Thanks, @PhotographerMom, I really enjoyed the link and your story of falling three times during the tour and bleeding during your interview. I’ll stop worrying that some student has reported back that I talked more than my daughter during our tour. I think everyone has bigger fish to fry.
^^I think that’s common, @CAClover 
Do the tour guides report what they think of the student / parents?
^ At our school they do. GoatKid volunteers as a tour guide, and after each tour has to fill out a form about her impressions of the candidate.
^^, Same at my kid’s school-- she hosts/tours a number of kids and families. Her school usually splits up parents and kid for tours and classes, though, which really helps-- parents tour with a faculty/staff member, kid tours with a student.
Anyone who hasn’t already read @PhotographerMom’s account of that school visit-- you really should – it’s a classic!
@cameo43 I really like that touring format! We experienced it only at EHS. I wish more schools offered it.
Haha, @cameo43 ! Actually, PhotoDad asking the receptionist ( on another tour ) to copy a recipe was the best
-IMHO.
I think you’re totally fine @CAClover . 
I really do. Seriously, the only unforgivable offense ( according to my kids ) was when visiting parents grilled Senior tour guides about their college plans. I don’t think they minded being asked in passing, or questions about how everything was handled in the CC office ( which is totally fine/appropriate ), but they definitely didn’t like being grilled about personal stuff or their future plans… especially if the topic dampened the tour by going on too long- which on occasion, I’m told it did.
I think most student guides understand that it can be a nerve-wracking experience for anyone. After all, they were all once in the same boat when they came to visit, too.
So applenotfar, if I understand correctly–the subject line does not include the results (up or down or waitlist). This means that as long as I do not open the email, I can let my son be the one to find out his own results first? Thoughts?
@sadieshadow that was our experience last year with the schools I listed above. Just be sure that the settings on your phone or computer don’t also give you a preview of the first lines of the body of the email because a few began with “Congratulations” or “We are pleased” etc.
My DD is a tour guide and yes they do provide comments.
@AppleNotFar @sadieshadow Same experience here: None of the subject lines revealed what the admission decision was.
Pretty sure at our school that guides do not provide feedback (unless that has changed recently). Guides are, however, required to know about the interests of the appliant and make sure the tour addresses those interests. So a trip to the pool for a swimmer, practice rooms and performance space for a musician, etc. And freshmen cannot be tour guides.
I mention this because we toured one school with a freshman guide who was sweet but laughably (as in still a lol memory for DS and me) uninformed beyond what he’d been coached to say, and the ad libbing was along the lines of “sorry it’s 4 flights up to our new music studio. I’m breathing hard, too. This is why kids who play big or heavy instruments all quit orchestra.” I really didn’t know what to make of it, but the school did follow up by giving us a meeting with the director of admissions so they too may have realized how unusual our tour may have been.
Funny memories in retrospect…
^^ reminds me…
Is it common to interview with the Director of Admissions? (vs the Associates etc)
@sunnyschool , I think it’s whomever is available. It may also depend on the size of the staff and the grade being applied to, particularly if there are few openings in one grade and it’d be helpful for one person to see all those applicants, who presumably are fewer than those applying for 9th. But I can’t say for sure.
Sounds right @gardenstategal .
@sunnyschool DD went to 9 interviews - 2 with Director and 7 with the assistance. The 2 with the director is in less known school not so busy kind of school.
M10 will see some highs and lows. There will be heartbreak and great excitement. Daughter number 2 got into 3 of her second choices and got rejections from 3 of her top choices. It was a day that seemed anticlimatic. However, now at Pomona, we and she realize that the BS she got into was a good fit and she had wonderful opportunities there that she took advantage of: 2 abroad programs and others. Try to keep in mind that life is about making good on opportunities you are given, not bemoaning the ones that passed you up. My heart still breaks for her best friend who got on 10 out of 10 wait lists. That student is now at an ivy. Repeat after me…the school doesn’t make you, you make the school! Good Luck to all the current hopefuls. Wishing you all great opportunities!
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Oh, and yes, we still have great stories we look back on fondly from the schools she got rejected from: like when I forgot her name when I tried to introduce her to the admissions associate at Groton, and when my daughter lost her “change into” shoes at Deerfield, and when I told Exeter we love their tradition of passing out the diplomas at graduation (which was Andover). Helicopter parents unite! I celebrate you because you only want the best for your children!
I’m mostly quiet here on CC, but it’s nice to have a thread with folks playing the same waiting game. DD applied to only one school (my old school, which she fell in love with when we visited while in the area). She’s nervous but keeping busy enough to distract herself. Strangely enough, I think her math teacher is the most impatient of all. He asks about the process every time he sees me or Dad!
@Susieknits this is a great time to be thankful for the other adults who have helped us care for and teach our kids. My kid also had three other very anxious adults awaiting decisions including BFF’s mom who like me both wanted and didn’t want the kid to be admitted. At boarding school that circle of wise and caring adults is even bigger, and thinking about that helps me cope with missing my kiddo.