When applying, should each school be 1st choice?

[BellaMamma]

When applying to more than one independant school, are you honest about it being your first or second choice?

Also, do/have you always put down the other schools you have applied to?

I just wonder what other people do, as my gut feeling is to keep my cards close. I have already submitted an application stating that the school is my only independant choice for my child, but am now applying to another. No point changing the first application or notifying the school. However, should I inform 2nd choice school it is 2nd choice?

Thanks for your help!

[Moonlight]

I wouldn't inform the second school about this. It is your business and not theirs. I think you are right to keep your options open and have a back-up if your first choice isn't successful. I am sure that most indie schools are aware that parents will look at schools other than theirs. You may even find that your second choice becomes your first anyway so no-one really needs to know about your order of preference. The important thing is to give yourself a choice in the first place.

[BellaMamma]

Thanks for your reply Moonlight. How about letting 2nd choice know where else I have applied? I applied to a very selective school first. In my mind, the only benefit of telling 2nd choice is if it comes own to a bursary award in the end, and 2nd has become first, howver with not enough bursary...

[Moonlight]

I still don't think either school necessarily needs to know about the other. It may be that your second choice may be keener to offer a scholarship in light of the fact that you have applied firstly to a very selective school. They may want to 'steer' your child to their school and use the incentive of a scholarship to do this. If you are eligible for a bursary, this would be down to each individual school to say what their criteria is. What one school offers, another may not.

[daughter]

I think it is very personal and has to do with how comfortable you are with keeping the information to yourself. I certainly wouldn't bother going back to "first" school and telling but would probably feel more comfortable with at least partial honesty with the second school.
I have been through similar situations with various DC and schools I really believe schools are not trying to trap you in any sort of way but they are also in a difficult position knowing how many offers to make etc.

[lefol]

Hi

I really cannot see any advantage in telling the schools that they are your second or third choice , most indies would not like to know that you are using them as a backup for another , infact I think they would infer that you are not particularly serious about a place and offer it to another child . My advice would be keep your cards close to yourself.

[Waiting_For_Godot]

I did tell the schools because the schools he was registered for are so oversubscribed that it would look foolish not too. However, I registered DS2 for three schools - two selective and one non-selective and on each of the selective school forms I only put the non-selective school that we'd registered for and not the selective as they are direct competitors but very different so I thought it may look as if we'd only chosen certain types of school because of their name rather than because they may be good for DS.

[daughter]

Lefol I agree there is no advantage in telling a school they are 2nd or 3rd choice ... I have never seen an application (for an Independent) which makes you indicate order of choice. They do sometimes ask if you have applies for other schools and which ones ... as i said before i think they are mainly interested in possible acceptance rates and therefore number of offers they make. I think they all have afair idea of this but every so often it goes wrong (the exmaple that springs to mind is Habs a couple of years ago).
WFG's way of dealing with it sounds good - i think a bit of "blurring" of the truth is normal/expected.

[pist]

We have just been asked aboout priorities for highly selective indie - still not sure what to put

[BellaMamma]

Thank you everyone for your replies.

The second choice school is the only one I have ever seen ask for a 'ranking' on the application form, though I was asked, when applying for dc1 2years ago, by a head if his school was 1st choice. Of course then, I said yes. Then I turned down the place that was offered... I don't think I'll apply there for dc2...

Seems the answer is to be honest, at least to a certain degree about applying elsewhere, but to maintain the school is my top choice.

It's good to get the opinion of others. Thanks!