Anonymous wrote:OMG this is not mean! These AD's are on such power trips. Many of them are such snobs about families (I know because I have friends on the faculty at several local privates) it's more like a country club than a school. Plus who grows up and wants to be an AD? I would be horrified if my son announced he wanted to be an AD when he grew up. More upset if he told me he was a Republican.

My answer: Sheridan. There was an absolute shrew of a woman there several years ago.

She's gone now.

WIS lower school by a mile. Only one we didn't like. Whole school seems disorganized and incompetent. The head of Admissions was honestly a complete moron, she just kept saying stupid things.

Admissions officer who was 20 minutes late for parent interview with no apology. Clearly had not read the application which included questions about grandparents. We had noted one set was deceased. Admissions officer asked lots of questions about how DC interacted with grandparents. Very bizarre.

Agreed. Annie Farquhar is a class act and she serves Maret very well.

I couldn't disagree more about the Maret AD, a compassionate professional whom my husband and I found to be extraordinarily lovely, well informed and she frankly stood head and shoulders above the rest in this crazy process. But I think the thread of this shows how personal reactions to these people can be. Good luck to everyone in this stressful countdown.

16:50, I will play ball here. DC applied to Maret K a few years back. We were one of the first to arrive at the cottage for the playdate, but it was already a little chaotic (and understandable - small kids, nervous parents, etc). No one was really providing direction on what the applicants were to do and the AD was hanging back a bit. Then another family arrived. AD pushed past us, greeted the family, and brought applicant over to table and explained what to do. That left a bad taste in my mouth, even if the school was not our top choice, mainly due to HS class size.

That said, however, I think being an AD is a very hard job - I doubt I would have the temperment for it. While I was dismayed by the Maret AD's actions that day, I know that admissions season is filled with courting and wooing. I realized we were neither being courted and wooed by the school. Was grateful that DC was eventually admitted at 4/7 schools, including 2 Big 3s, so the Maret W/L letter was incidental.

Maybe her husband is secretly from a billionaire family, so his name alone and his current public-interest job don't reveal the extent of his wealth and family influence. Who knows.

I'd be curious to hear from some schools whether that sort of thing has much influence. I could see bragging about wealth & power being a turn off to many admissions people.

Anonymous wrote:We will be applying to high schools in a few years. The admission staff at many of the schools we have looked at in the past seemed to be much more concerned with the parents than the kids. We believe for high school that changes. We are nobodies who were not given the time of day. We are secretly fairly wealthy. We give to current school reasonable amounts but once children are or almost done we will give more substantially. Schools will have to take our kids for themselves. We do not want money to sway acceptances or treatment while they are there.

At the same time, we are also "nobodies" whose DD got into two so-called "Big 3" at the PK level. We are not even "secretly" wealthy. We are quite blatantly two working parents who are employed b the govt and not for profit sectors. I doubt sincerely that the admissions officers were more concerned about us than about our DD.

Once your child meets certain criteria, it's all a game of numbers. There are simply too many applicants to fill the available slots. Period.