Our Admissions Process
Thank you for your interest in learning more about our program and community – we encourage you to explore the website, follow our Facebook page, and most importantly, connect with our passionate educators, school leaders, and families through a variety of events hosted each admission season.
Finding the best match – of school, child and family – takes time and trust. Our goal is to understand your hopes and expectations for your child’s education, and to share our mission and program with you. Throughout the process, we look for families whose values align with our community. At Meridian we are:
- Guided by a belief in the power of a wide range of human potential. We approach each child’s learning flexibly and responsively.
- Committed to social justice as a human value. We are recognized leaders in creating a school culture of equity and inclusion.
- Inspired by the science and art of teaching and learning. Meridian creates a learning environment community for both students and adults.
- Dedicated to the importance of connection, we foster a vibrant, diverse community with shared values.
- Located in the historic Good Shepherd Center in Meridian Park. We foster community relationships, neighborhood engagement, and place-based experiential learning.
At Meridian, we believe that an excellent education thrives in an increasingly diverse and inclusive environment. For this reason, we are committed to offering an accessible educational program for mission-appropriate students, regardless of a family’s ability to pay the full cost of tuition. To learn more about financing a Meridian education, please visit our tuition assistance page.
Our Application
Please note: our application deadline for Fall 2020 enrollment has passed. Please direct all late inquiries to our admissions office before beginning an online application. We are processing applications for specific grade levels with openings, and are accepting waitpool inquiries for all other grade levels.
The Meridian School is one of many Seattle-area schools using a web-based application called Ravenna to manage our admissions forms and event registration. With the exception of a few, school-specific questions, all of the documents required are common forms that are shared among multiple schools. This means that you will only need to complete these forms once before electronically submitting them to the schools that utilize Ravenna. We require the following documents for all applicants:
- Parent/Guardian Statement Form (which includes common questions and Meridian-specific questions)
- Meridian Application Acknowledgement Form
- Teacher Evaluation Form
- Cumulative schools records and reports (applicants for grades 1-5 only)
Information Session, P/G Chat & Student Visit (required)Virtual Information Session (required)
Unfortunately, we are unable to host visitors on campus this Fall due to public health guidelines and recommendations. In lieu of campus tours, we will be holding virtual information sessions on a weekly basis beginning the week of October 12th. These sessions will include a virtual overview of our campus, discussion of program and community highlights, and will provide an opportunity for Q&A with school leaders.
To sign up for a session, please visit www.ravenna-hub.com. If you have not yet created an account with Ravenna, please do so. After creating an account for your student, please search for The Meridian School. You must click “explore” on our school’s profile page to sign-up for an information session and to view our application process.
Please note: Pre-registration is required. We have limited space in our sessions, and reserve those spaces for prospective applicants eligible for entrance in the 2021-2022 school year. Registration is now live in Ravenna.
Virtual Parent/Guardian Chat (required)
Upon submission of your Parent/Guardian Statement and Meridian Application Acknowledgement Form, our office will reach out to you to schedule a 20 minute Zoom conversation to learn more about your child and family!
Student Visit (required)
Student visit sessions will occur in February. More details will be posted in Ravenna in December.
- Kindergarten applicants will be asked to join a 30-minute virtual story time on Saturday, February 6th and to submit a prerecorded video.
- Grades 1-5 applicants will join virtual learning activities the week of February 22. Each grade level will be assigned one date during the week.
Join a Programmatic Spotlight presentation to learn more about what makes our approach to learning unique! These 30-minute overviews will highlight specific aspects of the Meridian experience, and will be led by faculty and members of our Senior Leadership Team. They will be followed by time for Q&A, and are open to all prospective parents/guardians. Topics will include:
- Flexible Learning (Nov. 9 @ 9am) learn more about how our inclusive approach serves a diverse community of students through tailoring of curriculum, instructional differentiation and small group support or extension. This session will be facilitated by our team of academic and social-emotional learning specialists and members of our faculty.
- Experiential Learning (Nov. 17 @ 7pm), explore learning beyond the classroom! This session will provide an overview of our approach to place-based education and will highlight some of the community partners that support our service learning program.
- Specialist Showcase (Dec. 3 @ 7pm), discover the seven engaging programs that enrich our curriculum and allow students to explore the world through different disciplines! This session will provide an opportunity to connect with our Art, Creativity Lab, Health & Fitness, Instrumental Music, Library, Music and Spanish instructors.
- Global Competency (Dec. 16 @ 7pm), learn how our students develop an understanding of how global, social and natural systems interact and progress. This session will provide an overview of the integration of our interdisciplinary, Global Citizenship Framework and equity and inclusion outcomes.
These chats will be hosted via Zoom in November and December. Pre-registration is required. Registration is now live in Ravenna.
Recordings of each discussion will be posted in Ravenna shortly following the event.
Wednesday, January 6th at 9:30am
This event will begin with a brief presentation from of Head of School & Assistant Head of School, and will be followed by a Q&A panel with members of our faculty, Board of Trustees, learning specialists and parent community. Participation is highly encouraged, but not required. Pre-registration is required. Registration is now live in Ravenna.
Join Meridian parents to learn more about our community and their family’s Meridian experience! These gatherings offer a casual, unstructured opportunity to connect with Meridian families. Please bring along your questions, wonderings, etc. Admissions staff will not be present. These chats will be hosted in late January and February. Pre-registration is required. Registration will be posted on Ravenna in December. Events will be canceled if parents have not registered to attend.
- Do you have a Kindergarten age cut-off policy?
The majority of our Kindergarten applicants turn 5 years old on or before August 1st. However we will consider students with later birthdays, and have admitted Kindergarteners with late August and September birthdays. We know that Kindergarten readiness is dependent on many factors, so age and birth date do not dictate our admissions process.
- Do you offer financial aid?
Yes! At Meridian, we believe that an excellent education thrives in an increasingly diverse and inclusive school community. For this reason, we are committed to offering an accessible educational program for mission-appropriate students, regardless of a family’s ability to pay the full cost of tuition. Currently, our need-based, tuition assistance program supports 27% of our student body, and the average, annual tuition for an award recipient is $13,450. For the 2019-2020 school year, awards ranged from 12%-96% of the cost of tuition. Tuition assistance applications are evaluated separately from the admission process. To learn more about financing a Meridian education, please visit the tuition assistance page of our website.
- Do you require an educational evaluation/IQ testing for admission?
No, we do not require testing, as we do not discriminate in our admissions process in any of a variety of areas, including student learning differences and abilities. If you would like to voluntarily provide us with supporting documentation (individual assessments, evaluations or reports), you are able to upload files within our Parent/Guardian Statement Form.
- My child is gifted – is Meridian the right program for my child?
At Meridian, we believe that a diverse learning environment best prepares students for success in middle school and beyond. True to our mission of “balance,” we strive to create classroom cohorts that are representative of a range of learning styles and abilities. Many children who attend Meridian have been identified as highly capable by educational psychologists. Our approach to learning allows us to tailor our learning environment, methods of instruction, and curriculum in order to support or enrich student learning.
- Our family is relocating to Seattle. Can you make adjustments to the student and parent visit requirements?
Yes! Relocating families apply to our program each year, and we do our very best to accommodate a family’s planned, Seattle visits. Assuming that school is in session when you travel to Seattle, we are able to host the required parent tour and student visit on the same day. We are flexible and willing to arrange these visits on days that are mutually convenient, as we recognize that attending a weekly tour and our predetermined student visit date is often not possible for families residing outside of Washington state or the U.S.
That said, we require all families to complete our application process before our decision notification date of March 20, 2020 if they want to be considered for admission in our first round of enrollment. If a family has not completed the entirety of our application process before the notification date, they are eligible for late admission if spaces remain available after March 27, 2020 (new family enrollment deadline). We have a rolling admissions process after March 27, 2020, and will fill spaces throughout the spring if we have openings for Fall 2020 entry.
If you are a relocating applicant and need to arrange an alternate parent tour and student visit date, please contact our team: admissions@meridianschool.edu
- What are our financial obligations upon enrollment?
A nonrefundable $2,000.00 deposit is due upon enrollment. Families who have completed the enrollment process are liable for specific portions of the tuition balance throughout the spring, as detailed in our enrollment contract and listed below.
Families are committed to:
- 25% of the tuition balance after April 20
- 50% of the tuition balance after May 20
- 100% of the tuition balance after June 20
- What does it mean to be in the wait pool?
Each year we have more qualified applicants than we have seats available. Our wait pool consists of students who we believe would thrive at Meridian but for whom we don’t currently have space. Students in the wait pool may be offered admission as early as March, or as late as September. We do not have a ranked list within our wait pool, as we take many factors into consideration when creating a diverse, balanced, grade level cohort.
