Now that it's over, tell me about the good and bad experiences you had with admissions offices

[Anonymous]

We also had a great experience with SSSAS for 9th. Their AD is genuine, warm, and welcoming. The follow-up was excellent too. We are excited to send our child there next year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really liked the Bullis admissions team. Very personable.

Matt Trammell is an ultimate professional. Our DC chose another school, and it was very difficult to tell Matt, because he had been so welcoming.

+1 and we were waitlisted there. That guy is amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We applied Potomac (only) and got WL x2. Found them to be helpful and communicative throughout the process. Only thing that surprised us quite a bit was the 1:1 session with our K was extremely basic, with exercises on the order of drawing a shape using the right color crayon. I know it wasn't supposed to be an entirely academic evaluation, but still it was just surprised they weren't asking at least SOME questions to get a better handle on where DC was at in terms of math, reading, writing, etc.

That's not really what a school like Potomac is looking for in a K applicant. If you are interested in that kind of assessment, you should seek out schools with more traditional approaches to pedagogy.

Not sure what you mean by “that’s not what they’re looking for” but my assumption wasn’t that they’d be hyperfocused on academics, but at least show some passing interest in whether the kid can read or do basic addition, etc.

For K?

Yes, as indicated above.

[Anonymous]

The Norwood admission process is the best among all we applied to. They are most genuine, warm, and invested. The kids were just happy and the faculty were impressive.

The Bullis admission was a little weird. it is hard to put in words. We found it very hard to really connect with the admission director although they were friendly. But we always feel that there was a veil between us. Not sure if anyone had similar experience with Bullis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We applied Potomac (only) and got WL x2. Found them to be helpful and communicative throughout the process. Only thing that surprised us quite a bit was the 1:1 session with our K was extremely basic, with exercises on the order of drawing a shape using the right color crayon. I know it wasn't supposed to be an entirely academic evaluation, but still it was just surprised they weren't asking at least SOME questions to get a better handle on where DC was at in terms of math, reading, writing, etc.

That's not really what a school like Potomac is looking for in a K applicant. If you are interested in that kind of assessment, you should seek out schools with more traditional approaches to pedagogy.

Not sure what you mean by “that’s not what they’re looking for” but my assumption wasn’t that they’d be hyperfocused on academics, but at least show some passing interest in whether the kid can read or do basic addition, etc.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We also had a great experience with SSSAS for 9th. Their AD is genuine, warm, and welcoming. The follow-up was excellent too. We are excited to send our child there next year!

+1 for SSSAS. Nothing particularly bad with other schools. Those that were mostly remote for the process, it was very hard to build a connection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We ended up pick a different school, but SSSAS admissions team was personable and engaged, with just the right amount of communication.

Concur. Also went with another school, but absolutely loved the SSSAS admissions team. So down to earth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We applied Potomac (only) and got WL x2. Found them to be helpful and communicative throughout the process. Only thing that surprised us quite a bit was the 1:1 session with our K was extremely basic, with exercises on the order of drawing a shape using the right color crayon. I know it wasn't supposed to be an entirely academic evaluation, but still it was just surprised they weren't asking at least SOME questions to get a better handle on where DC was at in terms of math, reading, writing, etc.

That's not really what a school like Potomac is looking for in a K applicant. If you are interested in that kind of assessment, you should seek out schools with more traditional approaches to pedagogy.

Not sure what you mean by “that’s not what they’re looking for” but my assumption wasn’t that they’d be hyperfocused on academics, but at least show some passing interest in whether the kid can read or do basic addition, etc.

For K?

Yes, as indicated above.

You don’t understand progressive education.

[Anonymous]

Holy Child was great in all areas....

[Anonymous]

Burgundy Farm was amazing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We applied Potomac (only) and got WL x2. Found them to be helpful and communicative throughout the process. Only thing that surprised us quite a bit was the 1:1 session with our K was extremely basic, with exercises on the order of drawing a shape using the right color crayon. I know it wasn't supposed to be an entirely academic evaluation, but still it was just surprised they weren't asking at least SOME questions to get a better handle on where DC was at in terms of math, reading, writing, etc.

That's not really what a school like Potomac is looking for in a K applicant. If you are interested in that kind of assessment, you should seek out schools with more traditional approaches to pedagogy.

Not sure what you mean by “that’s not what they’re looking for” but my assumption wasn’t that they’d be hyperfocused on academics, but at least show some passing interest in whether the kid can read or do basic addition, etc.

For K?

Yes, as indicated above.

You don’t understand progressive education.

My pre-K kid is reading at 3rd grade level and is mathematically more advanced than the entire lower school at Potomac. It's a shame they dont care. I'll send my kid to a school that doesn't only care about money

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We applied Potomac (only) and got WL x2. Found them to be helpful and communicative throughout the process. Only thing that surprised us quite a bit was the 1:1 session with our K was extremely basic, with exercises on the order of drawing a shape using the right color crayon. I know it wasn't supposed to be an entirely academic evaluation, but still it was just surprised they weren't asking at least SOME questions to get a better handle on where DC was at in terms of math, reading, writing, etc.

That's not really what a school like Potomac is looking for in a K applicant. If you are interested in that kind of assessment, you should seek out schools with more traditional approaches to pedagogy.

Not sure what you mean by “that’s not what they’re looking for” but my assumption wasn’t that they’d be hyperfocused on academics, but at least show some passing interest in whether the kid can read or do basic addition, etc.

For K?

Yes, as indicated above.

You don’t understand progressive education.

My pre-K kid is reading at 3rd grade level and is mathematically more advanced than the entire lower school at Potomac. It's a shame they dont care. I'll send my kid to a school that doesn't only care about money

Ahh. Now I see what happened. One of two things- either you truly have a genius on your hands in which case they need a gifted school because they’ll be bored in a mainstream classroom or you’ve drilled your intelligent kid a ton to get then to this point and are super intense, in which case Potomac isn’t going to want to deal with you. Either way, it’s not a fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all the people who felt unloved by the private school admission process, better build a thicker skin for college!

NP college admissions has 0 parent involvement

Ha! No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had positive experiences with all the schools to which our DCs applied, including GDS, Maret, NPS, Sheridan, and Sidwell. We really clicked with the GDS AO for first kid and loved the teams @ NPS and Sidwell. Probably less of a connection @ Maret (the school was just too quiet for us, but that's our own idiosyncrasy and not a criticism of the school - first DC loved that little white house!) and DH said something really awkward in the Sheridan interview and I could hear our DC's application shriveling up while we still sat in the meeting.

Ideally some AOs are on here, reading the feedback on the various touchpoints and can make course corrections for next year if the critiques resonate.

GL to everyone's DC!

Ooooooo... what did he say?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We ended up pick a different school, but SSSAS admissions team was personable and engaged, with just the right amount of communication.

Concur. Also went with another school, but absolutely loved the SSSAS admissions team. So down to earth.

+1. Admissions is so welcoming at SSSAS.