Silly reason you didn't apply to a specific boarding school

Prep School Admissions Prep School Cafe
21

I actually don’t think your reason is silly.

You wouldn’t buy a house that made you feel that way - why would you leave your kid at a school that gave you the creeps? We have instincts for a reason.

Granted, it can be timing. While visiting family during vacation, we checked out some campuses- if only to make sure we knew how to get there. There was one place we didn’t go further in the parking lot and my kid felt it wasn’t welcoming. Still applied, and when my kid visited for the actual tour and interview, she liked it, thought the student tour guide was the type of person she’d want to hang out with, and that it really would be a great fit.

(Not saying that could have been the case with your situation. )

22

We took off all schools with “St” in the name. We also dropped one school after an open house because of a couple reasons: 1. No stir-fry 2. The students just felt off; they weren’t mean and were pretty nice in general, but it just didn’t feel right. It was mostly the stir fry though that took the school off our list :wink:

23

DS almost didn’t apply to one school because of the high stone wall that ran along the road leading up to the entrance. He said it looked like a prison. Ultimately the school grew on him and he applied, but whenever I happen to be at that campus it makes me laugh how violently he reacted to the wall.

24

We didn’t apply to one school because the student I’m helping with this BS process is Latinx and the student tour guide when we visited started speaking about their foreign language department and asked where my student was from then immediately answered “my nanny is from Mexico!” And then went on to tell us how her parents picked a Mexican live-in nanny so they wouldn’t have to pay for a tutor to learn Spanish. It was a real turnoff. :-/

25

@CTMom21 whew! I’m not the only one who got creeped out by a school! I though it was just us, like we are 'fraidy cats! :wink:

@MentorBee I agree on that not being a good look for the school! Sad thing is, the tour guide student was probably earnest & trying to connect, but…no. I hope you found some schools where the student who you are mentoring/helping felt more at home.

26

It did not stop us from applying, but recently we have focused a ridiculous amount of discussion on which schools have the best colors and whether the mascots are cool or weird. We also have debated various school names and whether our daughter would rather be a #__girl or a #___girl. Hashtags matter ?

27

i ended up not applying to a school because i didn’t like a question they had in their application (what other schools are you applying to?)

also, i believe that St. Paul’s School although considered ‘episcopal’ is now non-denominational. my interviewer said the most religious thing about SPS is that gatherings are held in the church (because it’s a large space).

28

My son’s answer to that was vague: “Small schools that are strong in STEM and are close to a relative in case of emergency”. He didn’t give specific names but they can probably guess some of them.

29

@CrimsonWife That’s a smart way to get around a sticky question!

30

didn’t apply to x school because i got a weird vibe from the website— the colors were nice but idk.
(ig you could say the school didn’t pass my vibe check)
(im sorry)

31

DS didn’t want to apply to any schools that didn’t serve whole milk. Then, he realized it took too many schools off of his list.

32

We did not apply to a school because the tour guides walked backwards.

For the entire tour, the student guide & her student trainee walked backwards, a bit ahead of us. It was POURING rain, and I told them it was fine to walk facing forward, that we’d still be able to hear them. They refused.

They proceeded to walk backwards down marble stairs in the rain as we left a prominent building. I asked again to PLEASE walk backwards, that I was concerned they might slip & hit their head on the stone! They seemed still would NOT face forward. We walked on & on.

Finally as the situation continued (more nonstop backwards-walking in the rain), I got bossy & told them that I am a mom & I also work with children, and am really not comfortable letting them walk backwards in the rain! This sounds worse than it was (they were sweet girls, everything had been friendly/chatty between us four with smiles & joking a bit during the tour). They finally turned forward. But for the rest of the tour they seemed nervous at times. It seemed to me they were worried about how it would “look” (walking forwards!) - which was ridiculous because it was raining so the few people even on the paths were all heads down, walking briskly, umbrellas out (no chance anyone was going to see them).

It’s a silly reason, dropping a school for backwards-walking, but…it is not.

First, it made the whole tour awkward. Even if there had been no rain, it was super weird being led along paths and up & down stairs (even indoors, up narrow hallway stairs!!) by two backwards-walking teens! It totally took us out of the moment, and took us away from focusing on the school.

Second, I didn’t want my child going to a school that had unneeded stupid policies/procedures (every school has a few, but it’s best to keep them limited).

Third, I didn’t want my child going to a school where his safety was not taken into consideration (it’s dangerous to walk backwards on slick stone walkways in the rain!!). We live quite far away from the schools, so I need to know that administrators/staff are looking out for my kid’s safety.

Last (and most importantly), I really didn’t like that the girls felt so uncomfortable deviating from the “standard protocol.” I don’t want my child to attend a school so authoritarian that he feels forced to ignore good judgement when unforeseen circumstances arise (the pouring rain; although actually it was forecast). We are choosing boarding school for him to NOT be a sheep!

33

…As a P.S.

I also was swayed to not apply because the school did not provide umbrellas to the tour guides.

Neither tour guide had a hood, and one them was not even wearing a raincoat! They were getting soaked. When I begged them to take my umbrella (my son & I both had hooded raincoats) they refused, same exact run-around as with the backwards walking: me making multiple request, cajoling, bossing, until finally they took my umbrella. Again they looked REALLY uncomfortable doing so. Which was ridiculous because my son & I both had great raincoats, and they could see we would not get wet if we relinquished our umbrella (I even explained this to them when insisting they take it). As with the backwards-walking, I had to pull the “mom” card & tell them I would not feel comfortable staying pretty dry when they were getting wet.

I hated that the Admissions Office would send students out into rain (which was predicted by every weather forecast for the 7 days prior!!) without even an umbrella! I kept thinking: why does the Admissions Office not have extra umbrellas available for student tour guides??

It made me feel like the school was putting more emphasis on impressing visitors (by providing tour guides) as opposed to what have been their priority: keeping current students happy, warm/dry & safe.

P.S. If anyone is wondering why we did not cancel/reschedule the tour to protect the tour guides from the rain, or to give ourselves a better experience: we had flown thousands of miles to tour schools in the region (during a 4 day visit). Our itinerary was tight. We knew that for our family’s work/school schedules & our budget (this was our 2nd flight out to the region for tours/interviews in a 6 week span!) we would not be returning for revisits - so we really needed to see in person each school (or not apply). And this school offered programs unique to only a few boarding schools & it met all of our “fit” criteria extremely well.

And the weather was not a hurricane nor the worst downpour of rain ever. Just a very constant, wet rainfall. With no umbrellas for the guides.

34

Has anyone confessed yet that they did not apply to a school because it wasn’t ranked high enough ?

35

@Publisher oof thats me! i didnt apply to a school that was originally on my list bc i just never heard of it before and it wasnt on any rankings

36

We toured a PreK-12 grade school that was boarding for 9-12th grades (about 60% boarding in the upper school.). When I asked the tour guide how the relationship was between day students and boarders, he told me, very candidly, that the overall relationship was poor between the two groups. He said many day students had been here since grade school and that they kept to the cliques they created during those years! And that day students were rarely involved in weekend activities on campus, ouch! While I genuinely appreciated his honesty, that answer was enough to cross the school off of our list.

I also had concerns about their modest endowment being stretched across PK-12th grades. The main academic building in the upper school was outdated and in need of some upgrades. That really made me question their finances and priorities.

37

The school that we skipped visiting because my younger kids were at the end of their rope falls into this category. It is still on our “Plan B” list if he gets rejected or waitlisted at all the schools he applied to in January.

38

A certain school’s name sounded like a pimple cream. Or like a pee.

And when you’re 13, you can’t possibly consider going to a school with a “kiss” in it.

39

The best game-day jokes I’ve heard revolve around door stoppers. Sorry @Golfgr8 :slight_smile: Then come the cannibalism jokes about SPS and Loomis pelicans.

40

@GoatMama - not sure what a “door stopper” is…aren’t those the thin flip flops kids use to wedge the door open (per dorm rules) during sanctioned co-ed visits?