Triaging schools to call looking for last minute opening for 6th grade
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Anonymous
| Looking at past posts I think the only way to try to find unexpectedly open spots is to call. Any idea on which schools to try first (or is this hopeless for 6th grade)? |
Anonymous
| It is never hopeless but many have a waitlist and may not have even moved to that yet. Tuition is due May 1 and waitlists might shuffle after that and schools without a waitlist will know who is really coming, and who isn’t. K-8 schools often lose students starting in 6th as people begin applying out to high school. We stayed and our kids had a great experience in middle school at a k-8. Where are you hoping to be geographically? |
Anonymous
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You may want to give some more details as to what you are looking for (why now?), where you live, etc. people are more likely to respond if they know you are near a place rather than just throwing schools at you and just hoping you aren't trolling for people to lowkey shade their local schools.
6th grade is a tight year if you want them to stay until 12th grade, but the year K-8 really tend to have spots start to loosen up, so I would aim k-8 first... |
Anonymous
| Pretty open in terms of DC or Maryland. Thanks for insight on the timeline, PP! |
Anonymous
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Religious or non-religious? Or any particular learning styles?
Try Lowell school, they have been signaling a lower return rate so you might get a quick win there (better to have a few choices so you can make the right move for your kid). |
Anonymous
| OP here - for context, we’re wondering about this (very belatedly) as an option because we’d planned to move for middle school but are having a hard time with the current market. Our kid is a really sweet and creative kid on grade level. |
Anonymous
| Sorry for the multiple messages. Ideally non-religious or at least liberal. |
Anonymous
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Where? If MD, maybe SSFS since you mention sweet and grade level? You can say what you want about that school, but the kids are some nice kids!
Many schools that advertise rolling admissions on their website will have openings, especially in this economy. |
Anonymous
Lowell is facing significant financial challenges and has had to delay teacher contracts as they struggle to keep things afloat. Best to steer clear for now. |
Anonymous
| Barrie has a middle school open house this Saturday. |
Anonymous
People don't mind multiple messages when you are giving more information and it is better to keep this close to the top for a minute. People have a problem with it when they think that OP is pretending to be someone else responding to bring a smearing thread about another school or an overly positive thread about their own back up to the top 
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Anonymous
Oneness Family School has rolling admissions. |
Anonymous
| OP here - thanks for the suggestions! Definitely not here to trash on any school. Honestly SSFS looks so well suited to my kid. Read some recent threads and seems like the jury is out (rebuilding better than ever vs it’s changed/we are worried it can’t ever bounce back/we are worried it will still close). Also creeped the college admissions Instagram and seems decent. Am I missing any other considerations? |
Anonymous
I don't have any other considerations, but I prefer this to the other threads so I'm just going to validate that I personally find the Friends experience to be wonderful for students. I genuinely love every person I have known who went to one (we were very Catholic so I didn't attend myself) and all seemed to thrive in various Friends schools. I'm not going to lie on some level it lightly bothers me that Sidwell is called Sidwell and not Friends in the DC community. I truly think your daughter will have a wonderful experience at SSFS! |
Anonymous
| Try Norwood. My kid entered in Middle School and had a great experience. As other posters have said, K-8s tend to lose kids starting in 6th grade so they may have an opening. |