The Overlake School Admissions Process: A Step-by-Step Guide for Parents

Quick Answer for Busy Parents

The Overlake School admissions process runs entirely through Aryval, a new platform replacing Ravenna for 2026-2027. There are six steps: submit an initial application, schedule an interview if applying to grade 5, 6, or 9, complete the Get to Know You forms, arrange two teacher evaluations, send one standardized test score from last year, and request transcripts. Applications open October 2, 2026, and close January 14, 2027, at 4:00 PM PST.

What Changed This Year: Ravenna to Aryval

If a friend walked your family through Overlake’s process two years ago, set that advice aside. The school has moved its application off Ravenna to a platform called Aryval, and it is not a cosmetic change. Account creation, materials submission, progress tracking, records requests, Open House registration, and decision release all happen there now. Families who show up expecting Ravenna lose days, and in a cycle with a hard January deadline, days matter. Our general private school application guidance covers how to stay organized across multiple platforms if Overlake is one of several schools on your list.

The second change worth registering is the testing policy. Overlake accepts any standardized test from the previous school year, including state assessments such as the SBA or MAP, and states plainly that it has no preferred test. Families who budgeted a year of SSAT preparation on the assumption it was required should revisit that plan.

The Six Steps, in Order

Step 1: Create an Aryval account and submit the initial application

This opens October 2, 2026 at 9:00 AM PST. Doing it early costs nothing and unlocks the rest of the checklist, including the records request tool your child’s school will need time to act on.

Step 2: Schedule an interview, if your grade requires one

Only grades 5, 6, and 9 interview. Grade 5 and 6 applicants join a faculty-led group activity with other applicants while parents meet separately with the admissions team, and the whole family tours campus during that visit. Grade 9 applicants interview in pairs with a staff or faculty member while parents take a shorter tour. Applicants to any other grade skip this step entirely.

Step 3: Complete the Get to Know You forms

Three pieces: a Parent/Guardian Statement, a student personal essay, and an Activities and Interest Form. Overlake describes these collectively as how it builds a holistic view of an applicant, which is a fair description of how much weight they carry.

Step 4: Arrange two teacher evaluations

Every applicant needs two, but the required pairing shifts by entry grade. Fifth grade applicants use a current fourth grade primary teacher and a third grade primary teacher. Sixth grade applicants use a current fifth grade and a fourth grade primary teacher. In both cases, two current primary teachers will suffice if your child has them. Ninth grade applicants and applicants to non-traditional entry grades submit one evaluation from a current English teacher and one from a current Math teacher.

Step 5: Submit one standardized test score

From the previous school year, in whatever format your child already has. Accepted options include the SBA, MAP, Iowa Assessments, ISEE, and SSAT. Overlake treats the score as a check on academic readiness within a holistic review rather than a ranking. Note that Overlake’s older Testing page still describes an SSAT or ISEE requirement for Upper School applicants; the current Apply page supersedes it, but ninth grade families should confirm with admissions directly.

Step 6: Request report cards and transcripts

All applicants submit records from 2025-2026 plus the first term or semester of 2026-2027. Aryval has a built-in records request feature that routes documents from your child’s school straight to the Overlake admissions office, so your family never handles them.

The Dates That Actually Constrain You

The Open House constraint is the one families underestimate. Overlake does not offer private campus tours; registration opens exactly one month before each event, and there are three dates in the entire cycle. Our guide to getting real value out of a private school open house is worth reading before you attend, because you may only get one.

Build the Timeline Backward

Most families work forward from October and run out of runway. We start at January 14 and work back. Let us map yours.

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Where Families Go Wrong

Four patterns account for most of the avoidable damage. Families wait until December to request teacher evaluations and discover their teachers are overwhelmed. They assume a recent SSAT sitting is required and spend a year optimizing a score, which Overlake has explicitly declined to prioritize. They over-edit the student essay until the child’s voice is gone. And they plan to tour campus in the new year, only to learn there is no such thing at Overlake. Our broader list of common private school application mistakes covers the rest, and our piece on when to start the admissions process explains why a spring start beats a fall scramble.

Conclusion

Overlake’s process is unusually legible once you know where to look. Six steps, three Open Houses, one deadline, two decision dates. What it asks for is not a more impressive file but a more honest one, and that is harder than it sounds under time pressure. Our private school admissions consulting helps families keep the logistics from crowding out the part that actually matters.

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We will walk your family through every Aryval step on a schedule that fits your child’s entry grade.

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