Question How Whateley Admissions usually work...

So, to clarify, students who apply to Whateley, based mainly on the info in Rise n Shine:

"I see. That doesn't sound dangerous." She paused. "Let me be honest. As a private school, we have only limited space in our housing, and in our classrooms. Further, because of the special needs students we are teaching, we spend a lot of money in special equipment and facilities. Your mutation is not a danger to you or anyone else, so we're reluctant to spend our limited funds on a student who has financial need but not a powers need."

Generally:

1. If a student has a powers need, they get in and have to pay their way. A sufficient powers need gets them into Hawthorne.
2. If a student has a financial need, they don't get in, and have to find alternate options themselves. ... How often does this lead to street/criminal mutants?
3. If they have both a financial need and a powers need, they get in on scholarship.

Are there other needs?

And to people that can pay above and beyond, like Shine and the Golden Kids, can get in via... well bribery isn't the most accurate word?

"And to people that can pay above and beyond, like Shine and the Golden Kids, can get in via... well bribery isn't the most accurate word? "

just like a regular college

do you really think brook shields went to Princeton on grades?

There are other factors, because Jade is going there on a full ride scholarship, Toni also. Ribbon got in, based on her future plans.

Some get in based on persecution like Aquerna.

There doesn't seem to be any set pattern, beyond paying your way in.

The thing to remember with Shine and this is from Elrod hiimself, is that Whateley was REALLY uncertain about having a devisor who deals in alcohol coming to their school.
If a student is a mutant even if it's a fairly weak ability like turning into glass, or something that just a bit of concentration will help deal with (like Anna's friend who can make little fireworks) they'll be accepted as long as they actually learn about the school, whether they have the finances or not.
Whateley doesn't go actively looking for mutants, because they have limited space, but if they're recommended, or come to the schools attention, they'll be accepted unless there's something really out of the ordinary.

Also remember with 'Shine, his grades were far from stellar until his last semester of 8th grade. Low-powered mutant, no GSD, poor family, no threatening powers, not good prospect for learning - so, yeah, there wasn't a compelling need. Now if he could contribute to the scholarship fund, that's a different story.

I would say that there are no hard and fast rules, but:

- Being in some sort of dangerous situation is a factor;
- Being in a situation that might exacerbate mutant-baseline tensions is a factor (like Kamuro not being able to control her powers)
- Having interesting, unusual powers is a factor (re: Jade, Toni)
- Being able to pay their own way is a factor
- Being able to contribute to the school is a factor (that includes, but is not limited to, 'Shine offering to contribute to the scholarship funds)
- Having powers that could be highly disruptive to the school environment is a negative factor.

To put it bluntly, every student has a cost, which in Whateley is considerable. If the scholarship fund is going to invest all that money in a kid, it would be good to see something in return. Not necessarily financially -- but at least, having defused a potential deadly situation can be chalked up as "good use of the money." And hopefully the kid will get SOMEthing of that expensive education.

Sir Lee wrote: - Being in some sort of dangerous situation is a factor;
- Being in a situation that might exacerbate mutant-baseline tensions is a factor (like Kamuro not being able to control her powers)
- Having interesting, unusual powers is a factor (re: Jade, Toni)
- Being able to pay their own way is a factor
- Being able to contribute to the school is a factor (that includes, but is not limited to, 'Shine offering to contribute to the scholarship funds)
- Having powers that could be highly disruptive to the school environment is a negative factor.

to make it easy for admissions review I would imagine the school assigns points for the various criteria and has a threshold determined by the board... depending on where they fit along the scale then they're either automatically accepted, denied or passed along for further review. Some will still fall through the cracks or be mis-categorized but a robust-enough system should be in place to account for most situations. Then over the year following receipt all denials could be reviewed starting with the slimmer margins and getting further-out to make sure nothing was over-looked.

Some years and due to some criteria, such as how close to capacity the school is, then the threshold might be raised or lowered.

How Whateley Admissions usually work...

By Plot

I would ask myself one question about sending someone to Whateley:

What benefit(s) do(es) my character(s) get from attending Whateley?
Most commonly would be it gets them out of danger.
I would guess that the next most common motive is to help them adjust / learn about newly acquired needs, such as a GSD case having specific medical needs ( Puppet )
It gets them somewhere they are able to learn to control a dangerous power.

How can you say which criteria is important in the admissions process if you can't say why they need Whateley in the first place.

if there is no compelling reason, then only them being financially secure enough to pay full tuition ( or more ) is reason for them to be admitted.

With the plot answer Valentine gave and Kirsten supported, I would have to ask myself:

Is there any way to further develop my plot-line without Whateley? If yes, then why put your character in there? You gain more freedom using a setting not as well defined.
Maybe use Whateley's medical expertise but keep the character from being student, they only come in for medical / powers testing during extended breaks from their own school. ( here in BC, spring break of a week covers 2 months of the year, not every school district has it at the same time. That allows a smaller amount of interaction with the Whateley student body, but also allows further development of the Universe giving more settings for stories to take place in. )
We also can't forget, outside of the protected environment of Whateley, there are a lot more opportunities for characters to have 'adventures'.

Pretty much nailed it. It's a fun setting, but the Whateley universe is big enough that they don't HAVE to go to Whateley. It's just in the case of students like, oh, say 'Shine or Knockoff, or even Danny (kitty-boy) there is a LOT of fun to be had at their expense or with them in the middle of it.