GDS admission survey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Folks. I think you are all stressing way too much about admissions. Don't try to analyze every word from the admissions office. It is just not that difficult to be accepted to these schools. My two children have applied to a total of seven schools, and they've been accepted to six. We are not famous, diverse in any sense, or extremely weathly. Our kids are smart, to be sure, but not Einstein or anything. Just go through the process, and try not to stress.

Good luck to all.

Did you happen to read this board on the day the acceptance/waitlist/rejection letters were received? Be thankful that your kids did so well but the reality is the the majority of people do not get their first choice if they get anything at all. Please do not belittle their concern because you have passsed the post.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know what happened to Jenny Stein? Did she really leave?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what happened to Jenny Stein? Did she really leave?

I'd love to know the answer to this one! She was just downright rude to us last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I told them we withdrew our child's application because we found the parent interview so obnoxious.

thats pretty obnoxious in itself

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The difference between GDS and the other schools is that GDS gets plenty of qualified minority applicants but only fills a set number for each class. Hence the x number of African American, y number of Asian American, or z number of other children in each and every classroom. The other schools are mostly white in each classroom but it's not from lack of trying. They want to have more but just don't get the applicants.

This is completely true my family is a minority (hispanic) and we find that many schools don't discriminate at all it just happens to be that they dont get enough applicants and for the people who say that they don't like schools with quotas, it just means that they need that number of people because there arent ENOUGH, schools wont accept you just because your a certain race

[Anonymous]

Don't know what happened to Stein, but she was awful. We ended up not applying for K (about a decade ago) after she was so rude in our interview. Now, both kids are at GDS and happy. HS admissions is especially pleasant.

[Anonymous]

We withdrew after the interview and visit at GDS (applying for 7th grade). I found the interview rather bizarre in that the admissions officer said there was no point in meeting my child (or any other) because it didn't tell them much. This is for an 11-year-old! I think that is absurd. He interviewed me instead, but -- hello -- I'm not the one who would attend the school. That tells me they are more interested in the parents than the kids. Ultimately we withdrew because my child didn't like the lack of structure, so it obviously wasn't a good fit for him, but the admissions process was certainly off-putting to me.

[Anonymous]

Jenny's mother had a medical crisis and Jenny moved back home (out of the area) to help care for her.

Re 8:45's post. To me, that story is a vindication of the process -- the system not only worked, but it worked efficiently and in a way that empowered the DC (he got to decide this was not the school he wanted). It makes much more sense to have an older kid spend a day in classes than a half hour talking to an admissions person.

[Anonymous]

I'm not saying one or the other is preferable. I think both are necessary and important -- a visit and an interview. A lot of other schools do it that way. I don't know how an admissions officer could not want to meet a child in middle school before deciding whether to accept him or her.

[Anonymous]

These are committee decisions and, where the student is concerned, it's better for everyone on the committee to have equal access to the relevant information. The information about the kids all comes from non-admissions people. That's true even in PreK/K at GDS. Teachers, not admissions people, do the evaluations during the playdates.

I wouldn't want to see any weight given to one admission officer's personal impression of a kid (positive or negative), based on a single, brief encounter of a sort that bears very little relationship to how the student will interact with people in school.

[Anonymous]

I realize most parents on this forum are interested in K/pre-K or have kids at that level, but there are no "playdates" for middle school. These are talking, thinking, interactive students with well-developed minds of their own. When they visit classes, they do not interact with teachers -- usually they are just observers. When you apply for a job, do they talk to you or just decide based on your resume? To say that it's better not to have a first-hand impression is strange to say the least.

[Anonymous]

I don't know; my son had a ball visiting the classes (MS) and when he ran into one of the GDS teachers he met with on the street, she remembered him and they had a nice chat. I would think the assessment of a couple of teachers would be more helpful than an interview with an admissions officer. But maybe that's because I have an outoging kid who likes to talk!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jenny's mother had a medical crisis and Jenny moved back home (out of the area) to help care for her.

Re 8:45's post. To me, that story is a vindication of the process -- the system not only worked, but it worked efficiently and in a way that empowered the DC (he got to decide this was not the school he wanted). It makes much more sense to have an older kid spend a day in classes than a half hour talking to an admissions person.

Absurd. The child should spend time in classes and have an interview. With no interview who even MEETS the child? The child attends NOT the parent.

[Anonymous]

Teachers (and other students) meet the child. And, actually, so does an admissions person (who speaks with the kids briefly before and after the visit). I've also seen (met, even) kids on the tours. There's also a writing sample, I think, and that can tell you a lot about a student/kid.

The GDS MS kids are great -- as a parent, I think admissions is doing a fine job at that level. So, in practice, it's easy for me to accept that an interview isn't necessary to make good decisions. And I can certainly see where it would lead to bad ones.

And, frankly, if its absence offends a few parents enough to drive them away, so be it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No kidding? Wow, then KUDOS to Ms. Stein. That's great. I would love for the schools to stop jerking parents around.

Now, is Annie reading this????????

If you are referring to Annie Farquhar, she is one of the sweetest, kindest people I know. While parents might feel jerked around by the process, I am confident there is no intent to make people feel that way. Why not just request a meeting with her to share your thoughts on the waitlist process?