For those lucky children

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP gives great advice. What I would add is that there are broad consideration which make up a grade of students. Learning styles, socio-economic status, race and sex, priority versus non-priority....

The hyperbole about money and class in this forum is just that. Most of the families at the schools are "no name" regular people who can afford the tuition (or qualify for Aid).

11:53, nobody is denying that there are no-name, regular people in this schools. It's just that their chances of getting in are much lower than for what even you call "priority" kids in your post.

The math is pretty simple. A very helpful person on another thread took a stab at it, so I'm repeating it here with a few clarifications. Assume 300 applicants for 90 spaces in K:

- assume about 50% of the 90 spaces will go to siblings, so 45 siblings get in, and 45 remaining spaces for non-siblings
- assume 70 sibling applicants, also assume sibling acceptance rate is 70%, or 7/10 odds of admission for siblings
- that leaves 230 non-sibling applicants (=300-70) for 45 non-sibling spaces, making the odds of admission about 20% or 1/5 for "regular" families

If you want, you can also assume:
- there 10 applicants from high-profile families and that they have an 80% acceptance rate, so 8 of these high-profile family kids get in. This reduces the number of slots for regular kids from 45 to 37. The number of "regular" kid applicants is now 222 (=230-8). So the odds of admission, if high-profile kids get special treatment, drops to about 16%, or 1/6 (=37/222) for the regular kids.

So at the end of the day, the "regular" families send 45 kids (or 37 kids if you assume high-profile kids get special treatment), and indeed your observation is correct that you see lots of regular kids at these schools. But their chances of admission werre 1/5 (or even 1/6), versus 7/10 for siblings and 8/10 for high-profile families.

[Anonymous]

How did that weird emoticon get in there? It's supposed to be an "8" followed by a close parentheses. Also, the sibling acceptance rate doesn't quite work out with the numbers, but it doesn't make a difference to the final calcs and I chose it because it seems realistic.

[Anonymous]

The math gets more complicated but the numbers you have are higher than the reality because you forget the children of "color". Granted they are competing among themselves so even if there are only 10 families for two spots the odds are 1/5 for them too but also reduces the number of spaces for those families who are not priority/wealthy/colored for lack of better terms.

45 spots over 90 spaces, 20 or so at Beauvoir and the others split among the other schools would mean that many families are completely shut out of all these schools. So the normal families in this 300 pool should consider expanding their reach a bit if they have not already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The math gets more complicated but the numbers you have are higher than the reality because you forget the children of "color". Granted they are competing among themselves so even if there are only 10 families for two spots the odds are 1/5 for them too but also reduces the number of spaces for those families who are not priority/wealthy/colored for lack of better terms.

Not a cool comment at all. Children of color are not competing among themselves. They are competing among the entire applicant pool.

[Anonymous]

You are also forgetting that most siblings were once regular people, and, there is no automatic acceptance if there isn't a probability of success.

[Anonymous]

And "colored for a lack of a better term" is just not accetable. It did not even save you space or time. "Children of color" is just as easy. Please don't ever use that term, not even for a short cut. I was not colored from what you consider normal to African American. I was born this way. No one colored me. You have got to know that using "colored" is beyond offensive and outdated.

[Anonymous]

I didn't know that. I'm very sorry to have offended you or anyone else.

[Anonymous]

Responding to the OP's original post. Our DC enrolled (Beauvior) at K, 96%ile, no special connections or diversity, two professionals but nothing high profile, preschool at NCRC. I'm convinced the latter, including the beautiful recommendations the teachers wrote, made a big difference. But also DC is a sweet, gentle-natured kid who smiles and laughs easily. I did not sweat the play visits. Fwiw, DC was accepted on first app to Beauvoir, St. Pat's and Sheridan, waitlisted at Maret and Sidwell.
(Second DC was admitted as a sibling at Beauvoir...and waitlisted everywhere else. I think that's probably typical because once ADs know your DC is a sibling somewhere, they assume they're a backup unless you tell them otherwise.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it is hard to compare one admissions season to the next. Some years some schools have extremely high numbers of siblings/priority candidates. Or, there may be a group of siblings who are more heavy on the boys, so if you are applying your boy to those schools your odds will not be good that year. There really is no way to determine how it will work out for you in advance. If you want advice, seek it from a professional consultant (they talk to the AD's and know some of this information) not here. There are many posters here who applied in different years, so you really can't use the information much - it's apples and oranges.

This is a unique application year due to the economy and election. A consultant "in the know" might be able to help give you some of the feedback you are looking for - based on this year's applicant pool. I didn't use a consultant, I know it's controversial on this blog to do so, but the good ones are better informed than everyone on this board. Including myself. People who use them seem to fare better - maybe because they get better informed advice on where to apply. If you don't want to pay for the consultant, one thing we did which was actually pretty accurate in its predictive value, was the following:

1. Determine how many kids from your current school went to each of the various schools you are applying to. In our case, there was a pretty strong pattern for several previous years. We knew how many in our preschool were siblings and subtracted those from the highest total number of kids taken.

2. Call the AD's at the school and get feedback about your child's visit. Ask about the number of sibling applicants - is it an unusually high number this year, etc.

It's important to cast a wide net and not get hung up on only 3 schools.

I am the WB/IMF PP. Our child got into all the schools we applied to including the ones I stated above and we used a consultant although it was last year.

OP here. Wow! This is the first time I've heard of a consultant for this. How do I go about finding one? We are so new to this whole process. We applied for 3 schools because mainly because of location but also because we are newbies to this and only new of these 3 by reputation. If we have to do this again next year then will expand to include Maret and Potomac (bus system). Clearly, we could benefit from a conusltant. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

"(Second DC was admitted as a sibling at Beauvoir...and waitlisted everywhere else. I think that's probably typical because once ADs know your DC is a sibling somewhere, they assume they're a backup unless you tell them otherwise.) "


That's an interesting piece of information.

[Anonymous]

Search the archives for educational consultants. There've been numerous threads on the topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"(Second DC was admitted as a sibling at Beauvoir...and waitlisted everywhere else. I think that's probably typical because once ADs know your DC is a sibling somewhere, they assume they're a backup unless you tell them otherwise.) "


That's an interesting piece of information.

Absolutely true, from what I've heard. When we applied DC2, and wanted a different school than DC1, we explicitly told the AD that they were our first choice.

[Anonymous]

OP, are you this uptight about everything in your life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"(Second DC was admitted as a sibling at Beauvoir...and waitlisted everywhere else. I think that's probably typical because once ADs know your DC is a sibling somewhere, they assume they're a backup unless you tell them otherwise.) "


That's an interesting piece of information.

Absolutely true, from what I've heard. When we applied DC2, and wanted a different school than DC1, we explicitly told the AD that they were our first choice.

We're in the same boat now. Did your first choice come through for DC2?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, are you this uptight about everything in your life?

Please stop with this kind of useless comment. Don't be an ass. OP asked a serious question and deserves a serious answer.