For the 2024-2025 academic year, 77 new students enrolled — making our start-of-the-year enrollment 380 students. Attrition numbers continue to decline, and this year, 25% of the students leaving EMS relocated to another area. Inquiries for the 2025-2026 school year are strong, and many families have already engaged with EMS through open houses and campus tours. Applications are up 31% over last year to date. Interest in Chilton House is especially robust, with the 2s and kindergarten serving as our primary entry points for the EMS journey.
WHERE OUR STUDENTS RESIDE
Our families currently reside in 54 different towns in New Jersey and New York. The top 10 towns and cities are Tenafly, Cresskill, Englewood Cliffs, Fort Lee, Edgewater, Englewood, Palisades Park, Weehawken, New York City, and Alpine.
informational touchpoints
The enrollment team works in partnership with the leadership team to offer a variety of programs and speakers for current and prospective parents, including FYI (First Year Information) events for new families. This summer and fall, the team also partnered with administrators to offer presentations on the subjects of most interest to prospective families: “The Admissions Equation: How Grit, Happiness, and a Growth Mindset Impact Your Child’s Success,” “Nurturing Independence: Unexpected Situations Where Helping Hinders Learning,” “An Academic Edge: Striking the Right Chord.”
WORD OF MOUTH
53% of our applicants this year said they first learned about EMS from a member of the EMS community. Non-specific word-of-mouth accounts for another 20% of our applicant pool. The enrollment team is most grateful to our current families, alumni families, and faculty members as they speak highly about EMS in their local communities and encourage friends, neighbors, and colleagues to visit our campus.
Applicants to the 2024–2025 school year heard about EMS through:
- EMS community: 53%
- Word of mouth: 21%
- Web search: 14%
- Consultant: 9%
- Current school: 1%
- Summer Programs: 1%
- Unknown: 1%
Showcasing our school community
Admissions Open Houses are hosted in conjunction with Parent Association-sponsored events such as our Fall Festival and Book Fair & Storytelling Festival. This collaboration allows prospective families to get to know the EMS community in an authentic way and ensures that mission-appropriate families are motivated to apply for admission. This year, our communications team worked with Bergen Mama and other local media platforms to promote these events as well as a summer series of conversations with EMS division heads.
DYNAMIC LEARNING IN ACTION
The enrollment team offers child-centered activities for prospective and current students featuring academic strengths, such as gardening activities, design-thinking projects, and El Estudio, our art and Spanish class. During these events, current EMS students engage with prospective students to showcase aspects of our intentional curriculum from early childhood through middle school.
ATTRACTING NEW FAMILIES
To attract applicants, several initiatives were offered throughout the year, including virtual parent and alumni panel discussions for prospective families, talks given by EMS experts, parent conversations on campus positioning EMS as an expert in 2s through eighth-grade education, and continuation of our Seedlings Program, a weekly hour of immersive, enriching learning experience for toddlers and their grownups. The enrollment team has also traveled to Hoboken to offer an informational workshop, “Demystifying the Independent School Admissions Process” for families exploring independent schools.
Retention
The vibrancy and connectedness of The Elisabeth Morrow School community, educational excellence, and a strong sense of community remain essential factors in families’ choosing to re-enroll each year.
Close communication between the enrollment team, all members of the leadership team, and the Parents Association is a priority as we plan for the upcoming school year and support students’ journeys through each division.
Today’s families rely upon extended hours at school to make their daily schedules work. The enrollment team is grateful to our Auxiliary Programs team for the wide range of after-school activities offered each day and to the transportation team as they work tirelessly to refine current routes and explore new opportunities.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR VISION AND GOALS FOR THE FUTURE OF EMS
Important 2024–2025 State of the School topics include updates from Chilton House, Little School, and Morrow House, as well as Advancement, Auxiliary Programs, Communications and Marketing, Facilities and Operations, Finances, and Community Life, Equity, and Belonging.
