GDS admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terrrible experience with last years interviewer. No warmth. Showed no interest in our kid. We figured she was signaling that our kid wasn’t the right fit. We didn’t apply.

How did you get an interview without applying? No snark.

Last year you could schedule an interview without having submitted the full application. May not be the same this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terrrible experience with last years interviewer. No warmth. Showed no interest in our kid. We figured she was signaling that our kid wasn’t the right fit. We didn’t apply.

How did you get an interview without applying? No snark.

Last year you could schedule an interview without having submitted the full application. May not be the same this year.

its still that way this year - only preliminary step required before tour/interview is unlocked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just want to say, as a current GDS parent who was in your shoes last year, don't let one bad interview scare you off from a truly amazing school. They have hundreds of applications for each entry grade and it's extremely difficult to get in. The weight of that workload may have come across to you from your particular interviewer.

On this note - our child still applied and was accepted for 9th to GDS (pre-COVID) - but it was evident through the entire process that this admissions person never bothered to learn the basic interests of our child. In the end, this meant our child didn't ever get a good feel for how they might fit into the GDS community. GDS was a big question-mark to our DC when compared to other schools they were accepted to. Those schools had allowed Fall Shadow visits and had paired them with like-interested students and then again did this in the Spring after acceptances went out. GDS did not have a Fall Shadow that admissions cycle and the student they were paired with in the Spring seemed completely random. Furthermore, even though GDS had admissions related events for sports/theatre/arts - our child was not invited to any of these (even though they were clearly VERY interested in a particular activity that she kept ignoring). Despite all of this, DC still tried their best to understand whether GDS would be a good place for them - but in the end - they chose somewhere else because they couldn't fill in all the missing pieces. I think if this admissions person had paid just a small amount of attention, my DC would have had a much better feel for GDS. They are happy where they landed and it is most likely the better choice for my DC. So, no hard feelings but that admissions person totally dropped the ball and based on prior PP posts it sounds like our DC isn't the only one falling into this category with her. (this is the only reason we are weighing in on this topic).

Honestly, I was noticing in open houses that the schools with the warmest lower school admissions officers were drawing a crowd of kinder, nicer parents. I worry at what kind of school/parent community it creates when the school doesn't model this. And wonder how much more prestige based it becomes when you reward prestige over character.

[Anonymous]

GDS Family here . We had a great interview when our kid came in middle school. The High School admissions team is notoriously lackluster. The Head of admissions has been there forever and it shows in terms of burnout.

Please don't let that deter you- it's a great school and both of our kids are happy and thriving. I wish they put their best foot forward and has less attitude when it comes to admissions!

[Anonymous]

I did the MS admissions process this cycle. I liked the interviewer; she was very personable and demonstrated familiarity with my applicant, having read the submitted info. However, we will not proceed with application completion - not due to the interview, but rather the increased understanding we have since gained about the highly stressful and competitive atmosphere that worsens to an unacceptable level in US. That is not a place for our family, but the interviewer was lovely.

[Anonymous]

You do realize that they read the entire applications after your visit/interview. Their job is not to convince you to come to the school. It is to determine if you are the right fit. It is clear to me that this thread is full of people who didn’t get in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell me about your experience with the US admissions team. My experience when my DS applied for 9th grade was not good and the person conducted the virtual interview was clearly not interested and not able to establish a rapport. But perhaps that was an exception.

We had the same experience with the US admission team. Granted, it was a virtual interview, but she clearly knew nothing about my kid and hadn't read his file.

I know you asked about US but this feels exactly like our LS interview. She was really impersonal and acted like we were wasting her time, hadn’t even looked at the initial application etc. it really changed my mind in terms of how we see GDS. we’ll finish the application process but on the whole, GDS seems to be riding high on the number of apps they get and that’s coming across in these interviews.

Dame. LS admissions person had zero knowledge of our child and asked what grade are you applying for?

Our interview for LS didn't go well when DH started referencing our application and mentioned a few times that we had written this information in the application. She looked annoyed but the questions she was asking were on the application. You would think they would really want to get to know the applicant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You do realize that they read the entire applications after your visit/interview. Their job is not to convince you to come to the school. It is to determine if you are the right fit. It is clear to me that this thread is full of people who didn’t get in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell me about your experience with the US admissions team. My experience when my DS applied for 9th grade was not good and the person conducted the virtual interview was clearly not interested and not able to establish a rapport. But perhaps that was an exception.

We had the same experience with the US admission team. Granted, it was a virtual interview, but she clearly knew nothing about my kid and hadn't read his file.

I know you asked about US but this feels exactly like our LS interview. She was really impersonal and acted like we were wasting her time, hadn’t even looked at the initial application etc. it really changed my mind in terms of how we see GDS. we’ll finish the application process but on the whole, GDS seems to be riding high on the number of apps they get and that’s coming across in these interviews.

Dame. LS admissions person had zero knowledge of our child and asked what grade are you applying for?

Of course they read the full application after the interview. Not everyone here didn’t get in, in fact some of us are still in the process. But there is a preliminary application that you must fill out to get to the interview stage and other schools such as SFS and Maret took the time to review that prior to the interview. GDS couldn’t be bothered to read it, at least for several of the posters. And yes, the interviewer should at least know what grade the child is applying for. It’s their job.

Our interview for LS didn't go well when DH started referencing our application and mentioned a few times that we had written this information in the application. She looked annoyed but the questions she was asking were on the application. You would think they would really want to get to know the applicant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did the MS admissions process this cycle. I liked the interviewer; she was very personable and demonstrated familiarity with my applicant, having read the submitted info. However, we will not proceed with application completion - not due to the interview, but rather the increased understanding we have since gained about the highly stressful and competitive atmosphere that worsens to an unacceptable level in US. That is not a place for our family, but the interviewer was lovely.

Np. Can you say more about your thoughts on GDS and the stress & competition? We’re applying for MS and didn’t get that, so I’m curious what you learned. HS maybe?

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of students in the HS who happily opt out of the stress/competition that some may experience, and the school seems totally fine with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did the MS admissions process this cycle. I liked the interviewer; she was very personable and demonstrated familiarity with my applicant, having read the submitted info. However, we will not proceed with application completion - not due to the interview, but rather the increased understanding we have since gained about the highly stressful and competitive atmosphere that worsens to an unacceptable level in US. That is not a place for our family, but the interviewer was lovely.

Np. Can you say more about your thoughts on GDS and the stress & competition? We’re applying for MS and didn’t get that, so I’m curious what you learned. HS maybe?

If you re-read that sentence of my post in its entirety, you'll note that I concluded with "in US". US = Upper School, meaning High School. The environment issues of concern worsen from MS to US, where it reaches an unacceptable level. The excessive hours of homework, highly stressful environment, and hypercompetitive nature amongst the school's homogenous student body of academic all-stars creates an undesirable experience for my child. You can explore/verify the environment more accurately by asking pointed questions of admissions staff and querying school alum + current students/parents. Good luck with finding the right fit for your family!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hypercompetitive nature amongst the school's homogenous student body of academic all-stars

There are certainly many academic all-stars in the GDS student body, and I agree some of them may be hypercompetitive, but "homogeneous" is extreme hyperbole bordering on falsehood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hypercompetitive nature amongst the school's homogenous student body of academic all-stars

There are certainly many academic all-stars in the GDS student body, and I agree some of them may be hypercompetitive, but "homogeneous" is extreme hyperbole bordering on falsehood.

Agree. There are some all-stars but you’d never get a whole school body of all-stars when there are lifers filling out the bottom half.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of lifers in the top half too.
No need for the hyperbole.
It’s a nice community that serves all kinds of students.
The parents are generally pleasant.
Sorry the admissions hasn’t been as warm for some but it’s a lovely community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do realize that they read the entire applications after your visit/interview. Their job is not to convince you to come to the school. It is to determine if you are the right fit. It is clear to me that this thread is full of people who didn’t get in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell me about your experience with the US admissions team. My experience when my DS applied for 9th grade was not good and the person conducted the virtual interview was clearly not interested and not able to establish a rapport. But perhaps that was an exception.

We had the same experience with the US admission team. Granted, it was a virtual interview, but she clearly knew nothing about my kid and hadn't read his file.

I know you asked about US but this feels exactly like our LS interview. She was really impersonal and acted like we were wasting her time, hadn’t even looked at the initial application etc. it really changed my mind in terms of how we see GDS. we’ll finish the application process but on the whole, GDS seems to be riding high on the number of apps they get and that’s coming across in these interviews.

Dame. LS admissions person had zero knowledge of our child and asked what grade are you applying for?

Of course they read the full application after the interview. Not everyone here didn’t get in, in fact some of us are still in the process. But there is a preliminary application that you must fill out to get to the interview stage and other schools such as SFS and Maret took the time to review that prior to the interview. GDS couldn’t be bothered to read it, at least for several of the posters. And yes, the interviewer should at least know what grade the child is applying for. It’s their job.

Our interview for LS didn't go well when DH started referencing our application and mentioned a few times that we had written this information in the application. She looked annoyed but the questions she was asking were on the application. You would think they would really want to get to know the applicant.

Except our DC did get in....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did the MS admissions process this cycle. I liked the interviewer; she was very personable and demonstrated familiarity with my applicant, having read the submitted info. However, we will not proceed with application completion - not due to the interview, but rather the increased understanding we have since gained about the highly stressful and competitive atmosphere that worsens to an unacceptable level in US. That is not a place for our family, but the interviewer was lovely.

Np. Can you say more about your thoughts on GDS and the stress & competition? We’re applying for MS and didn’t get that, so I’m curious what you learned. HS maybe?

If you re-read that sentence of my post in its entirety, you'll note that I concluded with "in US". US = Upper School, meaning High School. The environment issues of concern worsen from MS to US, where it reaches an unacceptable level. The excessive hours of homework, highly stressful environment, and hypercompetitive nature amongst the school's homogenous student body of academic all-stars creates an undesirable experience for my child. You can explore/verify the environment more accurately by asking pointed questions of admissions staff and querying school alum + current students/parents. Good luck with finding the right fit for your family!

But most of the top schools in this area will have a student body with a large volume of all-stars (even in public schools). This is a highly educated area with students (or sometimes their parents) that are striving for the best. So, be careful, as you may leave and find yourself in the same scenario.