Open Houses versus Private Tours

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Another family came in about 4 minutes late - the woman came in while the husband tried to find parking. She had a newborn (weeks old) with her who slept the entire time. (Another big no-no apparently).

I can't believe this. A babe in arms is not in anyones way. They might as well say no pregnant mothers on the tour.

For the ignorant, it is not easy to leave a newborn. Especially if you are breastfeeding. And it is even harder to keep appointments with the newborn in the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've heard that the lower school admissions director at GDS is gone this year. We had an unpleasant experience with her, too.

Jenny Stein? Really? FWIW, I thought she was fine. Once our child was waitlisted, she was quite blunt--told us that her chances of getting in off the wait list were "extremely small," which stung a bit--but I think she was just trying to be realistic, which I appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Well, I'm happy to report that the admissions staff at Landon and St. Albans are delightful! I can't imagine why schools don't pay attention to this; for most people, it's their first impression of the school.

[Anonymous]

oh my gosh that AD at GDS is famous for being so awful. I'm surprised anyone ever applied there. I flew out of there after our initial interview never to return.

FYI. The guy at The River front desk is truly a great guy, he's been there forever. It must've been an off day for him.

I had actually contemplated sending my kids to our local DCPS but the front desk lady there was so rude (snapping at me in front of my kids) that I spun on my heel and went straight to private...I will not have my kids surrounded by adults behaving badly...think what message kids pick up from that.

[Anonymous]

I'm new to this, so pardon my ignorance -- can you bring the prospective attendee (1.5-2 y o) to a preschool open house, or is he/she to be left at home? In light of the PP's comment about bringing a newborn I am assuming the answer is to leave him/her at home, but just checking. We don't have a nanny and I am SAH so I would have to find someone to babysit...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm new to this, so pardon my ignorance -- can you bring the prospective attendee (1.5-2 y o) to a preschool open house, or is he/she to be left at home? In light of the PP's comment about bringing a newborn I am assuming the answer is to leave him/her at home, but just checking. We don't have a nanny and I am SAH so I would have to find someone to babysit...

Generally speaking it is discouraged, although if it were a hardship and you really had no babysitting at all, you could ask and they'd probably make an exception.

[Anonymous]

If the child is old enough to be calm on the tour, then I think its fine. If they are going to need snacks, are running around or being loud, and you don't have the ability to take in the school and ask questions, then leave them at home for the open house.

We brought our preschooler to one open house and there were other kids, but I was pretty embarrassed at how she acted. I think they thought she was cute, but I don't know.....I didn't end up applying there, I have no idea if this school's admisssion staff would have connected us to the open house or not, and I don't know if it would've hurt us really, but if I had to do it over I would've found a sitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know, this is funny to see
I decided against applying to Lowell cos of the snitty guy at the front desk...I just felt if even the receptionist had attitude, it was NOT going to work for me...
glad to see others are catching heck with the admissions process

I'm not sure I would call him snitty. Just rehearsed pretentiousness as far as I could tell. I expected to see that at Beauvoir or Sidwell, so found it jarring when we visited Lowell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think many of the schools expect you to go to both if they are offered. I would highly recommend not showing up late, too. We were in a small group tour and the start time was very early - at drop off time for our prospective applicant's current school. Since both parents were supposed to attend, it was quite difficult to get there on time. We barely made it on time. Another family came in about 4 minutes late - the woman came in while the husband tried to find parking. She had a newborn (weeks old) with her who slept the entire time. (Another big no-no apparently).

The admissions director was incredibly rude to her - when she asked a question after the introduction, the AD said "Well if you had been here on time like the others you wouldn't need to ask that question" or something to that effect. It was shocking how incredibly rude the AD was. And, before anyone asks, no it was not Beauvoir.

Obviously the AD is a barren shrew.

[Anonymous]

Back to the original thread... Do you really have to do both the open house and a private tour to be considered a serious applicant? I'm not applying to the big 3 - so I'm interested to hear whether this is truly necessary at other schools (e.g., Primary Day, Concord Hill, WIS, River School)? I don't mean to be cavalier, but seriously, who has time for all of these commitments?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the original thread... Do you really have to do both the open house and a private tour to be considered a serious applicant? I'm not applying to the big 3 - so I'm interested to hear whether this is truly necessary at other schools (e.g., Primary Day, Concord Hill, WIS, River School)? I don't mean to be cavalier, but seriously, who has time for all of these commitments?

We applied to one of the above schools you mention, and went only on a tour, no open house, and our child was admitted.

[Anonymous]

DONT BRING ANY KIDS TO OPEN HOUSE, unless you have asked beforehand, or a few schools state on their website that they are invited. Period. The end.
As far as Admission Directors/staff, I find the less the school needs you (Sidwell, GDS of course) the less they will entertain you. If they really need you, they are annoyingly all over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DONT BRING ANY KIDS TO OPEN HOUSE, unless you have asked beforehand, or a few schools state on their website that they are invited. Period. The end.
As far as Admission Directors/staff, I find the less the school needs you (Sidwell, GDS of course) the less they will entertain you. If they really need you, they are annoyingly all over.

Maybe that's your experience, but I found the admissions people at both Sidwell and GDS incredibly nice and helpful -- both frankly more nice than I had expected. They certainly do not "need" the likes of my DC, but they were really great to us -- calling back quickly to respond to questions, arranging alternate dates when we had conflicts with an open house, and just being really friendly overall. I had sort of expected admissions people to be uniformly annoyed by parents in the application process, and I was secretly expecting to dislike both Sidwell and GDS for the snootiness that had been described on this board, but I was totally overwhelmed by how great all the admissions people have been. Just based on the admissions people and parents I met at both Sidwell and GDS (especially GDS), I'd be really happy to send DC there.