FAQ for Private School Admissions
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SAM2
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Tell your kid to mix you a drink -- you deserve it. Congratulations on finishing! |
Anonymous
| I am always amazed at the nastiness that pops up on this site. To be frank..it's the same kind of nastiness that makes me wary of private schools because you sort of want to keep your child aways from the snobs of the world. I do understand that parents may want to clarify that Sidwell isn't the center of the universe but there is a better way to handle it. Frankly I live in VA so Sidwell or GDS would not even be a thought let alone a "big three"-probably a big three would be a big one..Potomac (for HS anyway)--so it is all relative but I don't angry about it, I just assume someone has a different perspective because they live in DC or MD. Maybe a good way to handle is to ask OP to edit her original statment on big three schools to say that many in DC think xxx schools are the big three but that may be different if you live in VA---so it's more than opinion, it's literally logistics. Other than nitpicking on that..and really I just breezed over that, I thought a lot of the info was very helpful including the WPPSI scores. |
Anonymous
| just noticed there is a thread addressing geography. Great! |
SAM2
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It's commencement season, so many schools are starting to post college matriculation lists for their seniors. I've gathered a few. If anyone sees college lists for seniors, please post a link online. Alternatively, if it's a paper list, you can send me a PDF scan. If you want to keep it confidential, just login and send me a personal message so we can arrange something. Many thanks for any help in pointing me to data.
Congratulations to all graduates, and more importantly, parents of graduates. |
SAM2
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With the next admissions season, I'm trying to find time to test the links in the FAQ, and update any dead ones. If you see any that are off, please let me know. Alternatively, if you think other items ought to be added, let me know. Better yet, if there is some topic you know a lot about, and you're willing to write up a short summary, I'd be happy to incorporate it. For example, two topics I know comparatively little about are financial aid and upper school admission tests.
Thanks. Good luck to everyone applying this season. |
Anonymous
| what are the acceptable WISC scores at Big 3? |
Anonymous
| how about a data sheet on teacher/student ratios in various grades in private schools? |
SAM2
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Good idea. I'm willing to add a data sheet and input the various ratios for each school. But I'm probably not going to be able to do all the legwork to scour the school websites for ratio info. If you and others will start posting links here to where the student:teacher ratio is on each school's website, I will plug that data into a new sheet. Thanks for the idea. Another idea -- Is anyone interested in another survey to summarize how many (and which) schools people are applying to this season? I did a survey last year on admissions results, and it seemed moderately successful and informative. I probably will do a similar admissions results survey in March. But now while the application season is drawing to a close, would people be interested in getting a sense at how many other people are applying where? If so, just post here to let me know. If there's enough interest, I'll do something. I'm thinking of a very short set of questions, covering just how many schools you're applying to, for what grade, and a tick-off list of school names. If there are other questions that people would find useful, post them here. I suspect someone will suggest including a question about WPPSI scores, and I'm willing to add that if there is significant interest. But I also think posting test score data may deter some people from participating and also tends to distract from other issues. Just let me know what you think. |
Anonymous
| 10:38-- Definitely interested. |
Anonymous
| I'm interested as well. |
Anonymous
| GDS! |
Anonymous
| I was googling admission info and ran across this post. Although it is a year old, there is excellent info especially for those new to the process. Of course, in typical DC forum style, there are a few who want to seek and destroy but overall it's full of good, informative info. |
SAM2
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Hello everyone. Since a new application season is here, I will review and update the original FAQ posts over the next couple of weeks. If anyone sees links that are not working, or other information that should be added, please post here or send me a PM (personal message) so I can be sure to fix those items.
Student:teacher ratios. I did not make much progress on adding a page on student:teacher ratios. But part of the problem is that I can see only what is on the schools' websites, and that's only marginally helpful because it includes all teachers and all students. So for example, even though many classrooms are really something like 10:1 or 12:1, many schools will list a ratio like 7:1, because they include in the teacher count all the special resource teachers the school employs. I suppose that's legitimate in some respects, but it only tells part of the story, since it does not show what's happening in the primary classroom. Survey of admissions success at particular schools. Something I've considered doing a few times is creating a survey that will allow people to report on what their admissions results were at particular schools, and cross-reference those results against applicant characteristics. For example, we might be able to see that younger siblings of current Lowell students are admitted 50% of the time, while non-sibling applicants are admitted only 25% of the time. Or as another example, we might see that applicants with scores in the 70th percentile are admitted 40% of the time, while scores in the 90th percentile are admitted 50% of the time. If you think this is a worthwhile project, let me know. If you think it's a waste of time, I'd appreciate hearing why, because I don't want to waste time. Here is an old thread where I floated the idea, and included a sample survey form: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/221436.page If anyone has other suggestions, post them here. I'm happy to sift other data, but only if people will find it useful (and if I have the time). Best wishes to everyone this season. Sam2 |
Anonymous
| Is it normal for a school to send admission results before the posted results deadline? |
Anonymous
| What kind of scores are schools like Field and Burke looking for on the SSAT for an 9th grade applicant? |