Are chances to get into DCI without feeder near zero?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The reality is that DCI has been on a large upward trajectory in getting better.

With the expansion classes coming up there is going to be 0 chance of getting into Spanish. French is also going to decrease drastically also.

I also predict the Chinese number to decrease which you can see it trend has significantly because the school is getting more buy in from feeder families.

I would put another spin on this -
as it becomes harder to get into BASIS, more families are staying with DCI as they do not have other options.

[Anonymous]

The feeders have grown in numbers which greatly reduces outsiders chances. Yu ying doesn’t take new students after second grade, so there may always be some Chinese slots. To the Basis theorist: wow. Jealous much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The feeders have grown in numbers which greatly reduces outsiders chances. Yu ying doesn’t take new students after second grade, so there may always be some Chinese slots. To the Basis theorist: wow. Jealous much?

Isn’t Yu Ying also expanding?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The feeders have grown in numbers which greatly reduces outsiders chances. Yu ying doesn’t take new students after second grade, so there may always be some Chinese slots. To the Basis theorist: wow. Jealous much?

Isn’t Yu Ying also expanding?

Only their preschool and K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The feeders have grown in numbers which greatly reduces outsiders chances. Yu ying doesn’t take new students after second grade, so there may always be some Chinese slots. To the Basis theorist: wow. Jealous much?

Isn’t Yu Ying also expanding?

Only their preschool and K.[/quote

?? And then they ask families to leave?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The reality is that DCI has been on a large upward trajectory in getting better.

With the expansion classes coming up there is going to be 0 chance of getting into Spanish. French is also going to decrease drastically also.

I also predict the Chinese number to decrease which you can see it trend has significantly because the school is getting more buy in from feeder families.

I would put another spin on this -
as it becomes harder to get into BASIS, more families are staying with DCI as they do not have other options.

Yea no. We have a high performing kid and looked at Basis. After tour, took it off the list and was not even a consideration at all. Not interested in the depressing building and lack of sports and extracurriculars. Also not interested in the sole focus of cramming a ton of AP courses to save a year.

We wanted a more well rounded experience for our kid with academics, great facilities, and lots options of sports and extracurriculars. We also like the IB curriculum and especially the IB diploma as opposed to a bunch of AP courses. We also like the heavy emphasis on writing and critical thinking and I’m speaking as a parent in a STEM field.

Lastly, we are lucky in that we have lots of options - move WOTP, pay for private, move to the burbs, etc.. and are choosing to go to DCI and try it out. We are far from the only family like this at our school.

[Anonymous]

It’s possible, my child got into DCI French program for 6th (2 yrs ago) without a feeder. We ended uppassed on the spot based on distance and the very difficult logistics it would entail. For us it made sense to pass on the spot as our kid was a bit fragile at the time (Covid depression, etc) and I don’t think would have fared well with the early mornings and long commute.

Very far for Ward 8 families like ours, though I know some do it and I know it can work out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s possible, my child got into DCI French program for 6th (2 yrs ago) without a feeder. We ended uppassed on the spot based on distance and the very difficult logistics it would entail. For us it made sense to pass on the spot as our kid was a bit fragile at the time (Covid depression, etc) and I don’t think would have fared well with the early mornings and long commute.

Very far for Ward 8 families like ours, though I know some do it and I know it can work out.

I hope your kid is doing well now! The commute is in fact pretty intense, even from Ward 6, and has caused issues on and off for past two years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The feeders have grown in numbers which greatly reduces outsiders chances. Yu ying doesn’t take new students after second grade, so there may always be some Chinese slots. To the Basis theorist: wow. Jealous much?

Isn’t Yu Ying also expanding?

Only their preschool and K.[/quote

?? And then they ask families to leave?

No, they are just going to let attrition bring it down so their upper elementary ends up slightly bigger than it is now. So they'll be using more of their DCI allotment, but still, I think 100% matriculation to DCI is unlikely. There's always someone that moves away or chooses BASIS or whatever.

[Anonymous]

My guess is that if your kid is reasonably good at languages and mildly motivated to learn Chinese, they could probably jump in at 9th grade even and be only weeks away from keeping up with the worst performers in DCI in Chinese and months away from the better ones.

Now if your kid isn't good at languages or unmotivated, DCI is probably gonna suck in any grade, so good luck.

[Anonymous]

Wow. You sure are a nasty one, aren’t you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s possible, my child got into DCI French program for 6th (2 yrs ago) without a feeder. We ended uppassed on the spot based on distance and the very difficult logistics it would entail. For us it made sense to pass on the spot as our kid was a bit fragile at the time (Covid depression, etc) and I don’t think would have fared well with the early mornings and long commute.

Very far for Ward 8 families like ours, though I know some do it and I know it can work out.

I hope your kid is doing well now! The commute is in fact pretty intense, even from Ward 6, and has caused issues on and off for past two years.

Indeed much better now, thanks you for the well wishes and positivity!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that if your kid is reasonably good at languages and mildly motivated to learn Chinese, they could probably jump in at 9th grade even and be only weeks away from keeping up with the worst performers in DCI in Chinese and months away from the better ones.

Now if your kid isn't good at languages or unmotivated, DCI is probably gonna suck in any grade, so good luck.

You're exaggerating but aren't far off the mark. We came out of YY but know a couple DCI families where a kid came in with minimal Mandarin in 6th grade yet managed to crack the highest level by 8th. That said, these families had at least one native-speaking parent, schlepped up to MoCo Chinese heritage schools on weekends in 6th and 7th grades, paid for serious summer immersion experiences plus visited native-speaking relatives for weeks over the summers. Can be done with the right inputs but difficult to pull off.

[Anonymous]

Kids leave feeders in 5th to go to Latin and Basis and so that's when you could get in them if you don't get in by K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The reality is that DCI has been on a large upward trajectory in getting better.

With the expansion classes coming up there is going to be 0 chance of getting into Spanish. French is also going to decrease drastically also.

I also predict the Chinese number to decrease which you can see it trend has significantly because the school is getting more buy in from feeder families.

I would put another spin on this -
as it becomes harder to get into BASIS, more families are staying with DCI as they do not have other options.

Yea no. We have a high performing kid and looked at Basis. After tour, took it off the list and was not even a consideration at all. Not interested in the depressing building and lack of sports and extracurriculars. Also not interested in the sole focus of cramming a ton of AP courses to save a year.

We wanted a more well rounded experience for our kid with academics, great facilities, and lots options of sports and extracurriculars. We also like the IB curriculum and especially the IB diploma as opposed to a bunch of AP courses. We also like the heavy emphasis on writing and critical thinking and I’m speaking as a parent in a STEM field.

Lastly, we are lucky in that we have lots of options - move WOTP, pay for private, move to the burbs, etc.. and are choosing to go to DCI and try it out. We are far from the only family like this at our school.

I agree with the first PP. More feeder families may have been willing to give DCI a try when it was new, but it’s had enough time to establish itself as a school at this point. It’s incredibly underwhelming. No thanks. We had a chance to send our high-performing kid elsewhere and we took it. About 12 other kids from our feeder left for Basis and a few left for Latin. That should leave spots open for non-feeder kids to enter DCI in 6th, depending on the track.