Applying to EPS
Eastside Prep is one of the Seattle/Eastside area schools using a web-based application called Ravenna Admit for the submission of online applications. Through Ravenna, you will be able to manage your applications online and complete the core application as well as supplemental forms such as teacher evaluations, student essays and parent/guardian statements. Many of these supplemental forms are common forms that are shared among multiple schools. This means that you will only need to complete these common forms once and then electronically submit them to the schools that use Ravenna or alternatively print the forms and mail them to schools that don’t use Ravenna.
We know that the admissions process can be overwhelming sometimes! To help with your potential needs and concerns, here’s an overview of changes to the 2020-21 admissions season.
- The Microsoft Teams platform will be used for all virtual meetings and events:
- Families will register for all events in Ravenna and a Microsoft Teams link will be emailed 1-2 days before each event.
- Opportunities for students and families to connect with EPS include:
- Optional Events – Not required for the admissions application, but providing opportunities for families to get to know our EPS community.
- Virtual Tours and Q&As will be offered during a variety of times throughout the admissions season – and a recorded session will be posted online for those unable to attend a live session. The 90-minute session will include a video walk-through of campus, a condensed curricular overview, and time for Q&A with the Admissions team. (A link to the Virtual Tour will be posted on the Admissions page at https://www.eastsideprep.org/admissions/)
- Live topic-based Q&As with EPS community members will cover a range of topics and take place at a variety of times to accommodate diverse family schedules. Sessions will be recorded and made available for view on the Admissions page at https://www.eastsideprep.org/admissions/
- Student Game Sessions with Q&A hosted by current EPS students. These activities will be scheduled after school
- Required Admissions Events: These events are required in the EPS admission process.
- Parent/Guardian Interviews are a core aspect of our process. Interviews will begin in early fall and conclude in February when application review begins. Again, a diverse variety of days and times, including evenings and weekends, will be made available to accommodate family schedules.
- Student “Visits” will take place after the January 14 application deadline and include mock classes as well as group activities.
- Upper School (Grades 9-11) Student interviews with a EPS faculty/staff will also continue. We build in fun but thought-provoking questions.
- Optional Events – Not required for the admissions application, but providing opportunities for families to get to know our EPS community.
- ISEE or SSAT See ‘Admissions Testing’ in the Expandable Menu Below
- Financial Aid: Our commitment to financial support of families with demonstrated need continues for tuition aid as well as all components of the full student experience (e.g. food, experiential education opportunities, technology). Financial aid information sessions in which you can learn about the process and anonymously ask questions about our support will be offered, and you can always reach out to Cheryl at cmiller@eastsideprep.org with additional questions you may have.
- Important Dates:
- Applications open in Ravenna on September 1, 2020
- Financial Aid Application Deadline for Existing EPS Families is December 7, 2020
- Application Deadline is January 14, 2021
- Financial Aid Application Deadline for Prospective Families is February 4, 2021
- Upper School Decisions Communicated on February 19, 2021 via Ravenna
- Upper School Family Responses due to EPS on February 26, 2021
- Middle School Decisions Communicated on March 19, 2021 via Ravenna
- Middle School Family Responses due to EPS on March 2, 2021
- Contacting Admissions: The Admissions Team is currently working remotely. The best way to contact the Admissions Team with any questions is via email at admissions@eastsideprep.org . This email is monitored throughout the day and we are committed to responding to all emails within 24 hours.
We look forward to getting to know your family and you getting to know our EPS community this season!
The EPS Admissions Team
- Complete Student and Household Profile
- Application fee – $55 (If fee is a concern, please reach out to us at admissions@eastsideprep.org)
Family Forms (completed online with Ravenna Hub)
- Middle & Upper School Student Essays*
- Parent / Guardian Statements*
- Student Interests and Activities*
- Middle & Upper School Student Short Answers*
*Puget Sound Independent School (PSIS) Common Form (forms used by multiple PSIS schools)
Student Records (completed online with Ravenna Hub)
- Grades/Transcripts for three years, including the current school year
- Past standardized test results (if available)
Teacher Evaluation Forms (completed online with Ravenna Hub)
Fifth and sixth grade applicants
- Two teacher evaluations are required
- These evaluations should come from educators who know your student best and/or with whom they have had the most contact in-person or remotely, with a preference to hear from homeroom/primary teachers. Ideally, the teachers would be from two different disciplines. We will accept teacher evaluations from teachers who have taught your student in the following school years:
- 2020-2021
- 2019-2020
- 2018-2019
- These evaluations should come from educators who know your student best and/or with whom they have had the most contact in-person or remotely, with a preference to hear from homeroom/primary teachers. Ideally, the teachers would be from two different disciplines. We will accept teacher evaluations from teachers who have taught your student in the following school years:
Seventh through eleventh grade applicants
- Two teacher evaluations are required
- These evaluations should come from educators who know your student best and/or with whom they have had the most contact in-person or remotely, with a preference to hear from teachers from core subjects such as English, history, math and science. Ideally, the teachers would be from two different disciplines. We will accept teacher evaluations from teachers who have taught your student in the following school years:
- 2020-2021
- 2019-2020
- 2018-2019
- These evaluations should come from educators who know your student best and/or with whom they have had the most contact in-person or remotely, with a preference to hear from teachers from core subjects such as English, history, math and science. Ideally, the teachers would be from two different disciplines. We will accept teacher evaluations from teachers who have taught your student in the following school years:
ISEE or SSAT See ‘Admissions Testing’ in the Expandable Menu Below
Student Visit (Register on Ravenna Hub)
- Includes a mock class as well as group activities
- Upper School applicants will also have a student interviewwith an EPS faculty/staff member.
Parent/Guardian Interview (Register on Ravenna Hub)
- A 30-minute session designed to learn about students through the parent/guardian lens and provide an opportunity to ask questions about EPS.
You can submit test results from the ISEE or SSAT to meet Eastside Prep’s admission testing requirement. Please review all of the options to determine which test results you want to submit, and contact us with any questions you have at admissions@eastsideprep.org.
If test fees or a space for remote testing outside of your home are concerns for your family, please reach out to us at admissions@eastsideprep.org. We are happy to help with testing fee waivers and arranging safe testing spaces if needed.
Deadlines
January 16 is the Upper School deadline to submit ISEE or SSAT results.
February 20 s the Middle School deadline to submit ISEE or SSAT results.
ISEE and SSAT
Eastside Prep accepts ISEE and SSAT scores equivalently.
We understand admissions testing can potentially be challenging for many reasons, so we want to offer you options for fulfilling your testing requirement. Testing centers may not have paper or electronic testing options available in your area, and we are not offering paper-based testing on our campus for groups of students this year. Therefore, we recommend that you register for at-home testing.
ISEE Eastside Prep has partnered with ERB to make their admissions test, ISEE at Home, available to your student to take at home. ERB has created a program that allows Seattle area families to reserve specific testing times and proctors. For all of the details and to register for a test, please visit their ISEE at Home Seattle webpage: https://www.erblearn.org/families/isee-at-home/seattle/
- Important preparation for ISEE testing – If you will be registering for one of the ISEE at home testing dates, it’s very important that you follow the recommendation to download the ISEE Secure Browser onto the computer that your student will use for testing and that they complete a full practice test on that device. Downloading and thoroughly reviewing the posted ISEE at Home Family Guide will help you to complete these necessary steps. As long as you take these steps at least a few days in advance of the scheduled test, we have every assurance from ISEE that your student’s testing experience will be as smooth as possible on their scheduled test day.
- Does my child need to register for ISEE at home being offered to Seattle area families now? – Please note that if you have already successfully completed SSAT or ISEE testing this season and submitted your scores, there is no need for additional testing or to change testing formats. However, if you are still trying to secure a testing option for the admissions season, or would like to have an alternative or redundant testing option to the SSAT, we encourage you to consider whether ISEE at home might be a good fit for your student and family.
If you have any questions about the ISEE, how to register, or technological requirements for at-home testing, please contact ERB’s ISEE Operations Office at 1 (800) 446-0320 or iseeoperations@erblearn.org.
In addition to the ISEE testing program, we would like to remind you of our the expanded options to meeting the Admissions Test requirements https://www.eastsideprep.org/admissions/applying-to-eps/
SSAT offers at-home testing for grades 6-12. Note: In administrations of the SSAT at Home, students have experienced technical issues that have impacted or interrupted their testing experience. SSAT continues to work to resolve these issues, but please know that your testing at home may be interrupted or discontinued when taking the SSAT at Home.
For more information or to register you can visit their website https://www.ssat.org/
Previous year ISEE or SSAT If you are applying to Eastside Prep and you took the SSAT or ISEE during the 2019-2020 Admissions Season, we can include these scores in your 2021-2022 application if you prefer. Please email us a pdf copy of your scores to studentrecords@eastsideprep.org so that we can include them in your current year application. If you are reapplying to Eastside Prep this year, we can transfer your scores from the 2019-2020 application at your request to studentrecords@eastsideprep.org.
Standardized testing previously taken through your school
If you would like to add school-based testing to your application to provide an additional data point, we welcome you to do so. Your school’s testing may have been cancelled this past year during remote schooling, so please note that these school-based testing scores are not required. If you did take a standardized test at your school during the 2019-2020 school year (such as ERBs, MAP, SOL, Stanford, IOWA, CTPs) you can check with your current school to ensure that Eastside Prep receives their test results as part of the school transcripts/school records they will submit on your behalf by the admissions application deadline of January 14. If your school indicates that they will not include these scores in the records they send to Eastside Prep, but you have records of the tests, you can send a pdf of them to us directly at studentrecords@eastsideprep.org.
College admissions or program testing
Applicants to Upper School may submit a PDF of official results for any PSAT, SAT, or ACT testing that has been taken within the last two years to studentrecords@eastsideprep.org.
Questions about admissions testing
Please contact the Admission Team with any testing-related questions you may have at admissions@eastsideprep.org. We are happy to help.
Student Records (completed online with Ravenna Hub)
- Transcripts for homeschool: If you have a transcript of your student’s homeschool experience that is provided by their program (e.g. an internet-based school) then please send these records along. If you have created your own program as a family, we recommend that you briefly list some topics/skills/experiences by academic discipline areas. For example:
History
Topics: Pacific Northwest history, US History to 1845
Skills: Reading primary source documents, writing reflective essays on critical thinking prompts, creating interactive history timelines
Experiences: Visiting Washington State History Museum online, visiting Fort Nisqually
- We recommend including any and all disciplines/subjects included in the homeschool experience. Please include any physical education and creative expression as these are part of our EPS core program.
Teacher Evaluations:
- It is most helpful to hear from a parent or guardian about their student in the Parent/Guardian Statements component of the admissions application. Rather than also completing the teacher evaluation as a parent, we recommend that you delegate the teacher evaluation forms to anyone who knows your student in an educational context outside of your family. This could include current or prior year teachers, tutors, coaches, or anyone who has taught a unit or module of study to your student that has been part of their homeschooling. If your student has solely had you as their educator, then it would be appropriate to complete a teacher evaluation as a parent/guardian.
International Student Housing
While attending Eastside Preparatory School, all international students must reside with an immediate family member. Eastside Prep will not consider international applicants if they plan to live on their own, in an independent dorm environment, or at a homestay.
The Application Fee for an International Application is $100.
International Student Applicant Checklist
In addition to the items required on the standard applications, International Applications require the following:
Student Records (completed online with Ravenna Hub)
- International Applicants must provide translated grade reports if the reports are not already in English.
English Language Proficiency Testing
- Take an English Proficiency Test
- Eastside Prep does not have an ESL program, so students must demonstrate highly proficient ability to both speak English and learn in English. Applicants must submit English proficiency test scores as part of the application process. Eastside Prep prefers the TOEFL or TOEFL Jr., but all of these test options are acceptable. The scores listed are the typical score range for accepted students.
- TOEFL: Typical score range for an accepted student is iBT 70 to 90
- TOEFL Jr.: TOEFL Jr. is an option for 9th and 10th grade applicants. Typical score range for an accepted student is 850-1100
- IELTS: Typical score range for an accepted student is 6.0 to 6.5
- iTEP-SLATE: Typical score range for an accepted student is 5.5 to 6.0
- EIKEN: Typical score range for an accepted student is Grade Pre-1 to 1
- Eastside Prep does not have an ESL program, so students must demonstrate highly proficient ability to both speak English and learn in English. Applicants must submit English proficiency test scores as part of the application process. Eastside Prep prefers the TOEFL or TOEFL Jr., but all of these test options are acceptable. The scores listed are the typical score range for accepted students.