Basic orientation
The admissions year
Admissions runs on a calendar. Here's the whole year at a glance: where you are now, and what each phase is like.
June to mid-August
Get oriented
Summer is for the family conversation. Talk about what you want from the next four years, learn the names and the types of schools, and browse school sites with your student. Nothing is due yet, and that's the point: the thinking you do now makes every later step easier.
Mid-August through January, busiest September to November
Event season
A few schools hold early events in August just to explain the process, so go to a couple. Full event calendars are published in late August, and sign-ups open over the following weeks. From September on you're visiting: tours, open houses, student panels. Log a quick read after every one while it's fresh. Those notes become essay and interview material later.
October through January
Essays & interviews
Start both the student essays and the parent statements in October. Parent statements often come due in November. Interviews can land anywhere from October to January, sometimes after the application is in. The specifics your student noticed at events are the raw material for both, which is why the debrief habit pays off here.
Mid-November through mid-January, depending on the school
Apply
Independent school applications are due in early January, and that's also when financial aid paperwork happens. Catholic schools that use the shared HSPT run earlier: applications in November and December, with the placement test on one shared Saturday in early December. Your shortlist tells you which calendar you're on.
Mid-January to mid-March
Wait
Applications are in and there's nothing left to optimize, so stop. Take the trip, or at least the long weekend. It's still event season at the schools, and a play or a game is a good second look at a place your student liked. Quietly get ready for every outcome in March: the yes, the waitlist, and the no.
Mid-March into April
Decisions
Decision letters land in mid-March, most within the same week, and waitlist movement follows. Before you discuss any school, go back to the list your family wrote in the fall, and trust it more than the pull of a flattering acceptance. Then make the call and register.