Anonymous wrote:Has anyone’s PSD gotten feedback from Riverdale yet?

Anonymous wrote:Adding to this topic - if we are not at a school that supports exmissions (it’s an ongoing school and we’re looking to transfer out), should we reach out to the schools we applied to for feedback / interest in our kid before sending the first choice letter? Or is that not appropriate

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Were your feedback all good, or did schools share negative feedback also?

I’m not sure how ‘good’ it was? We had two favorite schools, and one the feedback was great, that they loved our child and family and put us into their top grouping and hope we will attend. The other school we loved said our child did really well academically, but that they felt our child was quiet at the playgroup and had questions about the socialization component which our PSD said were addressed with the school report and the school visit. Our PSD still said we could go for it and first choice it and that our current school would really push for it if we wanted, and that it was still a good option but not guaranteed like the other? I think ultimately we liked the schools fairly equally and are going to go for the one that’s a bird in the hand. The other schools we applied to we heard liked our child but we didn’t discuss in detail since we were focused primarily on two schools.

We applied to both single gender and coed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Were your feedback all good, or did schools share negative feedback also?

I’m not sure how ‘good’ it was? We had two favorite schools, and one the feedback was great, that they loved our child and family and put us into their top grouping and hope we will attend. The other school we loved said our child did really well academically, but that they felt our child was quiet at the playgroup and had questions about the socialization component which our PSD said were addressed with the school report and the school visit. Our PSD still said we could go for it and first choice it and that our current school would really push for it if we wanted, and that it was still a good option but not guaranteed like the other? I think ultimately we liked the schools fairly equally and are going to go for the one that’s a bird in the hand. The other schools we applied to we heard liked our child but we didn’t discuss in detail since we were focused primarily on two schools.

We applied to both single gender and coed.

Anonymous wrote:

Were your feedback all good, or did schools share negative feedback also?

Anonymous wrote:We got feedback from all of the schools we applied to already. (didn’t apply to brearley) Our PSD has been very candid about where to send the letter for certainty vs where is likely but not certain. She did say some schools ask her not to share feedback with anyone, and shared which schools had questions about certain things and how they addressed them in the ISAAGNY report and during the schools’ visit to our current preschool. All of the schools that we applied to did a classroom visit at our current school.

Anonymous wrote:We got feedback from all of the schools we applied to already. (didn’t apply to brearley) Our PSD has been very candid about where to send the letter for certainty vs where is likely but not certain. She did say some schools ask her not to share feedback with anyone, and shared which schools had questions about certain things and how they addressed them in the ISAAGNY report and during the schools’ visit to our current preschool. All of the schools that we applied to did a classroom visit at our current school.

Anonymous wrote:Here’s some more from the thread


Not sure if your school director told you (ours told us) but Brearley is doing things differently this year.

They have a new head of admissions who has decided to not do what her predecessor has done. She said you will get very little to no feedback from Brearley now. They plan on looking at all their applicants in a more holistic way in January and you’ll get more comprehensive feedback in January and then won’t find out if you get in until the regular ISAAGNY notification date in Feb.

Anonymous member 836 according to our exmissions director, the new director is apparently a little overwhelmed in the new role. Winifred was amazing and had experience and knowledge. The new person….not as much from what I’m hearing through the grapevine. Winifred kept the lower school admissions tight and on brand. As someone said above, new person is looking for a “holistic” approach which is a new way to look at things for Brearley which is generally very traditional and cerebral. Whether that’s good or bad we will see when next years class is admitted.

This is good info/advice.
I would go with the best feedback you have. If you have solid feedback at other top tiers (Spence, Chapin), id first choice that spot over waiting on Brearley… bird in hand.

We know people who did not take this advice and could have pivoted to a solid tier 1.5/ 2 (NBS) based on early feedback but insisted on taking the risk… when their first choice didn’t pan out, they really had no other options but to go to a tier 3 as they did not embrace the positive feedback they DID get … obviously your gamble, but id take bird in hand. Among Brearley, Spence and Chapin you are really splitting hairs…

I should also add we were in a similar situation 3 years ago with my now 2nd grader where we got lukewarm feedback from Brearley (not negative, but not as positive as others), we first choiced spence and she got in. Was also accepted at NBS and waitlist at Chapin/brearley. Ultimately got a spot at Brearley, but stuck with Spence and have never looked back.

Anonymous wrote:Post today on Facebook about brearley feedback. They aren’t giving feedback until January and it is going to be more holistic? Not sure what that means. People saying the new head of admissions is overwhelmed. I can post more information from the thread if folks interested. Parents are confused because they are getting good feedback from chapin and Spence and don’t know what to do about first choice letters