applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on

[Anonymous]

We just applied for private middle school from DCPS.
I had hoped my child would get in but he/she did not get in to any of the schools we applied. We did apply to competitive schools because our "safety" is DCPS middle school.
I know a lot of other kids in this situation this year and wanted to share our admissions experience.

My kids attends one of the JKLMM schools, 99% PARCC scores (98% at her/his school), excellent SSAT score, great grades, elite level athlete (on the top level
travel team in the DMV and has competed at regional level events).
Lots of varied extracurriculars (music lessons for years, student council, math club, musical,) etc. Years of language lessons.
Blah, blah--the whole package. Great teacher recs, great essays, great interview. We even had families at the private schools
who know our child well write on our behalf.

Nothing.

It's a harsh reality. It is NOT easy to to go from DCPS to one of the prominent privates despite what everyone on here says "well, we could always switch my child to private
school". I'm here to say, if this is your plan or desire---do it early!! Apply for PK or K or 3rd or 4th (or whenever the earliest entry years are). It gets harder as the kids get older
and middle school is particularly difficult.

You may say to yourself, "well my kid is special! He or she will get in!" Well, I know (and I've learned further) that there are a ton of AMAZING kids in this area and these schools have
so few spots. As a DCPS applicant, your are simply (in the minds of the privates) a "public school applicant" and are competing against kids coming from the magnet and gifted programs
in Montgomery and Fairfax, etc. The kids who have been doing math 2 years above grade level (in the classroom) for years. It's difficult to compete from DCPS and honestly I don't
get the feeling that the privates have any allegiance to DCPS and pretty much view it as a dysfunctional system.

Middle and high school applicants have to take either the SSAT or ISEE test. These are knowledge based (and not intelligence) tests. My kids (who loves math and is at the top of her/his
DCPS class) started taking practice tests and getting around 30% (after a 99% PARCC) We studied for that test for 6 months and got her/his score up to 80-90%. It was a long and painful slog. Every other DCPS applicant
we know did the same thing---I can think of 15 kids off the top of my head. We were the only one who didn't get a tutor for months. The rest spent a lot of money to get their kid up to speed on the material.

There is another window of admission (9th grade) and some DCPS kids (from Deal etc) do get into the top private schools for high school because it's a bigger expansion year.
But again, it's a small number. And some (not all) of the successful applicants at any point are legacy kids or under represented minorities (both are "hooks" for admission that we didn't have).


Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience. This is not a brag on my kid's accomplishments at all (and again, this kid didn't get in). It's meant simply as an "FYI" to others who may be going down this road in the future.

Lastly, we applied because we thought the smaller class sizes in private (among other things) would be a better fit for THIS child than our DCPS middle school. We have one child in DCPS middle and now this kid
will attend as well. Ultimately we're fine with that but I wanted to share this to other families.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the detailed and sobering reality check.

[Anonymous]

I have not had the perception from this forum that it's "easy" to get into a private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have not had the perception from this forum that it's "easy" to get into a private school.

There are regularly posts about DCPS that insinuate that switching to private is easy:

"well, if XX school quality decreases, upper middle class families will leave for private".
"if my kid doesn't get advanced math instruction we'll switch to private".

I do think it's said pretty routinely and cavalierly.

[Anonymous]

It’s not easy but it isn’t impossible either. We did to a mid-level private MS and DD has just been accepted from their to multiple Big 3 HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not easy but it isn’t impossible either. We did to a mid-level private MS and DD has just been accepted from their to multiple Big 3 HS.

^^there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not easy but it isn’t impossible either. We did to a mid-level private MS and DD has just been accepted from their to multiple Big 3 HS.

right, but this thread is about going from DCPS to private. Not from a mid level private middle school to private high school. It's completely apples and oranges.

The "mid level" private middle schools all have relationships with the private high schools. Their big part of their reputation hangs on their ability to get their kids into high schools of their choice. DCPS has no such relationship. Which is a big part of what makes it difficult.

[Anonymous]

"A big part of their reputation" that is.

[Anonymous]

I’m sure it’s competition all around the DMV area for private schools. That in itself should say it’s not easy.

I’ve never thought the folks who said”I”ll just move to private” actually meant it was easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just applied for private middle school from DCPS.
I had hoped my child would get in but he/she did not get in to any of the schools we applied. We did apply to competitive schools because our "safety" is DCPS middle school.
I know a lot of other kids in this situation this year and wanted to share our admissions experience.

My kids attends one of the JKLMM schools, 99% PARCC scores (98% at her/his school), excellent SSAT score, great grades, elite level athlete (on the top level
travel team in the DMV and has competed at regional level events).
Lots of varied extracurriculars (music lessons for years, student council, math club, musical,) etc. Years of language lessons.
Blah, blah--the whole package. Great teacher recs, great essays, great interview. We even had families at the private schools
who know our child well write on our behalf.

Nothing.

It's a harsh reality. It is NOT easy to to go from DCPS to one of the prominent privates despite what everyone on here says "well, we could always switch my child to private
school". I'm here to say, if this is your plan or desire---do it early!! Apply for PK or K or 3rd or 4th (or whenever the earliest entry years are). It gets harder as the kids get older
and middle school is particularly difficult.

You may say to yourself, "well my kid is special! He or she will get in!" Well, I know (and I've learned further) that there are a ton of AMAZING kids in this area and these schools have
so few spots. As a DCPS applicant, your are simply (in the minds of the privates) a "public school applicant" and are competing against kids coming from the magnet and gifted programs
in Montgomery and Fairfax, etc. The kids who have been doing math 2 years above grade level (in the classroom) for years. It's difficult to compete from DCPS and honestly I don't
get the feeling that the privates have any allegiance to DCPS and pretty much view it as a dysfunctional system.

Middle and high school applicants have to take either the SSAT or ISEE test. These are knowledge based (and not intelligence) tests. My kids (who loves math and is at the top of her/his
DCPS class) started taking practice tests and getting around 30% (after a 99% PARCC) We studied for that test for 6 months and got her/his score up to 80-90%. It was a long and painful slog. Every other DCPS applicant
we know did the same thing---I can think of 15 kids off the top of my head. We were the only one who didn't get a tutor for months. The rest spent a lot of money to get their kid up to speed on the material.

There is another window of admission (9th grade) and some DCPS kids (from Deal etc) do get into the top private schools for high school because it's a bigger expansion year.
But again, it's a small number. And some (not all) of the successful applicants at any point are legacy kids or under represented minorities (both are "hooks" for admission that we didn't have).


Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience. This is not a brag on my kid's accomplishments at all (and again, this kid didn't get in). It's meant simply as an "FYI" to others who may be going down this road in the future.

Lastly, we applied because we thought the smaller class sizes in private (among other things) would be a better fit for THIS child than our DCPS middle school. We have one child in DCPS middle and now this kid
will attend as well. Ultimately we're fine with that but I wanted to share this to other families.

Thank you!! We were wondering whether to apply to private for third grade (from a charter) or stick it out for a few more years. This is very helpful, if sobering.

[Anonymous]

It depends on what you want. My kid just applied to private middle school from a JKLM without scores, etc, anywhere near that high and was accepted by our first choice. Our priority was a school with small class sizes, thoughtful curriculum, and caring teachers, not the prestige of the school.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps things have changed over the course of the last few years (I have two in HS) but my dc went to a JKLM and their peers had no trouble getting into private schools following elementary school (just off the top of my head kids went to NCS, St. Albans, St. Anselm's, Sheridan, Field, Burke, Sidwell, Landon). Both of mine got into big 3 for 9th grade and, again, their cohort went off to all of the usual suspects (Sidwell, GDS, NCS, St. John's, Maret, Field, WIS) as well as top-tier boarding schools.

Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don't and that can be difficult but I can see no systematic rejection of DCPS students from the JKLMs and Deal.

[Anonymous]

OP, my sympathies to you and your family. It takes a lot of courage to come here and admit that DCPS is not actually getting better and private schools in the area are taking notice of the latest scandals. I wish you and your family well. Perhaps you could sent your dear child to a smaller local religious based school and then apply to another private from there. Alternatively, boarding school in PA or upstate is an option. I wish you and your family all the best. Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

[Anonymous]

I'm not familiar yet with PARCC scores, but it's striking to read that a 99% in the DCPS standardized test (PARCC) translates into 30% in the private school one (SSAT). Can other parents comment on this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar yet with PARCC scores, but it's striking to read that a 99% in the DCPS standardized test (PARCC) translates into 30% in the private school one (SSAT). Can other parents comment on this?

Depends on your kid.

My child gets 4s on PARCC, and got a 92 percentile on the SSAT. DC only did one practice test, no test prep.

Was in 5th grade at a DC charter school. Some tests just fit some kids better than others.

However, we struck out at all but one of the privates we applied to (Field, Burke, GDS).