By Laura Kors ’21
Seventh grade applicant families attended four small after-school Fall Family Visit Days, as opposed to last year, when there had been one larger visiting day for all seventh grade families. The Fall Family Visit Days are a pilot program for this year and the Admissions department will reassess for next year based on the results. The events took place for an hour after school on Oct. 26, Nov. 1, Nov. 9 and Nov. 14.
Each applicant attended a mini class, listened to a panel of upper school students and received a tour. Each event hosted around 40 applicant families.
“They were successful enjoyable events, but certainly small scale. […] [The event] doesn’t really give a large number of applicants an opportunity to see the school in comparison to a seventh grade Family Visit Day like we had last year; which probably welcomes 360 [applicant families],” Associate Director of Admission and Enrollment Management Nancy Jeon ’89 said.
Jeon also noted that in addition to their small size, the events were less festive than the larger admissions events and were difficult due to traffic and on campus parking. On the other hand, the smaller events had many advantages, such as a more intimate environment and a lower demand for faculty and student ambassadors.
“These after school events seem very wonderfully intimate, and it’s a very small group. It’s very relaxed, whereas some of our larger events can seem more overwhelming, especially for smaller children,” Senior Associate Director of Admission Michelle Hung ’91 said.
The Admission Office will most likely create more Fall Family Visit Days if they choose to continue with these smaller events. However, it is possible that they will return to the larger family visiting day. Jeon said that after taking a year off, it will likely to be more exciting to run the larger event again.