Responding to schools your child WILL NOT attend

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
1

We are intending to send thank you notes to the AOs at the schools where our child was accepted, but will not attend. Is there any other protocol/avenue for this that we don’t know about, given this is our first rodeo?

2

That’s not necessary. Just decline, which can usually be done in the portal. Now if there was a particular AO that went the extra mile for your kid, a polite thank you email telling them of his final choice is appropriate.

3

Keep it short and sweet and don’t burn bridges.

2 Likes
4

thanks- we weren’t intending to burn bridges- the opposite actually… thank you, we loved your school, and we went to a diff school because X. But sounds like not necessary from the above

5

and thank you on the portal- it didn’t occur to me to go back into the portals of schools after M10.

6

It’s unnecessary since the portal generally has an accept/decline option.

I interpreted as you wanted to go above and beyond. In which case, a short note that says “Thank you for your offer of admission, which I was very excited to receive. Unfortunately, I must decline. Thank you again for your consideration and for the time you have spent with me.”

You can tell them where you are going. Or not.

2 Likes
7

this is why this is a great place to ask Q- I didn’t even think about the portals since for 99% of the process we were logging into Gateway or SAO.

8

For my goddaughters in this past admission’s cycle, we sent a short thank you note to the relevant AO, noting our decline, of course, but also thanking them and the admission’s team for reviewing our application, and wishing him/her/them a wonderful Spring. RE: Portal, if offered, we also declined there.

4 Likes
9

this is what I was thinking- thanks for the response

10

Exactly what I intend to do as well. After my senior D, I have identical twin junior D’s, and I appreciate schools who have reviewed and will review our applications.

Some of the schools my senior D applied to received over 40,000 applications. I’m sure it’s nice to hear thank you now and then.

11

I concur 100% with @skieurope 's approach - short and sweet. We didn’t say where we were going, but what was interesting were the responses (or lack thereof) back from each school.

One school was warm and gracious, congratulated us, asked us where we were going instead, etc.

The other? Radio silence. And I’m talking AO, head of admissions, head of school, each of whom we’d met and spoken to directly.

2 Likes