Middle school students will be hosting non-CESJDS students for the annual admissions-led “Bring Your Own Friend” (BYOF) day this Friday.

According to Admissions Director Miriam Stein, the day is aimed at giving students who do not attend JDS the opportunity to see and experience the school with the ultimate goal of increasing enrollment.

“We know that when people come to visit our school, they enjoy it and the chances of them being interested in attending our school is much higher,” Stein said.

While some students might be visiting due to interest in the school, some come just to spend time with friends in a new environment.

Morgan Taylor, who is visiting the seventh grade for BYOF, says that she is not considering enrolling at JDS but is only visiting to see friends from Capital Camps.

“It’s cool that I can go to their school for a day and see where they learn every day,” Taylor said.

Stein admitted that it is hard to tell how much of an impact BYOF has on enrollment.

“There is a definite correlation between students who visit and then students who enroll in the school,” Stein said. “It is hard, however, to tell how much of an effect this day in particular has on enrollment in general.”

It is unlikely that BYOF will have much of an impact on enrollment at all this year, as less than 10 people are expected to visit, however, she is adamant that this is not necessarily a negative.

“I like a small crowd because it means I can have meaningful conversations with people,” Stein said.

A new tweak to BYOF this year is that it is limited to just seventh- and eighth- graders as opposed to previous years when it was open to the whole upper school. This too is due to statistics studied by admissions which found that high school enrollment is much lower than that of middle school. Stein expanded that admissions uses lots of data and statistics and concluded that it was more beneficial to have BYOF be limited to middle school.

Whether the visitors enroll or not, Stein hopes at the very least they have a pleasant experience at JDS.

“Hopefully they have a positive association with JDS … and just have a nice Kabbalat Shabbat Friday here,” Stein said.