The Safety Factor

For many reasons it can be more difficult to get your child into a preschool or kindergarten than into a prep school. Especially if you live in a major city like New York or Chicago. Read The Truth About Preschool Admissions by Jacoba Urist in The Huffington Post to get an idea of what you are up against. Getting your child into preschool is not quite the same as walking into Bergdorf's and purchasing an expensive item of apparel. Your money and your accomplishments take a back seat to your child and her abilities and accomplishments. Preschools look at your child first. Then they will give you the once over.

If you live in an area where places in the local preschools are not as difficult to come by, count your lucky stars. In any case here's an overview of the process.

Getting Started

Much depends on the area in which you live. Major metropolitan areas seem to have the fewest preschool places. How do you make sure your child will get into a school? You start the process as soon as you can and you go through the admissions process at at least three schools, five if you can manage it. In those highly competitive markets getting into a preschool, any preschool is almost as dicey as drawing lots. So cover your bases by applying to more than one school, preferably three. Applying to five schools couldn't hurt. Listen to Joanna Port's preschool admission tips.

Finding a job - any job - is difficult for everybody in today's job market, private school teachers and administrators included. One way to get your resume noticed, perhaps even read in detail, is by creating value. Here's how.

Why You Need to Project Value

Private schools have historically valued staff who are well-credentialed, enthusiastic and flexible. The reason why stems from the reality that private schools have only as many staff as they need. No more. What that means is that when there are gaps in the team, for whatever reason, the school needs somebody to fill that gap competently and cheerfully. On the fly.

Indications of Value

Credentials

Start with your credentials. Make certain that your academic qualifications align with the school's stated requirements as well as offer an additional specialty or two. For example, if you have a Masters degree in French language and literature and are applying for the school's French teacher position, it won't hurt to be proficient in Spanish or Portuguese, or Italian as well. Chinese would be even better. The point is that offering just a little more will give you an edge when the school begins to review the applications in depth.

If it has been several years since you completed your formal graduate studies, be sure to include some recent courses, workshops, and seminars that you have attended. It is important to show your prospective employer that you have not stopped learning. Make sure that there is no

Financial Aid 101

What is financial aid?

• Financial aid is money given by individual private schools to help families pay for a private school education.
• Private schools give families millions of dollars annually to help them afford a private school education.

What is the purpose of financial aid?

• Financial aid is one tool private schools can use to make their school more diverse.
• Yes, many years ago, private schools had a less-than-positive reputation for being elitist.
• However, thankfully, times have changed.

Being able to pay for a private school education is no longer the only admission criterion that matters. If your child has the qualifications that the school is looking for, but you cannot afford to send her, then financial aid is certainly an option that you need to explore.

Read what one of the most prestigious private schools in the United States of America has to say about diversity:

"Andover's broad socio-economic diversity is a hallmark of the Academy as displayed in the inclusive distribution of financial aid grants to low-, middle- and upper-middle-income families."

Phillips Andover, like a great many private schools, has a Need-Blind Admissions policy in place. What that means is that the school does not look at your financial circumstances as part of its admissions criteria.

• Ask whether the school to which you are applying has a Need Blind Admissions policy in place.
• Find out more about how it works.

This video offers a video of the

4 Things to Know Before You Choose a Private School

Actually, there are many more things to know about private schools than the four items I have chosen. But let's get you started with these. They are the ones I consider most important.

For most of us, the idea of sending your child to private school begins with that nagging feeling that she's very bright and needs the very best kind of schooling possible. She needs an enriched academic curriculum. She needs time to explore subjects that interest her. She needs an athletics program with lots of options. She wants to be on the stage. These wishes and desires on her part are not always easily fulfilled in a public school setting. As a result, you start exploring your private school options. That leads you to individual private school websites and resources like this site. And it also raises many questions. So, the four points I will expand on below affirm what you probably already knew anyway.

You cannot rank private schools.

As you explore schools online, you quickly realize there is no way to rank schools. It is perfectly normal to want to send your child to the best school possible. But how can you identify that school if there is no ranking system? First, let's deal with the reality of private schools and ranking. They cannot be ranked. Why? Because they are unique. We have approximately 400 boarding schools in the U.S. Each one