HIGH ANXIETY
The right school can set you up for life. No wonder admission is so competitive

By Moira Daly

Photography courtesy of Upper Canada College (above); Nigal Dickson (below)

The grounds of Rosedale's Branksome Hall may look serene these days, but don't let the picture-postcard scenery fool you. Inside this private girls' school's elegant walls, decisions are being made that have had nervous parents gnawing their cuticles and checking their bank balances for months. On February 28, letters offering admission to the sought-after school will be sent out.

"The letters come out and people start asking, 'Did you get in?' " says Beth Nowers , a management consultant who has two daughters attending Branksome. "It's definitely stressful on families."

The admission decisions are the culmination of a process that begins months, sometimes years, earlier, as parents of girls as young as three begin wondering whether little Janey has the right stuff to be a future Old Girl. In order to find out, they put their family under a microscope, willingly submitting to standardized testing, teacher evaluations and the often-dreaded admission interviews.

"I spend more time trying to bring anxiety levels down," says Ruth Ann Penny, who has been director of admissions at Branksome for the past 15 years. "It really is less about coming in and showing yourself to be perfect than it is about making a match."

For many parents, however, capturing a spot at Branksome would be a match made in heaven. In addition to ensuring a top-notch educational experience, the thinking goes, the Branksome seal of approval sets the stage for surefire success in university and beyond. With an alumnae network 4,800 strong scattered around the globe, Branksome graduates can anticipate a soft landing no matter where they go.

A similar allure is attached to Forest Hill's Upper Canada College, still the premier boys' school in the country, despite being buffeted by scandal in recent years. With graduates ranging from Canada's wealthiest man, Lord Kenneth Thomson, to Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff to author Peter C. Newman to Blue Rodeo singer Jim Cuddy, there seems to be a UCC success story to suit every inclination. And with 175 years of alumni having made their way into the world and an active network of about 6,000, graduates of UCC, like those of Branksome, are widely believed to have a leg up on the competition. "If you didn't go to UCC, then your uncle did or your cousin did or you work with somebody that did," says Nowers, whose son graduated from the school in 2004. "The alumni network is alive and well."

For these reasons, parents do not hesitate to plunk down $21,725 to $23,475 in tuition for day students at UCC and $19,950 for day students at Branksome. With little in the way of tax relief available and often more than one sibling enrolled in an independent school, the costs can mount quickly, Nowers admits. "We end up paying for both systems," she says. "But why wouldn't you want them to have a real science lab?"

For their part, the schools understand that like the children they are assessing, they are in a competitive marketplace. Demographically, there are fewer children aged 10 - 14, the age range in which the most spots come available at private schools, so there are fewer applications overall in Canada than there were five years ago. In addition, new schools such as Greenwood College, a coed private day school for students in grades 7 to 12, are cropping up, eager to take on the old guard.

In order to burnish their appeal, both Branksome and UCC have switched to the challenging International Baccalaureate (IB) program in recent years. Both schools also recruit internationally, with Branksome being particularly aggressive on that front. As a result, they can still afford to be picky about who they admit. Applications to acceptances run three-to-one at UCC, says Chantal Kenny, the executive director of admissions, while Branksome's ratio is closer to four-to-one for the popular high-school entrance years, according to Penny.

Having a relative who is an Old Boy or Old Girl can help applicants beat the odds. Sons of Old Boys are guaranteed interviews at UCC, and all else being equal, daughters of Old Girls will get the nod at Branksome. That, says Penny, is not elitism as much as the recognition of a shared value set and the importance of community. "We cherish the history and longevity here," she says. "It's really important to us that women of all ages return and feel connected to the school."

Hefty endowment funds, supported in large part by alumni donations, are a testament to the strength of those connections. At $40 million and growing, UCC has the largest endowment fund of any independent school in Canada. Currently, the school is raising funds to finance two new arena complexes, a rowing centre and expansion of its academic buildings. It would also like to significantly expand its financial aid program.

"If you look at what people are going to need to be successful 20 years from now, regardless of their career choice, it will be the ability to deal with people from all sorts of different backgrounds and have respect for those differences," says Innes van Nostrand, associate vice-principal, advancement, at UCC. Branksome, meanwhile, is in the midst of its $12-million Centennial Project, which has already funded a new middle school and two cutting-edge science labs, among other improvements.

Ensuring that the school has the wherewithal to continue competing at the highest level is a way for those who have chosen Branksome or UCC for their child to protect their investment. Gone are the days when a moneyed class assumed that an elite education was their birthright, says Penny. "A generation ago, there were probably more people who looked at it as kind of a club. This generation is much more active consumers of a product."

Graduating students should adopt a similar outlook, urges Tanya Pimenoff, Branksome's associate director of alumnae relations, and be more assertive in taking advantage of alumnae connections to advance their careers. "Sometimes, people are shy to contact people," she says, "but it is there for them to use." UCC is also taking steps to ensure those links are forged. It recently established a formal mentoring program designed specifically to assist young alumni with life decisions, including career choice.

While the language and attitudes of entitlement may have given way to the imperatives of the marketplace, the desire to secure a brand-name education endures, says Nowers, fuelled by risk-adverse parents who believe they have no room for mistakes. "I think there are lots of kids that could do well under a tree," she says. "You're just not always sure it's yours."