Admissions Q&A

By Frances Ramberg

When prospective families visit the school I ask them to share some information with me, including how they heard about The Girls' School. The most common answers, by far, are "word of mouth" and "current or former family". You and your daughters are our best advocates; the way you represent the school makes people want to join the GSA community. To help you share accurate information with prospective families and interested others I want to provide you with answers to some common questions.

1. My daughter is two and we really want her to go to The Girls' School for kindergarten. If we apply right now will she have a better chance of getting in?

In a word, no. GSA is currently accepting applications for the 2009-10 school year only. We find that accepting early applications creates a false sense that students are accepted on a "first come, first served" basis. The Girls' School selects students from a pool of applicants after the application deadline.

2. What is the admissions process?

The first step is a school visit. Open Houses are currently scheduled for every other Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.; the next Open House is Wednesday, October 22. If an Open House is not convenient families are encouraged to schedule an individual tour with me. After an initial visit parents can fill out and submit an application. All application forms are available online, as well as in the folder distributed at Open Houses and on tours. The forms include candidate and parent information, as well as teacher recommendations and a transcript request for older students. When all forms have been received in the office shadow visits are scheduled. (This year we will be scheduling "play dates" for groups of prospective kindergarteners rather than individual shadow visits.) A student's application is not considered complete until after a shadow visit or play date is complete. This year's deadline for completed applications is February 1, 2009. After February 1 the admissions team will meet to review all applications. Applicants will be notified of admissions decisions by March 1.

3. If there's no room in the class my daughter has applied for will you put her on a waiting list?

At times there may be more qualified applicants than space available in a class. Once a class is full other qualified applicants will be placed in a wait pool. If space becomes available in that class the admissions team will consider all students in the wait pool.

4. What are you looking for in a Girls' School student?

In general, we're looking for bright, curious girls who are open to the joys of inquiry and discovery. In our youngest students we look for positive interactions with peers and adults as well as basic letter and number literacy. As students mature we look for the acquisition of age- and grade-appropriate skills. We expect GSA students to be creative problem solvers and collaborative learners so we look for evidence of these qualities in application materials and shadow visits.

I hope that these questions and answers give you some useful information to use when speaking about The Girls' School. If you ever find yourself stumped by a question from a prospective parent, or curious about aspects of admissions yourself, please use me as a resource. I'm always happy to answer questions from prospective and current families. I'm also interested in hearing from you. What questions do you hear in the community? Are there anecdotes you share as emblematic of the Girls' School experience? Please share these with me!