Upper School admissions process detailed, personalized

By Jordan Rudner, Staff Writer

The shaking brunette sits on her bed, staring at the stack of envelopes in front of her. She’s nervous and fully aware that her mom is pacing outside of her bedroom door. This is the moment the girl has been anticipating for nearly six months. She reaches for the top envelope, marked with a familiar school emblem in the upper left-hand corner, and opens it with shaky, sweaty hands. She prays for one little word: accepted.

Most people would attribute this type of scene to any high school movie-everyone knows how stressful and time-consuming the college admission process can be. But this girl is an eighth grader, not a high school senior, and she is one of the hundreds of students who applied to Greenhill Upper School this year.

Earning admission to the school is no easy task, and for many, application season is the most stressful part of eighth grade. The complicated process takes months and involves multiple aspects such as a written application, an interview, and an entrance exam. The operation starts in early autumn, and students apply for the next academic school year. According to Greenhill’s website, the admission process for students in the fifth through twelfth grades can be divided into five steps.

Step One

To kick off the admissions process, students and their families must fill out a brief packet of information about themselves as well as a questionnaire; they then compose a “family statement.” This first step also involves a non-refundable $175 application fee. Finally, the students compose essays providing insight into their lives and personalities.

Emitom Hillsman, a freshman who attended Saint Alcuin’s last year, started writing her essays in September of 2007. “I think it took me longer than normal, because I did rough drafts of everything,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that [my essays] were really good before I sent anything in. It seemed like Greenhill was really trying to get a first impression of me.”

Freshman Lily Marrs also found the applications to be thorough and time-consuming. “Applications took a lot of thought, and I had to think through every word,” said Lily from North Hills Preparatory School.

According to Johnny Thompson, assistant director of admission for Middle and Upper Schools, the goal of the written application is to get a sense of an applicant’s writing ability.

“The written application helps [the admission commitee] gauge the applicant’s writing skills. We use it to make sure that the applicant’s writing skills are at the grade appropriate level and to get a sense of who they are,” he said.

Step Two

The second stage of the admission process focuses on the academic history of each prospective students. Greenhill receives teacher recommendations from each applicant’s math and english teacher and hundreds of official school transcripts.

This stage also causes stress for students. While a common misconception among many high schoolers is that grades received in Middle School don’t matter, students applying to Greenhill have to come to terms with the fact that each grade they’ve received in classes and on standardized testing is reviewed by the admissions office.

“The fact that my transcript was getting reviewed made me work a lot harder,” Lily said. “The more I wanted to come here, the more important my grades became.”

That said, students who are less academically inclined aren’t necessarily out of the game. “[A student’s grades] are an important piece, but they are not the end-all in our decision making process,” Mr. Thomspon said.

Step Three

At this point in the process, all applicants, regardless of grade level or school, must register for and take the Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE). They can test at a variety of locations that include Greenhill, St. Mark’s, and Episcopal School of Dallas (ESD), and on a variety of dates spanning from January to April. In order to get the results to Greenhill, applicants must register for a date before Feb. 7.

Candidates for ninth through twelfth grade take the Upper Level ISEE. The test is divided into five sections-four multiple choice sections and an essay. The four multiple choice sections are Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, and Mathematics Achievement. Each section lasts between 20 and 40 minutes, contains 35 to 45 questions, and is graded on a scale of one to nine.

Many students prepare for the ISEE by buying preparation books or meeting with tutors. “For a few months before the test, I met with a tutor regularly so that I could feel prepared,” Emitom said, “But taking it, I felt like the ISEE kind of tested things we were going to learn later instead of what we already knew. That made it a challenge.”

Step Four

At this point in the admission process, students meet for a required interview and have the option of visiting for a day. “I thought visiting was kind of a necessity because I really wanted to know the feel of Greenhill, and what it was like,” said Emitom. “I think it helped me to get to know the school better and to clear up any misconceptions I might have had.”

Students that visit spend one school day with a “buddy” who is in the grade that they are applying for.

“I believe the visit and the Host on the Hill Program are an integral part of the admission process,” said Mr. Thompson. “I have heard from many a current Greenhill student that they based their decision on coming to Greenhill because of that visit day or the person who hosted them. Hopefully applicants have a great visit and leave with a great impression of Greenhill School.”

To be a host, students must fill out a one-page application detailing their interests and reasons for wanting to be a host.

Freshman Eric Klein has had eight buddies in this school year alone. “I thought being a buddy was important because I’ve visited schools so many times, I know how much it can affect how the buddy sees the school,” he said. “I try to give them the best day possible-if they’re interested in football, I bring them to Coach Ware; if they’re interested in art, we go through the Fine Arts building, etc.”

Eric says he enjoys the experience of being a host. “I get a lot out of hosting-I get to meet a lot of people and I can relate to most of them because I had to go through the process so many times,” he said.

Step Five

The final step in the admission process is the one that applicants can’t prepare for. The Admission Committee meets to discuss each individual student one final time.
“[Making the final decision] was actually the hardest part for me personally,” said Mr. Thompson. “I mean, you sit on this committee and you’re deciding all of these kid’s futures. In a perfect world we would accept everyone, but the reality doesn’t allow for that. We can only take so many applicants, and the process is so competitive. But arriving at these decisions is definitely not taken lightly, and it’s often either an easy or a very hard decision that everyone on that committee has to make. And at the same time, it’s also very rewarding, because it’s the culmination of a very long process, where we are all helping to build Greenhill’s future.”
Finally, the decision is made, and letters are mailed on Mar. 13 to all the applicants.
“It was a big relief knowing that I got in, and that the process was over,” said Emitom. “Knowing I survived the application process-it was a great feeling.”