It’s the last week in March, and my firm is receiving continuous inquires (phone calls and emails) from stunned and stressed-out parents that their children are wait-listed! We have been receiving many inquiries from parents whose children have been wait-listed from ALL schools to which they applied.
The top U.S. boarding schools have the most competitive admissions process because they actually are stepping stones to the Ivy League colleges and universities (See: Top Private High Schools with the Highest Percentage of Graduates Accepted to Ivy League Universities). Therefore, their non-acceptance rates are high (even for high achieving students).
WAIT-LISTED means that “we love your child, but we don’t have spot available today, tomorrow or perhaps never”. Two factors are important here:
- SOMETHING WASN’T RIGHT in your child’s application process.
- In many cases, wait-listed may mean “perhaps never”.
With regard to SOMETHING WASN’T RIGHT: Parents make a lot of mistakes on their child’s application. (See: Common Mistakes Parents Make When Applying to Private Schools). With regard to WAIT-LISTED: Top schools rarely reject students outright. They would rather state – wait-listed rather than wait-listed perhaps never!
Many parents are mistakenly drawing from their skills as corporate executives, tiger moms, financiers, etc. to match my professional skills and years of experience in private admissions diplomacy and understanding real-time nuances and changes needed in private school admissions to top schools. Many parents also fail to fully appreciate and understand the human element of diplomacy in the selection process and decisions in private school admissions.
When parents call our firm to inquire about our services the first thing they ask is what is your price? Your fees?
It’s amazing that 95% of parents who are willing to spend $240,000 or more over 4 years on private high school education for their children waste time attempting to haggle fees for an exclusive advisory service that will guarantee that education! I have discovered that parents who are shopping for services based on price, have already made the decision to not invest in expert advice that will help their children. They ultimately end up saving $240,000 in private high school tuition or worse pay $240,000 for a third-tier school education. Our market is specifically the 5%, parents who hire us and their children get into top schools!
“Admissions is a competitive sport! Why gamble with uncertainty?” – Dr. Paul Lowe.
Paul Reginald Lowe is the managing director and lead admissions expert at Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group’s Private School Admissions Advisors. Dr. Lowe specializes in providing exclusive concierge-type admissions advisory services for U.S. and international students who are interested in applying to top U.S. boarding and day schools. Dr. Lowe helps U.S. and international students gain admissions into top U.S. private schools even after they have been wait-listed and rejected. Dr. Lowe and his team of admissions advisors also visit prestigious and elite private schools, where they have the unique opportunity of interacting one-on-one with heads of schools, directors of admissions and senior admissions personnel. Dr. Lowe provides parents with the knowledge they need to decide where there children should attend and the admissions strategies they need to be admitted into their top-choice school.
Dr. Paul Lowe - Admissions Expert 