More competitive year than usual?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2020/2021 was when things hit the fan in terms of admissions in privates here. I think it has not righted itself since then. Likely will be much more competitive for a few more years to come. This year was nothing like 2021.

Do you mean 2021 was even worse??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would this cause a ripple effect?

Because other schools become more competitive as a result of GDS having less spaces available.

I agree. Definitely. had an effect across the board. Also, a message was sent to all schools to keep enrollment numbers in check..

This doesn't really make sense, because the whole GDS thing came out AFTER people had already applied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This year was a true nightmare. Parents are scattered everywhere looking for schools and waitlisted at the safeties. They are shocked and horrified at their children are getting rejected and waitlisted everywhere. This was a very difficult year.

It’s hard to fathom how any child got into a big three this year and what those parents are doing right?!?!

The 9th graders I know who were admitted to STA/NCS/Sidwell/Potomac/Maret:

-public school sibling
-public school sibling
-public school sibling
-public school kid with an extended family member who is a teacher at the school
-public school kid no hooks or connections
-out-of-area athlete from private school
-K-8 kid, applied to 3, admitted to 1

kids I know who were not admitted:
-Big3 kid who wanted to transfer schools
-Big3 kid who wanted to transfer schools
-Catholic school kid
-
-

[Anonymous]

Listening to people at work, I think that the 9th grade admissions gets harder and harder each year. This makes k-12 admission more interesting to some who might otherwise choose a k-8, so it also increases competition for K spots at k-12 schools. I can’t imagine a scenario where this trend changes anytime soon.

I also wonder if some k-8 admissions people are too optimistic about outplacement. Just because the school placed some kids at xyz school for 9th, that doesn’t mean that an arbitrary unhooked kid will get accepted at xyz school.

[Anonymous]

My guess is that admissions people at many schools are trying to build a class which is diverse in many ways (beyond ethnicity). They want some athletes, some musicians, some artists, and so on. Acceptances are not merely based on academic achievement….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that admissions people at many schools are trying to build a class which is diverse in many ways (beyond ethnicity). They want some athletes, some musicians, some artists, and so on. Acceptances are not merely based on academic achievement….

The other thing is that the K-12 schools are quickly realizing that pretty much the only kids they are getting into elite universities are minorities and athletes.
So these kids will have an increasing edge in high school admissions

[Anonymous]

Harvard and Stanford Class of 2026 were around 25 or 30 percent URM. You would have us believe that it was much higher than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that admissions people at many schools are trying to build a class which is diverse in many ways (beyond ethnicity). They want some athletes, some musicians, some artists, and so on. Acceptances are not merely based on academic achievement….

The other thing is that the K-12 schools are quickly realizing that pretty much the only kids they are getting into elite universities are minorities and athletes.
So these kids will have an increasing edge in high school admissions

PP here:
YMMV, but I do not believe that theory about elite university admissions. I also do not believe those kids will have an “increasing edge in HS admissions”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Listening to people at work, I think that the 9th grade admissions gets harder and harder each year. This makes k-12 admission more interesting to some who might otherwise choose a k-8, so it also increases competition for K spots at k-12 schools. I can’t imagine a scenario where this trend changes anytime soon.

I also wonder if some k-8 admissions people are too optimistic about outplacement. Just because the school placed some kids at xyz school for 9th, that doesn’t mean that an arbitrary unhooked kid will get accepted at xyz school.

This surely will be a self-correcting problem. If excellent, highly-qualified students are only getting into so-called "safety" schools, the average level of achievement at the safety schools will go up. And schools that were struggling with low enrollment before will now have funds to do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to people at work, I think that the 9th grade admissions gets harder and harder each year. This makes k-12 admission more interesting to some who might otherwise choose a k-8, so it also increases competition for K spots at k-12 schools. I can’t imagine a scenario where this trend changes anytime soon.

I also wonder if some k-8 admissions people are too optimistic about outplacement. Just because the school placed some kids at xyz school for 9th, that doesn’t mean that an arbitrary unhooked kid will get accepted at xyz school.

This surely will be a self-correcting problem. If excellent, highly-qualified students are only getting into so-called "safety" schools, the average level of achievement at the safety schools will go up. And schools that were struggling with low enrollment before will now have funds to do better.

Our experience. We left for MCPS last year and haven’t looked back. Check out Whitman and their scores and you’ll see why. Check out Walter Johnson and you’ll see why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to people at work, I think that the 9th grade admissions gets harder and harder each year. This makes k-12 admission more interesting to some who might otherwise choose a k-8, so it also increases competition for K spots at k-12 schools. I can’t imagine a scenario where this trend changes anytime soon.

I also wonder if some k-8 admissions people are too optimistic about outplacement. Just because the school placed some kids at xyz school for 9th, that doesn’t mean that an arbitrary unhooked kid will get accepted at xyz school.

This surely will be a self-correcting problem. If excellent, highly-qualified students are only getting into so-called "safety" schools, the average level of achievement at the safety schools will go up. And schools that were struggling with low enrollment before will now have funds to do better.

Our experience. We left for MCPS last year and haven’t looked back. Check out Whitman and their scores and you’ll see why. Check out Walter Johnson and you’ll see why.

.
Left our K8 after oldest A student didn’t get his 9th top 4 choices. Only hooks got in last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to people at work, I think that the 9th grade admissions gets harder and harder each year. This makes k-12 admission more interesting to some who might otherwise choose a k-8, so it also increases competition for K spots at k-12 schools. I can’t imagine a scenario where this trend changes anytime soon.

I also wonder if some k-8 admissions people are too optimistic about outplacement. Just because the school placed some kids at xyz school for 9th, that doesn’t mean that an arbitrary unhooked kid will get accepted at xyz school.

This surely will be a self-correcting problem. If excellent, highly-qualified students are only getting into so-called "safety" schools, the average level of achievement at the safety schools will go up. And schools that were struggling with low enrollment before will now have funds to do better.

Our experience. We left for MCPS last year and haven’t looked back. Check out Whitman and their scores and you’ll see why. Check out Walter Johnson and you’ll see why.

.
Left our K8 after oldest A student didn’t get his 9th top 4 choices. Only hooks got in last year.

Did he get in somewhere else? If only hooks can get into the top schools, there will be an excellent cohort of high achieving students going to the next tier of school, and that competitiveness of these other schools will rise too.

[Anonymous]

I think that's true but it will take years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the responders and public schools are imploding. This simply is not true. We have one in private and one in public. Our public kid is actually doing better and less stressed then our private. He got into a top 20 university and is it out going, funny, smart and has a great group of friends. He played ultimate frisbee, school newspaper,participated in a Jackson Reed a Academy. There was one semester that he really had to get support from his counselor to get the classes organized the way he wanted them to be. He took APs off the and is awesome.He couldn’t be more happy from his experience.
Also this year’s Princeton Pine award went to a Jackson Reed graduate who graduated four years ago. My private school kid is also doing fine and well the experience is different there’s ways to feel successful in both. You all act like public schools are horrible. Have you ever stepped foot in one? Or sat in the classroom?

I'm so happy public has worked out well for your child. But please remember that most people here are talking about general trends and it's hard to quantify behavior issues, but the data about test scores dropping and teacher shortages don't lie. There are obviously differences between schools. Unfortunately we had a very disappointing experience with public schools, which is why we are switching along with so many other parents who were once happy with public.

NP. I really hope that private works out for you but go in with your eyes open to reality that there are a lot of issues at many privates too. Different issues, but issues none the less. Best of luck to you.

Thank you. I think I'll just be relieved if my kid can get decent teaching and decent grading standards to be prepared for college. What kind of issues should I be looking out for with private schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the responders and public schools are imploding. This simply is not true. We have one in private and one in public. Our public kid is actually doing better and less stressed then our private. He got into a top 20 university and is it out going, funny, smart and has a great group of friends. He played ultimate frisbee, school newspaper,participated in a Jackson Reed a Academy. There was one semester that he really had to get support from his counselor to get the classes organized the way he wanted them to be. He took APs off the and is awesome.He couldn’t be more happy from his experience.
Also this year’s Princeton Pine award went to a Jackson Reed graduate who graduated four years ago. My private school kid is also doing fine and well the experience is different there’s ways to feel successful in both. You all act like public schools are horrible. Have you ever stepped foot in one? Or sat in the classroom?

I'm so happy public has worked out well for your child. But please remember that most people here are talking about general trends and it's hard to quantify behavior issues, but the data about test scores dropping and teacher shortages don't lie. There are obviously differences between schools. Unfortunately we had a very disappointing experience with public schools, which is why we are switching along with so many other parents who were once happy with public.

NP. I really hope that private works out for you but go in with your eyes open to reality that there are a lot of issues at many privates too. Different issues, but issues none the less. Best of luck to you.

Thank you. I think I'll just be relieved if my kid can get decent teaching and decent grading standards to be prepared for college. What kind of issues should I be looking out for with private schools?

Privates can be more insular and socially that can lead to a lot of mean girl types of behavior. Privates also favor certain kids and families in ways that I have never seen at public school and that can shake out in how they prioritize certain kids' schedules and in college counseling.