School Admissions Timeline – What To Do Next

School Placement Consultant Sandy Eiges of LA School Scout offers up some tips on how to stop the waiting and get proactive in March!
School Admissions Timeline – What To Do Next
People usually think of March as that “waiting” time of year in school admissions. But much as March can be an interim period between the dead of winter and the birth of new things in spring, where much can go on beneath the surface, so it is in the world of schools.
If you are waiting for answers from colleges, waiting to hear about financial aid packages, waiting to find out if you got into private schools, waiting to find out if your magnet points will get you into the school of your dreams (you won’t find out until April), or waiting to see if you got in off a waitlist for preschool, my sympathies – this is a tension-fraught time. Read on – for everyone wanting to know what you can do right now, there are lots of things to take care of in March. Here are some pointers:
1. For private school applicants, DK-12 – make sure that you’ve let your first choice private school know that you would, in fact, enroll your child were you to be offered a space. Do that now!
2. For public school – tour, tour, tour! Many, if not most, public schools offer an open house or Kindergarten orientation or tour. Check out your neighborhood public school, but feel free to take a look at other options. School tours are listed on my free tour calendar at www.LAschoolscout.com. Don’t count on getting into a private school, or your backup magnet or charter school – you need to have options. Go see what they might be.
3. For charter schools – many charter applications are due in March, and some schools are still offering tours. These applications cost nothing, and you can apply to as many charters as you like. This year, you can even apply to as many of the Palisades Charter Complex schools as you like – there’s no longer the restriction of applying to only one of those schools.
4. For magnet schools – some new magnets schools are, unbelievably, still taking magnet applications! Even if you’ve missed the boat on magnet deadlines, go to http://echoices.lausd.netto take another look at the magnet school options, and the list of new schools. Some of the new schools are still taking applications, and will be until fully enrolled. See below for the latest information on Mark Twain Middle School Global Language Magnet, in Venice.
5. For college – Spring break is a great time for high school sophomores and juniors to visit colleges and take campus tours. This way, come summer, a final list of schools to apply to can be created. Even if families can’t afford expensive east coast college trips, a California trip can easily and affordably be designed to include various UC and CSU campuses, along with private colleges such as Stanford, USC, Loyola Marymount, Occidental, etc. Need help putting together a plan? Check out college.
6. For preschool – make your list, check it twice, and start getting out on as many preschool tours as you can, as soon as you can. In many parts of town there are waiting lists for preschool, and, incredibly, there are even waitlists to get on a tour – no, this is not a myth perpetrated by school admissions consultants!
For those of you hoping that the whole preschool, elementary, middle, high school and college application process will just take care of itself – good luck with that! But for those of you trying to be proactive, March is a great time to start planning for September 2012 and 2013 admissions.
Sandy Eiges holds a Masters in Social Work, and has worked in and around education her entire professional career, including, most recently, as the charter school developer and interim principal of YouthBuild Charter School of California, a high school diploma and SAT tutoring program for out of school/out of work youth, located in Watts, East Los Angeles and El Monte. She has served on the compensatory education committee and local school leadership council for Mark Twain Middle School, in Venice/Mar Vista. Sandy founded L.A. School Scout LLC to provide families with comprehensive information on all of their educational choices, and help families make informed and thoughtful choices about the schools that will best suit their children. For the past five years Sandy has been an educational consultant for parents looking for preschool, elementary schools, middle and high schools, whether public, private or parochial.
You can contact Sandy directly at sandy@LAschoolscout.com; or by visiting her on her website at www.LAschoolscout.com.