How Will You Apply to Preschool?

S.,
I totally agree witht he other responses. I don't think the application will actually be a huge factor per se in whether your daughter gets accepted, it's normally first come first served. Call the preschool ASAP to see if she will be taken or not, normally they have a good idea about who is going to be on a wait list by February. You don't want to be sitting around and then find out she didn't get in, then all the other preschools will be booked by the time they acceptance letter is mailed out. So call and ask.
Good Luck,
P.

I hear you! The schools I looked at (in the Rockville area) require applications but you don't pay the fee unless they have a space for you. The acceptance is based on first come first served with either a mail-in on a certain date or standing in line on registration day. The school that we are applying for said they have plenty of space for next year's 3 year old program so I trust that we'll get in when we go to register on the particular date. However, if we don't get in then I'll have missed the registration dates for our second and third choices. So, it's like gambling---hope that you get what you want otherwise you'll be scrambling to find an alternative! :-) Seems so silly at the preschool level. Good luck!

Pre-schools of any sort are hard to get into in this area. We choose one for my son and decided not to look else where. He wasn't accepted in the fall but they called and had an opening last month. Now that we are in they shared some of what they look at. Ours wants a somewhat even number of boys and girls, they give current families with new siblings, and previous families priority and then of course general aptitude of the child. Every school is different and If you have your heart set on this one go ahead and wait, But if you need to have her in preschool I would apply to one more to be safe. Hope that helps.

So I probably won't be answering your question completely :) I just wanted to let you know about the Montessori school my children go to because we LOVE it!! They don't advertise much because they don't need to because word of mouth is good enough. The school is the Montessori School of Alexandria (MSA). They have an open house tomorrow from 9-11AM. Check them out at www.montscholalex.com We can't say enough about them. As for applying I don't have a lot of advice for you because we moved from OR and they took us without a problem because my son was in a Montessori school in OR already. But from what I have heard from other parents is that if there are 1-3 you really love then to apply for them all. I have heard that it is generally hard to get into schools in this area, but I didn't have that problem. I hope other moms can answer your questions better. Feel free to contact me if you have more questions about MSA.

Check with other preschools in which you're interested and ask specifically if they refund application fees if your child doesn't get in or if she does get in but you choose not to send her. Unfortunately, if you really want to ensure your daughter is in a preschool in the fall, you should probably apply to more than one and you might have to just lose the fees for ones you don't choose in the end, or don't get into. It's too bad, but this area has more families who want preschool slots than it has preschool slots, I think. Plus, preference is given at many preschools to siblings of kids already there, returning kids, etc. So you may want at least one backup though it may cost you the lost fees. Good luck!