{"id":3900,"date":"2018-03-13T01:58:05","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T01:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=3900"},"modified":"2018-10-14T20:12:59","modified_gmt":"2018-10-14T20:12:59","slug":"fieldston-high-school-admissions-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2018\/03\/fieldston-high-school-admissions-process\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fieldston High School Admissions Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fieldston High School\u2019s admissions process is incredibly competitive, with only thirty-five spots for over four-hundred applicants. With a calculated 9% acceptance rate and the lowest number of spots out of any Hill School, Fieldston\u2019s competitive nature is comparable to that of many Ivy League colleges. But how does a school that boasts an \u201ceverybody wins\u201d mentality, choose the eighth grade students for the rising freshman class? <\/span><\/p>\n

To begin the process, students submit their standardized test scores, recommendations from both their English and Math teachers, their school transcript, and the principal\u2019s student evaluation form. \u201cI like to think of all of the required credentials are equal pieces to the same pie that are weighed equally. They also don\u2019t exist in a vacuum and they\u2019re all considered together. A student who maybe didn\u2019t do well on an exam might simply not be a good test taker, so there\u2019s a lot of consideration that goes into each piece.\u201d said Admissions Director, Tyler F<\/span>ereira<\/span>. The Admissions Committee works their hardest this mantra throughout the process, trying to find students who fit the mission of the school best, not just the top of their class. <\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most important pieces of this search is the interview conducted with the student and their family. Interviewers, consisting of the high school deans, the admissions team, and other volunteers, try to ask a wide range of questions to get a sense of who this kid is. \u201cYou can usually tell through an interview if students are uncomfortable with the fact that we tend to be very conversational at Fieldston to be an activist in our community. If that\u2019s not something they love, it probably won\u2019t be a good fit for them and for us,\u201d said Form VI Dean Anthony Marro. <\/span><\/p>\n

When every interview is completed, every student\u2019s resume is given to two different members of the admissions committee to review. In the early winter, the committee consisting of the four high school deans, the eighth grade dean, administrators, and the admissions staff, meet to discuss each candidate. As they go down the list of students, the two faculty members who reviewed their application advocate whether or not the student should be admitted. <\/span><\/p>\n

The committee tries to balance the voice of the student, teachers, and parents, while also trying to figure out who the applicant is. \u201cI always joke, remember to look under the staple because there\u2019s a lot of information there and it\u2019s really important to put all the different pieces together,\u201d said Admissions Director Tyler F<\/span>ereira<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

One of the criticisms that the Admissions team faces, however, is how often students with connections to the school gain a major advantage in the process. For the class of 2021, 52% of the students admitted were connected to the community, while only 8% of students were admitted without a connection. Although this may seem unfair to some, the policy is made clear on the admissions page of Fieldston website: \u201c<\/span>sibling, alumni, and faculty\/staff applications are given special consideration during the admissions process. ECFS prefers to keep families together; however, admission is not automatic.\u201d Fieldston is a community oriented school and Fereira believes that admitting students from these families only helps to fulfill the school\u2019s mission. <\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of what captured the attention of the Admissions committee, these thirty-five new students will have something important to contribute to the high school. These students challenge Fieldston in the best way possible and push our school with their curiosity and individual motivation rather than their scores. For Fereira, this is the moment when his work is most fulfilling. \u201cWhen you see all of the students come together for the first time as a group, it\u2019s really special to see the work come together. It\u2019s great to see how much potential they have and how ready they are to challenge our school and our community in the best way,\u201d said F<\/span>ereira<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fieldston High School\u2019s admissions process is incredibly competitive, with only thirty-five spots for over four-hundred applicants. With a calculated 9% acceptance rate and the lowest number of spots out of any Hill School, Fieldston\u2019s competitive nature is comparable to that of many Ivy League colleges. But how does a school that boasts an \u201ceverybody wins\u201d mentality, choose the eighth grade students for the rising freshman class? To begin the process, students submit their standardized test<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[318],"tags":[],"coauthors":[309],"class_list":["post-3900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3901,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900\/revisions\/3901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3900"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}