“What do you look for in applicants?” It’s a question Carrie Healy has fielded throughout her thirteen years as Commonwealth’s Director of Admissions and Financial Aid—and it’s one more and more prospective students and families are asking. When you look at the 163 students who make up Commonwealth's record enrollment this year, there is no “cookie-cutter” student, Carrie says, though you can see the same universal qualities that have drawn learners to Commonwealth since our earliest days. “Inquisitiveness, curiosity, a love of learning, and a willingness to do hard work”: those fundamentals haven’t changed, says Head of School Jennifer Borman ’81, though the admissions process has become much more strategic and bespoke, and not just at Commonwealth. Here, Jennifer and Carrie trace the evolution of admissions at Commonwealth School, from the post-pandemic pivots to their work with Dive In (Commonwealth’s free academic enrichment program for high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds) to their mission to keep Commonwealth affordable and the other founding principles still at play.

You’ve both talked about how we remake our community every autumn, as we welcome new students (and faculty and staff). What drew you to this work, and what keeps you here?

Carrie Healy: Well, I have been involved in admissions since I myself was a tour guide in high school and then as an information session leader through college. So even though I didn't know that this would be my path, it didn't surprise me or anyone who’s close to me that I veered in this direction. What drew me to admissions is the ability to really get to know a community and environment, to really feel connected to that place and to those people, and then to be able to share that enthusiasm with people who are just discovering it and help them along in their journey of exploration. What brought me to Commonwealth? A lot of things, but one thing that both brought and has kept me here is that we are not trying to be everything to everyone. We're in a market of incredible schools, and we are very clear about who we are. So, even though I didn't go to Commonwealth, advocating for our people and our programs has always felt very natural to me because of that focus.

Another thing that’s kept me at Commonwealth is the school’s mission, particularly the long-standing commitment to serving students of all backgrounds. That really resonates with me, both as an educator and as a human being, and I take very seriously the importance of and our commitment to continuing to diversify this community in all ways. This has always been a place where every student has a voice, and we aim to cultivate an environment in which they feel comfortable using it. I've seen that in action every single day I've been here. And to get to help carry that legacy forward and be a part of it is just exciting. 

Jennifer Borman: Like just about every Commonwealth alum I know, this school had a transformative effect on my life. I was a pretty inquisitive and occasionally thoughtful eighth grader, but I did not have a great academic foundation underneath my feet. For whatever reason somebody took a chance on me at Commonwealth, and I learned so many things I could use in so many ways and, ultimately, I could open the doors I wanted to walk through. I also learned so much from my classmates’ varied backgrounds, and there is even more diversity now. I love partnering with Carrie because I know she feels that part of our mission down to her bone marrow, too: the more broadly we cast our net to find kids from all kinds of identities, the more interesting and impactful a school we are.

CH: Students and families often ask me this question, too: why Commonwealth for you? And I tend to say, “All of it!” But the ability to, on a daily basis, interact with students who are so wholly and joyfully themselves and with colleagues who work harder than most people I know, and with such care and compassion, is just a pleasure. This also sets the bar really high for all of us!

When you were a student, Jennifer, admissions was a more decentralized process, and, Carrie, your tenure is almost perfectly split between pre- and post-pandemic eras. Can you talk about how admissions has evolved, at Commonwealth and in a broader sense?

CH: Just in my thirteen years here, admissions, as a field, has become much more strategic, data-driven, and customer-service- oriented, especially as the cost of tuition has risen across the board. Families expect more from the process, and rightly so. All of the schools in our market, Commonwealth included, now do much more in terms of admissions programming and providing opportunities for families to connect with schools than they did even five or ten years ago. Whether it’s a huge school with a huge admissions team or a smaller shop like Commonwealth, we're all trying to give families the best sense of our schools and as much information as we can about the kinds of students we best serve. 

Admissions has changed a lot at Commonwealth, too. Some of it has been circumstantial, like everything we did to pivot throughout the pandemic. But it's all been very intentional. A lot of what we see in our admissions process today has its origins, actually, in the innovation and the flexibility the pandemic required of us. It obviously had its challenges, but it really forced us to think creatively about our process and break it down to its essentials, while still giving students and families what they wanted and needed to make this important decision. We've held on to a number of the practices that worked well, like virtual events and interviews, both because they provide easier access for families and because they really helped us manage and keep pace with the demand we've seen since. There has been such an increase in interest from families, particularly in recent years. If you look at our average number of prospective student inquiries, event attendance, applications, interviews, and the like, we're working with bigger numbers than ever before. It requires a lot of time and resources, but it is an amazing problem to have. 

JB: I would say one change I have seen and supported is continuing to intensify our long-standing efforts to do outreach to communities and schools that might not have heard of us. Carrie and the Admissions team have been doing that for a long time: nurturing relationships with schools that serve the kinds of kids we'd love to have consider Commonwealth as an option. Now, we also have our Dive In team, who are helping with community outreach, and Clinton Williams, our Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, who gets out of the building as much as he can to connect with prospective students from schools, organizations, and community contexts that wouldn't necessarily be thinking about private schools as an option. We’ve continued to turn up the dial and get smarter and more active about how we connect with people outside of our building.

CH: Absolutely. The admissions collaboration with Dive In has been incredibly fruitful. We’ve witnessed that program's growth—not just in terms of the number of students in each cohort but also in terms of the kind of students Dive In attracts. A good number of those students have gone on to matriculate at Commonwealth. It’s not our only outreach effort by any means, but it is a very meaningful connection for us. I'd also say, relatedly, that our applicant pool and, really, our pipeline, has become more diverse. Like you mentioned, Jennifer, that has always been part of our mission: we strive to be a place where students of any socioeconomic background—and any gender, any race, any ethnicity—can come and feel welcome.

We’ve had a reputation as a “hidden gem” amongst Greater Boston's many (high-profile) independent schools. Can you talk about what recruitment looks like for us? Are we still “hidden,” per se? 

JB: Well, as Carrie said, we are just about as big as we can manage right now. So I think we're still a gem; I don't think we're that hidden.

CH: I agree completely. I attribute it to a number of things: One is our growing alumni/ae community—and alumni/ae who graciously go out in their own communities and talk about Commonwealth’s strengths. That's given us more footing in the Boston area, as well as more recognition out in the wider world. Word-of-mouth outreach is huge for us. Most families still find out about Commonwealth through people they know. We rely so much on our Commonwealth families, past and present, not just to spread the word about us but to connect with prospective families during the admissions process and then help welcome them after they enroll. 
Our students are also out there, telling their friends about us, hosting visiting students, and doing it all with a real sense of ownership of this place. These are our best marketers, and we couldn't do what we do without their enthusiastic involvement.

When I started here, it was rarer to hear of someone who had a Commonwealth connection. Now, even just over my tenure, it's become really common for, say, the parent of a prospective student to list off four or five different connections to Commonwealth: “my daughter's pediatrician has a student here,” “my neighbor went there.” You’ll see a Commonwealth sign in a yard miles and miles away. So I don't think we're as hidden as we once were, and that visibility serves us well. As Jennifer said, ultimately, we want as many students for whom Commonwealth could be a good fit to consider us as possible.

The increase in size of our student body [almost twenty percent more students since the 2020–2021 school year] has its challenges, but there are so many advantages to having more students and more families in our community. For one, we can field more athletic teams, so we have more students participating and at a more competitive level. There’s more school spirit, I think. It definitely seems like we have more events, like Fall Fest, that really encourage students and adults to show their school pride and just their overall love of this place. And I think that that's been really positive. It's great to see everyone wearing their red and feeling really connected.

JB: It’s very wholesome. They love their school, and they love some of the rituals that go along with that. I find it inspiring and delightful and a teeny bit strange, because my cohort at Commonwealth was a little more cynical. But it’s just lovely that students want to lean into opportunities to connect and celebrate.

Boston is a notoriously pricey market: for education, for housing, for everything. Can you talk about the financial aid piece of admissions? How do we keep Commonwealth affordable?

JB: It is one of my most bedrock commitments, and it shows up in all the financial work I do here—with our finance committee, with our board, with my colleagues. Those allocations are sacrosanct, and having an economically diverse student body is part of what makes Commonwealth, Commonwealth. Full stop. I would only add that it would not be possible to the same level if we didn't have such generous alums and alum parents and trustees, people who give to make those commitments fully possible. And one of my goals, and I know many share it, is to grow our endowment so we can honor our aspirations around affordability and economic diversity and access over the long haul.

Related: Explore Financial Aid at Commonwealth

CH: While accessibility and affordability were some of our founding priorities, they may be even more important now. With the high cost of living, it's critical for us to meet families where they are financially in order to, as Jennifer said, continue to be able to attract more and more students from a wide range of backgrounds. The sticker price of a school like Commonwealth—and, really, any of our peer schools—can be intimidating and downright impossible for many families. So it's imperative that we do whatever we can to make sure families understand that, for many of them, that sticker price is just a starting point. There's this myth about financial aid: that you have to be in the lowest income bracket to qualify for it. That could not be further from the truth. We will do whatever we can to make Commonwealth as affordable as possible for each family given their particular financial circumstances, through need-based aid. 

JB: To just add onto that: our financial-aid grants are really broad spectrum, and we make sure families know that we also work with them to meet the related costs of a Commonwealth education—textbooks, technology, transportation, tutoring, travel, and even prom— so no student feels like they can't fully participate once they're here.

CH: We’ve really tried to make the full cost of attendance more visible to all families, regardless of if they have a financial aid grant, to give them the information that they need so they can plan. You know, we call it “financial aid” because it's a recognizable term and a searchable term, but we really view it as a partnership; we don't see it as one-sided. Every family is paying what they should be paying, what fits their financial circumstances. 

From in-school application essays to class visits, Commonwealth does admissions a little differently from other independent schools. Why this unique approach?

CH: Two reasons: one, our process is really centered on the student, and, two, we rely on our entire community to make that personalized process possible. Each one of our applicants spends most of a school day at Commonwealth, visiting classes, going to recess, having lunch, and completing an admission essay, alongside a student host. The visit is really important to our process—and it means our full school is welcoming these guests. 

JB: Our faculty and staff really play a huge role. They host students in their classes, day in and day out, which is not common at most schools. Plus, they're interviewing, they’re reading applications, they're evaluating admission essays. We wouldn't get to know applicants to the same degree as we do without their support. Every single person in this building—from the staff in the front office to our chefs to our building team—is contributing to make this place shine in all the ways that it can and does. 

I especially love seeing our students as they do admissions tours. You can just see the older students’ enthusiasm for the school and the ways they want to explain it to newcomers. And our ninth graders, who just went through this process themselves twelve months ago, have a wonderful mother-hen vibe: “I'm going to show you all parts of my school and introduce you to my friend and take you to my English class and show you how the salad bar works.” They all have such a sense of pride.

CH: Over the years, we’ve found that students are increasingly in the driver's seat when it comes to making decisions about which school they'll attend. We really feel like we need to give them a genuine opportunity to experience the life of the school, the community, the academic excitement here, not just in the spring, once decisions have been made, but in the fall when they’re actively engaged in this fact-finding mission. We really want students to get a real sense of what they might experience here, so we show folks who we are and what we offer, and allow them to really make up their minds for themselves.

JB: One of the hallmarks of a Commonwealth education is a high degree of personalization and connection between the amazing adults in the building and our students. There is a climate of mutual respect. And, Carrie, you and your staff work incredibly hard to provide that experience to our prospective families as emblematic of what it's like to be here after they enroll—and, again, you do it with a really small team. You get to know every applicant and their family and their needs. If there's a family who doesn't speak English as a first language, if there's a family who's new to financial aid forms, if there's a family who has a student with a learning difference, you really try to connect, create trust, ease the way. That's who we are once a student enrolls, but that takes a ton of time and care and sensitivity. In that way, you are fostering the relationships that we will then build on once the student is enrolled and the family is part of our community.

CH: Thanks, Jennifer. That’s been easier to do since we've grown our admissions staff, but we still punch way above our weight. I feel really fortunate to have a team of incredibly capable and dedicated people, who, like me, really connect with the mission of the school and care very deeply, as all of our colleagues do, about doing whatever we can to serve the students. 

JB: I was really happy to see from a survey we did recently that 100 percent of current parents felt like we painted a realistic picture of our school during the admissions process that has been borne out in their child's experience. That's always the aim for me. 

Finally, the question on everyone’s (well, at least applicants’) minds: what are you looking for in future Commonwealth students?

JB: The fundamentals are inquisitiveness, curiosity, a love of learning, and a willingness to do hard work. Beyond that, there are so many wonderful talents, temperaments, backgrounds, and interests that we love to include in our community. 

CH: I couldn't have said it better! In many ways, what we're looking for in future students hasn't changed all that much over time. As you mentioned, Jennifer, we're still looking for kids who have insatiable curiosity and care very deeply about contributing to our community, not just participating in it. We really try to impress upon people that, while there are definitely commonalities among our students, there isn't a cookie-cutter type of applicant we're looking for. There are certainly characteristics that suggest to us that a student would thrive here. At the same time, our students are wonderfully different along all the lines you listed and more. One of the comments I hear every single year during our admissions committee meetings is “Wow, that kid sure would be fun to teach.” Every year, without fail. Ultimately, we’re able to get that sense of these students through all the elements of our process. It's amazing how, even after all of these years, we're still surprised and amazed by the kids we're bringing in. 

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