No, visit before I pay

I personally would never pay the fee before doing a tour. But, I was always ready to pay the fee and fill out the form there. As PP noted, many places go by the order on the wait list (and then perhaps bump up people who are nicely persistent) so it is important to get on the wait list early. How do they not do ANY tours before spring? That doesn't seem possible...it takes 20 minutes.

Most infant rooms don't do this, just so you know. Most will do tours - perhaps only once a week at prescribed times - but at least before spring!

Call them back and ask if it's a WAIT LIST - that is, first on the list, first offered -

OR

is it an APPLICANT POOL - that is, everyone has until X date to apply, all applications go into a pool and offers are made to everyone to start together (on first day of school).

More often infant programs are like the first - wait list - because they fill their infant room as older babies move to the toddler room and therefore they fill one spot at a time all throughout the year.

For 3 year olds there are more schools (but not all) that do the applicant pool - that is, if all kids start on the same day (1st day of Sept, for example) then they'll do the applicant pool. But if they also fill spaces one at a time as children move to the next age group, all throughout the year, then it's a waitlist concept.

There are 1 or 2 programs that have infants that start everyone on the same day, then they stay in that room for one year, and all move en masse to the next room. Smithsonian used to do that, and I think Broadcasters does that, too. I guess there might be others, of course, I don't know.

The reason I ask is will you be higher on the waitlist if you apply now? OR will everyone be treated the same, whether you apply now or after the Open House?

Because if everyone is treated the same, then fine. If it's more the waitlist option, then that's so weird, because I wouldn't do a tour without seeing a center first.

Thanks, that's how I feel but wasn't sureifi was naive about the process.

Uhhh no. I would not pay a waitlist fee unless I was sure I’d be willing to send my kid there.

We're looking for a 5 month old starting in September, and a couple centers have told us that they aren't offering tours right now,but we can add ourselves to their waitlist (which comes with a fee) in order to be invited to their spring open house. Is this standard practice? I get that they don't want new people coming in all the time on tours, but it seems insane to request money sight unseen.