Seattle Private-School Admissions Timeline

Build the system

Every school has three clocks, and “submitted” only stops one.

1. Application clock: parent and student forms, fee, and school supplements.
2. Completion clock: records, recommendations, testing, interviews, visits, and specialist reports.
3. Affordability clock: the aid application, tax documents, noncustodial information, and later contract.

Use one row per school and one column per requirement. A green “submitted” badge is not proof that teacher forms arrived or an aid file is complete. Ask admissions which missing items prevent review. Schools are assembling a cohort while teachers are handling many requests; give recommenders notice and never ask to read their letter.

Fall 2027 master calendar

Do the scarce work first.

School-by-school dates

Put each school’s own dates beside the PSIS calendar.

A calendar that forks

Some families run on an earlier private calendar.

How PSIS, Aryval, Ravenna, and each school’s portal fit together is covered in the admissions guide. One calendar exception matters here.

UPrep’s separate early path for current-family and employee siblings is a reminder that even a school’s own calendar can fork. It applies only to Grades 6 and 9, does not guarantee admission, and moves from an Oct. 8 initial step through testing and assessment to a Dec. 17 decision and Jan. 6 contract deadline.

A non-sibling applicant should not use those dates; a sibling family should not assume the relationship substitutes for fit.

Entry grades

Choose the grade before you build the calendar.

What each entry grade asks of the child, and where published seats are, is covered in the admissions guide. The calendar above works the same way for all three grades.

Test and file dates

The full-file deadline is often later than the family-form deadline.

Lakeside is the clearest example. Its preliminary application and PSIS family forms are due Jan. 14, but the complete file, including testing, recommendations, and the interview or student activity, is due Jan. 28. It accepts SSAT or ISEE scores from testing between Sept. 1, 2026 and Jan. 28, 2027.

Seattle Prep requires the HSPT for Grade 9 and publishes Dec. 5 and 6 test sessions after a Nov. 30 registration deadline, so a Catholic Grade 9 applicant must register in November.

Which test each school wants, and how visits and interviews work, is in the admissions guide.

Ask the sending school early.

Request records and recommendations early enough for school staff to work normally, well before the December break. If a form goes missing, use the recovery steps below.

The fourth clock

Aid can be due with the application, after it, or on another date by division.

Build a separate affordability row even when a school says admission and aid are considered independently. Lakeside’s prospective-family Clarity deadline is Feb. 4, 2027. Bush opens aid in September and closes it Jan. 14. Seattle Academy and Northwest ask prospective families to complete aid by the admissions deadline.

Overlake lists a Feb. 4 date. Evergreen publishes Feb. 1 for new-family aid.

UPrep’s current tuition page lists Feb. 4 for Upper School aid and March 4 for Middle School aid. That middle date is unusually close to the March 19 decision and should be confirmed rather than silently normalized.

Eastside Prep’s pages have shown Feb. 4 and Feb. 5. In both cases, file by the earlier plausible date and save written confirmation.

The full affordability workflow—including two households, business owners, complete cost, appeals, and contract exposure—is in the Seattle aid and decision guide. For this calendar, the rule is simpler: no application is complete for an aid-dependent family until admissions and aid both show complete at the school.

When the calendar goes wrong

A recovery plan is specific, prompt, and honest.

Offers, aid, and contracts

Decision week is another research week.

Build the comparison sheet before the first decision date, because SAAS upper decisions arrive Feb. 5 and the first replies are due Feb. 25. Record for each offer the date when the deposit becomes nonrefundable. What to compare is laid out in the admissions guide.

If a public assignment, charter lottery, or specialist decision comes later, state the conflict early. A school may say no to an extension; it should still be asked directly. Do not place multiple deposits as a silent strategy unless you understand the contracts and have told the schools what you are doing.

The fastest useful revisit follows the child’s likely day. Sit in a class if offered, locate the support office, ask when the desired activity ends, and run the return route.

For Annie Wright, ask the question three times: as a Tacoma day family, a five-day family going home Friday and returning Sunday, and a seven-day family whose weekends belong to the residential program.