I have done this dance many times and for the newly applying for 99 percent of time no hint and don’t believe or misconstrue getting invited to things or hearing so and so was invited. Yes if you are talented at a sport you may be invited to things to see what kind of athlete you are but there is no promise because the reality is this is hs and your child is not getting in with bad scores. Athletics means zero before hs fyi because a lot of athletes drop their sport or do not play hs anything.

The 1 percent thing is maybe they want to see if you are open to K instead of 1 because they are not sure your child is ready. Even then usually a family gets a no for 1 admit day but a call after asking about K or instead of k then nursery. The other maybe if you are applying as a sibling and no space. Finally if you are at a k8 maybe your current school asks that you are definitely going to x school if given a spot. No lying please or you ruin it for grades after your kid if you change your mind.

A lot of times a hopeful family will take being polite as a future admit or think their child was admitted because how nice admissions was. Remember they want you to want them. Also some “friend” will go on about how said school said their child was in.

My suggestion is control what you can. If child just won robotics award then send a note to admissions etc. Send a first choice letter if it applies. Go to all the events. Then let it go and love the ones who love your child.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got an invitation to attend a sports game the month before decisions. I don't know if that was a hint or if they invited every applicant, but my kid was accepted to the school a few weeks later.

Unless this was for a sport your child was recruited for - I don't think it was a signal.

Schools use Feb to invite prospective students to all kinds of events: plays, musical performances, sporting events, athletic open houses, art open houses. These are not signals.

Agree. It’s a very standard, universal part of the admissions process.

No hints. The two schools DD got accepted to a few years ago were the two that she felt she really clicked with and seemed the most comfortable at. Coincidence? Maybe or maybe the feelings were mutual.

An admissions officer contacted us in mid Feb to set up an interview with the teacher at the high school who runs a club for an extracurricular that my kid did in middle school and was interested in continuing in high school. My kid met with him on Zoom and we talked with him as well.

My kid ended up getting into the school. This was a school among STA/NCS/Potomac/Maret/Sidwell.

Anonymous wrote:My DC received an interview for a merit scholarship in late December. The admissions officer emailed us saying that the school was hopeful that DC would decide to become a member their community.

This is the only "hint" that we have received. We have heard nothing from the other schools.

Was this Pallotti?

My DC received an interview for a merit scholarship in late December. The admissions officer emailed us saying that the school was hopeful that DC would decide to become a member their community.

This is the only "hint" that we have received. We have heard nothing from the other schools.

Yes, got a call a couple of weeks ahead about reclassing. And same with sibling some few years later. Both summer birthdays.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They usually tell siblings they will reject in advance

How far in advance do they tell sibling families?

I think two weeks in advance if they are accepted. Not sure if they are not accepted, but probably at the same time so a few weeks ahead of March 1st.

Our school will tell you in December if they think there's little chance a sibling will be accepted for high school so that you know to put full efforts into other options. However, not getting that "highly unlikely" message doesn't mean your sibling child will get an acceptance. They also do not tell sibling families in the Spring before March 1.

My DD got a couple of swag mailings from Madeira after she submitted her application, and then was waitlisted.

So... FYI, nice mailings are not hints from Madeira! lol

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They usually tell siblings they will reject in advance

How far in advance do they tell sibling families?

I think two weeks in advance if they are accepted. Not sure if they are not accepted, but probably at the same time so a few weeks ahead of March 1st.

Anonymous wrote:We got an invitation to attend a sports game the month before decisions. I don't know if that was a hint or if they invited every applicant, but my kid was accepted to the school a few weeks later.

Unless this was for a sport your child was recruited for - I don't think it was a signal.

Schools use Feb to invite prospective students to all kinds of events: plays, musical performances, sporting events, athletic open houses, art open houses. These are not signals.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was called about whether or not my kid was likely to enroll. Since it wasn't a first-choice school for us, we said it was just in the pool. I guess I'm supposed to lie, but I think my kids ended up where they belonged.

This is interesting. Was it for a very competitive school?

No it wasnt. I’ll make a second comment that another school admissions official led us on for a long time that they had an opening, but would never put it in writing. Opening never happened and it was very annoying.

Anonymous wrote:They usually tell siblings they will reject in advance

How far in advance do they tell sibling families?

For a lower school spot, we got a call seeing if we would agree to put dc in speech therapy. We had actually already started him in it and had a nice conversation with the AD who actually was very knowledgeable in the speech issue my dc did turn out to have. He was accepted and we took the spot. It wasn’t a call as in you need to do this if you want a spot but more a call re hey I have specific experience in this area and think you should consider another evaluation for these reasons.

You can sometimes tell a little early the morning of March 1 from the mail, but not always. But this only provides a couple of hours of advance notice. Occasionally you hear of people getting calls a couple of hours before the decisions are posted on Ravenna.