Feedback for admissions offices: what did you like/dislike about the process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Feedback to admissions offices: Please be open to scheduling playdates and parent interviews on the same days. I know this is tough for larger schools, but the effort would be greatly appreciated by parents who work the types of jobs that have less flexibility. Non salaried, lower HHI families in particular have a tougher time to getting so much time off multiple days in a row.

St. Patrick's in DC does this and it's greatly appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Landon: the MS admissions director didn't know anything about the school. Couldn't answer our questions except those about sports. Disappointing.

+1 shadow day was good. Parent tour with our guide was not

Did you tour with an administrator or someone else? We toured with admin and had great experience.

We toured Landon with an asst director of admissions (middle school) and had a super experience. Very informative, showing us lots of in-progress classrooms, library, theater, etc. The experience felt incredibly relaxed and welcoming -- almost as if we were already accepted (we didn't feel like we were being graded or watched, like at some other schools).

[Anonymous]

We had the same wonderful experience at Holton. So much so that my daughter said she will be so upset if she doesn't get in because she really felt that they liked her and she was already admitted Fingers crossed for your son and my daughter! She too is applying for middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Madeira: Pros: admissions staff very nice and professional; really worked hard to make my daughter and me feel welcome. Cons: they were urging people to ask questions by Twitter during the open house and displaying the tweets on a giant screen, which felt gimmicky (and distracting). Also, they sent my DD off to shadow classes that didn't really make much sense for her (E.g., French, though she takes Spanish, etc.).

Field: Pros: Open House well done and very informative. Cons: I actually thought the interviewer was a high school senior until she told us what subjects she taught. After introducing herself she spoke only to my daughter, never to me; while I understand and appreciate that they want to hear from the kids, not just the parents, she literally acted as if I was not present, which just felt awkward. If they want to hear from kids, why not just have a separate interview with the kid? Also, interviewer seemed unable to pause long enough to give my very shy DD a chance to speak: she'd ask a question, then if DD did not respond instantly she would rush to fill the silence with her own commentary. It felt pointless, and I felt irritated: it was very poor interviewing technique by an obviously very inexperienced interviewer. Made me feel significantly less enthusiastic about Field.

We had a similar experience with the Field interview which also turned us off.

We loved our Field interview, though the AD did our DC's interview. We thought it was the best-done of the "parent-present" interviews our DC had to do. In addition to the usual questions about favorite class, teacher, sports like to play, etc., the AD asked at the end a couple of fantastic questions that were focused on trying to understand what kind of kid our DC is personally (e.g., how would your closest friend describe you; what does it mean to be a good friend). Other schools with parent-present interviews, the questions were more focused on how DC would fit into the curriculum and school activities (classes, sports, music), not on questions that try to understand a child's friendliness, empathy, leadership, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had the same wonderful experience at Holton. So much so that my daughter said she will be so upset if she doesn't get in because she really felt that they liked her and she was already admitted Fingers crossed for your son and my daughter! She too is applying for middle school.

Good luck! I was the poster who mentioned the Holton process and my daughter is applying for middle school too. She loved everything and can't wait to hear if she will be there next fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So interesting about Holton for middle and upper school as the lower school was a very different experience. My daughter is applying for 6th, which is still lower school there, and she hasn't ever been able to be in the building while classes are going on. She has also never really had a conversation with any of the adults from the school. She went to an open house where there were 6 girls on a "panel" to answer questions and then we could wander around the school as we wished. She may have seen only half of the place, because I couldn't remember all of the ins and outs from my interview with the admissions person a month before that. Then she went to applicant visiting day, which was only for applicants. The current students had the day off. I'm sure it was very helpful for the admin team to see how my daughter worked with other girls, but for my daughter it was very stressful. She had to write an essay, then do projects with other applicants while the admins, teachers and admissions team walked around observing them. Stressful! I'm hoping that there will be an option to have an actual shadow day if she is admitted, as right now she doesn't have very warm and fuzzy feelings about the place.

That's too bad your experience wasn't great. I hope if she is accepted she will be able to shadow and then she can see the class she's joining. It's a great school so don't let the admissions process cloud your judgement if possible. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St Andrews: really liked the process. Admissions staff seemed welcoming and genuinely interested in DC; conversations and interviews were not rushed, and it felt like the admissions staff were truly interested in hearing about and from DC. Head of school came by to say hello informally as we and other families waited for the interviews to start. Everyone was warm. Everyone was responsive to emails, which I really appreciated.

+10000

Interesting- this is such a subjective process. We were put off by the admissions person at St Andrews and had previously liked the school. Felt she seemed uncertain about the school's future and was not very positive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had the same wonderful experience at Holton. So much so that my daughter said she will be so upset if she doesn't get in because she really felt that they liked her and she was already admitted Fingers crossed for your son and my daughter! She too is applying for middle school.

Good luck! I was the poster who mentioned the Holton process and my daughter is applying for middle school too. She loved everything and can't wait to hear if she will be there next fall.

Maybe our girls will be together there! She only applied to Holton. She will try again at High School if she doesn't get in. Luckily she is already at a good school. I just figured middle school would be a easier entry year. But, as I found out, all years have way more qualified applicants then spots. Good Luck! Do you know how they notify? Email, call or snail mail? I didn't ask but wish I had!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had the same wonderful experience at Holton. So much so that my daughter said she will be so upset if she doesn't get in because she really felt that they liked her and she was already admitted Fingers crossed for your son and my daughter! She too is applying for middle school.

Good luck! I was the poster who mentioned the Holton process and my daughter is applying for middle school too. She loved everything and can't wait to hear if she will be there next fall.

Maybe our girls will be together there! She only applied to Holton. She will try again at High School if she doesn't get in. Luckily she is already at a good school. I just figured middle school would be a easier entry year. But, as I found out, all years have way more qualified applicants then spots. Good Luck! Do you know how they notify? Email, call or snail mail? I didn't ask but wish I had!

We only applied to Holton too. They say March 1 for notification but sometimes they notify over the weekend before. Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

I don't understand the purpose of requiring IQ tests for young children (or maybe any children). They are really expensive and of such limited utility. I wish it was not the norm around here--I was shocked when I found out it was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So interesting about Holton for middle and upper school as the lower school was a very different experience. My daughter is applying for 6th, which is still lower school there, and she hasn't ever been able to be in the building while classes are going on. She has also never really had a conversation with any of the adults from the school. She went to an open house where there were 6 girls on a "panel" to answer questions and then we could wander around the school as we wished. She may have seen only half of the place, because I couldn't remember all of the ins and outs from my interview with the admissions person a month before that. Then she went to applicant visiting day, which was only for applicants. The current students had the day off. I'm sure it was very helpful for the admin team to see how my daughter worked with other girls, but for my daughter it was very stressful. She had to write an essay, then do projects with other applicants while the admins, teachers and admissions team walked around observing them. Stressful! I'm hoping that there will be an option to have an actual shadow day if she is admitted, as right now she doesn't have very warm and fuzzy feelings about the place.

That's too bad your experience wasn't great. I hope if she is accepted she will be able to shadow and then she can see the class she's joining. It's a great school so don't let the admissions process cloud your judgement if possible. Good luck!

You can also ask for a shadow day as an applicant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand the purpose of requiring IQ tests for young children (or maybe any children). They are really expensive and of such limited utility. I wish it was not the norm around here--I was shocked when I found out it was.

You're complaining about spending around 400 bucks but you're applying to private school? Not getting that.

[Anonymous]

Regarding email replies to inquiries, we were impressed by how responsive schools were to our occasional emails about a visit or a piece of the application (recommendations, etc.). Landon and St. Patrick's especially stood out in how responsive they were in communication, both by email and regular mail. Even though our DC seems to have had the "coldest" experience with St. Albans (no shadow day offered, brief interview, so not much of a connection -- it's last on his list of schools applied to), they too were great about responding very quickly and thoughtfully to a couple emails we sent during the several months' process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand the purpose of requiring IQ tests for young children (or maybe any children). They are really expensive and of such limited utility. I wish it was not the norm around here--I was shocked when I found out it was.

You're complaining about spending around 400 bucks but you're applying to private school? Not getting that.

Why should anyone be happy wasting money? $400 is not peanuts, even if you can afford tuition, and PP's point is that you don't get particularly reliable information in return.

[Anonymous]

I agree. The IQ tests for very young kids are unreliable, and the admissions offices know it.

I know these schools are basically aiming to attract the 1%, but if they had ANY serious interest in getting a more socioeconomically diverse applicant pool they would not have an application process more intense than college admissions. Even if you get the application and testing fees waived, what kind of parents can take multiple days off from work to bring kids to open houses, interviews and shadow days? Affluent families with flexible hours and/or a stay at home spouse, that's who can do this. My two kid applied to four schools, and it essentially meant losing the better part of two full work weeks. It's crazy.

Schools that want to indicate some seriousness about getting lower income families or families with single parents should condense everything into one day and make open houses and tours optional,