<p>Did you perhaps email Lawrenceville over Thanksgiving break? I think many boarding schools shut down during that time, to allow boarding students time to travel home. I looked online, and November 17 - 30 are on the list of “blackout dates” for visits: <a href=“http://www.lawrenceville.org/downloads/admission/admission_blackout_dates_10-11.pdf[/url]”>http://www.lawrenceville.org/downloads/admission/admission_blackout_dates_10-11.pdf</a>. When you emailed, there may not have been anyone in the office to reply to anyone.</p>
<p>AO’s should pull their stinky socks up!!</p>
<p>You wouldn’t want to visit & tour a deserted school, would you?</p>
<p>In my opinion, it’s better to call an office to make an appointment. You have no way of knowing if an email’s been received.</p>
<p>““What are you saying? So this is their standard handling of inquiries instead of one individual’s mis-handling? Look, no one said it’s a big deal, but let’s be reasonable. This is not an acceptable way to treat a potential applicant.””</p>
<p>DAndrew - My point is that this is irregular, which is why I followed up with the admissions office in person about it. The response I got is that this is simply a busy time, which is understandable.</p>
<p>““LLville, private schools can do pretty much anything they damn want””</p>
<p>toombs - Of course private schools have some flexibility, but again, in order for one to have a tour and interview after office hours, at least three people would have to work late on a Saturday, which is their only evening off. Again, there needs to be an extremely unique and special reason for a tour to be given during this time. And distance is not a unique constraint since there are applicants from all over the world.</p>
<p>Everyone else - Thank you for those of you who have posted good experiences. I can assure you that such a response is not part of institutional culture. At the very least, I am standing up for my school and backing their decision to a degree.</p>
<p>LLville, no tour by the school was not a huge deal for us. Like I said, we knew a PG at L’ville; he arranged a tour for us that was first rate. In fact, it was one of the best campus tours of any of the 10 BS’s we visited. Still, the refusal of L’ville to arrange this or a similar tour seemed unusual, especially in light of the outstanding attention and help from many of the other schools we visited and toured. </p>
<p>The bigger (much bigger) problem we had with L’ville was the failure of any of its coaches to reply to any of the notes and emails we sent about our visit, the L’ville sport programs, etc. No other school/coach treated us with such disrespect. In fact, as for all of the other coaches at the other schools to which my son applied and with whom we corresponded, every one of them replied to every one of our inquiries, and all but one of them met with us personally during our visits (some for an hour or more); the one head coach who didn’t meet with us sent an assistant coach to talk to us when we toured the school.</p>
<p>LLville, I know you love L’ville, as you should. But, please there is really no need to offer any excuses for the course behavior directed towards us by any of its coaches. As one of the posts mentioned in this thread, we just marked down such rudeness as clear evidence that the school didn’t want my child, “flushed” L’ville down the drain and moved on. </p>
<p>Still, Lawrenceville has a beautiful campus.</p>
<p>Lawrenceville, like many other high interest schools is probably swamped. Having said that, they also had the longest “deadline” of any of the schools. If I remember, last year it was early February. We couldn’t make our in-person interview because a snow storm closed every airport within driving distance. Our interview was conducted by phone and was cut short - although it was lively. Still - I would have preferred SKYPE. Having said that - life worked out because I think the school my D chose was a better fit.</p>
<p>My suggestion is that a phone call goes farther than an email. If their inbox is like mine it’s filled with hundreds (thousands) each day. Boards like this only fuel more applications to the more “popular” schools. But the way prospective students are treated is often a harbinger of what the outcome will be. The schools that treated my daughter the nicest tended to also be the ones that chose or waitlisted her.</p>
<p>And not all students will get the same reaction - could be timing, could be the person was having a bad day, could be a lot of things. Don’t know - no way to tell. I once talked about how Taft bent over backwards with my husband when he called for information - hence it ended up making our final cut during application time. Another person had a different experience and looked elsewhere.</p>
<p>Go with your gut. You’ve unloaded here - now time for the rubber to hit the road. Listen to the universe. It is often “wise” in helping us narrow our choices.</p>
<p>Otherwise - call and ask what dates are open and go with the flow.</p>
<p>well it sounds like i’m screwed because i had this epiphany to apply to lville and peddie like … two days ago. i’ve filled out inquiry forms for both, and i know that it’s a bit late since last year i applied for a really good day school and got in and started preparing in like october. i hope they’ll still look at my application and have space for an interview in like early january :/</p>
<p>Lawrenceville actually responded to me very well. On monday, we called and they schedule us an interview/ campus tour immediately. the next day they sent us emails saying they were going to send us a prospectus and there were some issues with the inquiry (they didnt get the extracurriular portion) while the other school i applied to was much more casual with their response, but not necessarily bad.</p>
<p>ylawx1123?</p>
<p>Are you serious? Their website AND prospectus states that the interview and stuff must be scheduled by December 1. Do you have something special about you?</p>
<p>LLVILLE said on this thread that s/he spoke to the admissions office about this. So now they may be more prospective student focused.</p>
<p>It just goes to show that CC can be use as a tool to influence the schools for better operations, which benifit not only the students and families but also the schools. It shouldn’t be only used for promoting your own school and proving one school is better than another.</p>
<p>legit i called last monday and they scheduled me an interview that day and emailed me the next day and i’ve received a prospectus in the mail already. but the deadline for applications is later for boarders which i am so my interview is like 5 days before the deadline or something.</p>
<p>We had been interested in L’ville, and when I called (this past summer) to set up an interview/tour, I was so put off by just the phone communication with the admissions office, and the hoops we had to jump through (no straight forward process of just booking the tour, etc. - had to go through SSAT system just to get material sent) - made it all very off putting, and basically just not worth the effort. In comparison, every other boarding school I have dealt with (one daughter already a boarding student, another on her way) over the years has been more than cooperative, accessible and friendly. Ultimately, L’ville just didn’t seem worth the hassle in relation to the admissions office ease of its competitors. So, thanks to us, they have one less applicant to deal with.</p>
<p>That being said, I know it is a very good school, and we know several children who are very happy there :)</p>
<p>Because L’ville is the Big Dog BS in the Mid-Atlantic states, it seems that it doesn’t think it has any competitors. It may be right. Until the Hill School, Blair, Peddie or some other BS in NJ, PA, Delaware or MD can challenge L’ville as the top tier school in these states, there is no reason for L’ville to change its approach on applications or worry about complaints concerning its application procedures.</p>
<p>Amen. .</p>
<p>Well from ylaxw123’s experience, I see them improving at least on the matter of interview scheduling</p>
<p>FWIW, I was very put off by Lawrenceville’s “viewbook by SSAT portal only” approach as well.</p>
<p>Also, I would throw St. Andrew’s out there as serious competition to L-ville, but at a much smaller, more intimate scale…sort of a “Groton of the Mid-Atlantic”.</p>
<p>St. Andrews is a very fine BS; however, it appears to be on the shelf below Lawrenceville in the rough and tumble game of college placement. See [Matriculation</a> Stats](<a href=“http://www.matriculationstats.org%5DMatriculation”>http://www.matriculationstats.org).</p>
<p>But a bulk of L’ville placements are to nearby Princeton, not many to Harvard.</p>
<p>^^Exactly. That’s their advantage isn’t it. If it happened to be next to University of Delaware, it might not have that advantage. I think L’ville is probably the closest to a feeder school of Princeton. There really is no other school in the area that can compete with it in prestige and college placement.</p>