Admissions advice?

[Anonymous]

I think it's a really good idea to visit as many schools as possible and talk to teachers or parents of children who are there - or even older children themselves who are at the school. I wouldn't just go on reputation alone. Beauvoir, Sidwell, Maret, and GDS are all great schools, but they're also all different. For example, let's say you send your kid to Beauvoir with the idea that they'll go to NCS or STA. Your child's 4th grade experience is going to be dramatically, dramatically different there than it would be at Maret. It's important to consider the long-term ramifications of your decision. St. Patrick's, Burgundy, Potomac, Green Acres, Lowell, NPS,

I've also in the past found it helpful to work with an educational consultant. Ethna Hopper (of The School Counseling Group) is good, and Georgia Irvin is great. The only drawback is that they'll run you something like $3,000 to $4,000 for an entire admissions cycle. There are cheaper alternatives, though, that are about just as good. For example, I used a guy named Eric Toth (my friend's son's third grade teacher at Beauvoir) who's great, and he only cost about $1,500 for a lot of work. There are probably other people around as well.

[Anonymous]

PP: Do you have contact info for Eric Toth?

[Anonymous]

Going back to OPs original question, I have these hard-earned pieces of advice:

1) Apply to at least two "safety schools".
2) Make sure your safety schools are really safety schools and aren't just schools that aren't *your* first choice.
3) Have a backup plan for when you don't get into your safety schools.
4) Simply accept that 95% of the slots are going to siblings, children of alumni and friends of the trustees, etc and do not take lack of acceptances personally. There are many, many more talented, bright, engaging, fun, interesting children with normal families than there are slots. It has nothing to do with your child or you. Repeat to yourself nightly.

Signed, mother of a 98%-ile, easy-to-teach kid with outstanding teacher recs and great playdates who was waitlisted or rejected by every school we applied to.

[Anonymous]

To the poster requesting contact information: I think he answers at [e-mail], but I know his school e-mail is [e-mail].

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how important the WPPSI scores are? (I assume that's what people mean by scoring in the 98th percentile. Or is there some other test some schools use?)

[Anonymous]

pp, you can't change the WPPSI, so folks just take the test and see if they get in.
My dd score 83%ile, and got into a very good school that our friend's son who score in the "99%ile" did not get into ( he couldn't behave). People lie about their kids WPPSI scores, just like about their weight. Also, people who have kids that score like mine did, generally don't talk about it.

[Anonymous]

Do people really lie about their children's scores????!!!!!!???????

OMG.

[Anonymous]

My kid had 3 scores - an overall score, a verbal score, and a performance score. They differed. WHen you say 99th percentile, is that 99th for all 3 or 99th for the overall?

[Anonymous]

People are supposed to be talking about the overall score, but they could pull out the areas that were in the 99th percentile to discuss.

[Anonymous]

It is a bit off topic, but I appreciate this discussion about the WPPSI scores. My child's overall score was "only" 81, yet he was accepted to a very good school. My sense is that a really top score is nice but not critical, but a low score (below 70 percentile or so) is a big problem. The tests are primarily used to rule out children with clear learning delays but schools recognize that the tests are not very predictive of future academic success in such young children. And the playdate and teacher recommendations tell them a lot more about children's behaviors, attention, openness to new activities/experiences, ability to separate from parents, and interest in collaboration with teachers and other children.

[Anonymous]

Tell me more - why is a score below 70 percentile a big problem? Because competitive schools won't consider applicants with a score such as that or because below a certain number indicates the child has a learning delay? Isn't 50 percentile right in the middle of the bell curve? So why would something between 50 and 70 be a problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell me more - why is a score below 70 percentile a big problem? Because competitive schools won't consider applicants with a score such as that or because below a certain number indicates the child has a learning delay? Isn't 50 percentile right in the middle of the bell curve? So why would something between 50 and 70 be a problem?

Because, by definition, most of the private schools discussed here are college preparatory schools that are seeking students in the top fifth of the population.

[Anonymous]

when PPs are saying their kids are getting into "very good schools" with scores <90%, which schools are these? Not asking to be nosy, but trying to get a sense for which schools are looking for kids who maybe don't fall in the brilliant category but excel or stand out in other ways. Please share.

[Anonymous]

And when you get to higher grades, I can tell you that in my son's current school, there was a cutoff for the WISC as well (90th percentile or higher).

You can't lie about your WPSII or WISC score. They're sent directly by the educational testing centers to the schools.

[Anonymous]

Definitely cannot lie about scores to the schools. The schools usually provide a list of "preferred" or "acceptable" testers - you don't have to choose from them but you must have the test done by someone who is certified to do so.

Scores and a written report are sent directly to the school. It includes not only numbers, but a paragraph or so about your child that includes things such as whether the child easily separated from the parent, how persistent they were in solving problems even when they didn't get it right the first time, etc. At least, ours did.

I firmly believe the tester makes a BIG difference. Your son or daughter has to feel comfortable around him or her, and of course when you are making the appt. you just have no idea whether this will be the case. My advice about this is to talk to friends/neighbors you trust who have kids you know (to assess whether they are as comfortable around strangers as your kids - or not, as the case may be) and then to get their recommendations. The other thing is what to tell the kids. I told mine that they were going to have a playdate of sorts with a nice lady, and she would play some question and answer games and maybe play with puzzles or blocks or be asked to draw or color things (I have no idea, really, what goes on in there).