Admissions FAQ

If your child has completed IQ testing, an IQ at or near the Very Superior range would indicate intellectual giftedness. But, if your child has not completed IQ testing, there could be other indications that your child is gifted. Perhaps your child's language developed very early, or they just seem to learn things much more quickly than other children. Maybe someone has told you that your child might be gifted. To help you understand gifted children a bit more fully, Sycamore has identified 12 Signs of Gifted Children. Perhaps your child demonstrates several of these characteristics. If you are still not sure, contact the Enrollment Management Office to discuss your child and to learn more about Sycamore.

Since Sycamore is a school designed specifically to meet the needs of intellectually gifted children, we turn to the IQ test as a measure for this population. We understand that an IQ test cannot possibly capture the full picture of any one child, but these tests, which measure verbal reasoning and conceptualization skills, visual spatial skills, problem solving skills, working memory, and processing speed, give us a very good indication of whether or not a child will be a good match for our school's accelerated and enriched program.

There is not some magical cutoff score. Our average Full Scale Wechsler IQ score is just over 132, which is near the 99th percentile. That said, we give most serious consideration to children whose assessment results are at or above the 95th percentile of intellectual ability. Our experience in serving intellectually gifted children tells us that these children are most likely to be successsful in the Sycamore School program.

IQ testing can be completed by any licensed clinical psychologist. That said, Sycamore School partners with two preferred testing psychologists, and nearly all local families utilize one of them. They do so because these testing psychologists are quite experienced in identifying intellectually gifted children, can schedule and complete testing much more quickly than other providers, and share results with families much more quickly. Families pay the testing psychologist directly for testing, but Sycamore reimburses the family the cost of IQ testing completed by one of our partner testing psychologists if the child enrolls at Sycamore within two (2) years of testing. Click here for more information about IQ testing, including contact information for Sycamore's partner testing psychologists.

Given their young age, potential Preschool students complete the Early Screening Profiles (ESP). This assessment, which takes about 15-20 minutes, is scheduled and administered by the Enrollment Management Office once the application has been submitted and the birth certificate has been uploaded. Children who enroll in Preschool will complete IQ testing during the child’s Kindergarten year.

One of the magical aspects of Sycamore is that children can have same-age peers who are also their intellectual peers. In many other settings, grade- or subject-skipping is the best approach to meeting a child's academic needs. At Sycamore, such skipping is incredibly rare given that children can have peers who are on their same level intellectually and developmentally. If you would like to discuss your specific situation more fully, please contact the Enrollment Management Office.

Achievement testing refers to NWEA MAP Growth testing or an equivalent nationally normed test of achievement. State testing results (e.g. ILEARN and IREAD) are NOT acceptable for admission purposes. If your child is currently in Kindergarten or below, this requirement will be waived. If you child attends a school that does not administer NWEA MAP Growth testing, please contact the Enrollment Management Office. In such cases, this testing will be administered at Sycamore.

If your child does not receive a report card, please contact the Enrollment Management Office. In such cases, we will waive this requirement.

If your child does not attend school currently, please contact the Enrollment Management Office. In such cases, we will waive the requirements of a report card and a teacher recommendation.

We ask that you request a recommendation from a current teacher of your child. This teacher will provide us with valuable insight into your child academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally. If your child has multiple teachers, you should request the recommendation from your child's primary teacher or a teacher of a core academic subject (e.g. math, language arts, social studies, or science). If you have any questions about your specific situation, please contact the Enrollment Management Office.

While some schools schedule shadow visits as an exploratory step, this is handled differently at Sycamore. We schedule a required shadow visit once our Admissions Committee has completed an initial review of a child's complete application and has determined that Sycamore could be a good match for the child. The shadow visit becomes the final step in the process, allowing the child to experience a day in the life of a Sycamore child while allowing our teachers to see the match between the child and the child's potential peer group at Sycamore. Please note that children applying for Preschool for the following school year do not have same-age peers at Sycamore. As such, they complete a play-based observation, which the Enrollment Management Office schedules during the application process.

All financial aid at Sycamore is based on a family's demonstrated financial need. We do not offer any other discounts, including scholarships. Click here to learn more about tuition and affordability at Sycamore.

As a private, independent school, Sycamore does not participate in Indiana’s Choice Scholarship (“Voucher”) Program. Participation in this program would leave Sycamore vulnerable to governmental oversight and/or mandates that would have a negative impact on our ability to meet our mission and tailor instruction to the needs of gifted learners. During the current school year, the average Sycamore need-based financial aid award is nearly $14,300, which is more than double the average voucher amount. If you have questions about need-based financial aid at Sycamore, please visit our Tuition and Affordability page.

Gifted learners often exhibit asynchronous development, meaning that their intellectual skills develop earlier and faster than their skills in other domains. Our Learning Resource Specialists provide specialized services for twice-exceptional (2e) students—students who are both gifted and have another diagnosis that impacts their learning. Approximately 20 percent of our students are twice-exceptional.