Has your first choice school changed since you started applications?

[Anonymous]

Ours is still exactly the same. The process has just confirmed what we already thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, we were gunning for a top private but after both virtual and in-person events, we're not so sure anymore.

Pros: A bit more confident in the academics and college preparation in general compared to our public, but less so on math. Beautiful facilities.
Cons: Less diversity, both racially and economically. Financial impact (see below). May be harder to get into top colleges than coming from our public.

Ultimately it's a cost-benefit analysis. We're in that boat where we make enough to not qualify for any significant financial aid and engender no sympathy for having to make such a choice, but the cost is high enough that it has *severe* tradeoff implications for our travel (we like to take an extended trip each summer that is part tourism but also part cultural experience, learning about other parts of the world and ways of life being part of their holistic education), retirement/529 contributions, extracurricular/camp budget, and so on. Basically tuition would eat up the vast majority of our saving/disposable income not allocated to covering basics like mortgage, utilities, food, clothes, etc. In fact we'd probably have to cut back on some of those things. Contrasted to going to our public and having ~$100k additional per year available for savings and disposable income purposes. Given how much we realize we'd have to give up, the benefit has to be REALLY worth it, and after a lot of research and talking to other families and getting down to those financial brass tacks and thinking about the opportunity costs, the value just doesn't seem to be what we thought it would going into the process.

Your family situation sounds a LOT like ours, right down to the details about travel, camp, etc. Renovations, whatever. I have a 45 yr old kitchen.

Just posting to say that we are so. glad. we stayed the course and kept kid in private all they way through (a secular k-8 then big 3). We gave up a lot of $ things and we were never close to being eligible for financial aid. The education and overall experience was excellent. Choose wisely, yes, but don't let anyone tell you that the public K-12 experience around here is "just as good" in 2022. Not on balance it isn't.

[Anonymous]

First choice is still the same, but much happier about some other choices that if first doesn't work out, no hearts will be broken. My real concern is that we will need FA and DC had a subpar first report card (always had straight As prior) but the transition back to in person and MCPS barely keeping their head above water made for a rocky start. The way this forum makes it sound is that your child needs to be flawless just for a chance... Hard not to be nervous about March 4.

[Anonymous]

First choice was Frost when we started.

Now it is Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Same for us!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, we were gunning for a top private but after both virtual and in-person events, we're not so sure anymore.

Pros: A bit more confident in the academics and college preparation in general compared to our public, but less so on math. Beautiful facilities.
Cons: Less diversity, both racially and economically. Financial impact (see below). May be harder to get into top colleges than coming from our public.

Ultimately it's a cost-benefit analysis. We're in that boat where we make enough to not qualify for any significant financial aid and engender no sympathy for having to make such a choice, but the cost is high enough that it has *severe* tradeoff implications for our travel (we like to take an extended trip each summer that is part tourism but also part cultural experience, learning about other parts of the world and ways of life being part of their holistic education), retirement/529 contributions, extracurricular/camp budget, and so on. Basically tuition would eat up the vast majority of our saving/disposable income not allocated to covering basics like mortgage, utilities, food, clothes, etc. In fact we'd probably have to cut back on some of those things. Contrasted to going to our public and having ~$100k additional per year available for savings and disposable income purposes. Given how much we realize we'd have to give up, the benefit has to be REALLY worth it, and after a lot of research and talking to other families and getting down to those financial brass tacks and thinking about the opportunity costs, the value just doesn't seem to be what we thought it would going into the process.

Your family situation sounds a LOT like ours, right down to the details about travel, camp, etc. Renovations, whatever. I have a 45 yr old kitchen.

Just posting to say that we are so. glad. we stayed the course and kept kid in private all they way through (a secular k-8 then big 3). We gave up a lot of $ things and we were never close to being eligible for financial aid. The education and overall experience was excellent. Choose wisely, yes, but don't let anyone tell you that the public K-12 experience around here is "just as good" in 2022. Not on balance it isn't.

NP Of course public is not “just as good” but the question is, is private $100k/year worth it? IMO, if you have to stop saving and traveling, it is not. Heck, we are still looking at the same finances, and the $100k would not impact our savings rate in any way (but would affect our travel budget). I imagine there are families with twice the income who are also still considering whether it’s worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Same for us!

Same here! It's last on our list after the interviews. If admissios is reading this they should take rhe feedback

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Potomac didn’t even do a parent interview. Interviewed the kids, but not parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Same for us!

Same here! It's last on our list after the interviews. If admissios is reading this they should take rhe feedback

+3 My DC applied for high school and after the interview it moved to last place. Between the horrible online open house and the completely uninterested interviewer, hard for DC to be excited about this school. It is also difficult to get a feel for the school because DC hasn’t been on campus and toured or shadowed like the other schools they are considering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Interesting. I thought the interviewer just wasn't interested in us.

I also found the student playdate rushed and less engaging/personable than others. I'm at a loss for what they were able to gain from it.

[Anonymous]

Slightly different era as our youngest is off to college in the fall, but we would have been fine with our DCPS options, only applied to one school, a big3 k-12. Was accepted and has had a fabulous experience. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have had the opportunity and to be able to afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Interesting. I thought the interviewer just wasn't interested in us.

I also found the student playdate rushed and less engaging/personable than others. I'm at a loss for what they were able to gain from it.

These people are professionals. They saw what they needed to see and you may still get in. Don’t read to much into it.

[Anonymous]

I think GDS has just been trying to process way too many applicants. Sidwell cuts off their applications in mid dec. the cathedral schools get a smaller pool (due to being single Ed and being much smaller classes). GDS gets a lot of applicants. Last year it was close to 500 for 9th grade. It's hard to genuinely want to get to know that many families or even muster up to excitement that many times to pretend that you do.