Early Sibling/Employee Application Guide

The Early SAAS Sibling Application and the Early Faculty/Staff Application contain all of the same components as the Standard Application; however, they have different timelines and commitment dates. This early application process is available for two distinct groups:

Current Seattle Academy faculty and staff with a child applying for admission.
Current Seattle Academy families with siblings applying for admission in 6th or 9th grades. Seattle Academy defines a sibling as either:

the biological, adopted, or stepchild of a current Seattle Academy custodial parent or guardian
the biological, adopted, or step-sibling of an alumnus who has graduated from Seattle Academy within the last five years.

Siblings of students who attended Seattle Academy, but did not graduate from Seattle Academy, are not eligible for the early decision process. For sibling and employee applicants, you can apply through this early timeline if you intend to apply only to SAAS and if you will commit to an invitation before the December break. If siblings want to pursue applications at other schools, they should choose the Standard Application type and timeline.

Early Sibling/Employee Important Dates

September 1, 2024	Application for the 2025-26 school year opens
November 1, 2024	Early Sib/Employee Application & Initial Materials/Steps Deadline
November 20, 2024	Supplemental Materials Deadline Financial Aid Deadline for SAAS Re-enrolling Families and SAAS Early Sibling/Employee Applicants
December 6, 2024	Early Sib/Employee Decisions Posted on Ravenna (12:00 PM)
December 13, 2024	Early Sib/Employee Response Deadline (12:00 PM)

What is Ravenna?

Seattle Academy and many other Seattle area independent schools use Ravenna, a web-based application system. Through Ravenna, families will create an account and a profile that will allow them to research schools, manage different applications, submit forms, and register for admissions events. Each school will outline the steps to complete your application for their school. You will send your teacher evaluation requests through Ravenna, and you may request transcripts from your current school through Ravenna as well. Most current schools will upload those files to Ravenna directly. At the end of the application process (yes, you will get there!), we will also post our decisions in Ravenna on Decision Day. There will be questions, and we can help with many of them, though there will be times when we point you in the direction of the Ravenna customer care team, which can be reached at ravenna-help@communitybrands.com.

What is required in the application?

Internal Application and Steps (Due November 1st)

We encourage families to start the application process well before the deadline if they know they are applying. Ravenna allows you to submit each application component separately, so there is no pressure to complete everything all at once. To ensure your application is considered in the early timeline, please complete the following materials and steps by the November 1st application deadline. If circumstances arise that prevent this, please communicate with our team to determine what is possible.

SAAS Preliminary Application Form
- The basic application is quick to submit, and as soon as this preliminary application is submitted, you can see Student Visit Day and Parent/Guardian Interview options.
$75 non-refundable application fee
- Please email us at admissions@seattleacademy.org for an application fee waiver.
Request Two Teacher Evaluations
- These forms are requested and received through Ravenna directly.
- These should be from the current or prior teaching year. At least one teacher should be a current teacher. For students applying to grades 7 through 12, we require one teacher eval from an English or History teacher and one eval from a math teacher. Please reach out if you have questions or unusual circumstances that would make this difficult.
Request Transcripts
- Academic records for the current school year and the two prior school years (2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25)
- We understand many early applicants will not have a grading period completed by the early deadline. If you do have an early progress report of some kind, please share that.
Schedule Student Visit Day
Schedule Virtual Parent Interview

*PLEASE NOTE: Transcripts and other materials uploaded to Ravenna by schools can take a few business days to be processed before we can see them. We can see the submitted date on the application materials and will honor that submitted timestamp, not the day it is processed.

Supplemental Materials (Due November 20th)

Student Visit Day (Due November 20th)

Once an application is submitted, families can register for a Student Visit Day through Ravenna. We recommend scheduling these early as spots fill quickly.

Visit Day Goals

For applicants to meet and experience a class taught by a SAAS teacher
For applicants to meet and hear from SAAS students about clubs, activities, sports, trips, and the culture of the school
For SAAS community members to get to know applicants better

Virtual Parent/Guardian Interview (Due November 20th)

Once a family completes and submits an application, they can register for a virtual parent/guardian interview through Ravenna. We recommend scheduling these early as spots fill quickly.

These meetings will be virtual Zoom calls. Families will receive the Zoom meeting link after registering in Ravenna. The interview will last 30 minutes.
This is a required component of the application; our goal is to get to know applicants better and for families to gain information that helps them know Seattle Academy better.
This is intended for parents/guardians only; your child should not attend the meeting.
Interpreter services are available upon request. Please schedule your interview at least two weeks in advance to ensure ample time to schedule an interpreter.
For families with more than one student applying, please only schedule one Parent/Guardian Interview. We can address both students in the same meeting.

Do you require the SSAT or ISEE?

SAAS believes standardized test scores are only one data point in the much larger picture of a student. As such, an admission entrance exam like the ISEE or SSAT is not required. If a family would like to submit this testing data, they are free to do so; however, it is not required or expected. Each completed application will be considered fully, with or without exam scores. If you are applying to other schools that require these tests and decide to share the scores, our school codes are 481154 (ISEE) and 7240 (SSAT).

How do homeschool students apply?

How do you make your decisions?

We know that students are much more than a collection of grades and test scores, so we have a holistic application review. Academic history and performance is noted in combination with an applicant’s social-emotional competencies, community-building capabilities, and lived experiences. Every application is read by multiple members of the decision committee.

Please Note: If a required application step is incomplete when admission decisions are being made, that student’s application will be moved to the Standard Application process, and their admission decision will not be made in the Early Application timeline. Please see the Important Dates section above to review critical dates.

Do you have financial aid?

Yes, we do! Currently, 23% of our families are receiving financial aid. All families requesting financial aid must submit documentation of financial need through the financial aid application process, separate from the admission application. Please do not wait until after receiving an admission decision to request financial aid, as funding will likely no longer be available. Seattle Academy utilizes a third-party financial aid application and analysis tool, School and Student Services (SSS).

We offer need-based grants, and our goal is to meet 100% of the level of need shown through the need assessment process.

The financial aid application is completed online and consists of a Parent/Guardian Financial Statement (PFS), the prior year (2023) tax return, and W-2 forms for both parents/guardians.
Applications open September 1, 2024, on the SSS Website
Financial Aid Applications for early sib/employee applicants are due November 20, 2024.
SEATTLE ACADEMY’S CODE IS 7243.
Please note: SSS has established fee waiver guidelines according to family income and will not charge a fee for qualified applicants. Families outside the range of SSS by NAIS's "free filing status" who would like assistance may request a fee waiver by emailing financialaid@seattleacademy.org.

For additional details about the financial aid process, please go to our Financial Aid webpage.

Early Sibling/Employee Application Guide

Early Sibling/Employee Important Dates

SAAS In Focus, Summer 2024