Want To Send Your Child To Private School? Tips For Successfully Surviving The Admissions Process
The decisions you make about your child's education can affect the rest of their lives. If you live in an area with underperforming public schools that lack resources, the best solution for providing your child with a quality education is to enroll them in a private school.
Once you create a short list of schools that will suit your needs, you will need to begin the admissions process. Top-rated private schools typically require families to undergo an interview and may require your child to take an entrance exam. To increase you chances of getting accepted, take heed of the following tips for applying to a private grade school.
Do Not Wait Too Late to Conduct Extensive Research
Once you have a list of schools that you want to apply to, begin conducting your research. Do not wait until the week of the family interview to begin your in-depth research on your target schools. You want to have time to take a visit to the school, talk to the parents of kids who attend the institution and let your kid walk around the campus to get a feel for the academic and social environment.
If the school also includes high school grades, you should also inquire about the college acceptance rate. In addition, you can check out websites that rate private schools in your area to see what others think of your target institutions.
Invest in Test Prep
If the schools that you are interested in require an entrance exam, you need to make sure your child is adequately prepared for the test. Many private schools use standardized testing. So your child will not have to study for a different test for each school. Contact your target schools to find out which standardized testing program the institution uses.
You can purchase books, software and practice tests from school supply stores, well-stocked bookshops and the standardized testing organizations. Test prep should begin many months before your child has to take the entrance exam. Cramming at the last minute is not effective and may end up causing your child stress and anxiety.
Spend Time on Interview Prep
An in-person interview that includes the parents along with the child is also a routine part of applying to a private school. In the weeks leading up the interview, you should compile a list of possible interview questions and come up with answers.
Figuring out what type of questions that the interviewer is likely to ask is not rocket science. Typical questions for your child will include queries about their favorite subjects, their academic goals, their hobbies and their role models.
During the interview, do not interrupt your child or try to answer questions for them. In addition, you should come prepared with a list of questions for the interviewer. If there were things that you could not find out during your research about the school, inquire about those things during the interview.