Don't settle for simple answers to questions that are deceptively complex:
For example, “Are you full?”
That seemingly simple question is a test. Admission directors want to be strong and in control for their schools. Many feel that the school’s ego (if not their own) is at stake with their answer – not a healthy stance. This is the syndrome that the school that is full the earliest is the best school. It’s a fallacy.
Current parents want admissions directors to respond with a yes to the “full” question, as it validates their choice of school. Prospective parents, in a strange way, also want them to answer yes initially as any eventual enrolment their child achieves also rewards them as having successfully scaled imposing admissions gates.
In T.S Eliot’s words, April is “the cruelest month.” In the US admissions world it’s March, as the10th is decision time for boarding school applicants. A cruel time for some - euphoric for others.
In Canada, schools are mostly on a rolling admissions basis so families can make their decisions earlier than in the US.
Let’s look at a sample US boarding school admissions scenario
Right now, the final admissions committee meetings have taken place – and decision letters go out this Friday, March 10th:
1. Applications received 300 for 100 places.
2. Admissions committee rejected 33% (100 applicants).
3. Wait-listed 10%. (30 applicants)
4. Accepted 57% (170 applicants)
5. Yield: 50% of accepted students chose the school - so 85 of the 170 accepted this school’s offer of a place. Students have other options to choose from and, by agreement between US boarding schools, families have until April 10th to choose. Thus the yield is known on April 11th as families have until then to decide. This 50% yield is good, but there are 15 places still to be filled.
6. Attrition - I spoke of attrition in an earlier blog, and if the school loses 10 students they expected to return, there are now 25 spots available. At $55,000 per year (on average) for a boarding student, the admission office now needs to find 25 great kids, or $1,375,000 revenue.
7. Wait-list of 30 students, so they should be fine. However, in my experience wait-list is as ambiguous a term as full. For the most part, families will not wait.
8. Net Tuition Revenue ( NTR). The tuition and endowment dollars needed to finance the school’s operating budget each year. Not necessarily the same as the number of beds filled. So, the term “full” is not complex enough. The best question a school needs to ask is, “have we met our net tuition revenue target?” Another layered question. Once that is answered with a yes, then the school is “full.” There might be some spaces available in the dorms, but filling them is not critical to the school operating in the black.
After April 11th the spring admissions season begins in the US, and it will see schools still looking for those last few students needed to hit their enrolment and revenue targets. The same goes for Canadian boarding schools. It’s not over! Keep searching. J&A is here to help.
