private school acceptance letters...and ??? (Atlanta, Marietta: private schools, education, health) - Georgia (GA) - City-Data Forum

lawndaisey · 04-06-2008, 11:17 AM

Hi all. Quick questions about private schools in Atlanta. HELP! We applied to 3 schools Galloway, AIS, Paideia. Child scored amazing on SSAT (perfect verbal score), has straight A's, is grade advanced, but has discipline issues (can be a smart butt, talks out etc). We were told by a school that child did not "profile" based on her teacher eval. forms as most applicants. We already received our thanks but no thanks from Galloway (which we thought would be the best fit)...question is this: how heavy is the teacher eval form weighted? If one applies for financial aid is that held against you (meaning you might have a better chance for acceptance if they think you can pay outright)? I am now quite scared that we will be faced with no options next year and a heart broken kid.....lastly, anyone know anything about Atlanta Girls School? Advance thanks...from a worried Mom.

sweettea1 · 04-06-2008, 12:52 PM

First of all...deep breath. Your fervor is going to do little to help you with this issue, let alone comfort your child. Teacher eval is probably weighed equally, if not more, than test scores as it shows a personal side which testing cannot. Financial aid does not play into the application process, and if it did, would be considered illegal.
You are not faced with no options. You can send your child to public school, jump in head first, meet with teachers and administrators and get all of your questions answered and always apply next year to private school if you're not happy.
I don't mean to be rude but posts like this need a little bit of a reality check. Is your child healthy? If yes, then accept what comes your way school-wise and make the best of it. If this doesn't make you feel better go spend an afternoon at Scottish Rite Children's Hospital. Heartbroken kid is only heartbroken if mom is feeding that. Sorry. Just had to get this off my chest.

lawndaisey · 04-06-2008, 01:00 PM

...you are right. thank you for the honesty and the much need perspective..I know better...

aries4118 · 04-06-2008, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweettea1

First of all...deep breath. Your fervor is going to do little to help you with this issue, let alone comfort your child. Teacher eval is probably weighed equally, if not more, than test scores as it shows a personal side which testing cannot. Financial aid does not play into the application process, and if it did, would be considered illegal.
You are not faced with no options. You can send your child to public school, jump in head first, meet with teachers and administrators and get all of your questions answered and always apply next year to private school if you're not happy.
I don't mean to be rude but posts like this need a little bit of a reality check. Is your child healthy? If yes, then accept what comes your way school-wise and make the best of it. If this doesn't make you feel better go spend an afternoon at Scottish Rite Children's Hospital. Heartbroken kid is only heartbroken if mom is feeding that. Sorry. Just had to get this off my chest.

This is some good advice. What public school would your daughter potenially attend? I (and others) may be able to offer advice/strategies/commentary that could prove helpful (and may make your public school option a viable option).

lawndaisey · 04-06-2008, 02:06 PM

Marietta City 6th Grade Academy. I was ignorant with regards to how hard it is to get into Atlanta private schools. I thought with the ssat scores and grades we would not have any problems.....silly me. I know the drill with public schools we were believers in a public school education but have come to the realization it simply is not for every student. We still have 2 more schools to hear from......

CMMom · 04-06-2008, 02:29 PM

I also might consider having a conference with whichever teachers wrote the recommendations to see what issues (if any) there were. You will not be able to see the rec letters (they are tightly protected so that teachers feel they can be brutally honest). If they are willing to discuss it with you, you can use that as an opportunity to address the behavioral issues. Truth is that there are so many good applicants that good test scores alone are not enough. If they detect "potential behavioral problem," they will probably look to the next equally qualified/bright candidate. Such is the private school situation in Atlanta-they can be as choosy as they like.

lawndaisey · 04-06-2008, 02:42 PM

Yes CM we have done this. Thank you for the suggestion. Trouble is many times profoundly gifted kids are not the 'teacher pleaser' types and though the behavior is mostly from boredom the eval forms do not give much room to explain. urg! But as sweettea said there are much worse things that can happen than not getting into a private school. It just seems that our gifted population is so under-served in public school. These are the kids that are 'left behind'.....bitting my nails until mail comes..... One school suggested (after seeing the evals come back) asking members of the community/other teachers at school to write a letter on our child's behalf.....I wonder if that would of helped?

CMMom · 04-06-2008, 03:06 PM

I think that it would be a little bit risky. I have heard admissions folks lamenting the "extras" that parents sometimes send in an effort to get a child in (their art work/portfolio, letters from congressmen, etc...). Total honesty here--I think that you run the risk of looking like a "PITA" (aka "pain in the a__") parent if you send items that are not requested in the application. That's just my opinion, and I'm certainly not saying that you are a parent like that, but you really have to be careful and remember that the people reading the applications do not really know you and are basing their decisions on intangibles as well as hard data. If a parent is too pushy, they may turn down their highly qualified child for fear of having to deal with a difficult parent for the next however many years your child would be at the school. Again, I'm not implying that YOU are pushy-just trying to explain their mentality.

lawndaisey · 04-06-2008, 03:15 PM

well...I can be a little pushy

heehee. but I understand what you are saying. From your experience with the 'admission folk' what are these private schools looking for? I would think that the right school would know and understand characteristics of gifted kids (not prefect) but maybe it did not transpire that way through the evals? I was thinking AIS was a long shot but was confident about Galloway.....do you know anything about Atlanta Girls School?

CMMom · 04-06-2008, 03:41 PM

Not a lot. I think that the idea is great, but I don't know anyone whose child attends. Mine are still little, and we just went through the admissions process for my daughter for Pre-K. I know it's frustrating. I think that you could also potentially request a meeting with the Admissions Directors at your schools after 4/16 (when they settle in a little after the acceptance letters come back). I bet that the folks at Galloway would sit down with you to review anything you can do to improve your chances if you choose to reapply. Just ask for honest feedback, and have an open mind. They may give you great advice. It is possible that it was just a numbers thing this year. Of course, you really have no way of knowing how many siblings applied this year, etc... Things that are totally out of your control, but could be different next year. I've seen friends' kids get in on their second or even third (!) try to some of these schools. So keep your chin up and gather as much feedback as you can if you would like to reapply.