private school decision day: Feb 27

[Anonymous]

Do financial aid/scholarship decisions always come later?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do schools reject/accept on the same day? Do they hold anyone back for wait list or not really?

I figure the schools reach out by phone to people in advance of this to make sure they have a group who will accept the offer? or does it not work that way.

If we haven't heard yet i figured getting rejected. (non-high school admissions....we are new to this)

No, not having heard in advance does not mean it’s a rejection. I’ve heard that some schools will give a courtesy advance heads-up to the family of a sibling that is being rejected, a couple days to a few hours before the official release of info. Not all schools even do that.

There are no advance notifications to “ensure a group who will accept the offer.” The schools have scads of data and have a good sense of their expected yield. They admit more students than they have spots for based on that data (some schools may be more conservative if the previous year was overenrolled, etc).

You’re overthinking it.

We got a call from a big 3/4/5 admissions director today, "just checking in" and asking if we had any more questions about the school that they could answer. It felt like a good sign. Who knows whether we'll get in next Friday, but it did seem like they were probing us about our continued interest and perhaps trying to protect yield.

Which school?

Sorry not going to say, in case they didn’t call that many people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re someone mentioning they already booked a family dinner. We had K-8 graduates waiting for a decision previous years. Our school’s recommendation was not to plan anything for the decision day beforehand. If you don’t get good news canceling plans would be more dramatic and impact your kid even more negatively. Why to plan anything? If there is good news you can just decide to go to a restaurant then. It is a random Friday so there plenty of places that don’t need a prior reservation.

Why wouldn't you be able to go out to dinner if your kid didn't get into a school?

I came back to see if anyone answered because this is really bothering me.

Some families (or just the disappointed kids) might not feel like going out to eat after bad news. You can’t even conceive of such a possibility and really need someone to spell that out for you?

[Anonymous]

Students who apply to Sidwell also apply to Field? These are 2 very different schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do financial aid/scholarship decisions always come later?

Depends on the school. Some just say accepted on the log in page and the financial details come in the physical packet. Others post the financial decisions online as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do schools reject/accept on the same day? Do they hold anyone back for wait list or not really?

I figure the schools reach out by phone to people in advance of this to make sure they have a group who will accept the offer? or does it not work that way.

If we haven't heard yet i figured getting rejected. (non-high school admissions....we are new to this)

No, not having heard in advance does not mean it’s a rejection. I’ve heard that some schools will give a courtesy advance heads-up to the family of a sibling that is being rejected, a couple days to a few hours before the official release of info. Not all schools even do that.

There are no advance notifications to “ensure a group who will accept the offer.” The schools have scads of data and have a good sense of their expected yield. They admit more students than they have spots for based on that data (some schools may be more conservative if the previous year was overenrolled, etc).

You’re overthinking it.

We got a call from a big 3/4/5 admissions director today, "just checking in" and asking if we had any more questions about the school that they could answer. It felt like a good sign. Who knows whether we'll get in next Friday, but it did seem like they were probing us about our continued interest and perhaps trying to protect yield.

Which school?

Sorry not going to say, in case they didn’t call that many people.

Haven’t you already outed yourself as one of a small number of people?

[Anonymous]

For high school decisions is it common to try to get a sweatshirt or some swag but keep it a secret until we know the decisions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For high school decisions is it common to try to get a sweatshirt or some swag but keep it a secret until we know the decisions?

It’d be wise to wait

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For high school decisions is it common to try to get a sweatshirt or some swag but keep it a secret until we know the decisions?

It’d be wise to wait

Wait to buy the sweatshirt at the admitted student event. Most accepted student packets come with stickers, lanyards, or other trinkets, so start by taking pics and celebrating with those. There will be plenty of opportunities to celebrate with their school’s spirit wear soon enough!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For high school decisions is it common to try to get a sweatshirt or some swag but keep it a secret until we know the decisions?

It’s high school, not the Ivy League.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For high school decisions is it common to try to get a sweatshirt or some swag but keep it a secret until we know the decisions?

I think it’s healthy for your DC to take a breath and let their options soak in before being pushed towards one school or another, even if they are super excited about one in particular.

You can still celebrate their accomplishments with some sparkling apple cider or a movie night out to relax now that the hard part is over. It’s a big moment! But take time to discuss as a family and make sure that the school they choose is truly THEIR choice. Save the sweatshirt for when they hit the “accept” button.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read some of the waitlist posts from previous years. You will hear anecdotal stories of people getting off of waitlists but the are very few and far between. Many schools (GDS, Potomac, Maret) will waitlist the vast majority of non-admitted applicants. It spares them having to deny a student and they seem not to care about the deceptive message that the kid still has a good chance. The colleges publish their waitlist data and the more competitive schools are often 1-5% off a waitlist. I would guess that they are the same around DC independents.

But don't worry, soon you'll get lots of threads about people who think that every kid who is admitted and chooses a different school triggers a kid off the waitlist. It's an annual DCUM tradition.

So Waitlist is really a No. Why bother wasting everyone's time.

[Anonymous]

Applied for HS last year and 3 of 4 schools sent a physical package. All arrived on the decision day. The postman brought two of the boxes and those arrived well before the portal was updated. The third box was dropped off that evening by parent volunteers (we were out so didn’t interact). The fourth school just did the portal announcement followed by an email. Schools handle this differently. I did sign up for informed delivery so I could see what was coming via usps, but in the end it wasn’t particularly helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For high school decisions is it common to try to get a sweatshirt or some swag but keep it a secret until we know the decisions?

It’d be wise to wait

Wait to buy the sweatshirt at the admitted student event. Most accepted student packets come with stickers, lanyards, or other trinkets, so start by taking pics and celebrating with those. There will be plenty of opportunities to celebrate with their school’s spirit wear soon enough!

DD’s school in Baltimore hand delivered a school t shirt on admission day. Very nice touch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For high school decisions is it common to try to get a sweatshirt or some swag but keep it a secret until we know the decisions?

It’d be wise to wait

Wait to buy the sweatshirt at the admitted student event. Most accepted student packets come with stickers, lanyards, or other trinkets, so start by taking pics and celebrating with those. There will be plenty of opportunities to celebrate with their school’s spirit wear soon enough!

DD’s school in Baltimore hand delivered a school t shirt on admission day. Very nice touch.

I like it when schools do this!