Austin Prep Admissions Efforts Thrive Despite Adversity

Admissions season is always a stressful time for any school. By adding a global pandemic to that equation, admissions offices everywhere have been put under a level of pressure never felt before. Austin Prep and the Office of Admissions has been no exception to this reality. With the loss of in-person shadow days, school fairs and the annual Open House in October, Austin Prep’s Admissions staff had to go back to the drawing board and completely reinvent the admissions process. 

This Admissions cycle has seen the introduction of virtual shadow days, a complete redesign of our merit scholarship process, and a virtual Open House. The virtual Open House replaced the traditional in person Fall Open House, and featured department specific, 90 minute sessions spanning an entire week. These innovative and unique initiatives resulted in a 34% jump in completed applications and a 41% increase in accepted students during this admissions cycle. As was true with the 2020-21 academic year, the 2021-22 academic year is projected to result in an Admissions waitlist. 

"Austin Prep is incredibly blessed to have had a record-breaking admissions season, but quite simply, this would never have been accomplished without our entire community.  The Office of Admissions is incredibly thankful to everyone who played invaluable roles in guiding the future of our school through such challenging times," Director of Admissions, Steve Silverthorn said. "The leadership of Dr. Hickey in keeping our campus open to our students, the faculty for creating and implementing a curriculum conducive to hybrid learning, our facilities department for keeping our campus safe, the department chairs and coaching staff for the countless handwritten notes to newly accepted students, the athletic department's relentless efforts to keep our students physically active and socially connected, the parents who supported our school on social media, in their communities and at virtual events, and most importantly, our students who hosted shadow students and spoke at all admissions event, all attributed to our success this year."

We are a community guided by the Augustinian values of veritas, unitas, and caritas.  The entire community rallying to support Austin Prep throughout this Admissions cycle is one of the most powerful examples of living mission our school has seen. Veritas empowered us with the confidence to accept the many challenges we knew we would undoubtedly face; Unitas inspired everyone to apply their skills and passions to work together in order to keep our school true to what we aim to offer; and Caritas guided our entire community with the unwavering commitment to protecting our school against any and all uncertainties.