 | | Q. | How many students are admitted to each grade?
| | A. | Approximately thirty-six students are accepted into the sixth grade. In the seventh grade and eighth grade, openings are limited and contingent upon withdrawals from the previous grade. The upper school classes are larger, and we usually want 60 - 65 students in the ninth grade class (30-35 of whom will be new students). Applications for admission to the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades are considered upon special circumstances and depend upon total school enrollment.
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| Q. | How many applications do you receive?
| | A. | The number varies from year to year, but we usually anticipate five to six applicants for each opening.
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| Q. | How are students selected for admission?
| | A. | Crystal Springs Uplands School takes the admission process very seriously and invests countless hours in the process. A committee comprised of faculty and administrators considers the following criteria in making selections for admission: information provided on the parent and student applications, the student’s academic records, the teachers’ and principal’s recommendations, test scores, the student’s talents, character, and leadership qualities, and information gathered during the visit at Crystal Springs Uplands, including the interview. Each candidate’s application is given careful consideration.
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| Q. | Are sibling applicants given special consideration?
| | A. | Crystal Springs Uplands School recognizes the association that many families have with the school and so too recognizes the desirability of enrolling siblings; however, siblings are not guaranteed admission on association alone. They must demonstrate qualities likely to lead to their social and academic success at CSUS.
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| Q. | Is financial aid available? | | A. | Approximately 23% of the student body receives financial aid, totaling over $2 million annually. We award all of our aid funds to families who demonstrate financial need; we do not offer merit scholarships. Crystal Springs Uplands School is committed to enrolling students of diverse socio-economic backgrounds, and award amounts vary from partial to full tuition. Grants are determined by a financial aid committee which reviews information provided in a financial application and the previous two years' federal income tax returns. Financial aid grants are made separately from admission decisions. For additional information, please see Tuition and Financial Aid and attend the Financial Aid Workshop in December. |
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| Q. | When will we be notified of the admission decision?
| | A. | Admission decision letters and Financial Aid decision letters will be mailed on March 14, 2013, to all applicants whose applications were completed by January 17, 2013. Accepted students and their families have until March 22, 2013 at 12:00 noon to enroll in the school. Financial Aid recipients must return their enrollment contracts by March 20, 2013. |
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| Q. | How do I register for the required admission tests? | | A. | For either the ISEE or SSAT, please follow various instructions below:
ISEE - (Independent School Entrance Exam), please go to the ISEE website at www.iseetest.org. When completing the registration, you will find CSUS listed under the San Francisco Peninsula Consortium or by the school code (051173). On the registration, be sure to indicate CSUS's school code and the date your child will take the test. You will need to register your child for the exam at least 3 weeks before the test date. Please note that while CSUS's second test date is after the application deadline, the test results will arrive at CSUS and other schools in time for admission committees to review them. On the test dates (Dec. 8 and Jan. 26, 2013), please plan to arrive at CSUS no later than 8:15 a.m. Testing will be concluded approximately by noon.
SSAT - (Secondary School Admission Test) >>Upper School Applicants only<< Please go to www.ssat.org or call them directly at (609) 683-4440. When you fill out the registration form, please have a copy of your scores sent to Crystal Springs Uplands School (school code 2675).
Testing must be completed by February 1st.
If the cost of the test registration is a hardship for either the ISEE or the SSAT, please contact Mieke Tonn, Director of Financial Aid, at mtonn@csus.org or (650) 342-4175 ext 1553. Waivers are available.
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| Q. | How much weight does the admission committee give to test scores? | | A. | Test scores are just one aspect of a student’s file. Although we find them to be helpful as a standardizing mechanism in the admission process, a broad range of test scores exists among those students accepted to CSUS. We discourage review courses, repeat testing or the submission of multiple test results.
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| Q. | If the application is filed late in the admission process, I understand my child may not be able to visit the school, except to interview. Will this lack of a visit hurt his or her chances for admission? | | A. | No. The lack of a visit will not adversely affect an application for admission. Unfortunately, applications exceed visit spaces, and for students whose applications come in after January 1st, there may not be any visit spaces left. We will still schedule an interview for each applicant. If the student is accepted, he or she may visit classes in March before contracts are due.
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| Q. | What happens to applications filed after the January deadline? | | A. | We discourage late applications and in most cases, will not consider them. However, we recognize that circumstances sometimes do not enable families to plan their lives around our deadlines. Therefore, late applications will be considered at the discretion of the Director of Admission and only if there are spaces available in the particular grade. In this case please contact Aaron Whitmore, Director of Admission, at awhitmore@csus.org or (650) 342-4175 ext 1517.
Specific information about curriculum, faculty, and student life is on the CSUS website, www.csus.org. |
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| | Crystal Springs Uplands School
Admission Office
400 Uplands Drive
Hillsborough, CA 94010
admission@csus.org
(650) 342-4175 ext. 1511
(650) 342-7611 (fax) |
Mieke TonnDirector of Financial Aid (650) 342-4175 ext.1553 |
Maurice WillisAssociate Director of Admission & Director of Diversity (650) 342-4175 ext.1519 |
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