Hi @sonatarhia thanks for your detailed response and advice. My elder daughter is taking the ISEE again Thursday so we will see how it works out. She took a practice test in Reading Comp yesterday and it was about what she did in her November ISEE Test, so not sure if it will be better.
However I am impressed by her drive in wanting to take it again, it was not just her Mom pushing her. For a 10 year old she has also surprised me on her ability to work through 9-10 school applications and work hard on the essays and she turned in better essays than I thought going in.
Not sure how she is doing in the interviews, but one of the schools (Nightingale) had nice things to say in our later parent interview, which if true suggest she is doing better than I would have expected.
She has pretty strong achievements in Track which we have highlighted in her applications (as does her sister).
Will provide an update as we go through the process.
1 Like
After watching the news about the storm on Wednesday we were worried that where we are would be very noisy with snow plows, snow blowers etc. for her Thursday morning test, so we moved it to Wed of the following week. The time was not ideal as it is at 3:45 pm but the risk of taking it in a very noisy environment was too high on Thursday.
1 Like
Dalton may have more openings that you think:
Nobody is going to pull their kids out of Dalton. The situation is the same in all top schools, it is not like it is any different at their peer schools.
1 Like
Just a follow-up DD took her second ISEE test yesterday at a less than ideal time (3:45 pm only slot available) and while she improved her score in Reading Comprehension to a 8 from a 6 (and was on the verge of a 9), she dropped to a 6 in everything else vs the 8 in VR and 7 in QR and 7 in MA she had before (was on verge of 7 in all).
This underscores my take from the first test administration that while the RC score of a 6 was a bit below her actual level, overall the test was a fair representation of her abilities. I think what happened this time is that she focused a lot on RC and neglected prep for other 3 areas (understandable since she was busy with essays and interviews).
I do admire her grit in wanting to take it again (it was her choice) and no harm done as we plan to apply with her scores from the first administration.
We have pruned the school list slightly and in NYC applying to Horace Mann, Dalton, Riverdale, Brearley, Spence, Nightingale while in NJ to Pingry, Newark Academy and Kent. She has surprised me with the quality of her essays and I think she has interviewed better than I thought since at a couple of schools parent interviewers mentioned her strong interview. Overall while I think she probably wonât get in to Horace Mann, Dalton, Brearley, I think she has a reasonable chance at the other schools as her ECs are strong.
Meant she was on verge of a 7 in all of the 3 sections where she got a 6 this time.
I have the suspicion that test scores for current elementary students are going to be lower than normal. A lot of kids and parents of elementary kids are suffering here⊠Covid is more disruptive to both parents and kids, the younger the kid is. Itâs impacted a significant portion of your 5th graderâs to-date education. Your kid is in elementary, and my guess is that Covid means that ISEE standards can be a bit relaxed this year.
The ECs are more than âsolidâ in my opinion.
My kid is on the quiet side too. I explicitly called that out in the parent statement as something my kid is working on. I think that schools actually do want a balance of introverts/extroverts and that being quiet or reserved is something that admissions officers are understanding of.
1 Like
Hmm ⊠I have wondered that too as on Reading Comprehension at least on the first attempt where she got a 6 she was a bit thrown back by the user interface - unlike the online practice tests where she could see both the passage and the questions on the same screen she had to flip back and forth between different screens on the ISEE At Home test. On Math I definitely think there has been some backsliding on her part due to remote instruction.
Like you I have also used the parent essays to remark on the fact that while she can be quiet, she is actually quite an opinionated and confident girl underneath that. While I would say both of her parents are at heart introverts, on surface appearances we can come across as extroverted, but in each case it was something we developed as we got older. So I am not too worried about it, although obviously extroverted kids get noticed more in the classroom and more positively remarked on by Teachers.
Re: Reading comprehension, exact same issue for my kid of flipping back and forth between question and passage. I went and double checked - this is NOT the format they give on the ISEE online sample test (?!!). Re: math, I would note that some questions are easier to answer on paper (like geometry stuff or tables, where youâd want to write next to the printed question). Since at least in our area, you can only take ISEE at home, I think this will hurt everyone ⊠and thatâs why I think scores will be lower than normal.
I do worry that introverts will have a harder time with teacher recommendations as it is harder for teachers to gauge them when they arenât talking a bunch over Zoom. But, I also worry for the extroverts because I think Covid-forced separations is harder for them (and could result in behavior problems or being unwilling to study). I think it all kind of balances out, or at least I hope :).
I became more extroverted when I became a manager. But, I will never be the life of the party. ~Half of the population is introverted, and I would expect schools to try for a similar balance at school.
1 Like
Today was our final parent and student interview and the admissions process has finally concluded for us! We started off thinking we would apply to 11 schools and ultimately ended up applying to 9, which was not easy to manage but my DD stepped up on her ability to manage so many essays and interviews on top of prepping for a second ISEE test (which turned out to be unnecessary). I think this process early on in Grade 5 will probably help her navigate college admissions with confidence down the road.
We applied to 6 NYC schools (Horace Mann, Riverdale, Dalton, Brearley, Spence, Nightingale) and 3 NJ schools (Pingry, Newark Academy, Kent). We got caught up in the admissions process, but I know realize that the 4 UES schools are realistically not a option for us unless we live in Manhattan. My wife is dead set against living in a 2 or 3-Br apartment in an affordable neighborhood and wants the single family home lifestyle for this next phase, and none of the UES schools are really commutable from Westchester suburbs.
So realistically only Horace Mann and Riverdale are viable options in NYC. Horace Mann I donât think she will get in as they seem very driven by academics and while her score is good, it is not all 8s and 9s which I sense they are looking for and her school report cards are good but not exceptional. Her ECs are excellent and I think her interviews have been better than we thought going in and essays turned out stronger than I expected. So there might be an outside chance depending on competition but I am not counting on it.
One unexpected twist is the deadlines to turn in acceptances. For Grade 6, the NYC schools notify on Feb 9th and need a decision by noon on March 2nd. While Newark Academy notifies before than on Feb 26th, Pingry and Kent are âfirst week of Marchâ and unless they arrive on Monday or Tuesday morning of that week will be after the NYC enrollment deadlines.
With the pandemic it has been impossible to get a true feel for the differences between the schools and the schools donât allow any visits till you have received an offer (Kent is an exception where you can do a self-guided walk of the campus) so even if Pingry and Kent hit a day or house before the NYC deadlines it doesnât really allow any time for research.
My wife has been leaning towards the NJ schools (and in particular Kent) but I would prefer Riverdale over the NJ schools (Horace Mann was initially preferred but I donât think we get in and so far what we have seen makes it look like a pressure cooker) and have mixed feelings on Kent (mainly that they seem academically a cut below the NYC all-girls schools and I feel that if you are going private you should go to the best school possible).
No particular reason for the rambling post above, just hoping for some insights to clarify my own muddled thinking right now on these issues 
Good luck! Donât be afraid to ask for an extension to the deadline for the NYC schools. They are (or were, unless something has changed) pretty regularly for those applying to boarding, NYC specialized, and day schools for 9th.
Oh that would be great if we could get even an extra week, I had not considered that but it seems like the day schools are bound by ISAAGNY rules, are you sure they have discretion?
https://www.isaagny.org/admissions/notification-and-reply-dates
IDK but it doesnât hurt to ask once you have an acceptance in hand. I know itâs happened with friends who were waiting on Stuy/BxSci or boarding schools a few years ago.
Speaking from personal observed experience, the NJ schools set their reply deadline ahead of the NYC and are strict about it. This is to prevent the NJ schools from ending up as the âsafetyâ schools for those that are willing to do the commute. At least with DE, they wonât be willing to move the deadline and donât ask until after youâve heard one way or the other from the NJ schools. Good luck JCParent!
Thank you @parentofnicekid. I believe the middle school admissions are different in terms of timelines, the NJ schools are all much after the NYC schools. We will hear on Feb 9th from NYC schools, on Feb 26th from Newark Academy, and possibly March 1st from Pingry and Kent.