Online Information Session: So You've Applied to Lawrenceville

Hi, good evening. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We have about 200 or so participants still joining us, but thank you so much for waiting. My name is Dana Brown, Director of Admission here at the Lawrenceville School. And tonight's information session is designed to provide you with a little bit more insight on what happens between the time that you now have submitted your application and or waiting for some of your materials.

To populate on your checklist, but I thought it'd be helpful for me to jump in and answer any questions that you may have regarding the process between now and January 15th. I mean January 15th, a few days ago and March 10th. So I wanted to give you insight on how the officers are going to take steps towards making those decisions, but also try to ease some of the anxiety around the checklist and then give you some.

Additional information on what you should expect on the morning of March 10th.

So let's begin with just an overview of the topics that I'll cover tonight.

And they'll include the checklist that our team uses to ensure that all of your materials are in test scores. Because some of you have called and asked about test scores and what the last Test date that would be possible for your child to take. The exam. Letters of recommendation that may come in after the deadline, as well as duplicates, and how to cut down on the duplicates that come in and ways in which you as the applicant and family can help with that.

And they talk more about those that were not able to interview and the steps that we're going to take to move your application forward and then of course decision day.

So let's begin with the most crucial piece of information that you will need in order to get through the rest of this process up until March 10th. And that is the checklist, and if you've tuned into some earlier sessions, I may have.

Given you lots of details about the admission portal and many of you already have access to that, But this is just a reminder that this portal is going to be very important for you to access even after March 10th or before March 10th, because that's where we need add more information.

For those that are just logging on and getting familiar with the portal, you received your username and pin and a custom link that in order to activate your portal. And Please note that this was something you received as part of in part one of starting your application, but I'm fairly certain that many of you have already gotten this far.

Now this is what our officers see on a daily basis. This is just a snapshot of a student's checklist. And you'll see that you will that we receive everything documented as it comes in daily. The student. And it's not certainly in real time, but still missing an interview and waiting for that as well as transcript. But please know that these materials it's perfectly fine, especially on the topic of top of test scores, that we don't want you to panic.

We truly do not want you to panic because we accept the variety of tests as stated in earlier information sessions such as the SSA team, the IC exam, ERB, A/C, TPSAT, and a MAP test. In fact, I even read New Jersey State test this afternoon so you knew that all of this information can actually be uploaded by February 5th would be the ideal time. Again, your portal gives you that power and information to do that, so please keep that in mind.

But we will continue to read tests. We will to continue to read files as long as they are complete with testing. Several of you reached out and asked about waving testing, and unfortunately, we will not be able to waive testing because we were a school that requires some form of standardized test. If you're an international student, sometimes the Duolingo exam will meet the requirement for us. And so you can be in touch with our office regarding a Duolingo exam should you have trouble accessing one of the.

Test that I mentioned earlier.

Phone calls, emails and duplicates. Now, many families have reached out and wanted to know, did you get this? Did you get that? And did you send this? Did you send that? Why? Because you're starting to see that your checklist doesn't have all these beautiful green marks or whatever marks that you see in your download. So let me give you a glimpse in terms of what's happening in our office in real time and the folks who are dedicated to taking those phone calls, answering those emails to ensure that all of these applications, the the parts of the application are connected and uploaded to the file.

Doreen Weinberg and Pat McKinnon are two of the absolute best individuals, along with Lucy Chimento, who will work at making sure that all of your materials are in. Now we are going to ask that you refrain from calling the office for a couple of days because those folks need to focus on going through emails. Every morning when I walk in, I check in on Pat McKinnon, who many of you met already, and I said how's it going? And she tells me then I got 400 emails to get through today.

Pat is there at 7:30 in the morning, every morning to make sure that those emails and attachments get zipped up to your files. So sometimes those calls may not go answered right away, but calling the office sort of slows that down. Emails to the general inbox as well As the counselors, teachers and coaches. We know you want to make sure that we see all of your materials, but we ask that you choose one.

Destination One address. Choose the admission inbox if you have to do. If you cannot upload it through the portal, then you are more than welcome to send it directly to the admission inbox, especially if you have someone else writing an additional letter of recommendation that they will not send to you your admission. The general admission inbox is the best place to send that when you duplicate it. When you copy an admission counselor, a culture, A teacher. Sometimes that just slows things down.

Contacting your interviewer during this time is is helpful, but if it also doesn't necessarily mean that that individual will respond. Because I have my counselors on a very tight schedule to read all of these files by a certain date. But so we can ensure that we get you the decisions by March 10th. And if you can, please, please please refrain from sending duplicate copies of things.

Now we're going to go into interviews. We have received several calls and emails about students who need interviews, but unfortunately we have to turn the page after January 17th, which was earlier today. And in the office we talked about waiving some of those interviews, which is not a problem. I want you all not to panic again. This is not a time to panic. This is a time to be efficient and trust the admission counselors on the other side of the desk.

Who are going to read and review your file? Our priority is to read and decision your application so interviews will be waived after January 17th. Some of you were able to schedule interviews all the way up until the end of this month and those interview notes will get into your files should right before and then once your file is completed from that checklist it will get pushed to the admission counselor assigned to your region. We are a team of officers who reads by region. Do we break our US? We break our US up into the West SE Southwest, Midwest.

Mid-Atlantic SE and all of New Jersey and no New England, sorry and New England. So those are the regions that we read by then there are several counselors who are assigned to different countries. So that's essentially how we practice. I mean that's how we focus on the reading section.

Waived interviews say for instance, we're in the middle of committee and we read a file and we say, oh, we've got to get some information on this student. We got to make sure that we touch base with the with the family. We are likely going to ask you to either interview.

Hopefully at a time that is convenient for both of us. It may have to be early morning 7:00 AM eight o'clock before you head off to school. So we ask that you remain flexible, especially for an admission Counselor reaches out to you during the time after January 17th all the way up until March 1st. And if they ask you for an interview, please be available and ready to interview with us should an admission council reach out. Do not worry, because if you don't have an interview, it does not penalize you in any way several families have been.

Concerned about the penalties associated with handing things in after the deadline.

There's no penalty for the following items.

Transcript Great. Appropriate testing and recommendations. Teachers get a pass during this time because we know they're coming back from a long weekend. They're also starting a new term, and they have several other students that they need to focus in on. And we will ensure that your file is completed and up and things are uploaded on time. But the teacher Rex, please don't worry about those. We give them plenty of time to hand them in.

All right, we are going to move to the next set of slides. I've got five or six more things. And so now would be the time to drop some questions into the chat. And now I'm going to take a moment to really dig into what I call the bold reality, the bold reality of this admission process. Now many of you have got a chance to meet on the road and several I see in the in the chat box already, hello Luke and Bobby. And the reality of this process is if you get to meet so many great families and so many great students.

And they do leave an impression and Mark on our admissions committee and we talk about that, but the old reality of a highly competitive admission process such as that that exists here at Lawrenceville and several of the other schools that you may be looking at.

Everybody wants to know what are my chances, what are my chances, what does this look like? And I want you to sort of shift away from that for a moment for the next set of.

Slides that I'm going to give you and just start with percentages.

In a highly competitive admission process, it's about 17% admitch admission rate. We have been very clear about that since we started. But we've also given you insight on what the admission committee values that strong personal qualities you need talents, diverse perspective shaped by your circumstances and your ability to take advantage of what is within your own backyard, community etcetera. And the opportunities that have exist from there. And we're able to get a lot of that information from your letters of recommendation, your parents statement.

Your interview informs us as well.

As well as your essays. So those are the things I need you to sort of 0 in on. So now that we have gotten you grounded here, I want to talk about how you check your decisions, how you check your decision and what will happen on March 10th. Again, the portal is very important. You know, I put Little Miss Taylor Swift down here and gave her a last name. I'm not sure if she's still with Old Boy, but we'll see how this goes.

But make sure you have your portal and pin number.

Not PIN number, your portal and custom link and username and password ready for March 10th. You'd be surprised at how many families call Office panicked on March 10th because they can't open the decision because someone changed something. So now that 120 of you are here online live, please work with your child and make sure that your password is something that you both are familiar with so you can access the portal and the admission decision on March 10th.

Not 100% certain. When we release those decisions, it's usually a little bit before noon, but we will be in the office on Sunday to answer any general questions.

What happens on that day for families who don't receive their decision is it will say decision unavailable. And that's because it's likely that something is incomplete on your checklist. So if you hadn't turned in testing or maybe there was a missing letter of recommendation or transcript, that's what's essentially kind of holds things up. So what's important for you to double check your checklist and give us again a couple of days. I would say by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week we should be completely caught up. But if you have access to.

Your admission portal. Lots of that information can be directly uploaded if you want to work directly with your recommenders on managing that piece.

So March 10th comes. You open up your decision.

And hopefully you get in and we are super excited to present you with Discovery Days. Discovery Days are some are sometimes known in other schools as Shadow Days where you get to come back and visit and really see if Lawrenceville is the right fit for you. We hope that you will sign. We get some eager students who turn their contracts in on March 11th.

Morning of the next day. But we also recognize that we need to provide days for you to come back shadow classes, meet up with current students and see what a daily what a day in the life is like for a Lawrenceville student. This is for any admitted student grades nine through postgraduate. We have designated days and I'm sharing this with you now so that way you know that if you are a day student, day students, please understand that your special day is on Wednesday, April 3rd. Boarding students will have their discovery days on April 5th and Monday, April 8th.

And we find that this and this is very, very important for us to have these separate days because there are needs that the day students have regarding transportation, families need to get together. It's just a very different part, But it does not mean that you're not still part of the overall community. You will hear us discuss that quite a bit. But we also are giving the day students an opportunity to see that you are coming into a residential community. And being part of a residential community that is 2/3 boarding does require some additional layers of commitment, whether that's coming back to campus after 5:00 PM, having meals on campus getting dropped off fairly early.

If you are selected to join our community, and we hope that many of you will be, you will see that the pace and depth of the curriculum and the requirements are a little bit different. So we've designated these days specifically based on your status to walk you through a day in the life of each of these individuals. I need to under score that these are for admitted students only. In the past we've had wait listed students show up and we are going to discourage that. Sadly, we need to focus on the students who we've admitted.

And I'm going to talk about protocol for wait listed students as well as students who are unfortunately who are not given admission to Lawrenceville and denied. But again, being very transparent and helping you see the whole process in terms of what happens after January 15th and you submit so you can begin to prepare your family for the next steps of this process.

So now reality again. We start, we talk, Toe said. This was bold reality.

We and if you don't get in, we extend support to all students, including those on the wait list. Please be aware that Discovery Days are exclusively for admitted students, but if you are called off the wait list, your shadow day may just be a campus tour. So you need to refer to the admission pack mailed on March 10th and the online portal again portal portal portal Portal for Discovery days Details Your understanding is appreciated of course, and we aim to make sure that we create a positive experience for every student now.

This is where I'm going to move into the wait list. So that way you have some clear, a little bit of clarity in ways in which you can manage that.

So weightless, weightless protocol and again, fast forwarding. So, but I like to plan ahead. You know, if you met me, you see me. And I'm always running around planning and checking boxes and making sure I'm thinking of. I even bought myself a spring break outfit at Costco today. I'm not even lying. I'm so excited I put it in my suitcase. I'm thrilled. I mean, it's cold, but it gives me something to look forward to.

So for those planners, here's the protocol for wait listed students. We strongly encourage you to express your continued interest by submitting a letter through the admission portal. It's important to note that our wait list is not ranked, and while we may consider the limited number of students, any offers will be based on the overall composition of the applicant pool. So what does that mean?

What it means is on March 10th, when we go out with our offers and you saw where the Discovery Days are.

Are scheduled. We wait until after April 8th to determine whether or not we need to go to the wait list. It's not as if we'll have an answer for any wait list student on April 1.

Again, we have to wait until the dust settles and we get back answers from all of the students that we have made offers to originally. And so that's why we say families have to have families have until April 10th to let us know, but sometimes we get signals a little bit early if our numbers are coming in slowly that they are.

Not attending Lawrenceville? Now let me give you a little tip on etiquette post March 10th, especially post discovery this let's say for instance.

You were a boarding student and you get into three different schools and perhaps more. School didn't rank as your top choice and you want to go farther N across the bridge and some perfectly fine. It's very helpful for you to go back into the portal.

To decline the offer and we asked you to do that so we can automatically keep track of things and our numbers line up. You have to let us know if you're not coming. You would be surprised at how many families go through this process from August until April.

And then if they get in, they don't say anything. Now, we're not asking you to come by and, you know, we've been crying with us. You know, I'm used to getting left at the altar. I'm going to work to 40 different schools. Kids go left and right all over the place. I get it. I'm going to be the jilted bride all the time. But I need you to be aware that there is nothing. And I'm going to speak for several of my colleagues at different schools. The thing that really gets us the most is when we don't hear from you if you decide not to attend the school, because that ultimately holds up a moment for us to go to the wait list, to offer a spot to another student.

So let me go back to the wait list for a moment and give you some insight on how you can best manage this post March 10th.

Let's see.

AI, we used to call it in the college world. A continued letter of interest. It's a very simple update from the time that you interviewed or came to campus. You just want to give us some highlights. Here are the things I've been up to since I interviewed with you in in November. Please know that Lawrenceville remains my first choice since then, since the time that I met you.

And we talked back in insert date and time.

Insert the date and tell us a little bit about why it does not have to be long. It does not have to be a huge.

The essay of any kind, it's just a note, a continued letter of interest that gives us an idea that Lawrenceville is a place that you would love to land if we end up going to the wait list. So the part where I've mentioned that it will be contingent on the overall composition of the applicant pool.

So there are times, for instance I get to my let's say grade eleven. Grade 11 is sometimes the hardest one to fill but also leave a fewer applications there. And we may go out with let's say hypothetically 6 offers and we only hear from two students but we don't have. But we then have to wait to hear back from those, let's say 644 kids before we can make an offer off of the wait list. So we don't over enroll and therefore we would not have a bed for that individual.

So it really depends on the composition of the pool because the wait list isn't ranked and that's the first question everyone asks. We don't have a number, here's our number 123 or four, we tend to go wait list for need, right. Earlier I mentioned that I'm, you know what the things that we value in this process are several of the things that I've covered earlier. So we're if we lose.

A A goalie to Deerfield, then that means I've got to go back into my.

Wait list to find a goalie who would be interested and hopefully that individual is good or hasn't signed anywhere else but.

Again, it's about the unique talents, the diverse perspectives that shape your circumstance, and your ability to seize the available resources and opportunities that allow us to shape the late list. So it really is based on need, the offer I make to an individual that is an amazing.

Amazing French horn player.

But they decide to go to choke. Then I gotta get back into my wait list and find that talent and bring that up and hope that that talent hasn't already signed elsewhere. So that's the way in which the wait list works. Again, I'm giving you some very rough examples. Now let's say you are extending an offer off the wait list. You'll have anywhere from 24 to 48 hour window to respond to the counselor and sign our letter of intent. We do require you to put make sure that you respond to the counseling counselor in writing.

Typically we call the family 1st and we say we have an offer we'd like to offer. We'd like to offer your child a seat in grade.

It's a great, but we need to hear with you, hear from you within 24 hours.

Now we may not be, we probably will not be able to give you a full Discovery Day experience at that point because again this is a little bit after our Discovery Day date in April. So we will offer you a campus tour and you can likely meet with a student from your grade and sit down and chat with them. So we do our very best once again to make sure that we extend that support to you so you have.

Some insight on Lawrenceville altogether.

And then the last piece is for students who are unfortunately not admitted to Lawrenceville. And there are going to be some of those students, because it's an admission process, admit, wait list and denying. We have to be bold in making those decisions. But this is the reality of this process.

The things that students really want to know is why, right? You want to know why you were denied? How come you didn't get in? What can I do to get better? And this is the part that's a little tough. And I'm. I'm glad that we're online together tonight. So I can explain to you. Here's the process for students who unfortunately were not admitted to the school. Students who were denied from Lawrenceville may not call to ask for test corrections. That's what I call it. This is not a test correction moment, darlings. No, this is just one of those realities in the letter will explain to you.

That it is. It's a 17% admit rate moment and so you can't come back and tell us, well if I did, if I redo this or if I do that, would you turn over the decision. Now the children's generally don't call the children generally don't call this. The parents who try to call up and want to ask all of these questions, we're not doing that in March, April or May. Now what I will invite you to do however, is if you decide to reapply and there are several students who are re applicants, you can speak with a counselor after May 1st to get some insight on how to reapply for the following year.

Several times this year I've met some students who reapply and I try to spend more time focusing in on. Here are the things I want you to try to highlight for us in your file. So that way the admissions committee when we go back and look at your previous application.

We're able to talk about the growth in the comparison. So I will say after first you can call up and get some more insight if you choose to reapply.

Next year I'll have a question on the application to talk about to encourage the applicants to give us some more insight.

So you'll have that now. I do need to under score this yet again. Students denied from Lawrenceville should not expect, should expect the decision to be final. It's a final decision. Our committee will not overturn decisions made after they are released.

Once we give you a deny letter, the deny letter sticks. OK, so that is the bold reality of this process. Those parents who like to find ways to, you know, make it work for your child. We get it. But please, you can reapply. You can after May 1 give us a call me a little more insight, but we're not going to do this. Hey, if I come and be a day student instead of a border, would that change things? Oh, that's another one. I forgot to talk about that. We want to get to that in a minute. We've got some questions here in the.

Chat, but now's the time. Please ask away. This is the moment where, for the next half hour, I am fully committed to.

Helping you get some more insight again to this process. I appreciate you applying and I hope our transparency will give you a little bit more security on what we offer here at the school. So let me pull some questions to the chat and forgive my eyes and my squinting because I've been staring the screen all day.

And Edith wants to know, is the region based on your mailing address or residential address? Earlier I discussed that hours admission counselors read by region and essentially it's where you attend school.

So if you have a house in New Jersey, but you attend school in Hong Kong or Singapore, and you use your Jersey address.

As a way to think that you are a domestic student, we are reading you in the context of the pool in which you are currently going to school. OK, so I hope that helps. Again, this is more based on where you attend school.

Melanie wants to know if you have any, If she has any updates, what should she do? Go back to that portal. Think about Taylor Swift. Kelsey, I want you to embody the errors and all of that that exists for this young woman right now. If Taylor Swift was applying to this little school, honey, she would be on her portal uploading everything, everything, anytime, anywhere.

If it were Quinta Brunson, she would be uploading things to the portal. She wouldn't be sending emails because it gets to us faster by way of the portal. Again, 400 emails Miss Pat McKinnon comes into every day and if our we want to keep this train running, so.

If you have any updates, please make sure you use your portal. No need to send it to the admission counselor because they are going to read and see your application anything. I should also mention there are about 5 people who review the file together. Our committee of five and everyone has to vote so it's just not done in isolation. So hopefully that gives you a little bit more insight. I have another question about discovery days and who was able to attend. That's a great question Sienna. Discovery days are.

Open to families, parent and students. So we typically say parent, student, guardian. We sometimes have siblings, older siblings come down. We hope that you'll limit it to your party of no more than four.

Because we try to make room for everyone in the class, the parent session in the classes. So unless you have, if you have daycare issues with another sibling and you got to drag, I mean bring drag that one along, great. But please know that there will not be any daycare on campus for the younger one. That one has to come in tow and sit in class and be still. So bring something to occupy the other offspring, all right.

Tyler Not 100% certain when and what time decisions will be released, but the great thing about our system is that you will receive an e-mail from us about when you can expect to check your decision online. We will communicate that to you at least a week in advance.

OK.

Bobby, why don't Bobby's asking a question about his map test scores and it wasn't uploaded. If you're finding that the that you use the portal and something wasn't uploaded then or it's not marked as.

Received. Then go ahead and e-mail the admission inbox. If it's been that long and you haven't gotten that answer, then that's fine.

Jackson wants to know, can you visit Lawrenceville before the 10th for sporting events or performances? You most certainly can if you wish to do a tour. We will be doing tours all the way up until February 1st, but you are welcome to campus anytime between.

Now in March 10th, going back to questions.

Alright.

Good question. So Kaylee, let's let's stick with admission questions and scholarship aid. I'm going to skip over the all of the things in terms of what am I going to do during discovery days, all other stuff, you'll go to class, you'll, you'll have lunch with kids, you'll be able to meet coaches. You know that schedule is going to be outlined for you. But tonight I really want to focus on the details around.

What are What are some of the things that?

Impact the application process. So Kaylee's question is for students that are accepted.

Will scholarship aid that would preferably be offered also be provided on the decision of March 10th? Kaylee, great question. Here is the answer. Loving it.

Yes.

Your financial aid award, scholarship aid award will also be in the portal at the same time.

Excellent question. So when you click on and get your information on March 10th.

Your scholarship aid.

Decision will also be there, and my director of Scholarship Aide Lauren Gold will likely outline the appeal process.

During that time. So you should read carefully. I can't tell you how many times families forget to read stuff. And then you call our office in a panic and ask the question. And we're like, it's in your decision letter. Read the decision letter. You'd be surprised how much you can get out of reading the decision letters. So yes, Kaylee, thank you so much for that question.

Let's see.

Alright.

Besides the admission officers will subject Edith, Edith, is that correct? Is that what I'm saying here, Edith, besides the admission officers will, subject teachers, ambassadors, play a part in the application review process. We have a very tight group admission counselors who we truly love working with, who have their connections and eyes and ears around different departments. So, for instance, I work very closely with Matt Campbell, who is the Director of the Arts department, and he and I will.

You get information about all the artists that he is in need of, the around the different areas, performing and visual.

And there's probably one more that I should know about. But the great beauty about being in a residential community is that you're in constant contact. So Edith, there is some crossover with that, but our admission team is very laser focused and we try to bring in that information. We invite our coaches and teachers to give us some feedback on students they may have met.

Right.

Nolan wants to know. Hello Nolan, welcome. Here's the thing, and for those of you who are joining a little bit late, Nolan, not sure that your situation, but now that the application deadline has passed, could any missing recommendation be submitted through the Gateway link or does it need to be submitted in other ways?

This admission portal is probably best way to do it. Or if you end up giving your admission your gateway link to the teacher in question that might have submitted later, then yes they will. It'll then zip right up to your gateway application. Now if your teacher doesn't want to send you the letter of recommendation directly, then you can send it to our general inbox.

But again, make sure you send it just to the general inbox. Don't send it to your interviewer. Copy 100 people. Because again, it just slows things, slows things down.

Ella wants to know if she can update a coach. You absolutely can. I would suggest you speak directly with the coach. At that point, the coach will zip information over to us. You absolutely have.

Full access to the coach that you may have been in touch with or a teacher at that time, but please know that we are also.

Running into our.

Winters winter term, which is a little heavier than our fall term. This is where we pretty much take the training wheels off and get these kids ready for the college process.

Seniors are starting to go through the second round of college admissions decisions. We've got freshmen who are starting to really get into the nitty gritty of the day-to-day here at Lawrenceville. So things are starting to ramp up, which means response time from those teachers and coaches may not be in the zone that you are so used to receiving, especially in this very fast digital world of likes and chats and all this other stuff. So I'm going to encourage you to be patient. Just be patient and just trust that we will make sure that the good information finds its way to the top of the application pool.

I'm let's see.

I think that is about it. For all the questions someone wanted to know about SSAT scores and overall, Olivia, again, as I mentioned in much earlier sessions, don't get bogged down on the SSAT score. You know, our application looks at qualities of extracurricular, personal qualities, your academics. Again, that includes your teacher recommendations and your overall test score. We have a wide variety of test scores that come in, so it's not a matter of getting the perfect score that tips you over.

It's a it's again the things that I had mentioned at earlier in this process that will that our admissions committee does a really great job of pulling apart all the details and again you'll be surprised how much your teachers reveal.

So that would be great.

Additional letters of recommendation. Can you send it to the general admissions e-mail? Son, I would prefer at this time that you put them through the admissions portal. If you have the need to send another letter of recommendation, I say no more than two. We already have 3A principal rec, an English rec, a math rec, and then two more. No more than that. That's super helpful.

Anything past a certain hour, it just doesn't matter. Ellie, don't get bogged down in these details. If it's 30 minutes past midnight, it'll just be uploaded when it's uploaded. I am not sitting here at my desk worried about the here. Let me tell you exactly how I read and roll. OK, where's my little checklist here? Do you think I have a lot of time to sit here and look at all of this date time stamps here and say, oh, this kid got it in on the 27th for the December over the 10th of January?

No, I want to know what the content is to say about you. So don't focus so much on that. It'll get done, but you just need to be patient and recognize that there will be different layers to this. But don't get worried about the deadline as in when we're sitting somewhere counting the the hours and seconds that everything has been submitted.

Alright.

Overall numbers. That's the next thing everyone's sort of kind of worrying about. Darting my eyes over to my other screen because I'm trying to see what my ballparks are. Let me give you a general history because you will want to know how many, how many, how many? 9th grade? Again, our 9th grade is a little is the most selective entry point here at Lawrenceville. Some years I've seen 505 hundred girls apply for 9th grade. I've seen 600 girls apply. This year I might have 400. I don't know what the number is just yet. Again, it's only the 17th of January.

So let's stick with 505 hundred girls applied. That could be the average. Again, not so much. But I'm giving you a ballpark. It's definitely over.

To 350, right. Let's settle on 500. How many offers am I walking out the door with? Last year my yield for 9th grade girls was fairly high and we only slightly over enrolled. So we may pull back a little bit this year on the number of offers we go out the door with. And because we have to fill 40 beds we try with, our yield rate is anywhere from 60 to 70%. So maybe instead of going out with 80 offers, I go out with 7010 less because we've got to just pinpoint that yield. And many of the schools that you're applying to are doing very much the same thing. You know, it's yield management and they're trying to figure out, you know, where does Lawrenceville rank.

In your overall list of schools that you're applying to, because many of you are applying to lots of different schools.

So if we were to look at the 9th grade as the largest entry point, yes, I could. I'll use the same number for boys. For those of you who are jumping in, well, how many is it for boys? So let's say they're 500 for that going out the door with maybe the same number of offers, maybe 80 to get 40. But that's a 50% yield rate number of kids who say yes. That's why it's important for you all to communicate with us after the fact to say, you know what, if you want to go on all the way up to New Hampshire, great. Tell us no. So we can move on and keep growing through the process and we can offer admission and manage our numbers.

To see if there's any chance of us moving to the wait list. So that's how essentially that part works.

Everything counts in the application. Evelyn wants to know how much does it count towards? How much do essays count? How much does this count my percentages and numbers? It's really about what are how are you expressing yourself in the application, as well as the other things that are being said about you in the process. So.

The numbers are are not so much that.

I mean the percentages are are in a wide variety. How many do we get for 9th grade? Sophia wants to know on that 9th or not 9th, I'm sorry, 11th grade. So for 9th grade I gave you the numbers of say target 500. That's also includes day students for that matter. And the day student pool is far more competitive. I'm I'm really not gonna zip it, you know, really jump in on that. But it is it's fairly tight this year and it is going to be a very competitive pool because there are there's so much talent in this area which we are truly grateful for, but.

Our day student numbers are very strong.

There are a number of available seats for day students.

Tend to be much fewer seats for day students, so that number is probably leaving a little bit more selective. I save about 15%.

For For Day students, I forgot where I was with questions. I'll have to come back to that. I'm going to move on to the next one. It's 42.

I'm let's see.

That's a good one. About average number of wait listed students.

Let's go to.

Alright, now we'll answer these specific ones. Alright, Devin wants to know if we submitted your mid semester fall grades early in the process through Gateway and now have the final grade. Should we have our school registrar e-mail the transcript directly to the admission office? Yes. Or you can upload them to Gateway. Whatever the option, whatever option is easiest for you at this point.

Can work perfectly fine if you've given your school the the e-mail link to zip it up to your gateway file. My suggestion would be to go to gateway because that way it's going out to all the schools and not just one. So that way you have what you need along those lines.

Andrew wants to know the percentage of students who are wait listed. They're a lot. We put a lot of kids on the waiting list, right? But doesn't mean that at the end of your time there's a there is a healthy number of students on the wait list. I will say that again, it's a 17% overall admit rate. We may Crest into Where are we now? Let me see if I can get into the reader.

I think we'll get up to oh wait, I don't know. Well we're at 2300 applications right now so if if that helps in any way we're we're still waiting for other pieces to come in. Families who have to pay their their fee and if you need a fee waiver and you want to just you know they're about 250 students we're waiting payment if you need a waiver. Let's make this work just e-mail the admission inbox especially at gateway waiver Sao waivers.

So Sao waivers, I mean we can help you with that, but gateway ones are very, very easy to do. I'll just give you the waiver. Right now it's Doreen Weinberg and insert the date. So if the date that you decide to submit the application is February 1, put the date in and let's get this process moving.

Alright.

Do international students need to submit SSAT results? Yes, Cherry. You need to give us some form of standardized testing. That is a requirement. There's no getting around that. Standardized testing will not be waived in any way.

Kaylee, I hope I answered this earlier regarding day students. The day student piece is a tad bit more competitive and so when I said beds, it was just beds for borders, not for local day students.

Alright. Is there a preferred application platform, Gateway or Sao at this point, Edith doesn't matter, let's get it in. Since it's time to get this whole thing moving, we have no preference.

If we are missing information will the admission team? Kelsey wants to know if the admission team will reach out and there's a there's a slight chance that we will. But again all the power is in your checklist and through the portal that's why we give you that those amazing details so you can check on a regular basis to see that is everything is in And when I say regular basis once again maybe your teacher already sent it and is waiting to be uploaded and that's where my team has to come in and take go through those 400 emails.

Hopefully within one day or they are just waiting for the system to catch up and upload through itself. So I anticipate by next Wednesday things should be settled. But if you have been waiting since December or or November for things to show then please e-mail the admission inbox. But if you've just started this process after a holiday meal and jumped online and said oh I want to apply to boarding school, you are going to have to wait a little bit and that will.

Eventually, the system will catch up to us.

Right. OK. Now we got a couple more with some repeat customers. Drew, how you doing? I remember you from last time. Cortana. Yes, Drew. Honey, you could submit. Here's a book here ERB and SSAT. You can if you want. That's perfectly fine, no problem. I just need one. Whatever you choose to do, drove is on you Loving it. I am, Let's see here, 11th grade applicants. There are few, like for 11th grade girls, there may be five or six beds we need to fill. For 11th grade boys, there might be 8.

Again, once you move up in the chain of students.

Students graduate in 12 and everyone pushes out. We push the next class up. There are few students who leave at 11 and that's why.

It is.

A little thinner and grayed.

Let's talk about the TOEFL cause. Several of you are gonna see that TOEFL hanging out there for a moment. And can it be waved? Absolutely. That's a throwback from previous years and I still have to get rid of that piece. But if you've been in an English speaking school for more than three or four years, then that will absolutely be waived. Just send an e-mail to the admission inbox and someone will just collect a check off wage, all right.

Let's see. We have a couple more minutes. Do I get could I catch everything that was regarding the overall process? I talked very vaguely, been high. I gave you some examples vaguely, but I gave you some examples of.

9th grade, again 17% admit grade, it is fairly competitive but you all are are jumping into this process, jumped into this process and we appreciate it and we are very, very happy that you are moving through this. But we hope that your other schools that you're applying to are giving you a little bit more of this insight too. So that way you can balance this whole process in the best way possible, especially if you are a wait listed student. I think that's one thing after working at so many schools, one thing we never really did was to talk about.

What do you do after March 10th? What can a wait listed student do? And I think you shouldn't lose hope because here's the other thing that I'm seeing more and more these days. We will work all the way through July and you will get a notification from us to ask you maybe late may, do you want to stay on the wait list through July? And that's a little tough if you're a family who has to make a decision about another school or if you are.

Moving or you know those other things. So if you want to call the office and ask, we can give you the reality. Again, I am all about the bold reality of these, of this process. So that way you can make the decisions that you need to.

But I would say if you're wait listed that is not the end of the world. Do not lose hope on that. Just focus on creating some or submitting some additional updates as I mentioned earlier to express some continued interest in the school.

All right.

OK, Quickly about Discovery Days. Will Discovery Days match the classes that we're interested in taking? So Sophia, we'll do our very best to do it, but I think there's a questionnaire that we ask, you know, what are some of your interests? We try to pair you up with someone who has some athletic interest or some art interest.

But again, there'll be coaches available, there'll be folks from the art department available so you can ask those questions.

There'll also be people from our residential life community, residential life team, student services, college counseling.

And academic support. For those of you who have questions about academic support, extra time on testing, can you do this? Will they be able to meet the requirements that your child has had at the previous institution? If you are a family who is admitted to the Lawrenceville school during discovery days, you need to seek out the academic Dean and ask questions about pace, depth, and extra time. And you need to think about.

The best fit for your child, given what the requirements are or what we can offer. What we can offer.

For a family who is interested in extra time or has academic support needs.

Again for schools landing here in Lawrenceville haven't worked up north and coming back down here across the George Washington and settling here on route one, we've seen it all. But we also understand that the needs are greater and that doesn't and we also recognize that students are you in have have a lot of additional support around their academic profile.

When you come to a residential community where the pace and the depth and the daily schedule is much greater, you need to think about the balance.

Versus the name and dig into that.

Please, please, please make sure you have that honest conversation with yourselves before you sign your contract, as well as when you start to look at all the things under the hood of these schools, So that is important.

And that's where people get real quiet, because you want the bumper sticker, but you don't want the bumps in the road. So you need to think about where the best fit is for your child, whether it's Lawrenceville, Deerfield, and Overture, whatever it is. I mean, I like to chase a brand, but again, look at what those schools are offering. So that way your child has the best runway. In order for them to take off and launch every single year, not just Grade 9, you have to forecast be beyond just Grade 9 or 10.

That's the best piece of advice that I can give you as you move through this process. It's one thing to get to to be admitted, but it's one thing to stay above the tree line and have a great experience. I know what we do well here, and I know what we're offering our families when they come on Discovery Days. I'm empowering you to be.

Better consumers about this product.

But also come with those questions, but also have a real sense of who your child is.

And what they can handle on a daily basis without you being the executive director, chauffeur, hairdresser.

Sideline, coach, Whatever you want to call it. Because it looks a little bit different when you are in, when the child is in their own space having to manage herself. All right. Again, bold reality.

All right. We are at the 53 mark. I don't see too many more questions I am.

Let's see how many students generally apply for grade 10? About 200. How about we say 200 boys? 200 girls? How many offers am I walking out the door with this year? Might be a fewer than 30 on either side, right? That that should help you. But again, you've done everything that you could to put present yourself the best way in the application.

I don't have direct number and class sizes in terms of how many students are expected. Again, we have to settle that in 'cause there are some. It's it's a moving target. I'm not being vague. You know, if you, if you know me, know me, you know, I tell you.

It is. It varies every single year. It can vary by February. I could have two kids leave and decide to go.

Away for High Mountain Institute and you know hike out in Colorado. But because those applications aren't done yet so it does move every time we have to see how many beds we can actually fill. We will take standardized tests. Yes, those of you who are coming in and and asking these questions regarding testing, you will take any.

State standardized test and this recording. Alistair and others will be posted to the website. Yes, this will be recorded. You can listen to it over and over again if you wish.

And we hope this was super helpful for you. Again, I'm trying to make this process less daunting in a way, but it also give you as much insight as possible post March 10th and how to help manage your child's expectations through this process. The last thing I will sort of close out with.

When it comes to wait listed students.

Some of you may be fortunate enough to get into another school, and maybe you're holding out for hope that Lawrenceville is your #1.

And you're going to call every day and try to find out, hey, did I get off the wait list and I get off the wait list?

There is going to be a point where you have to give that other school a response, and the longer you wait, the less time they have to go to their wait list and maybe make an offer to someone else.

So if we are able to tell you what it looks like for grade 9 and the chances of you moving from that wait list, we might be a little vague first. But the bold if you want to, you know, ask me, ask me, I'll tell you.

But there are going to be moments where, yes, if you can hold out, great. And we've had some moments where their kids, we've made an offer to who may be enrolled in another school and they have to, you know, that's a tough one We're trying to hold. We're trying to roll back on that. But make sure you read your contract, especially for those families.

Who decide to enroll? And then life circumstances change and things happen and all of a sudden you can't come to the little fancy boarding school, right? Because now things have changed. Money, money got a little tight, you know, money got tight. So now I can't come. Guess what that contract says. You got to pay up 100%. So you all need to read. I'm not being funny on this. This is again 4-4 different schools and have seen this before trying to give you the transparency that you need in order to move forward.

Definitely read the contract before you sign and have the hard, honest conversations, parents, about your money and what you can do and what is affordable for you before you sign.

And be upfront with the scholarship aid office that's that's all we're going to say. But also know you know there's going to be a point where we're going to say that's it. Like there's moments where we may push back and say this is our final offer if you go through the appeal process etcetera.

Be kind to the people who are managing those numbers. Be kind to the people who are going to be on the phone, you know, taking tons of information. Continue to exercise that grace. For our staff, it's important to do that. If you come to campus and you are hanging out on discovery days with some of your friends, we know that there.

There is one way that you will engage and interact with your friends, but please know that you are still being reviewed by others on campus and people remember who that student was in their classroom who may have either fallen asleep.

Or said something offsides, or maybe was a little bit too intense. That stuff gets back to us a little bit too. So I am going to encourage you, as my mother would say, mind yourself as you move through discovery days, as you go through the process, kindness counts. And this is not something that I'm speaking directly to students about the parents as well. That is important. You'd be surprised at how many parents try to get live on March 10th and 11th. And then I get phone calls from my staff, Doreen and Pat, who were upset because they were yelled at by families for something they did not get.

Please don't make no, I truly hope that you know those of you who are tuning in are well above that. But there are calls I've had to make to remind parents that you know that's the the type of citizens and families we want in the school are going to exercise a little bit more of that kindness to especially our support staff. So with that we are the 855 mark or 858 mark. Excuse me and again I really appreciate everyone tuning in tonight.

There are several other few questions but I think we have covered everything from from testing to kids who a number of students in each grade. I've got to continue reading and I probably have some other emails to answer after this, but this will be posted to the website at some point. So I hope you found this helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again.

For going through this process, seeing us on the road, coming on to visit campus and we wish you all the best and we look forward to seeing you at Discovery Days and or helping you through the next stage of your process. Happy New Year to everyone and take care and goodnight.