Treat #4: Compiling Your List
Today’s treat encourages you to streamline all of the information you’ve identified and collected over the past few days as you compile a “short list” of prospective schools. If you’re new around here, take the time to review the last three treats we unwrapped:
Treat #1: Trust the Journey
The school admissions process can drum up feelings of anxiety, stress, confusion, and doubts. For today’s treat, we encouraged prospective parents and students to trust the journey.
Treat #2: Values
As you’re considering schools for next year—whether you’re taking the plunge from public to private or relocating to the Atlanta area—the first step of the process is to identify your values.
Treat #3: Mine for Meaning
Our third treat in our School Admission: Treat or Treat series encourages prospective families to mine for meaning. November is the month to start combing through school websites, parent forums on Niche.com, NextDoor.com, GreatSchools.org, and others to understand the “why behind the why.”
By now, you should have a clearer direction of how to start compiling your short list. These schools are in pencil! At this stage, your list can be as fluid as you need it to be. Feel free to add or take away as your family discussions develop. Today’s treat encourages prospective families to start compiling a short list of schools. This can seem scary and overwhelming, but it shouldn’t! Again, you’re not held to any of these schools. At this point in the process, it’s just helpful to have tangible representation of the direction you’re heading. You can adjust the route, as needed.
Where to Look:
• Start with the AAAIS website. AAAIS lists their member schools (there’s nearly 70 in the Greater Atlanta Area!) They provide a resource for prospective families to search for member schools by zip code (just note your mile radius). Their mission statement beautifully embodies their service-minded attitude: At the Atlanta Area Association of Independent Schools, we believe that collaboration is not just important but essential to success. We provide opportunities for the sharing of ideas among all our member schools. When we do this, we all improve our ability to best serve our students.
• Add 4-6 schools on your short list.
• Cross reference your schools with your family’s identified values and school’s broadcasted mission statement, emphasis, and strategic plan. Do they overlap?
• Drive by the campuses! In the mornings, around afternoon carpool, from home, work, or the soccer field. Can you “picture” driving your student to and from campus? At the very list, punch in the school’s address into your handy Waze app and check on routes at given times of the day. If your student forgets lunch, HW, football cleats, or fill-in-the-blank, can you swing by the school from home or work within a manageable amount of time? If you’re considering after-school activities such as sports or clubs, what does that commute look like? If the school hosts parents coffee chats, breakfasts, or morning assemblies, how does that fit into your calendar?
Join us tomorrow as we share tips to keep in mind as you start scheduling school visits!