Op —to sum up what most others said — you are done and keep doing what you are doing. Some schools require standardized testing though depending on grade, so if you haven’t done that yet I would get to that soon. For young kids many testers fill up early. For older kids, there may be fixed dates. My kids are now in college so folks with younger ones will know more details.

Anonymous wrote:The schools ask for recs from “current” teachers. Can we ask teachers from last year? DC is in 8th grade - so can 7th grade teachers be asked?

No and applications are due in January so it gives time for the teachers to get to know the kids and then fill out the recs. Even though we knew we were applying very early in the year and submitted the application early, I didn’t ask for teacher recs until around Thanksgiving.

Anonymous wrote:The schools ask for recs from “current” teachers. Can we ask teachers from last year? DC is in 8th grade - so can 7th grade teachers be asked?

Unless there is some truly extenuating circumstance, no. I don't think it's a good idea to give a school reason to disqualify part of your child's application.

Peter
_____________________

Disclaimer: The anonymity here makes me uncomfortable; it's too easy to write uninformed, personal, or mean-spirited posts when people don't identify themselves. For that reason, I have an account so you know whose words you're reading. I have more than 20 years' experience as a teacher and administrator in independent schools. I have read hundreds of admission files, and I have counseled hundreds of students in finding their next schools in the DC area. If you don't like something I've said, you're in good company — there's a long line of past students and parents ahead of you. If you want to chat further, please feel free to contact me offline: peter <at> peterbraverman <dotcom>

The schools ask for recs from “current” teachers. Can we ask teachers from last year? DC is in 8th grade - so can 7th grade teachers be asked?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get on with it op, for some places their interview schedules fill up quickly.

We have our applications in, some of our recommendations in, and have scheduled tours, interviews and testing. Why not just get it all done??

LOL. You may have begun scheduling tours and visits at the most. You may have approached last year's teachers about recs. You may have gotten testing done over summer. But rest assured, OP, you are right on time. Sign up for the time slots for tours and interviews and testing as early as you can so you can get slots that work for your schedule. No one in admissions is looking at anything yet even if Ravenna is open for you to begin filling out forms. We did the testing over the summer for DC and his last year's teachers are working on his recs, but otherwise nothing needs to have already been done. PP is a douche. You may run into her on the tour asking all sorts of asinine questions on behalf of her gifted child. Pay no mind...

My advice is, especially if you are applying from public school, make sure the teachers who are providing recs have tons of info (report cards, assessments, etc). This is one place where private school teachers have a leg up and even the report cards are more "narrative" and easy to turn into a rec.

What? Who even says that about another poster on here except for pajama man who is lives in his mother's basement?? Did anyone say their child was gifted? Maybe our child is disabled and needs early access before things get crowded. Did you think of that? You're disgusting.

We have interviews scheduled, we have some recommendations in already - because I don't know, the teachers are super efficient or something. Its possible, though it may not be YOUR first hand experience.

Anonymous wrote:Get on with it op, for some places their interview schedules fill up quickly.

We have our applications in, some of our recommendations in, and have scheduled tours, interviews and testing. Why not just get it all done??

LOL. You may have begun scheduling tours and visits at the most. You may have approached last year's teachers about recs. You may have gotten testing done over summer. But rest assured, OP, you are right on time. Sign up for the time slots for tours and interviews and testing as early as you can so you can get slots that work for your schedule. No one in admissions is looking at anything yet even if Ravenna is open for you to begin filling out forms. We did the testing over the summer for DC and his last year's teachers are working on his recs, but otherwise nothing needs to have already been done. PP is a douche. You may run into her on the tour asking all sorts of asinine questions on behalf of her gifted child. Pay no mind...

My advice is, especially if you are applying from public school, make sure the teachers who are providing recs have tons of info (report cards, assessments, etc). This is one place where private school teachers have a leg up and even the report cards are more "narrative" and easy to turn into a rec.

Get on with it op, for some places their interview schedules fill up quickly.

We have our applications in, some of our recommendations in, and have scheduled tours, interviews and testing. Why not just get it all done??

OP here...I should have written applications for Fall 2019 entry... sorry for the confusion. We did some open houses last fall just to see which schools we wanted narrowed down to. Now we are preparing for the real deal...

Do you mean applications for the school year that will start in Fall 2019, or applications that you will submit in Fall 2019 for school year 2020? If the former, you're right on time, this is when open houses start and it's so much easier to get that stuff done sooner rather than later. If the latter, the dates they have stuff this year likely won't be the same as next year so don't waste your time.

No, but we did something similar a few years ago -- when our DC was in 4th grade in DCPS, we started visiting websites, checking out campuses, and going to open houses, even though we weren't applying for DC until the following year. We didn't do anything formal though like take a scheduled tour until the following year. We were glad to have done that prep as it helped us get to know the schools better and helped us identify some quirks and features about certain schools (bigger/smaller; grade when math differentiation starts; required chapel and religious classes; field space; athletics philosophy; etc.)

I know this is early but has anyone started looking into applications for Fall 2019? We are checking school websites for open house dates and school visit days... wanted to make sure we are able to schedule without conflicts between all schools applied. Good luck to everyone!