You probably thought it was a lot of work and stress applying to college, didn’t you? But you weren’t the only one scrambling around to attend interviews, finish your application or find the cash for processing fees. There’s a whole group of toddlers and nursery schoolers getting initiated into the rat race, too, as they — and their parents — try to get accepted into the nation’s most elite kindergartens. Find out just how competitive it is.
- It’s your key into the world of private school: If you can get into the right high school, you have a much better chance of getting into the right Ivy League school, many parents believe, and you can’t get into the right high school if you didn’t go to the right elementary school. A New York Magazine article points to some convincing statistics: Hunter College Elementary School students who make it in as kindergartners (it’s extremely competitive) and last through 3rd grade gain automatic acceptance into the high school. "Since 2002," the article explains, "at least 25 percent of Hunter’s graduating classes have been admitted to Ivy League schools," which is why parents are so obsessed with securing their kids’ future early on.
- Admissions consultants make a killing: Amanda Uhry, an admissions consultant in New York City referenced for a story on Bloomberg.com, charged families $15,000 in 2008 to help their kids get into kindergarten.
- Nursery schools matter: Some admissions officers actually go to the trouble to visit the preschools of the children who are applying to the kindergarten to watch them in action. Others seem to require that their applicants attended the "right" nursery school and ask parents to submit that information with other paperwork.
- There’s a standardized test: New York Magazine recently published a story about the city’s exclusive kindergartens, explaining that many of the elite private schools require prospectives to take the ERB intelligence test to get in — even at the kindergarten level. Four-year olds study for months, and some parents even pay for assessment sessions just to find out if their child needs a tutor to prepare for the test. Many New York City-area elementary schools won’t even consider children who score below the top three percent.
- Applications at some schools are barely looked at unless they’re submitted within the first couple of days: Forget the race to the top: you’ve got to be first, too. In New York City, some of the top kindergartens won’t even look at applications if they aren’t filled out and turned back in just days after they’re made available.
- Application strategy starts at birth…or before: Parents who are truly serious — or crazy — start competing when their children are really still just infants, researching schools, saving for the high costs, and strategizing for the eventual application process.
- Student candidates audition in play groups: TIME explains the application process at an elite San Francisco kindergarten, which is typical of many other prominent schools. After a parent-headmaster meeting, tour of the school, and a private meeting with the student, the prospective kindergartner has to be watched as he or she participates in an audition-like playgroup. What are they watched for? "Somebody who is compatible with our philosophy of education," according the San Francisco school’s assistant headmaster.
- It’s not just American schools: This summer, parents in China camped out for days so that their little ones would have a chance to attend the Changping District Industry Kindergarten, a state-run school. Parents prepare their nursery school-aged children for months so that they can ace the interviews for the state-run schools, which charge tuition, and research donations, although the parents have to sign a piece of paper saying that the donation was voluntary.
- Legacies have already started: Most families don’t encounter legacies until magnet high school, college or even fraternities and sororities once their kids get into college. But some New York City kindergartens leave spots open for "legacy kids," or kids whose older siblings or even other relatives graduated from the kindergarten.
- "It usually all works out": A TLC documentary entitled "Getting In … Kindergarten" tracked the insane process of competing against hundreds or 1,000-plus kids for fewerthan 100 spots. Surprisingly, all the families in the show found that whether or not they got in, they were happy. In fact, families who were rejected eventually realized the schools they thought they wanted to get into weren’t a good fit anyway. In the end, a former headmaster for such a school pointed out "it usually all works out."
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