What is your #1 Recommendation for parents of students applying to private schools?

Answer 1

My primary advice to parents is to budget time to look at the spectrum of requirements for admission to private schools, coordinate a time-frame and a goal-list regarding test preparation, schools to which you and your child wish to apply, and plan ahead for the key dates along the admission timeline.

The specific subject area test preparation often takes months of focused preparation for the SSAT and ISEE verbal sections as these tests are very rigorous and even intimidating upon an eighth grader's first glance, so if you have in mind applying to the elite schools, you should plan for a thorough test prep.

But in considering schools, remember that your child will be waking up at the place every day for most of four years--so get a firm feeling for the nature of the community and setting. Your child is more than a test score and an institution is more than a name.

Answer 2

Private School Testing: Whether applying to independent/private schools or simply helping your son or daughter become a well-spoken, verbally comprehensive citizen, do not lower your conversation to their level. Welcome them into your conversations on appropriate adult levels. The best and brightest and most committed to learning students are struggling everywhere with vocabulary as their parents and teachers adjust to operate at their level as they have been directed. Don't make that mistake. If welcomed into family conversations, they will rise to the adult discussion level without any need to "dummy it down."