What did you or your child do during the admissions process to make you facepalm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I appreciate your sense of humor and ability to poke fun at yourself. Everyone else is taking the light-hearted comments way too seriously!

I think during an online interview last year I may have overheard my middle schooler say her favorite activity was watching tv. She still got it at that school.

That is great. I have told my DS that he can not mention Xbox EVER in an interview or essay when they ask him what he likes to do outside of school. So much for teaching my kid honesty!

This is silly…he’s a kid (and I’m afraid to ask how young you started him on this path)…he plays Xbox (all the kids do!). Privates are not authentic, it’s all about window dressing…

“…started him on this path”? You mean the path of learning how to behave appropriately in certain settings, regardless of “being a kid”? Children can learn how to converse with adults in an intelligent and polite manner and still be kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When asked if they could have lunch with anyone living or dead responded Tonya Harding.

I am confident that admissions person had a great story to share at dinner that night. (If nothing else it was a unique response - right?)

I've always thought the proper answer to that question is "living, because having dinner with a dead person would be kind of gross."

[Anonymous]

My 10 year old was being interviewed by middle school admissions when his 8 year old sister decided to unplug our internet and we lost connection. It was pretty rough for him to get started again. We were waitlisted...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 10 year old was being interviewed by middle school admissions when his 8 year old sister decided to unplug our internet and we lost connection. It was pretty rough for him to get started again. We were waitlisted...

HE was waitlisted.

[Anonymous]

Conducted the interview in Spanish.

My child is not fluent in Spanish.
I am conversational, and the HOS was fluent.

She started asking questions in Spanish, and my child (8) answered in complete sentences, but the answers did not match the questions.

HOS:Where do you live?
My kid: I have 1 brother.

HOS: Do you have a dog?
My kid: I eat grapes.

She asked me, in Spanish, if I knew how poorly this was going.

Claro.


That did not end in "thick envelope" way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Conducted the interview in Spanish.

My child is not fluent in Spanish.
I am conversational, and the HOS was fluent.

She started asking questions in Spanish, and my child (8) answered in complete sentences, but the answers did not match the questions.

HOS:Where do you live?
My kid: I have 1 brother.

HOS: Do you have a dog?
My kid: I eat grapes.

She asked me, in Spanish, if I knew how poorly this was going.

Claro.


That did not end in "thick envelope" way.

What school was this?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Conducted the interview in Spanish.

My child is not fluent in Spanish.
I am conversational, and the HOS was fluent.

She started asking questions in Spanish, and my child (8) answered in complete sentences, but the answers did not match the questions.

HOS:Where do you live?
My kid: I have 1 brother.

HOS: Do you have a dog?
My kid: I eat grapes.

She asked me, in Spanish, if I knew how poorly this was going.

Claro.


That did not end in "thick envelope" way.

I'm sorry this did not go your way but it truly, very funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Conducted the interview in Spanish.

My child is not fluent in Spanish.
I am conversational, and the HOS was fluent.

She started asking questions in Spanish, and my child (8) answered in complete sentences, but the answers did not match the questions.

HOS:Where do you live?
My kid: I have 1 brother.

HOS: Do you have a dog?
My kid: I eat grapes.

She asked me, in Spanish, if I knew how poorly this was going.

Claro.


That did not end in "thick envelope" way.

This story actually made me smile. It's kind of cute and pure comedy from the outside, although I'm sure it wasn't funny to live through if you really wanted your child to attend that school. But given the circumstances, I suspect you found a better match for your child/family than this school!

So... why are they expecting an 8yr old to already be fluent? Crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Conducted the interview in Spanish.

My child is not fluent in Spanish.
I am conversational, and the HOS was fluent.

She started asking questions in Spanish, and my child (8) answered in complete sentences, but the answers did not match the questions.

HOS:Where do you live?
My kid: I have 1 brother.

HOS: Do you have a dog?
My kid: I eat grapes.

She asked me, in Spanish, if I knew how poorly this was going.

Claro.


That did not end in "thick envelope" way.

Was your child doing it on purpose?

[Anonymous]

My 8th grader was asked what his first choice school was ... he named a different school. Got in anyway, but we were sure that would be reject.

[Anonymous]

Applying to pk3 was an exercise in patience and hilarity.

Each play date, I worried if toddler would poop in pull up, or do something wild. Child did in fact, do something wild at each play date, like escaping from the room on a ride on car, or asking the teacher if they could have the teacher's can of sparkling water (but child was already drinking the teacher's opened can while asking), and then the one school where child ripped up an entire book (something that child had not done before). Looking back at the essays we wrote for the applications, I wrote pretty much an entire paragraph about how energetic and physically active child was and pretty much said 'look, child will be swinging from the rafters, so know who you are admitting"

a few years down the road, child is just as active and busy, and was admitted to most of the schools we applied to. Child has also turned out to be not neurotypical, which is something that did not surprise us, based on child's temperament from infancy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When asked if they could have lunch with anyone living or dead responded Tonya Harding.

I am confident that admissions person had a great story to share at dinner that night. (If nothing else it was a unique response - right?)

To the OP, please, just chill out and I mean that with kindness. I have two high schoolers in “Big 3’s.” It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Life works itself out. It’s a LONG road. Don’t sweat it. To the Tonya Harding, PP. I love it! I would accept your kid in a heartbeat. What a funny, unique answer. Your kid sounds awesome!

[Anonymous]

When our DC applied to Sidwell for Kindergarten, he refused to tell the teachers his name during the group play date. He decided to pretend he was a tiger, and just growled for the entire time. We were hardly shocked when he was rejected a few months later!

[Anonymous]

DCD applied to stone ridge during the pandemic for K. Interview was being done over zoom. DC could not sit still - jumping out of chair, losing focus, etc. The admissions person was super nice to DC, but ended the interview taking about how important character was for their school. DD was not admitted.

I was embarrassed because it was not a reflection of how she normally behaves with adults (in-person). DD did get in a place where she was able to do an in-person meeting with admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 8th grader was asked what his first choice school was ... he named a different school. Got in anyway, but we were sure that would be reject.

My elementary age child was asked about the schools he was applying to.. he knew the names of some of those schools. However, I never thought he woild be asked that question.