Online Information Session: Application Tips- Advice to Hold Onto and Remember

Good evening and welcome back. Thank you all so much for being here tonight.

We're gonna wait for a few more participants to enter the room and we will get started. I'm just gonna put my screen dark for just a moment to ensure that my slides are loaded. Just one moment please.

I'm talking and we are on mute. I promise you I will start again.

Good evening. My name is Dana Brown, Director of Admission, and tonight I truly hope to bring you the information that you need in order to confidently move through the application process we are expected to.

See tonight about 200 or so folks online. And so as that number continues to climb, we are at the 802 mark. But again I just want to thank you for.

Checking in and for those of you who are hopefully who told me earlier that they couldn't hear me at eight O 1 and now it's 802, I wasn't here running my mouth for a whole hour. Thank you Owen, Alice and.

Valentina for letting me know. So that kind of confidence, that's the kind of checks and balances I'm gonna need tonight. I I really need to make sure I give you as much time as possible. But I do have to run back to dorm duty in my senior girls dorm promptly at 9:00 to check everybody in. So I'm gonna try to do my very, very best.

To get everyone in. And so while we're waiting, if you are in the chat, you can throw in where you're from. So we can do a little shout out and roll call and we will begin in a few minutes. So thank you so much. Noah from Princeton, thanks for checking in. I'm Max, I'm glad you saw it too because you kept pressing the mute button thinking I was on mute. But it wasn't you, it was totally me. Montgomery, Pennsylvania, Shanghai, China, New York. Metuchen. Hey, Metuchen, Route 27. Yay.

And all the way from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Ryan, thank you so much. And Devin, checking in from Manhattan Beach, CA. I hope it's warmer over there than it is a little chilly out in this area.

Atlanta, GA Thank you so much. And of course, New York City, India, Eastern Maryland. And Daniel from Oz. I love it. Let's get started. So.

I've got submissions and some values I want you to focus on tonight, but tonight we're I want you to understand a little bit about our team, my team of individuals in this office and many of you you've already met, whether they be on the road or you've had a chance to interview, is that we've really thoroughly interviewed your personal statements, letters of recommendation, and transcripts.

There's no real magic formula for for success, but tonight's presentation is going to demystify that application in a way, and I'm going to focus on several of the key areas.

That you're going, that we tend to look at in the application so you have a better sense of how to present yourself. Now here's a little secret, because you know, I love giving away tips and secrets, having worked at all those other schools before and now landing back here in the great state of New Jersey.

We know Lawrenceville is your your first choice and Big Red is your your number one goal, but in some ways you can probably use a little bit of this in other application processes. I'm not sure if my colleagues are logging on and giving you this insight, but this is a very broad overview so I would say you know take it for what it's worth. But I am going to 0 in on this the the parts that are specific to our application.

And here's a little bit about what we value. You know, we are a highly selective school. We we have an admission rate of about 17%. But here are the things that we do acknowledge. We acknowledge significant academic achievement while placing equal emphasis on a variety of factors. Our our committee values a few things strong personal qualities, unique talents, diverse perspectives, and the ability to seize available resources and opportunities.

So that could be you, whether you're playing on travel teams, whether you are trying to create something on your own at your school, you've taken initiative to do something. Those are the things we typically value. So parents will always ask, well, what are you looking for? What makes a really great Lawrenceville applicant? This slide really gives you the the sense of things in terms of what we.

Value and look for.

OK.

Here's tonight's agenda. Now throughout the agenda as we go through this presentation tonight, I am going to take a look at the chat. So if you have questions that you want to place in the chat, I'm happy to answer that a little. We'll be happy to answer your questions as we go through this presentation. So it's OK to pop those in there, but listen carefully because I'm, I try my very best to cover as much as possible to answer some of those questions that some of you have submitted well in advance.

So I'm happy to slide back to some things, but again, I have a hard stop at 8:55 so I am going to watch the clock.

And that way we can get through most of this. I am going to be back online after the new year, so if you still want to do another session, that's completely fine. But again, my goal tonight is to make sure you get that one-on-one attention. So here's our agenda. We most of you have already figured out how to apply, so I'm going to quickly go through that.

But connecting with us and visiting, some of you are still on the tail end of that as we move into January. And so I'll speak directly to where and how that will happen. Then I'll go through the admission criteria and ways in which you can add information to your application once submitted and then we'll go to question and answer. So I think we'll probably get through this by 8:30 and then we can answer several of your questions.

So very quickly, many of you are have already marked your calendars for these dates starting January 15th, you know that is our application deadline. It's also the scholarship aid application deadline. And then February 1 is our testing deadline. Several of you have already reached out and asked is it too late to take the SAT or any of the standardized testing SSAT or the standardized testing in January. And the answer is no. We will take a February test.

Perfectly fine. March 10th is our magic decision date and then we ask you to enroll with us hopefully by April 10th. So those are things that you probably are already super familiar with. Again, how to apply if you are just logging in to sort of figuring this all out. But many of you are in the AP class and is in the fast lane to get who have already gone through part one of the application either on gateway to prep schools or the standard application online. We applaud you for that.

But now we get into the 2024 tour and interview season. If you haven't done a tour or interviewed already, then we highly encourage you to make an appointment in January. We will have some tours up for grabs in January, Monday through Friday. Saturdays will be on the table, but they will be very limited and all of our interviews at that time are going to be online. We will only do tours in person, so if you haven't gotten that together yet, we encourage you to do so.

Those students who live in countries that are required to do very can't. We're going to.

Highly suggest that you get that done by February 10th given that there are holidays on on the on the horizon for many of you in that country, so hopefully if you already made your appointment.

To secure your vericant interview, so this should take care of the information you need for 2024 tours and interviews. Those of you who've already come through, Fantastic, we're psyched to see you. I see some of you already in the chat giving a shout out from Long Island all the way out to Shanghai, China, New York City.

Mercer County and Minnesota. So thank you very, very much for doing that and coming out to see us. You are all set. You don't have to do another interview or take another tour. But again, for those of you who are moving into the 2024 season with tours and interviews, just know that we are doing limited tours in January and then all of our interviews are online. There are no more in person interviews beginning January 2024.

So let's talk about the part with connecting with coaches, art directors and instructors. Some of you have probably already reached out to those individuals and some may have gotten back to you. Others may not have. Let me break down what essentially that correspondence means. You know, our teachers here are who are coaches do wear many hats and they do several different things. For instance, I got to run back to Reynolds dorm and and check in students around 9:00 PM some of my colleagues.

For coaching sports earlier today and they have to go home to their families and then jump back into the dormitory. So as you know it's it's a very fast-paced life for the adults here and for all the prospective students who are coming through. Connecting with either a coach or an arts instructor may not happen at the time of your appointment, but do not worry, some of those coaches will either reach out to you personally or maybe encourage a member of their team to reach out to you.

For those of you who are interested in the arts, these are all of my dance, music, theater, as well as visual artists. The art department has put together a special form that we will send out to you to fill out hopefully by January 1. You should check your inboxes for that form. They are going to use that information to create some sort of follow up with you, so there will be a special form for any of the artists who have checked off that as a special interest.

And the art department will follow up with you with a Google Form that asks you very specific questions about your arts interest. So I just want to make sure that we're all aware that, yes, coaches are sometimes available for during your appointment, but they may reach out by e-mail. Understand this. It is not the end of the world if the coach does not reach out to you or get back to you. We wear again many, many hats, and we will actually have a chance to speak with several of the coaches during our admission committee, should they?

Want to highlight any of the students?

Or artists or students who have expressed special interest in other subjects in different areas.

All right, couple of reminders for my day students, Day students, I hope you are here and listening carefully. Day students, we are defining the boundaries within which families are expected to apply all candidates outside the boundaries that you either see here or you can actually get a better glimpse of that on our website. Through the map. You will be considered borders. If you were outside this red line, you will be considered a border family. And here's the the science and the breakdown behind us, essentially.

A family's legal permanent address.

As listed in the application is used to make that determination. So how are we determining that if you are currently living outside that boundary, outside this state, and intend to move to this area, we will still consider you a border? Please understand that I am quite sure my colleagues have probably mentioned that at some point during the interview if they did not allow me to introduce yet again the day student perimeters and the whether you're in bounds or out of bounds.

My colleagues in the office will follow up with families who have indicated day who are outside of the bounds and actually under score this policy yet again. Now any There are some potential rare, rare, rare exceptions to this policy and they will be determined on an individual basis for those of you who have high hopes of landing in the 0863808648 zip code Mercer County within that little red line.

Please know that we intend to use your legal permanent address at the time of the application to make the determination.

OK, now we get to the fun stuff, the admission criteria.

So here are the different criteria that we use to evaluate the application. We've already talked about the interview. For those of you who haven't interviewed, we're only doing online interviews in January. So there's that piece. There's part one of the application, which is essentially just a biographical information, name, address, phone number, some other listings about the your activities and things like that, as well as a student statement, a parent statement. The student statement is something we call more like the essays. That's what I'll refer to.

In the next couple of slides, the student statements are the essays, parent statement, transcript, and testing, as well as letters of recommendation.

I just want to reiterate yet yet again as we climb to about 135 participants in this webinar, here are the things that we value before we go into breaking down SH short answers, parent statement and transcripts. We are a school that is highly selective. We're about 17%. But again, we acknowledge the achievements, the academic, the academic achievements. While we place equal emphasis on other factors, we value strong personal qualities.

Unique talents, diverse perspectives shaped by your individual circumstance and your ability to seize available resources.

And opportunities, I want you to keep that in mind as we start to breakdown parts of the application.

So in the essay and short answer.

The really cool thing about the short answer questions and when when our team was designed them, is that we decided to make them ways in which we can understand different levels of success. We wanted them to reflect ways in which you navigated challenges, embrace triumphs, and also showcase how you would introduce yourself to our our community. The first question asked you to introduce yourself to the.

The dorm By way of a either song, a poem, or something special. We've read everything from a keepsake that a grandparent has given a student to a favorite song, or maybe even an object that they cherish the most. It could be a soccer ball. It could be a basketball. Anything that defines you. It can be an object. And in that first short answer question, we're envisioning you in our space and in our community. Introducing yourself to the.

Members of your community. So that's how we came up with the the.

You know, this the design behind those questions, but what we're trying to look for is a little bit of, you know, for not only to you could be yourself, but to showcase all of those talents in the ways in which you have come through.

You operating through any challenges or triumphs, So what? Keep that part in mind as you go through the application.

The chat again is open now for you all to drop in some very specific questions.

I'm going to spend a little bit more time on the parent statement because this is the one that everybody you know kind of stresses over in a little bit. This is the adult part. This is where your parents need to lean in closely and listen to what we are looking for in the parent statement, but also how we hope that you'll present us with a balanced perspective of your child. At the end of the day, we understand that parents naturally prioritize their children. You are the the biggest champions for the most precious come out of your life, and we honor that.

But we encourage you to share a well-rounded perspective of your child.

The reason why we ask this is because what I try to what I will do once students are admitted is I move through a plan to pass along details to my heads of house level directors or any advisors about ways to have really strong, really strong relationships or connections. Whether it's about academic support, whether it's a focused on Wellness. Those are the reasons why those questions, the reason why those questions are in place is because I need to do a handoff to the folks who are essentially going to be taking care of your children.

Within these dorms. So your parents statement is super helpful and it gives us that balanced, balanced perspective.

Essentially, your collaboration with us ensures a successful launch to the vibrant school life that we have here at Lawrenceville. So by holding back a little bit does don't say prohibit you in any way, but it just doesn't give us a full picture.

Our team has chosen to leave on the COVID question that we have had on there since I believe 2020. And we realize that some of you are still working from home, jobs have shifted, some of you are still online depending on what country you're in. And that's primarily because it just works out better that way in the shift. You know, didn't want, you didn't want to make that change or perhaps you have stayed in a school system and finished up since COVID. So feel free to use that space to explain a little bit more about.

Here's the you know, two to three or four years ago, up until where we are now. This is where you know our family is. So don't be afraid about that either. That the questionnaire on the backs also gives opportunity for families to highlight any natural disaster. For instance, if you were in the floodplain areas of any place that has been affected by hurricanes, tornadoes or Mother Nature's wrath in any way, and you've been displaced, we encourage you to talk to us about that in the last.

Section of the parent statement. It's helpful for us to gain a better insight from there. So we have covered so far the essay and short answer.

Parent statement. And now I'm going to move on to the transcript. The transcript we're looking for probably the last three years of your academic success at a school. If you're a homeschooler, or whether you're a student in an IB program or taking online courses or hybrid of online courses, we understand transcripts. You'd be very surprised at how many transcripts we read from over.

I think we're maybe last year up to 2025 hundred applications, a little more for 3000, maybe by the time we got to the end of the summer. So we are looking at a wide variety of subjects from across several different countries. So we understand a lot of those different transcripts. If you're a student who has moved to different schools during that time, we're going to ask you to reach back to those institutions and forward us that information because it is going to be helpful for us to get a better picture of you.

Across those three years.

Teacher recommendations. I call this the heart of the application because it really does offer that authentic insight to each applicant. That valuable context that teachers provide also gives my readers and IA chance to understand the the transcript. And it complements the parent statement in a lot of ways too. So if you wish to include additional letters of recommendation, we always get this from families. You know what if on my?

Swim coach wants to write something.

Or someone from our religious community would like to write something. We encourage you to add that, probably up to two additional letters of recommendation, and we ask that you upload them directly to the Applicant portal. And I have a separate section on the Applicant portal coming up in just a moment and we'll walk you through that as well. I am so again, the teacher recommendations for those of you who may have just asked your teachers.

To submit those teacher recs by January 15th, we give teachers a lot of room.

Meeting an extension to submit those letters of recommendation. And as you go through the application process, do not fret if you don't see the teacher. Rex checked on January 15th and I'll spend more time talking about how the applicant portal and the checklist all works in just a moment, but we will give your teachers plenty of time to actually.

Submit the recommendation to us. So if you haven't done so already, I encourage you to take a moment to.

Maybe do an introduction of yourself, or maybe a list of activities that you do outside the school and that way they can speak directly to some of that if they are doing a written letter recommendation, the more context and information you can give to them give to your teachers about yourself and what you do outside of school may help make a more robust, robust letter of recommendation.

Let's talk about standardized tests. Old Lawrenceville. Lawrenceville. You're the school that is the only one that requires testing. Why are you still requiring testing? Well, here's a good thing. We gladly accept a variety of tests, such as state standardized testing. So if you are, your state is back to testing you for reading and math, then we will take that state test.

We will take the SSAT, the IC and ERB and a CTAPSAT or ASAT. We'll take all the teams. If you have one submitted right, don't fret over it. There's no magic number for acceptance. So for those students who are super Uber professionals or the intense overachiever who feels like they need to go ahead and get that high score, let me put you to, you know, let me hit you to something a little bit, a little bit of a secret.

Testing fatigue is a real challenge. That's a thing. Don't over test and do it more than you know one or two. Don't do it more than I would say. Don't take it more than twice. Our Dean of Enrollment has sat on many college boards and looking at how testing fatigue and what that means for students and where you actually improve. It's not by that much. So don't get fixated on achieving a top score. What I suggest that you do is you redirect that energy towards the aspects you can control.

Maintaining strong grades, crafting compelling essays, and participating in class. Your efforts are going to be what truly matters in this process. So I'm giving you an overview in terms of how to just shift the way in which you look at these tests. It is just a simple data point for us. Again, there is no magic number for us on that test. We just need that as an overall data point. It doesn't push you in or out. OK? So hopefully that gives you some context into the pieces that we just discussed again.

Over essays. In short, answer your parents statement.

Transcript.

Your teacher recommendations.

And standardized tests. I don't see too many questions in the chat, so please jump on in. If there's something I haven't covered, let me know. Now. We're gonna keep going and I'm gonna talk to you about my favorite part of the application, because this is what you all are gonna need from now until.

Probably February 1st, the admission portal. The admission portal is probably the coolest thing that you have that controls where you can put the most control into the process. So for instance.

Several of you are on.

Let's see transcript. Several of you may not get final grades until after January 15th, and that's perfectly fine. Trust and believe we are. I am not reading on January 16th. It takes us about a good three or four days, sometimes a week, to get all of these.

Different pieces of information zipped up to your file electronically, but the admission portal allows you to do that right away because it grabs all the info and.

Puts it right directly on the checklist. So that's the the power of this admission portal. Now here's the cool thing.

The admission portal is crucial for monitoring your application status. It will also feature a checklist of missing or required pieces, and it's the part that delivers your admission decision in March.

So you must get access to this portal. Now this is where everybody pops up in the chat and says I didn't get the e-mail. Well, guess what? We sent it to you back in November. That's only if.

You have completed part one of either the Gateway or the Sao. You should have this e-mail, so go back to November and check for the Subject line Applicant Status Page Access October slash November. Begin Lawrenceville Admission Portal Access. It's all spelled out in the subject line.

So you don't have to fret good old re applicants. Where are you if you're only here listening? Check in or raise your hand If you're watching this as a recording, You can use this portal to update us on any changes since the last time you applied for admission. This is my summer project to change a couple of those questions for the applicants. You all got away with it this year? Good for you. It's the same set of questions, but don't write the same thing that you did last year. Just send us a little update on what you may have changed for you since 2020.

Through 20/22/23, the last time you applied, I'm now going to breakdown for you what this e-mail contains. Again, the e-mail you received contains your username, a pin and a custom link for activating the portal. So for instance, our applicant, Miss Taylor Swift, kelsey@gmail.com.

Was sent a link as her username is pretty much her Gmail account as well as a pin number and her custom link. Once you click on that custom link you can change the.

Change the password and maybe copy and paste that somewhere for your family to access. I will say this, this is when on March 10th.

Once the decisions come out, sometimes the username is under the student's name.

And the parent is so eager to check the decision and that the kid is at school or they're away at some sort of immersion camp or on the moon. I don't know where you all are by the time March 10th comes around, but I get called every morning on March 10th in the office that they can't access their decision, and that's likely because the username is under the student's e-mail address and not a shared e-mail address.

Or they forgot the pin or the custom link. So it's important for you all to check it now so you are not in a position of full on panic come March 10th. So again, this admission portal is so key and very very important you receive this back in November.

And it is what you can use to update anything, including multimedia links, including additional letters of recommendation. If you even have a transcript that you want to send to us by the portal, use.

Admission portal. I will tell you where things slow down. If you were that family who was a triple and double checking and you want to send it to your interviewer, copy the admission inbox and copying. Me too many people, I'm putting the power back in your hands by using the admission portal. So remember our our fictitious applicant, Miss Taylor Swift? Kelsey. Miss Taylor Swift. kelsey@gmail.com with her pin number and custom link is able to jump on. Sao is able to jump on.

And check her admission decision on March 10th. Not sure if I'm going to accept her if she decides to go with Travis, but that's a whole nother situation.

All right. And so I promised you I would stop at 8:30 to see if there were any questions. You all have been mighty, mighty, mighty quiet. No, you haven't hear the questions right Here was in the chat. Fabulous. So I'm going to stop for a second and try to answer some of these questions and push them over to the chat, alright?

All right, so.

Jasmine has a really great question about are the student essays and parents statement the same as the ones we fill out on Sao? Great question, Jasmine, they are not. The gateway application has very different essay questions than the Sao application. So essentially the Sao was very standard questions that a admission office would like to have a parent answer but you.

They they pretty much align in the same way. So they're totally two different sets of questions.

The next one over here as to the application has asked for a recommendation from a current principal. Would there be exceptions for students who have been in a school less than a term? So we do ask for a current principal, and we are going to encourage you to find an adult on the administration to answer that. Because they are going to answer questions about tardiness. They're going to answer your question about just your overall placement in the class if your school does rank in any way.

That's primarily what we're asking for there. So whether you've been there less than a term or not, we're going to encourage you to find that.

Individual to do that.

Yes, Darshan is asking us about Are the essays strictly restricted to 1000 characters? Let me be real clear about these little characters now.

Whatever the characters say, do them because it will cut you off. So make sure you find somebody to edit your little essay so that way you're not sitting somewhere on January 14th fully panicked about essay question #4 not fitting into the allotted space.

Alright.

RIA wants to know how should we act if our school lets out semesters grades after January 15th, we again. And this is for every student. If there's any grades that come in after January 15th, we will happily take them. We are not going to shut your application down or penalize you in any way.

And you can send those grades to us. Once you have them, you can upload them directly to the portal.

Alistair wants to know if you can submit a creative writing sample. Certainly the portal's yours, darling. Go ahead and submit everything that you want. That's absolutely correct. You can do however you wish on that.

Darren asked how many people on admissions committee? Great question. So essentially they're anywhere from four to five people who are voting members on the admission committee. We all sit around a big table, we put the students profile up on the screen and we spend some time reviewing different parts of the application. Some of us will take the essays, some of us will look at letters of recommendation. We all sit for a moment and then we vote in mid wait list or deny it.

OK. Again, there's also discussion. There's a lot of discussion. I should say. It's not that cut throat. There's tons and tons of discussion. Chloe, I'm going to get back to your question. I am about that and.

The other questions here are about part one of the Sao. You just have to log on to the Sao website that is listed in.

In this area here, if you haven't done this part yet by completing an inquiry or going online to our main web page, then please do so. I'd love to spend more time on asking, answering more detailed questions, less about where do I find teacher Rex, when do I complete part one of the application? We are well beyond that. It is December, it is my, it is basically January. These kids pack up and they are going home on Thursday. I get to see McDonald's on Saturday. I am so excited. So you know folks are ready for the holidays.

So if you haven't done the part yet, in order to get this piece to apply, spend some time after this webinar to get all of this done.

Let's go into Noah's question because I think this will help several of us.

No, if you don't mind, I'm gonna pop yours into the group chat so everybody can see that because I think it's a very good thorough question. How long do the motion and athletic video be? And for the drama should that length of how long should the any athletic or?

Art video, Drama Video B and.

Yes, it's OK if things are released after January 15th, you can send mid semester grades for grade 8 and if you've already have them, that's what you have. If we need anything else, our team will be in touch with you. So let's talk about multimedia links and videos. I think they actually in the in the portal they tell you what the file size is. I would say you should feel free to make sure that whatever you're sending, oh, this is the best part.

No. If it's you or 200 of the other kids who are on here right now, you should. Or 1:36. Sorry, I you should definitely highlight who you are in that video. I don't know if that's possible. Some of you are really great at you know, putting that little tiny arrow and play and and making that little tiny arrow follow you through the motion of the video. There is my dance teachers, my dance teacher here, Mr. Derek Wilder. He and I do sit side by side and look at some of these videos and you'd be surprised at how many times he turns to me and says.

I'm not sure who little insert name of applicant is here that I'm supposed to be looking at, but I hope it's he's looking at the best dancer on the floor, he says Could it be her? Could it be this one? Could it be him? We don't know who you are unless you highlight yourself, so make sure you find some way to highlight yourself or give us some direction to say I am the third one from the left.

In in certain name of clothing, or the number at which you are, or the number that's on your jersey.

All right. If you are a student such as Abby who has taken classes elsewhere, like Johns Hopkins or summer program, yes, absolutely. Submit those through the portal.

The absolute deadline Kelsey 4 letters of recommendation for teachers. You know we see things all the way up until February 1st. My goal is for you all to get this done and off of your plate by January 15th. Teachers are are going to have their stuff trickle in and so if by the time I really start digging in with my team and we end up doing our committee review.

It's typically the end of January, but your portal will explain to you they'll have a big red X question mark there. If you haven't submitted it, you'll be able to see it and we will actually send out some additional information for you to or reminder reminder to make sure you get that done right.

Let's see, What else do we have? I wish I could say, Gabby, there was any. We don't have early decisions, so there's no benefit to turning it in early, but at least allows you to miss the crowd in a way. And then also just gives you Peace of Mind. So if you can hit submit, hit submit. I've got counselors who are reading files over the Christmas break, which is awesome. Bella Decisions will probably be released after 8:00 or 9:00 AM on April, March 10th.

And there is no preference, Alan, on whether we do Gateway or Essayo.

There is some restriction Ryan on the length in the gateway, so make sure that.

You.

Have your essays edited properly? Brian wants to know. There should be Should the additional recommendation letter be uploaded to the portal by the applicant or directly sent to the admission office by the teachers? So here's the deal, Brian. Like that's the tough part, right? Some of those people who wish to write an additional letter of recommendation?

May like to send it directly to the school and that's fine, but if you can get access in your hands on it and the PDF then totally upload it, that's fine.

All right, we will begin.

Terrence wants to know after January 15th, will you start reading the applications if the teacher recs are not arrived yet? The answer is no. We only read full, complete applications. And again, that's why we were going to take about another three to five business days to make sure that our system catches up with everything. Because some of you are going to send it to the admission inbox no matter what. I know it will send it to the person that you interviewed with. You're going to copy the inbox. You going to copy, copy, copy, copy, copy.

And then my support staff is going to say leave it, we've got it, they'll handle it. There are two people who are in our processing department. And so you can imagine the thousands of emails that they get between now and January 15th. There is no preference between Gateway or Sao. I'm perfectly fine with either one.

Lena, we're going to get back to the application. I mean, not the application. We call it the interview. In just a moment, Leah wants to know how much does the interview count in the application. So here's the piece about, you know, I did not add the interview in this because we realized that interviews, they are, they are part of the application. But in terms of the heart of what we're looking for, we decided to focus on those pieces because those are the things that you control and many of you have already gone through the interview. You probably get a sense of how well your interview went.

After speaking with your admission counselor. But we also know that interviews depending on mood and jet lag or traffic on a bridge or those who came 1520 minutes later forgot that they had and it didn't thought they signed up for an interview and showed up anyway. All of that stuff doesn't really, I mean it doesn't factor into a number sense for us in the application. So we do look at the interview, but I get tonight I wanted to focus on the pieces that you absolutely have true, true, true control over.

I'm let's see.

Are there any set restrictions in the portal? No, there are not.

Robert wants to know about the percentage of students that are international. We're about 17%. No, we're about 18%.

In in.

International students, so hopefully that answers your question.

Students who are looking to connect with different teachers and different departments. The math teacher.

The English teacher you know. These folks are super busy and I'm not certain what they'll essentially be able to highlight for you at this late date. But we will put you in touch with someone who maybe a student who was on the math team so that that might be helpful too, for those of you who are looking for something specific in a different discipline.

Lucian Sinclair is asking can you submit a letter of recommendation from a musical teacher outside the school? Yes, darling, that is what the portal is for.

If little Taylor Swift kelsey@gmail.com decides that she wants to submit a letter of recommendation from, I don't know, one of her producers, then sure, let her producer write her something and submit it so you have that option.

Galilee is asking for a little bit more clarity around the COVID question. Is the intention to share how COVID affected your child's education? Absolutely. You'll see that it is a COVID checklist. That means a checklist that has a variety of factors in it that asks how you were impacted by COVID. We have had families continue to answer that question for us by saying.

You in grade seven and eight are student you know or did not, whether it was hybrid or maybe they had.

To switch schools, whatever you wish to add to your parents statement around the and how how COVID may have impacted you, we have left that there for you. All right, Jasmine, Jasmine is looking for saying that she did not receive.

A PIN number or she didn't receive an e-mail about that. Jasmine, here's the deal. You've got to go back and make sure that if you've completed part one of the Sao and Gateway, you received the e-mail in November. If you did not complete part one, be in touch with the general inbox admissions later on tonight or e-mail me after this as I run back over to the dorm in about 15 minutes.

And I will take a look in your file to see if I can help you.

All right, Michael wants to know the other awesome question that I just kind of glazed over and didn't really answer. How many applications did we get every every year?

Last year and I'm looking over at my other screen, so excuse my eyes for a minute. I think we're about up to 2800 applications every year overall and so maybe we'll Crest 3000 so.

I hope that's where we're headed for 2024.

Yes, the international students are required to complete some form of standardized testing. If you are an international student and you cannot get to the SSA, the SAT, or the SSAT or any standardized test, we will take a MAP test.

Bobby, Bobby wants to know if you are submitting the map testing and have the scores in the PDF, can you can you submit it through the admission portal? Yes Bobby, that's exactly what that admission portal is for. We are so happy that you were catching on and answering that question because guess what, If little Taylor Swift Kelsey decided that she was going to take a math test or had APDF, she would be submitting it through the portal too. So that is awesome.

Noah, it is not too late to access the admission portal by submitting part one.

You can totally do that as soon as possible so you can get your portal all right.

Let's see what else.

Aurora. That's a beautiful name.

OK Aurora, your your question is very specific so let's e-mail me after this again, this is about day students darling hit me up after this.

I.

Who should a student ask to review their essays?

For the best result.

English teacher.

Maybe a student who has attended boarding school. I would say find a trusted adult who knows punctuation well.

Maybe not ChatGPT 'cause we we we pick up on that too, so let's not go to that route. So find a human, a good human who knows you well.

To answer that for you.

I am.

And.

Alright. And Robert, again about 10th grade. So that's one other area. In terms of entry points, we do take students in grade nine. That is our largest entry point, but we also take students in grade 10.

We will go out depends on what the numbers look like for 10th grade girls, 10th grade boys. We might see 200 applications for admission in either of those pools to grade 10 boys or ten grade 10 girls. The number we go out with depends largely on how many 9th graders decide that they want to come back or how many 11th graders are rising. Rising 11th graders are going to come back, so that number fluctuates. Last year we were targeting anywhere from 35 to 38 students in either end 10th grade boys, 10th grade girls.

30 ish was our main number last year. This year that number may change because again I'm dealing with a new class of nines who are rising up to 10 and my 11, my current 10s who are going to stay in as 11. So again that number fluctuates. Target number to be safe I may go out with 30 or so offers.

All right. Does it make sense to submit more than one test? No.

All right. Next question, just stick to one test.

I.

Let's see what else.

Any other questions? Should I submit a personal recommendation even though it's not listed in Gateway? So Robert, here's the beauty about what this admission portal can do for you. You can submit an additional letter of recommendation through the admission portal, have that person send you APDF of what they did for Gateway, or maybe on some additional letterhead and zip it right on up through the portal. You are a all set for that. I'm not going to focus on the average test scores for Lawrenceville because that is just one of those things again where you get fixated on a score.

Again, I'm trying to push you away from trying to you look at this process as do I need to target a certain number?

This slide kind of gives you the direction in which we want you to go for that.

Let's see. Those of you who've asked about getting in touch with alumni, we'll be happy to put you in touch with current students. Let's let's focus on that and we'll be able to do that. Yes, we do some super scoring for standardized tests, so if you have taken it once or twice, we will take the best score within that.

I'm Claire. Claire. OK, Claire. I see you, honey. Here we go. Second question, you didn't get accepted on March 10th. Could an applicant get an additional acceptance after April 10th?

I'm you're curious if acceptances go out and if so, does Lawrenceville select additional acceptances in their place? Oh, Claire, Fantastic question, darling. Here we are. So this is my next webinar after you submit your application on January 15th. I'll log back on three days later, let the dust settle, answer more questions for you and give you some insight in terms of here's what's happening in our office right now in terms of when it comes to again the admission portal and the checklist that you're going to see.

The information that we're asking you to provide for us.

But I'm also going to dig in on, OK, what do you do with a wait list? What does that mean? What is that? How can I best showcase myself during this season? I'll get to all of that after January 15th. But yes, many schools, including ours, do business after March 10th. So if you're not accepted and you're wait listed, then we will look at the wait list. We won't go to the wait list until after April 10th, maybe a little bit before, depending on if we are tracking low in certain grades.

So for instance, and we're seeing that we have gone out with let's say 4 offers in.

For grade 11 girls and only one of them has replied and we haven't heard from three and it's April 9th, then we probably are getting the the hitting signal right? You all are. I want you to think table turn after after March 10th, right. Then you all are online and doing the most and then once you get your little acceptances you kind of leave us at the altar. I get it. I understand. So I am going to successfully coach you through the proper etiquette in terms of how to engage after March 10th, particularly if you are a wait listed student.

What that looks like from April, from March 10th to April 10th and sometimes beyond. Because schools are going to do some weightless visit business in the summer at times. Should there be any what we call summer melt, OK.

Oh boy, we got so much more questions. Claire, I hope that answers your question.

Do you want international applicants or are we? Great question.

International students, do you all have to take the TOEFL? Here's the deal. If you've been in an English speaking school for more than two years, that question is still lingering on there. I don't know why I haven't zipped it off yet.

You don't have to take the TOEFL, just focus on the SSAT and the ACT. I'm I'm really not pressed about this TOEFL anymore, unless you really, truly are.

Wanting to take it, take it. But you have enough options here under standardized test to focus on that. Don't stress yourselves out. All right. I think we are at what was the 52 mark? I told my dorm head. I'm going to be back in a few minutes. Those day students who were clamoring to get some more insight on, you know, the things that you did. I'm going to encourage you to reach out to me by e-mail tonight. I'll pop that over to my assistant in the morning. We can talk. Or if I have some time in between check-in by in between checking in these.

You know 35.

12th grade girls, I will do my best to answer that for you. We are going to wrap up shortly.

Let's see a couple other different questions here.

OK, Max, great question. He wants to know, do our U.S. citizens living abroad considered international students or domestic or does it make a difference? So Max, here's a really great question and I'm glad you asked that. So we basically reach you by school groups. So if you were AUS citizen living abroad.

We are going to read you based on the context of all of those other kids who are applying from your school. We do not read by citizenship. So if you are AUS citizen in South Korea, Singapore, China or Malaysia, we are reading you based on your school group HKISSAS.

HSHSHSID Web Wherever you go to school, we are reading you within that context. Eaglebrook Rectory. You could be. Princeton Junior School. Lawrence Middle School.

Rahway High School. Wherever you were reading, wherever you are applying from, we are reading you within that context of your school group, not by citizenship, right? Hopefully that helps.

What else? What else? We are winding down, so I'm going to slow down just a second day. Students, if you have specific questions DE brown@lawrenceville.org, you can find me online. I'm the only one online that looks like this, so it's not going to be hard to find me. You can catch me tonight.

What else can we answer?

Gateway application. There's no question for S for essay, just an open box that asks for student reflection. Here's the deal, Ryan again. Power the portal. Power the portal is all yours. If you want to write a supplemental statement telling me about the great things that you have achieved, darling, please upload it to the portal. I'm quite sure if little Taylor Swift Kelsey was applying here to this school, she would like to tell me about her ever store. She would like to tell me about all the things that she was able to do in the last, I don't know, 365 days. So again.

I am giving you true access to highlighting your best self through this admission portal.

Push it through the portal. All right. Alistair, I appreciate your last question and shout out here. Alistair said that this was helpful. I really hope that it did highlight what you needed to see tonight. If you've made a documentary video, if you have got some multimedia links, that is fantastic. Please make sure to put it up through the portal.

The admission office will be closed.

I am starting Friday, I think Friday all the way up to January. I think we come back to 3rd, but you can find that online and go from there. And we will do our best to answer questions through the admission portal, not the admission portal, through our general admission inbox. But at this point, you should be able to log back in and get as many questions answered through these videos that we have made. All right. Darren Lara, Rita, Aria, thank you so much. I appreciate you all hanging there.

Noah, awesome to see you again. Thank you so much.

I'm Rhea. Have a great night. William and Max, thank you for your great questions. Max. Cindy, I see you as well, Claire, great for you to ask that question as well. Chloe, Alexis, Jasmine. Vignette again 100%. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope this was helpful. Not to stress you out, but to give you some thoughtful ways to approach this application, breaking it down by pieces, understanding the admission criteria as well as understanding the things that you may have to get some more clarification about, particularly day students.

Day students who are living outside this border, You can e-mail me tonight. DE brown@lawrenceville.org Luke Video Grace and Arthur. Thank you so much for tonight. Lucy and Sinclair, super happy to see you all again tonight. Billy, It was great to see you again as well.

You all have a great night. I gotta run back to duty and check these kids in. Have a good evening. Bye bye.