepped for elementary school.

If you must know, we ranked it high for geography, and because it is well-regarded by the people I know who have children who go there.

I would still want to tour it before sending a kid there.

Clearly everyone has the luxury of taking days off from work to tour every school on the Hill at the designated open houses. But you and I know the truth. The snarky poster to whom you replied doesn't have to take days off from work; she just needed to find time to leave the house and go to the open house. She'd not last 2 weeks in your life or mine. Ignore her.

I'm the "snarky" poster, and my question was genuine. I didn't take "days" off work. I took a couple mornings off to go to 4-5 open houses, then I went back to work and stayed late. I also went to a couple of evening and weekend open houses, but found those less helpful in gauging a school's climate than the daytime ones. If we'd gotten into somewhere that I'd only seen in the evening/weekend, I would probably have wanted to see it during the daytime as well, but that wasn't how it worked out for us.

We also ranked high for geography, but did actually go to every school we listed before the lottery closed. I wanted to be able to make a decision when we got the results easily, without scrambling for last minute tours. I also wanted to see the way that schools presented themselves during recruitment events like open houses and official tours because I think that the attention paid to outward facing image is important, particularly in my part of the city where more affluent families are hesitant to engage with their neighborhood schools.