Has your first choice school changed since you started applications?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They take about 50 for 9th, not 30.

I think they are overenrolled and taking less this year. And there are more siblings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We must be in the minority. Our interview for HS was literally like 2 hours long and felt like it was a nice conversation. We aren’t connected in any way. We also appreciated the open houses. There seemed to be really good rapport between the students and teachers.

Are you talking about the virtual open houses? GDS did not have any in person open houses this admissions season.

Yes, the virtual open houses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Potomac didn’t even do a parent interview. Interviewed the kids, but not parents.

Isn't that a good thing? Afterall it's your kid (not you) that needs to attend the school....for any applicants other than the littliest, this says a lot about the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They take about 50 for 9th, not 30.

They are taking 30 this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They take about 50 for 9th, not 30.

They are taking 30 this year.

Still a lot.

[Anonymous]

My hope is those schools who didn’t offer an in-person open house to the masses will extend an opportunity for accepted kids to visit in person and shadow for a day before we have to make a decision. Can anyone confirm this is what will happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think GDS has like 15 truly open spots for 9th grade this year. Someone on here asked admissions and they said 7 girl spots, 7 boy spots. Admissions must know this as they have to then interview 400 kids who won't make it. It must seem like a waste of time to them.

This makes sense, but it sounds like they're solving it the worst possible way. It would be kinder to all involved to do a first screen of applications and invite a smaller group for interviews. No need to waste everyone's time - staff and families - interviewing kids who don't have any chance of admissions, either because they're not qualified, they help balance the existing class, or something else. Instead they're putting a lot of kids and families through an unpleasant experience with burned out staff and creating a generally negative impression of the school.

Such a good idea in general!

This seems off. They generally take 50 kids for 9th, so 35 are already allocated to siblings? Don’t most siblings join in younger years at a k-12? If it truly is only 15 spots, what a waste of time.

They take 30 kids for 9th, allocate half of those spots to siblings and split the remaining half between boys and girls.

This is wrong. They take closer to 50. The vast majority of siblings of high schoolers are already enrolled and dont apply at 9th, so there is zero chance that ~25 9th grade spots go to siblings

I’m no GDS apologist but I hate it when ppl so confidently lie on dcum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We must be in the minority. Our interview for HS was literally like 2 hours long and felt like it was a nice conversation. We aren’t connected in any way. We also appreciated the open houses. There seemed to be really good rapport between the students and teachers.

Are you talking about the virtual open houses? GDS did not have any in person open houses this admissions season.

Yes, the virtual open houses.

I will say that I very much enjoyed the elementary open houses for GDS. Between attending 1 last year, and 2 this year I was able to attend a wide variety of break out sessions -grade levels, science, performing arts, after care, transportation, etc that weren't even options at other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think GDS has like 15 truly open spots for 9th grade this year. Someone on here asked admissions and they said 7 girl spots, 7 boy spots. Admissions must know this as they have to then interview 400 kids who won't make it. It must seem like a waste of time to them.

This makes sense, but it sounds like they're solving it the worst possible way. It would be kinder to all involved to do a first screen of applications and invite a smaller group for interviews. No need to waste everyone's time - staff and families - interviewing kids who don't have any chance of admissions, either because they're not qualified, they help balance the existing class, or something else. Instead they're putting a lot of kids and families through an unpleasant experience with burned out staff and creating a generally negative impression of the school.

Such a good idea in general!

This seems off. They generally take 50 kids for 9th, so 35 are already allocated to siblings? Don’t most siblings join in younger years at a k-12? If it truly is only 15 spots, what a waste of time.

They take 30 kids for 9th, allocate half of those spots to siblings and split the remaining half between boys and girls.

This is wrong. They take closer to 50. The vast majority of siblings of high schoolers are already enrolled and dont apply at 9th, so there is zero chance that ~25 9th grade spots go to siblings

I’m no GDS apologist but I hate it when ppl so confidently lie on dcum.

I can't speak to siblings already enrolled, but I can confidently say that if GDS added only 30 new kids for 9th (fall 2022), they will be under-enrolled in that grade come fall. Any GDS parent or student would be able to tell you that. Depending on attrition, it may or may not be 50, but it certainly cannot be 30.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think GDS has like 15 truly open spots for 9th grade this year. Someone on here asked admissions and they said 7 girl spots, 7 boy spots. Admissions must know this as they have to then interview 400 kids who won't make it. It must seem like a waste of time to them.

This makes sense, but it sounds like they're solving it the worst possible way. It would be kinder to all involved to do a first screen of applications and invite a smaller group for interviews. No need to waste everyone's time - staff and families - interviewing kids who don't have any chance of admissions, either because they're not qualified, they help balance the existing class, or something else. Instead they're putting a lot of kids and families through an unpleasant experience with burned out staff and creating a generally negative impression of the school.

Such a good idea in general!

This seems off. They generally take 50 kids for 9th, so 35 are already allocated to siblings? Don’t most siblings join in younger years at a k-12? If it truly is only 15 spots, what a waste of time.

They take 30 kids for 9th, allocate half of those spots to siblings and split the remaining half between boys and girls.

This is wrong. They take closer to 50. The vast majority of siblings of high schoolers are already enrolled and dont apply at 9th, so there is zero chance that ~25 9th grade spots go to siblings

I’m no GDS apologist but I hate it when ppl so confidently lie on dcum.

I can't speak to siblings already enrolled, but I can confidently say that if GDS added only 30 new kids for 9th (fall 2022), they will be under-enrolled in that grade come fall. Any GDS parent or student would be able to tell you that. Depending on attrition, it may or may not be 50, but it certainly cannot be 30.

I can confidently say that during our interview, Elaine told us that they had about 30 9th grade openings for fall 2022.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Potomac didn’t even do a parent interview. Interviewed the kids, but not parents.

Isn't that a good thing? Afterall it's your kid (not you) that needs to attend the school....for any applicants other than the littliest, this says a lot about the school.

Yeah, I’d think they would atleast want to have a short conversation with the parents to clear anything up that needs it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think GDS has like 15 truly open spots for 9th grade this year. Someone on here asked admissions and they said 7 girl spots, 7 boy spots. Admissions must know this as they have to then interview 400 kids who won't make it. It must seem like a waste of time to them.

This makes sense, but it sounds like they're solving it the worst possible way. It would be kinder to all involved to do a first screen of applications and invite a smaller group for interviews. No need to waste everyone's time - staff and families - interviewing kids who don't have any chance of admissions, either because they're not qualified, they help balance the existing class, or something else. Instead they're putting a lot of kids and families through an unpleasant experience with burned out staff and creating a generally negative impression of the school.

Such a good idea in general!

This seems off. They generally take 50 kids for 9th, so 35 are already allocated to siblings? Don’t most siblings join in younger years at a k-12? If it truly is only 15 spots, what a waste of time.

They take 30 kids for 9th, allocate half of those spots to siblings and split the remaining half between boys and girls.

This is wrong. They take closer to 50. The vast majority of siblings of high schoolers are already enrolled and dont apply at 9th, so there is zero chance that ~25 9th grade spots go to siblings

I’m no GDS apologist but I hate it when ppl so confidently lie on dcum.

I can't speak to siblings already enrolled, but I can confidently say that if GDS added only 30 new kids for 9th (fall 2022), they will be under-enrolled in that grade come fall. Any GDS parent or student would be able to tell you that. Depending on attrition, it may or may not be 50, but it certainly cannot be 30.

I can confidently say that during our interview, Elaine told us that they had about 30 9th grade openings for fall 2022.

We were told there would be around 50.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Potomac didn’t even do a parent interview. Interviewed the kids, but not parents.

Isn't that a good thing? Afterall it's your kid (not you) that needs to attend the school....for any applicants other than the littliest, this says a lot about the school.

Yeah, I’d think they would atleast want to have a short conversation with the parents to clear anything up that needs it.

Potomac did parent interviews for middle school.

[Anonymous]

We were also told 30 for 9th. Maybe this is after siblings. I know there was a large influx of siblings for 9th in fall of 2021 as well. It's completely incorrect to think that siblings transfer in earlier than 9th. Many come from Sheridan, Lowell, Norwood and Deal which all end in 8th. People don't pull siblings early from these schools and friends because they don't have to. They know they will get a 9th grade spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My hope is those schools who didn’t offer an in-person open house to the masses will extend an opportunity for accepted kids to visit in person and shadow for a day before we have to make a decision. Can anyone confirm this is what will happen?

Only the schools can and from this thread, it sounds like at least GDS is sending mixed signals on admissions. Surprise.