I know this is very unusual to ask…but a certain name BS has sent me a written letter already, and has just sent me a hand written holiday card. This BS is quite large, 700+ students. I was wondering if this is unusual, or very common. My interviewer from this school absolutely loved me, probably my best or one of the best interviews I’ve had. I won’t know if I actually get in until March 10th, but I’m not sure what to think of it. Regardless, I’m very thankful they reached out to me, and I did send a very nice happy holidays email to them too. I just wanted to know if it was unusual for big boarding schools to send you a handwritten holiday card-especially because this isn’t the first handwritten note I’ve gotten.
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Some do. Some do not.
As with any communication, read nothing into it. There are no tea leaves to be read.
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You can continue to send message periodically to get a feel.
@lilyesh In our experience, it was quite common to receive thoughtful handwritten cards around the holidays. (Meaning we received them and so did other families.) I think we received a holiday card from every school, or at least most of them. A couple even sent a small gift (swag). So even if it doesn’t mean anything about chances of admission, it’s always nice to have a kind word.
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We also received hand written notes + holiday cards, as did other families we know. I’m sorry to say it does not reflect your chance of admission
It also depends on the content of the letter. For example , “ I think our xxx program will be a good fit for your xxx talents .”
That’s called marketing
@parentken I wish I could say I agree with you. I don’t think that kind of messaging means anything hopeful. I have yet to hear a school not say some version of “you would be a great fit here!”
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Admission-wise, these cards mean nothing. The admissions committees don’t “meet” until after Jan. 15 or Feb.1 to evaluate student applications, so the sender of the holiday card, whether admissions office or officer, has no real idea of your prospects and has no mandate from the admissions office to send you an affirmative signal.
On the other hand, our family has noticed a relationship between the courtesy and politeness of a school’s communications, email responses, thank-yous, and holiday cards, and how these schools treat students and families down the road.
Just our opinion.
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They can be neutral in their writing if they don’t want you to have high hope and they don’t like you at all. Like “thank you for your time, let me know if you have any more questions”.
Also it depends on the “interviewer”, the admission team member may not have much say as the head of school interviewing you.
Also writing “you will be a great fit here after the interview” is different from saying verbally “you will be a great fit here”.
That runs the risk of annoying people, if not done correctly.
If it comes across as too pestering, it could negatively affect one’s otherwise fine application.
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@parentken do you have experience with prep school admissions? (That is, for high school)?
@cinnamon1212 your motivation trying to help the author or just to feel superior that you have gone through high school admission?
@stalecookies yes that goes for everything in life. The opposite is true if you do nothing then the ones who follow up with huge interests can also be seen as more favorable. It depends on the specific situation, no one size fits all solution.
My motivation is absolutely to help the OP. I stronly believe that these cards are no indication of chances of admission, but are, as ski said, marketing. You seem to be giving them some weight, and I am wondering what the basis is for that opinion. In reading your previous posts, you mention a 5th grade daughter. That is why I was wondering if you actually had any experience with prep achool admissions.
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@cinnamon1212, ok l may have one daughter, or also older kids. I am not obligated to tell my whole life on an online forum. It’s irrelevant to what the author brings up. I can have many friends that have gone through the process but you can have kids who have gone through the High school process but missed the boat also. However, I am not here to make judgment on your life, I would ask the same respect also.
Now going back to the author needs, let’s just stick to the content and merit going forward.
At this point, they haven’t seen your whole application nor do they know what the pool is. But they want you to like them. So Happy Holidays! (It’s a nice touch!)
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@parentken I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but I just want to reach out because I just don’t want you to feel unwelcomed or judged. I truly think the question about your prep school application experience was meant to be an earnest attempt to put some context around the advice for the OP (and for future readers). The reason is that what may seem like totally reasonable behavior or activity in “regular life” might not translate in the weird world of prep school applications. (And in full disclosure, I confess that after reading some of your posts, I also did think to myself “hmmm…this does not sound like someone who has actually gone through this before.”). (Which isn’t to say that I couldn’t have been wrong – your experience could simply have been different from mine and others I’ve gotten to know in this world.)
So really – no judgement I think intended here and no pressure to overshare about your personal details or life. We’re all just trying to give the most helpful info for the OP. It’s a tremendously generous group of parents here and we really do try to help each other out.
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@lilyesh You do not need confirm but let me guess, it is from Loomis!
aha, how’d u know? I’m guessing they do that for all applicants-I love how they take the time out of their day to do that. Really says a lot about them!