Hello! I believe, this year was unique in terms that you could attend the information sessions at home. I really had a great time attending many info sessions, and participating in them gave me a very good idea of the school. The fact that each boarding school had many info sessions allowed one to get a much better idea about their academic offerings and extra-curricular opportunities. I attended about 55 information sessions for 9 schools. There were many schools who shared different aspect of their community in each session, and most of them were informative. Also, it allowed me some opportunity to get a sense of culture of each school. e.g. how many sessions they had, how many teachers/faculty members were participating, were the admission officers and students totally engaged, was there diversity in the panel, were they tackling tough questions, were they sharing interesting stories or just presenting data. The experience during these info sessions was a key input as I finally shortlisted my schools and made my priority list, just in case I am fortunate to have more than one admission acceptances:). I thought to start a conversation of which schools did a great job in these info sessions to share about their community.
MERCERSBURG! They absolutely nailed it.
Fountain Valley did a great job, as well.
Berkshire was good, but had a few hiccups. I think it was probably based on the day we chose-- other similar presentations may have better depending on what families/students they used.
For me, those were the sessions that stood out. We attended many many virtual sessions between DD for BS and DS for college. They started to run together/all say the same thingâŠ
But the above three schools tended to approach just a bit differently or have a unique approach that made them stand out in my mind. I also felt they exposed who they were and what we could expect from them.
Agree with @buuzn03 on all three of these.
Also I thought Miss Porterâs virtual winter party where they sent mugs in advance was a huge hit with my daughter.
And Emma Willard fireside coffee chats with students were truly special.
George school sent a gift card for Dunkinâ Donuts by email which I thought was a nice touch.
Chatham hall had a mother-daughter zoom which was nice.
Itâs hard when parents are running the zoom though because sometimes they arenât super savvy and things go wonky.
One school where I left feeling yucky was a school had a consultant join the parents â they introduced her I think so parents would realize there was a consultant there. Well during the q and a, the consultant monopolized the time by asking multiple questions that only applied to someone with a clientele, not current applicant parents. (Like: Will your school continue to be test optional going forward?). I was so annoyed because I had a question that I had to accept we wouldnât have time to get to. Also: if there are lots of people and only 20 minutes for a and a, people should know only to ask one question. And the school should be smart enough to give shorter answers, especially to a consultant. Instead, we got a very long answer to the thinking in test optional in the future. Not helpful to most parents in this cycle.
Seconding the Miss Potterâs winter party!! Out of all of the virtual information sessions I went to, it was definitely the most fun. MPS had other engagement sessions that I thought were super fun as well. I won one of the games and they sent so much fun swag (Hope this doesnât expose me). Side note: Itâs really crazy to think that @Calliemomofgirlsâ DD and I have met indirectly!!
NMH had some admissions advice/help sessions that I went to and the essay one was super informative and had a nice relaxed and casual vibe that I enjoyed.
Putneyâs sessions were pretty great as well. It was smaller, so I recognized a lot of the people who came each time. It also allowed for direct questions to the students and I enjoyed seeing the casual dynamic between the students and the admissions officers that were there.
We only ended up participating in St. Georgeâs virtual sessions (kiddo2 will not apply to schools until next fall) but thought they did an amazing job. Two highlights for us were the session with one of the Geronimo captains, and the mention of amazing chocolate chip muffins at the dining hall (my extremely picky eater has about 5 things on his approved eating list, and #1 is chocolate chip muffins 
). I wish we had thought ahead to participate in sessions for other schools and hope they will offer them again next year even with (fingers crossed) tours back to normal. They were a nice low key way to get a better feel for a school.
If you attended 55 information sessions, you are probably more informed than many of us. Thatâs a significant time investment. In your opinion, which of the 9 schools that you watched were the most informative?
Iâm new to the forum, and to the world of BS. We just went through the application process having entered the process with absolutely no prior knowledge of prep schools. My son was actually a recruited athlete at several schools and we spent an awful lot of time in virtual meetings getting to know schools, coaches and administrators. Most were incredibly informative and welcoming. We did, however, experience one bizarre session.
We joined the Zoom, and an AO and a College Counselor were speaking. Since it was at the time of the scheduled session, and since they LET us into the Zoom session, we assumed the meeting had already started. In fact, we were among the first to arrive and the CC was unaware of our presence. He was obviously gossiping about someone, and ended his end of the conversation by saying, âI guess we better stop talking about potential pedophiles.â The AO then informed him that invitees were joining and some were already in the room. Nobody acknowledged the misstep, nobody apologized for speaking out of turn, nothing. The presentation went on as planned, and frankly, even without that faux pas, the CC came off as condescending and gave us the impression that the school had an arrogance about it of which we wanted no part.
My son applied to four schools, all of which would probably be considered less prestigious than this elite BS. The coach at this school continued to reach out and was very personable and down to earth. The college counselor, however was the most lasting image associated with the school, and prevented this otherwise front runner from even being seriously considered. Just one unique experience that demonstrates the importance of virtual meetings and served as a âteachable momentâ to illustrate to my teenage son Zoom etiquette.
My favorites were Hotchkiss, Groton and Lawrenceville in that order. Hotchkiss had 15+ different (not repeat) sessions during the year and I attended many of them. The weekly sessions touched on different aspects of community life. It was a well-planned and well-coordinated effort. I was amazed by the energy of admission officers, faculty members and students; everyone was contributing actively and came across very welcoming. There was excellent diversity in student discussions. Live Q&A sessions were very effective. Hotchkiss sessions had both âbreadth and depthâ and I gained such an amazing perspective of the school by attending the sessions. During a regular in-person school tour, I donât think I could have benefited even 20% of what I gained from many info sessions of Hotchkiss. From every session, I got a positive vibe of the Hotchkiss community and its culture, and hats off to the Hotchkiss Admission team for their fantastic efforts.
Grotonâs admission team also put in a really good show by sharing different aspects of their offerings and engaging students and faculty members actively. The strong community feeling of school was evident in the sessions. Lawrencevilleâs sessions were also very interesting and informative. They started a bit late in the application cycle and I was wondering if they were ever going to have any sessions. The quality of sessions and information provided was excellent. The admission officers, faculty and students who participated were amazing!
When the admission cycle started, it seemed SPS admission team was very proactive. They were the first one to make the SSAT test optional and waive the application fees. But then, the momentum seemed to slow down considerably. To start with, their info sessions were very few in number, and too short. It was pretty much one way street (webinar) with limited opportunity to ask questions. The best session was the one where the students participated and shared their SPS experiences. Overall SPS teaching and student community is amazing, but info sessions could not convey that.
I expected far more from Andover and Exeter, given their resources. They had many repeat sessions related to virtual visit, info sessions, financial aid, etc. Exeterâs admission team was amazing, as they always offered to stay longer than the regular scheduled slots, if people had questions. Andover also had a few good sessions (especially virtual arts, performing arts, essays). The Andover Day was also nicely coordinated. Some of the sessions were great, but there were too many sessions for one day, and it became overwhelming. Looking at Exeter and Andover website, boths schools have such amazing offerings and the info sessions could have focused on more variety and breadth.
I agree with this. Kid was asked to attend (probably to show interest) even though we werenât really expecting any new information to be revealed. So we cancelled sports practice and settled in for 9am-12pm Saturday morning session. For some reason we were expecting the Head of School to make an early appearance just for a few minutes as a welcome, but he didnât. But that could have been our misinterpretation from the invite.
After a week of virtual school in front of a screen, the last thing our kid wanted to do was spend 3 hours on a Saturday morning on yet another zoom.
The information provided was fine. The academic classes presentation was impressive. I had a hard time figuring out which of the 6 people on the screen were teachers and which were students!
Yes, I was disappointed that there were welcoming ârecordedâ videos from Head of School and Head of Admissions, rather than live appearance for a min each. That would have made Andover Day more welcoming and special.
I do not have a comprehensive ranking of the sessions since I only watched a couple of the sessions over the shoulder of kid/listened while prepping dinner.
I have to compliment the Hill School on the fact that their Headmaster, Zach Lehman, was a fun moderator on at least a couple of their sessions. It certainly gave a personal touch and I feel like heâd know what was going on with every kid on campus. It gave credibility to the âFamily Boarding Schoolâ motto.
Iâm reading all these experiences with interest! Itâs been a year of growth and change in the âvisitingâ space. I think virtual visits are here to stay as an option for non-travelers in the future, and thatâs a good thing IMO.
I donât want to gloss over @PaDadOf2 experience. My jaw dropped. Wow. But what a gift to see the true colors. But â wow.
Can we talk about mailings? Mccallie sent really, nice promotional stuff. They have some great marketing staff. George sent a very nice bags but the little swiped it for bear transport.
In general, the smaller schools did a better job with online outreach. And really, even when a speaker was live and engaging, there is nothing intimate about a call with two hundred other kids.
Thank you @Calliemomofgirls for responding. As a first-time poster it is good to know someone acknowledged my input. Although this was the first time I actively participated in the forum, I have been passively reading for several months- ever since BS became a distinct possibility. I must say that one of the major lessons I took from reading so many threads is finding the correct fit for the student and not worrying so much about reputation and ranking. This is something I took to heart, and it has served us well in this process. As irregular as this process has been this year, the virtual sessions did provide- with fairly distinct clarity- a good overview of where DS would fit best. Fingers crossed M10 brings favorable news, and that the sessions translate well as we venture on campus(es) in the future.
welcome @PaDadOf2 and Good luck to yâall!