I think the event was in poor taste. What also surprised me was that the AD attended. At my DCs schools, staff/teachers don't attend parent hosted events. OP, sorry this happened. Good luck on your other schools.
OP here — to say there were rude wouldn't be correct or fair. However, the air was very very cold. A very polite cold, if you know what I mean? We received the event invitation several weeks ago. Based on the information in the invite it went to all applicants for the 2015-2016 school year. I assume we were not the only family in the room who will receive the big REJECT letter within the next 48-hours or maybe the others were smart enough to stay home. But yeah, weird timing. Not sure the angle on this one. Bullet dodged indeed!
With decisions either in the mail or ready to go out tomorrow, an admissions event on the eve of announcement mailing = AWKWARD! Despite having a gut feeling that DC will receive a rejection from the school on Sunday, we decided to attend the parent hosted event for applicants and current students. Whatever gut feelings I had before tonight's event were certainly confirmed this evening. Wow. Admissions Director was cold as ice to me and my family but gushing over others. It would have been more polite if the school had just given us a different colored name tag with a big REJECT across it so the current families could save their smiles and small talk. Glad it wasn't our first pick school or we would have left sad and insulted. Oh well. Like I said, not our first choice but it was an eye-opening experience within this crazy process of applying to private school. Live, learn and move on!
Good luck out there fellow anxious parents waiting on acceptance notices. What a long strange trip.