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[quote=Anonymous]OP here.  Some further thoughts on the admissions process that might be useful.

One of the things that visiting 14 schools did for us was to expose us to the vast differences in how different schools treat potential applicants.  Until we had visited several, we hadn't developed a full sense of whether certain schools' admissions processes were typical or atypical.

My bottom-line message to prospective parents is that the admissions process is a window into the degree of interest a school will take in reaching your specific child. Our past experience has borne this out; our child has thrived in the environments where the school has shown interest and enthusiasm in getting to know what she has to offer, whereas we had a very bad prior experience with one school that treated her as just one more applicant to fill the rolls.

Our experience also indicates that schools may not be fully aware of how much better some of their competitors do, and how their own conduct can really be off-putting in the admissions process. Earlier in this thread I criticized Maddux as the worst of these; I double-checked with my spouse last night to revisit whether I had been unfair.  I hadn't been; my spouse reminded me of some other details I had forgotten.  Suffice it to say that Maddux was one (the worst) example of a type of school we encountered -- the school that knows that they have more applicants than slots, and makes you feel like they are doing you a favor to sit down with you, that you have to sell your child to the school, while limiting your opportunity to do so.  The attitude we found there was of limited interest in getting to know our child, and of "we'll get back to you when we feel like it."  Not exactly the sort of environment one can plop one's child into and feel confident.

We did run into versions of this at other schools.  My spouse and I had split reactions to Norwood's presentation.  I found them perfectly pleasant but my spouse felt that Norwood was similarly a case where they showed little interest in getting to know the child, trusting that they had the luxury of just picking the kids they wanted based on a quick pass through the applications.  Again, my reaction was less negative, I thought they had been more open than that, but Norwood was clearly on the side of the line of putting forth less effort to determine the right fit between child and school.

As a positive counter-example, let me mention St. Andrews (SAES) so as not to further elaborate on our praise for Barnesville.  But St. Andrews was an example of how to do this right -- there was a great amount of interest (directly from the head of school) in getting to know our child and then in exploring why exactly what they do would be a good fit for the child.  Everything they presented was directly responsive to our mutual sense of what would best serve the specific child.

Again, my bottom line to parents is -- if a school is making you feel like a supplicant, that's a bad sign and you should consider other options.  You shouldn't have to beg for their attention or to get your calls returned.  You shouldn't be in the position of selling your child to the school.  It should be a two-way street -- a good school will understand that they also need to show you why their school fits what you're looking for, at the same time you are hopefully presenting a child that fits what they are looking for.  And if they make you feel like they're doing you a favor just to admit your child, walk away, because that attitude won't change after admission.

Our child is now in a place where she was welcomed and embraced with enthusiasm the moment she walked in.  Every child deserves that, and parents have a right to insist upon it.

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