I'd love to be a fly on the wall during admissions decision meetings

[Anonymous]

Admissions Person 11:15 here

PP - This is really back to the whole "puzzle" concept. For academic readiness, the admissions people weigh the ERBs, the WISC, the reports and (very importantly) the teacher recs.

The main difference between the report cards and the teacher recs is the candor that the teachers have when they fill out the confidential reports. Especially since the teacher recommendations can be specific for the school.

So I guess what I'm saying is that the admissions committees are pretty good at balancing out the different incoming school reports.

I hope this post makes sense.

[Anonymous]

PP 15:26 here. Thanks for your response PP. So does that mean that there are not "cut-offs" regarding progress reports in the way that there are unofficial ones for standardized test scores? In other words, is there a specific expectation for these progress reports, or are they simply another part of the puzzle that is weighed? Also, just for clarification, do the schools look at ERB reports if the child chooses to submit those, or do the AD folks have the ability to see those scores regardless? Thanks again for your words of wisdom!

[Anonymous]

Not one of the admissions people but at our school the ERBs are part of the "transcript" that goes to schools kids apply out to.

[Anonymous]

11:15 again

The expectations are certainly that the child have mainly Satisfactory, Good, Excellent or Usually/Often or B's and up but a random lower "grade" isn't a cut-off.

The progress reports can also be used to screen for red-flags (too many Needs Improvement, Rarely, C-'s).

If the student is a good fit for the school but has some unexplained low letters in the progress reports, some AD's will contact the current teacher and discuss their concerns with the teacher.

ERBs - current schools submit them as part of the transcript if the new school requests them or many schools have kids take parts of the ERB during their student visits (3rd grade and up)

Back to the game. Go Jets!

[Anonymous]

15:26 here. Thanks to 11:15 for clearing up the progress report issue. That makes sense. And interesting that the ERB's are part of the "transcript" that the current school sends. I know at our school the kids take them in 2nd grade, but I thought that was just "practice." I guess its just one more piece of information that can be helpful.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to the poster providing this wonderful information.

[Anonymous]

One of the most informative threads ever!

Do you have any insights about how the privates look at public school kids applying at the middle and high school levels? It seems like for diversity's sake, it would be attractive to take some kids from publics. What factors would be most important in this transition?

[Anonymous]

Many thanks to the "Admissions PPs"!

I wish the schools made it more transparent what are the factors and their weights in admissions decisions.

"Interesting international families" have been mentioned as one factor considered in admissions.

Could you please define what it means?

These days, there is no shortage of international families in DC, what are the aspects that make these "interesting"?

[Anonymous]

Sidwell's big on international families, probably more than any other school besides WIS.

[Anonymous]

Many of the schools have international families. Some of the schools like to boast on their websites something like..."we have students from __ countries" etc. They also like international families for the diversity they bring. Holton has a fair number of international families since it's so close to Potomac where many international families reside who can afford the big ticket tuition fees.

[Anonymous]

The IMF/World Bank no longer pay tuition, do they?

[Anonymous]

Do you have any insights about how the privates look at public school kids applying at the middle and high school levels? It seems like for diversity's sake, it would be attractive to take some kids from publics. What factors would be most important in this transition?

11:15 Admissions Person again

I think the main thing to remember is that the admissions departments really want to accept students who will be a good fit for their school. These children can certainly come from public school and I know privates often try to accept them.

The most important factors would be that 1) that the student wants to go to the school and is willing to do the possible extra work, 2) that they have a love of learning, and 3) that they've developed the skill set for the incoming grade and have (semi) mastery of the curriculum for their current grade. Transitions can be difficult, especially when a child is moving from a public to a private since the environment and expectations can be quite different. The admissions people want to try to make sure that the academics aren't going to overwhelm the student as they're trying to make new friends and find the Art Room.

I'm sure there are other factors as well but we think of this as the baseline. (Once again, just one person's perspective.)

[Anonymous]

The IMF does pay tuition - but the World Bank does not for anyone employed after the mid 1990s.

[Anonymous]

PP 12:02 here, responding to the question about my prior reference to "interesting international families." Although there are indeed many international families in DC, they are not the majority of the admissions pool so an international background can still be seen as a "plus" factor from a diversity standpoint (albeit a modest one). My word "interesting" is inexact, but remember schools are looking to bring in students that will add to the educational experience of all and there is a lot of interest in global education. For upper school admissions, if the student had been educated abroad for some years (and looked to have the tools to do well), our admissions committee thought they might bring some interesting perspective to their classmates. This is less of a focus for Pre-K or K admissions, of course -- there it was generally a view that a broad cross-section of families, including some with international ties, contacts, perspective, can enrich the overall composition of the class. But there wasn't a list of "boring" countries that didn't count! ("Oh, dear me, Latvia? How dull.")

[Anonymous]

To PP 12.02

Thanks for your response regarding the interesting (and boring) international families.
Your insights are very helpful and fun to read.

I was not sure whether international background is a plus or minus. Our kids (US/EU citizens) are tri-lingual, growing up in China, attending a British school, keen learners, WISC in top 97%, successful in school athletic teams... Sounds good but we are quite worried as we are returning to the DC area and applying to some of the highly selective schools...