<p>Wanted to put this out there for students and parents of students applying next year. Some on this blog have said that the process should be driven by the child and I would agree with one huge caveat. Our family began the process by attending one of the local TSAO presentations. This opened our child up to the vast number of options. Our family has no history of BS attendance except for an older child who attended a smaller BS. We were not familiar with many of the other options. We set up interviews at East Coast BS and began our journey. My child decided on a list of schools to submit applications but learned of one in CA at a later date. This child is very involved in sports and ECs and there was just not enough time to fly to CA and interview. A request for a Skype interview was submitted and an email was returned stating that one would be scheduled after application was complete. This was our first error. The email had to be read carefully because a cursory review gave the impression that the interview would be scheduled. There was no further communication from this AO. The deadline on 3/10 passed with no word on a decision. My child sent a second email inquiring why no interview or decision. Over two weeks pass when AO sent email that interview could be scheduled next day. My child did not access email until date had passed. Out of frustration, I searched the school web site and discovered the name of the director of admissions and emailed my concerns. Lack of communication, no decision and at this point what could my child possibly be applying for except wait pool? Receive communication from director that interview would be scheduled but no mention of what exactly is possible. Director states that it is their fault but they had problems down loading application from web site(Doubt it because no other school had this problem). Interview completed and of course child is placed wait pool. School sends the same form letter that everyone else gets with no further mention of their error. Realize now that many successful applicants only Skype this school. Spoke to other AOs who informed me that this should not have happened since way to check if another AO has not completed the review of an applicant. I blame the director for lack of supervision of their employee. Perhaps the AO involved had a family crisis. Know from school web site that this is their second year doing job and have been working other jobs for years at school. Felt like school should have at least refunded application fee. They did not review child's application with an eye to fill a spot in their class because all boarding spots were filled. Wanted to inform future applicants that must be the squeaky wheel and parents do need to follow up on application status. My child has perfectly good options but I was appalled by this BS lack of professionalism. Wanted to inform unsuccessful applicants that applications do get lost or overlooked. </p>
<p>I am so sorry about your experiences! I agree- it’s crucial to check up on things as they get sent in. Email schools if you plan to mail ANYTHING (transcripts, recs, etc) so that they expect it. Log into your application-check account and review it every single day. And, lastly, get everything in BEFORE January 15! You’ll want to have a grace period to send an essay or a recommendation that didn’t quite make it.</p>
<p>Everything was submitted by the 1/15 deadline. The director stated it was their error that they did not down load the application in a timely fashion. Many times kids do not want to hound the schools but it appears that some need to be hounded. The computer problems do not explain the AO’s lack of communication for over two weeks.</p>
<p>My child did inform the admission office that the application supplement would be sent by USPS. This was sent certified mail so had proof that it was received by the deadline. I just can not comprehend how someone did not follow up if the application was incomplete. For example, the admission office realizing they have a an application supplement but not the application. Would have expected someone to realize this discrepancy and then search the data base for the complete application. I guess I just imagine that someone assigns a certain portion to each AO and than the director discusses the applicants in committee.</p>
<p>Sorry u had such a bad experience. I agree w u that the school exercised lack of professionalism. But if u want something badly enough, then ultimately u are responsible for making it happen.</p>
<p>While I agree that the choice of school should be largely driven by the child, I think it not prudent to let a 13/14 year old manage the correspondence & logistics for such a high stakes enterprise.</p>
<p>Guidance for future applicants: u need to get explicit confirmation BEFORE the 10-march deadline that the school had received every bit of the application that it requires of u. Do NOT just assume the school has everything from u just because u mailed it, hit the “click” button, or asked a teacher/GC to send it. These schools are collating hundreds if not thousands of applicant files.</p>
<p>If u don’t have confirmation that u are done w the entire process, then contact the school BEFORE 10-march to get the confirmation or to get special dispensations for interviews/scores/recs. This is what we did for S1 to schedule later interviews & to OK a later SSAT test date. For D2, if I didn’t get an email confirmation that he was done, I called the school to make sure.</p>
<p>I agree with you to a point but nothing explains the two week lack of response. I can’t control the admission office who does not respond in a timely fashion. Hope this serves a warning for future applicants. Sometimes being a nudge is in your best interests. Ha, ha I also do not consider this high stakes because as I have remarked in other posts there are many options for BS not just the big name schools. I do not think which BS a child attends will determine their life path. My child agrees she/he should have been more of a pest. My child stated “well yes, I learned my lesson. Mom, I am already maturing and I haven’t even started BS”. It is really the BS loss. </p>
<p>Big name schools thingy: if you are going to pay mega bucks for a BS, and they all cost the same, you likely should want to pay the bucks to the big name school. More bang for the buck.</p>
<p>@makennacompton Ah but what defines “more bang for the buck”? Ivy school admission? There is only a certain % of kids from big name schools that get in to the Ivies. If getting into Ivies is the reason than move to Palo Alto and enroll your child in a public school like Gunn or Paly High and % gaining admission to Stanford increases exponentially. Stanford had the lowest admission rate of all colleges.The caveat is that many of these public school kids have the hook that mom/dad is a professor at Stanford so the stat is misleading. The % gaining admission to Ivies from Exeter/Andover works for your family if your kid is one of the 30% or what ever it is for that year. Do you mean faculty? Many of these teachers move from one BS over the course of their career. An excellent teacher at one of these no name schools previously taught at Andover and Thacher. I wonder if any of these schools publish faculty turnover rate but I doubt many kids base their decisions on this statistic. I gather from the gist of most of these threads that kids/families get wrapped up in supposed rankings. Why else would a kid spend days trying to decide between Andover or Exeter?</p>
<p>Grx567: last year, we had a similar experience with a very popular school. My D interviewed, AO was very enthusiastic and supportive. We did not get the expected confirmation email saying that all pieces of the app had been received. After several calls and emails to the AO to ask whether everything had been received, we got a phone message saying yes, they had everything. But then days later, the English teacher confessed that he had misplaced the recommendation form and hadn’t sent it to that particular school. In the end, she was not accepted, which was not a big surprise. But what did surprise me was the rejection letter which stated “Please be assured that your application was considered with the utmost care and attention”… Things that make you go “hmmm”! </p>
<p>@cameo43 Thanks for your story. Ha Ha, It also helps to lower the paranoia if you know of someone else in the same boat. Your post reminded me that our older child applied late to a BS and we realized from the postmark on the acceptance envelope that the BS had not received the school transcript. It can work both ways but I think when you pay the fee you expect a thorough review of the application. The director of admissions could have down more to assuage our anger by at least personalizing the decision letter. She could have added a line acknowledging their mistake. My child received the same wait pool letter in April that everyone else received in March. I could picture the director lazily picking the same stock letter from the pile on her desk and sending it to us. </p>
<p>@cameo43 : Most of those rejection letters are templates, I think. </p>
<p>I know someone whose first choice was a “hidden gem” but who applied to a healthy mix of schools. Ended up getting accepted at a “GLADCHEMMS” school that he liked OK but not as much as the smaller, more comfortable feeling school (GLADCHEMMS did not have the same suite of EC’s nor the tight-knit feel he sought). No decision letter ever arrived from the first choice. When he and his family called the school said they could not find the application, then a bit later found it on their server and said they had somehow missed it when they downloaded everything from their server or from SSAT or wherever. Everything had been submitted on time and ever t was crossed; it was clearly and totally the school’s mistake. By that point they had allocated all their FA so could not make an offer, at least not one that could make it affordable. Boy went to GLADCHEMMS and did just fine, but still carries the lingering, roads not taken type of disappointment of the SNAFU as the hidden gem’s experience is what he had hoped for.</p>
<p>The school in question did not at the time have a internet portal, so no way of tracking things. With this story in the back of my head I made sure to call every school my D applied to if they did not have a portal that told me things were complete and received and downloaded. (Yes, I did it for her.)</p>
<p>@nadk01 Thanks for the story that is almost exactly the same as ours. It all helps to keep the paranoia in check #-o
@mrnephew The Op meant that it was an impersonal template.</p>
<p>For anyone else that may experience a similar ordeal it never hurts to ask for a refund. I did and received a refund of the application fee I paid. I just felt it was not right that a school should keep a fee to review an application and than not do their job. </p>