As for the whole Sidwell admissions process....

[Anonymous]

We applied last year for a middle school slot. My husband, DC and I found the application process impersonal and unfriendly. We were wait-listed at Sidwell but accepted at our top choice school.
I do not understand why any school would be less than warm and welcoming during the application process.

[Anonymous]

I am suspect of the veracity of this post. It is over a ear later, you were accepted to your top choice, and you are still taking the time to dredge up a post that is four years old? Sounds made up or oddly bitter.

That said, let's see what changes occur with the new a director of admissions and a new HOS.

That is if you really care for the next group of people of course. You're already done!

[Anonymous]

fWIW, we toured for prek this year and decided not to apply for the same reasons cited above. I really, really wanted to like the school but we also experienced the aloofness described above.

[Anonymous]

We applied for an older grade several years ago. No one from admissions met us at all. A student gave us a tour and deposited us in the library. There were no seats and I had a knee injury but we stood there for about half an hour, wondering what was going on. I finally asked the librarian, the only adult in the room, who sneered at me, called admissions, and barked "someone will come for you," as if I was wasting her time. A teacher finally came and interviewed DC while we stood there for another half hour.

We weren't just treated coldly, we were treated affirmatively badly. I left feeling like Sidwell expects us to come begging on our knees. No thank you.

They did send me an on-line survey about our experience, which I completed. But from these posts it looks like they really didn't care.

[Anonymous]

We toured this year as well. We felt the teachers and admissions staff were very welcoming, and we loved the school. We liked several schools but Sidwell is our clear top choice, in part as a result if how comfortable and happy our kids were at the open house and test day. Maybe all if you who prefer other schools will make spaced for us at Sidwell!

[Anonymous]

In comparison to the other schools, Sidwell has been pretty hands off with us. We've received the standard acknowledgement emails but that's it. We actually didn't go to an open house but did our tour during the playdate. We were part of a small group so we had a chance to ask questions along the way and after the tour. The other schools have been much more communicative with us and we've had more face time because we've gone to open houses and small group discussions. Having said all of that, I'm not put off by Sidwell because they haven't been as welcoming as the other schools. I'm more concerned about how they treat you once you're in. Also, my husband and I are the types that don't liked to be followed around by sales people so I'm not upset or turned off by how we've been treated.

[Anonymous]

I look at it differently. If I'm going to make such a sizeable investment and make substantial donations to a school, I want to be enthused about the place. Nobody made an effort at Sidwell. In contrast, Beauvoir, GDS went out theor way to make us feel welcome. Teachers at Sidwell didn't even acknowledge us when we walked in the room. Big turn off.

[Anonymous]

I think you'd be more enthused following admittance, when there are much smaller numbers of people to deal with and they really do a great job with lots of welcoming events and similar stuff. That seems to me to be a sensible division of resources for the school to make given the wide disparity of numbers before and after admission decisions are made.

[Anonymous]

We didn't love the admissions process, but we love Sidwell. My kids are happy and getting a good education. The admissions process is a couple months, but they can be in school for as much as 13 years!

[Anonymous]

So I've heard, but the school also needs to realize that it might be pushing away good candidates. I realize it has more applicants than it needs, so it may want those who can overlook the frosty initiation. The irony is that we had an opportunity to speak with an education consultant after the fact who said she would have really pushed Sidwell for our child if we had met with her sooner. She had previously worked in admission there and felt it would have been a good school for DC. Obviously, it's just her opinion. I told her we were so put off that we took it off our list.

[Anonymous]

Sure, they could make it feel like a cozier, more welcoming process, but my point is that rejecting the school on those grounds is likely short-sighted. Plus, I have heard things have improved with the new team. I am sure different applicants will have different experiences with the process.

[Anonymous]

It's really interesting to see how schools present themselves through the admissions process. I remarked to a Sidwell parent friend of mine, that it felt difficult to get to the stage when you actually get to see the school (ie after you apply, when you and your child take a tour), and she said she thought it was because people just already knew they wanted their kids to go to Sidwell, I guess based on reputation, experiences of friends, etc.

[Anonymous]

You can think you know, but that tactile experience is extremely important. I hope they become more welcoming in the future. Too many people are echoing the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can think you know, but that tactile experience is extremely important. I hope they become more welcoming in the future. Too many people are echoing the same thing.

You really can't generalize by a bunch of comments on this page. In our experience the process with Sidwell was more or less identical to the process with its major competitor schools -- generally unpleasant and a little bit stressful but more or less identical in terms of how welcoming it was. The fact that a bunch of people complain about Sidwell in a discussion on DC Urban Moms says nothing about the reality. And to the extent there is any minor difference it is absolutely trivial relative to the important considerations to weigh in selecting a school for your child.

[Anonymous]

I think the problem is that because of the Obamas, Sidwell has more applications than it can comfortably handle. As discussed in another thread, they could conceivably limit the number of applications, but that doesn't seem fair. So the option seems to be to deal with the raw numbers as best they can.