How Admissions Works

No, this is not an article about card games. But the reality is that getting your child into private school requires a similar mindset. You must play the hand which you have been dealt. The admissions staff will review the facts in your child's dossier. Not the "might have been" or the "wish they were". As you prepare your child's applications for private school, pay attention to the areas listed below. If you are just starting to think about private school as an option, then focus on these four areas of your child's profile with the goal of presenting her in the best possible light when it comes time apply to private school.

Academics

Since the school needs to know whether your child can do the academic work, it is very important that her academic transcripts and teacher recommendations address her mastery of core subjects such as English and mathematics. Transcripts, teacher recommendations, and test scores ideally should indicate the same thing: that your child can handle the academic work at the schools to which you are applying. An occasional lower grade is OK as long as the transcripts and teacher comments indicate that the issue which caused the low grade in the first place has been dealt with and remediated.

This video offers an overview of life at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.

Deficiencies? Less than stellar test scores? A score of C in

If you are good at organizing projects, the challenges involved in getting your child into private school will not seem especially daunting. The timeline for the process has some rather elastic sections. They can take a lot of time or can be foreshortened depending on your requirements. For example, if you already have a pretty good idea of what kind of school you want, you will save time. Ditto if you actually have identified a couple of specific schools. That being said, I want you to be aware of at least five challenges I have identified when choosing a private school for your child.

Let's look at five of the challenges facing you.

1. Choosing the right school

Choosing the right school is probably the most time-consuming challenge. It can be as easy as surfing the Web and identifying three to five schools right out of the gate. You can take advantage of this shortcut when you have decided that your child will attend one of the local day schools in your community.

But if you are thinking about boarding school, the choices multiply almost exponentially. There are hundreds of schools to choose from. There are dozens of schools to consider seriously. So, how do you narrow the field in this instance? You do it by making a list of your requirements and systematically checking the boxes until you have a list of schools that matches or come close to matching your specific requirements.

If you can

Every application to private school goes through a thorough review process. The more competitive the school, the more exhaustive the review process becomes. So, the question we parents want to be answered is simply: how do we make sure our child's application gets to that final, all-important "Approved" stack of folders. Put another way, how do we ensure that our child's application has legs? (Having legs is an expression that speaks to the endurance of whatever is supposed to have legs.) With respect to admissions applications, the idea is to advance your child's application from one stage of the process to the next until finally, you achieve a positive outcome.

Here is what to do to ensure that your child's private school application has legs.

All required documentation has been submitted.

This sounds so simple, yet you would be amazed at how often an admissions application can founder right at the beginning of the review process. The staffer who reviews your child's application has a checklist of the required materials which must be in the folder. If something is missing, the folder goes into a stack for applications that have missing documents. It cannot normally advance to the next stage of the process for the reading and critical assessment of all those materials unless it is complete.

Ann Dolin sheds some light on the private school admissions process in this short video.

Each private school has its own admissions procedures and protocols. The more competition there is

Admissions to Private School: A-Z puts all the information you need to navigate the private school admissions process in one convenient place. Whether you are just beginning or have been through this before, you will find the help and advice to guide you through the various steps involved in submitting an application for admission to private school.

The Admissions Process

Our Application Calendar will keep you organized throughout the stressful process of applying to private school. There's a lot to keep track of. So plan your work carefully and try to stick to the schedule. Ideally, you have started the process at least 18 months before the expected date of starting school. For example, for fall 2017 admissions, you need to begin in the spring of 2016. If you are an international student, you need to allow an additional six months because there are some important additional steps which you need to follow. Here is an introduction to the Lower School at Rye Country Day School.

Applying to any private school is just that, an application. Why is that? Private schools do not have to accept your child. That is one of the essential differences between public and private schools. Remember that that places in schools in major metropolitan areas tend to be very limited. Enhance your prospects by avoiding common admissions mistakes. What if they waitlist your child? Is that the end of the world? Not exactly. What happens

The following five common admission mistakes can and should be avoided. With a little advance planning and organization, this is quite doable. The point of avoiding these common admissions mistakes is to improve your child's chances during the entire admissions process.

Plan your private school search process. On this site, we have several articles which you can bookmark and refer to from time as you work through what is, after all, a lengthy, 16-18 month process on average. Our Applications Calendar will help keep you organized from week to week, month to month. With a long-term project like choosing a private school, it is easy to lose sight of some of the important deadlines. When that happens, you will stress yourself unduly as you try to accomplish several months' work in a few weeks.

1. Not Observing the Deadlines

Deadlines are set for a reason. The admissions staff has hundreds of applications to process. If you miss the deadlines, it may not be a big deal to you. But it does send a signal to the admissions staff. Most likely the wrong signal.

Missing deadlines due to unforeseen circumstances happens. If that happens to you, then call immediately when you realize you will not be able to meet the deadlines. People will be much more accommodating when you alert them before, not after, the fact.

Remember that each private school is unique. Many have the same deadlines. Others set their own cutoff dates. Be careful