Anonymous wrote:I believe the prior post is overly pessamistic. Depends on the kid and on what kind of schools you are targeting. The very academically-strong schools that are not stand alone high schools (Sidwell, GDS, NCS, St Albans, Maret, Holton) have relatively small numbers of spots, but even within that group very possible if your kid tests extremely well, has great grades, and has stellar extracurricular talents or interests (or not, the academic can be enough). But within that group the numbers vary (GDS takes in many for high school almost 50 while Sidwell takes more in at lower grades so only 25 or so for high school, Maret takes quite few, etc). So being completely focused on that group without excellent scores and grades makes it hard to count on them. On the other hand there are lots of other excellent options depending on your kid and why you want to move. Visitation , St John's and other Catholic high schools don't start until 9th in many cases, so they have lots of spots (although the feeder Catholic K-8 do make up the majority of their students). Schools such as Bullis, SSSA, St Andrew's can be great fpr many kids and are more reasonable to get into with more average grades and scores.
Actually, Maret takes the least kids in 9th, think it's 8 or so most years. You don't necessarily need great grades, excellent test scores, and extraordinary talents to get into any of these schools. These things help, but sometimes a school just likes a kid. Neither of my kids had great grades, and both got into these schools.