No connections, not from NCRC or other "feeder schools"...

[Anonymous]

I am sort of curious about the feeder school concept. I understand that, say Beauvior is a feeder to NCS and StA, but what are the feeder schools (so-called) before that? My understanding of NCRC is the same as described above, that it is a pre-school with no particular connection or affiliation.

[Anonymous]

The term is used more loosely for preschools (in DC at least) to denote institutions that have a strong track record of sending kids to the most sought-after indpendent schools and whose heads/ADs are thought to have good relationships and some influence with ADs at those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we fooling ourselves that our wonderful Dc who is a great kid with very high WPPSI, great school readiness and good recommendations but not at a feeder school but rather a small no name school would be considered to have any chance of gettng into a Top 3 Pre-K? No financial aid needed, no siblings, no almuni wha are friends, etc. From reading these threads, it seems like we're wasting our time and money.

How high is the WPPSI? And how are social skill? What adjectives would people use to describe your child when they meet him/her? If you tell me those things, I can give a more informed answer.

OP here: Dc's WPPSI was 99.9% with 99.9%ile in non-verbal, 99.5 and 99.6 in verbal. We see Dc as a regular friendly empathetic child. Dc is often described by strangers who meet Dc for the first time as very self confident, sweet, bright, charming, self assured. Dc had a wonderful narrative on the WPPSI report. Dc loves to paint, dance, sing, play sports, put together puzzles, and have books read to (read the words Dc knows but not reading books to self, almost 4 yrs old). If you're able to provide some insight that would be much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The "top 3" are so different from each other. What are you looking for? What are your values?

OP: A good all around private school that would be challenging and stimulating for our DC. We realize the schools have different personalities but all 3 are academically excellent as well as encourage children to be more socially aware of the world around us. We don't have a specific preference as to religious affliations of about being more liberal or not. FWIW, I guess we're the same way poiltically, moderates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we fooling ourselves that our wonderful Dc who is a great kid with very high WPPSI, great school readiness and good recommendations but not at a feeder school but rather a small no name school would be considered to have any chance of gettng into a Top 3 Pre-K? No financial aid needed, no siblings, no almuni wha are friends, etc. From reading these threads, it seems like we're wasting our time and money.

How high is the WPPSI? And how are social skill? What adjectives would people use to describe your child when they meet him/her? If you tell me those things, I can give a more informed answer.

OP here: Dc's WPPSI was 99.9% with 99.9%ile in non-verbal, 99.5 and 99.6 in verbal. We see Dc as a regular friendly empathetic child. Dc is often described by strangers who meet Dc for the first time as very self confident, sweet, bright, charming, self assured. Dc had a wonderful narrative on the WPPSI report. Dc loves to paint, dance, sing, play sports, put together puzzles, and have books read to (read the words Dc knows but not reading books to self, almost 4 yrs old). If you're able to provide some insight that would be much appreciated.[/quote.

I am the responder to whom you are replying. It sounds to me like you have a better shot for dc than some other "unconnected" kids. With the ability to be as selective as they are, the schools are generally drawn - and I am talking solely about unconnected kids here - to children who are more charming and sweet in nature, along with exceptionally bright.

Which makes sense, if you think about it: when you are trying to balance out a student body that includes priority children who might have test scores that are not as good and temperaments that are not noteworthy, you are going to want to bring in brighter, more agreeable children from the rest of the applicant pool. Why not, right?

Best of luck to you - cast your net wide but focused (the best schools that fit your dc along with a couple of secondary schools that also fit your dc) - and hope for the best. Also, be sure to make it known that you are looking forward to becoming active and participating members of the school community. In other words, that you will contribute your time, professional talents and/or money as you are able.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we fooling ourselves that our wonderful Dc who is a great kid with very high WPPSI, great school readiness and good recommendations but not at a feeder school but rather a small no name school would be considered to have any chance of gettng into a Top 3 Pre-K? No financial aid needed, no siblings, no almuni wha are friends, etc. From reading these threads, it seems like we're wasting our time and money.

I can only tell you our own experience: our kids went to a nursery school that you've never heard of, where 99 percent of the kids go on to the local public school. We are not rich, not famous, have no personal connections to any schools, and no friends who have connections to them. Our kids had very good WPPSI scores (I can't remember what they were, but they were good), but are not geniuses. They get along well with other kids, but their social skills at that time were probably not much different from those of most of the other kids who were applying.

We applied to Beauvoir, GDS and Sidwell for both kids, and both got into two of the three. Why? I have no idea, except that somebody has to, and why not them? I don't think their applications were dramatically stronger than most other kids', but they weren't weaker, either.

Bottom line: apply to any school you are interested in. The idea of casting a wide net is certainly valid, as the number of applicants at all of these schools exceeds the number they can accept, and it's important to have options. But don't rule out applying to any school just because you think admission is only offered to members of a certain "club." No matter what you read here, I can tell you from experience that it isn't so.

OP: thankyou, that's so encouraging. After reading many of these threads and going through this process for the 1st time, it seems like a very stressful 3 ring circus or carting your DC around and praying they impress someone on a playdate and I don't ever want my DC to feel that b/c they couldn't be themselves or not have a perfect day and be rejected. Of course DC is not aware of the stressfult process and we would never tell DC if rejected. We may try expanding our application to schools that go to 3rd grade then reapply for 3rd or 4th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds so, so much like the process in New York:

you met with the head to discuss schools you were considering and get feedback on good matches for your child based on philosophy of school and your child's temperament. some families are very receptive to this kind of feedback. others less so (ie parents wanting a traditional school when the head feels like a progressive or more of a blend school might be a better fit). then you were *strongly* encouraged to let her (the head) know your very *first* choice, *not* several choices. we were encouraged to apply only to schools we were really really interested in. at that point, i'm not sure what happened. my guess is that she did the best she could to advocate for your child for the first choice school.

So OP, I'm with the poster who pointed out, correctly, that some regular-like people need to be admitted. Why not your child?

OP: Thank you all for being so encouraging. The irony is we left New York City for several reasons, one being the "Manhattan school process" of having to place your child in the right pre-school in order to get into the a top Pre-K, etc etc... and having to know the "right people".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are we fooling ourselves that our wonderful Dc who is a great kid with very high WPPSI, great school readiness and good recommendations but not at a feeder school but rather a small no name school would be considered to have any chance of gettng into a Top 3 Pre-K? No financial aid needed, no siblings, no almuni wha are friends, etc. From reading these threads, it seems like we're wasting our time and money.

What do you/DH do for a living? We were in the same boat. We've been told that our interesting jobs helped separate us from the pack. We're at Beauvoir now, and love it. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we fooling ourselves that our wonderful Dc who is a great kid with very high WPPSI, great school readiness and good recommendations but not at a feeder school but rather a small no name school would be considered to have any chance of gettng into a Top 3 Pre-K? No financial aid needed, no siblings, no almuni wha are friends, etc. From reading these threads, it seems like we're wasting our time and money.

How high is the WPPSI? And how are social skill? What adjectives would people use to describe your child when they meet him/her? If you tell me those things, I can give a more informed answer.

OP here: Dc's WPPSI was 99.9% with 99.9%ile in non-verbal, 99.5 and 99.6 in verbal. We see Dc as a regular friendly empathetic child. Dc is often described by strangers who meet Dc for the first time as very self confident, sweet, bright, charming, self assured. Dc had a wonderful narrative on the WPPSI report. Dc loves to paint, dance, sing, play sports, put together puzzles, and have books read to (read the words Dc knows but not reading books to self, almost 4 yrs old). If you're able to provide some insight that would be much appreciated.[/quote.

I am the responder to whom you are replying. It sounds to me like you have a better shot for dc than some other "unconnected" kids. With the ability to be as selective as they are, the schools are generally drawn - and I am talking solely about unconnected kids here - to children who are more charming and sweet in nature, along with exceptionally bright.

Which makes sense, if you think about it: when you are trying to balance out a student body that includes priority children who might have test scores that are not as good and temperaments that are not noteworthy, you are going to want to bring in brighter, more agreeable children from the rest of the applicant pool. Why not, right?

Best of luck to you - cast your net wide but focused (the best schools that fit your dc along with a couple of secondary schools that also fit your dc) - and hope for the best. Also, be sure to make it known that you are looking forward to becoming active and participating members of the school community. In other words, that you will contribute your time, professional talents and/or money as you are able.

Good luck!

OP: wow! Thanks so much for your insight. I really appreciate it. How best do we go about letting them know that we are looking forward to becoming active and particpating members. On our GDS tour and interview, we were quite clueless and did not realize that we were being interviewed. It was such a casual sit down chat learning about GDS. We haven't had an opportunity. We thought the parent essays were not the appropriate place to state that. For Sidwell, we have not yet completed our application, hoping to somehow commimicate this to them. We still have a playdate with Beauvoir and hope to convey this in person. We are truly committed to our DC's education and to DC's school. We are actually willing to move closer to the school to which DC is admitted to do just that. Although a busy physician, I'm willing to cut back my work hours so that I would be more available. Although not super wealthy, we can manage DC's tutition and would be more than happy to contribute to our DC's school. We would obviously want our DC's school to have financial resources to continue to provide a wonderful education to our child and hopefully grandchildren.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we fooling ourselves that our wonderful Dc who is a great kid with very high WPPSI, great school readiness and good recommendations but not at a feeder school but rather a small no name school would be considered to have any chance of gettng into a Top 3 Pre-K? No financial aid needed, no siblings, no almuni wha are friends, etc. From reading these threads, it seems like we're wasting our time and money.

How high is the WPPSI? And how are social skill? What adjectives would people use to describe your child when they meet him/her? If you tell me those things, I can give a more informed answer.

OP here: Dc's WPPSI was 99.9% with 99.9%ile in non-verbal, 99.5 and 99.6 in verbal. We see Dc as a regular friendly empathetic child. Dc is often described by strangers who meet Dc for the first time as very self confident, sweet, bright, charming, self assured. Dc had a wonderful narrative on the WPPSI report. Dc loves to paint, dance, sing, play sports, put together puzzles, and have books read to (read the words Dc knows but not reading books to self, almost 4 yrs old). If you're able to provide some insight that would be much appreciated.

I posted before, but my formatting was off, so I'm not sure you saw it. If I am wrong, please excuse the repetition.

I am the responder to whom you are replying in this comment. It sounds to me like you have a better shot for dc than some other "unconnected" kids. With the ability to be as selective as they are, the schools are generally drawn - and I am talking solely about unconnected kids here - to children who are more charming and sweet in nature, along with exceptionally bright.

Which makes sense, if you think about it: when you are trying to balance out a student body that includes priority children who might have test scores that are not as good and temperaments that are not noteworthy, you are going to want to bring in brighter, more agreeable children from the rest of the applicant pool. Why not, right?

Best of luck to you - cast your net wide but focused (the best schools that fit your dc along with a couple of secondary schools that also fit your dc) - and hope for the best. Also, be sure to make it known that you are looking forward to becoming active and participating members of the school community. In other words, that you will contribute your time, professional talents and/or money as you are able.

Also, if you "fall in love" with a school and feel like it is the perfect fit for your dc and your family, be sure to make that known to the school. It does not hurt to be enthusiastic, especially if you are able to be specific as to why.

In terms of how to explain all this to your child, we told her that we were going to select the best school for her but that the school also wanted a chance to get to know her. We always asked what she thought of schools after we went to them, and we kept the language in term of our choosing, not the schools choosing.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

16:26 here again - looks like we were posting at the same time!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we fooling ourselves that our wonderful Dc who is a great kid with very high WPPSI, great school readiness and good recommendations but not at a feeder school but rather a small no name school would be considered to have any chance of gettng into a Top 3 Pre-K? No financial aid needed, no siblings, no almuni wha are friends, etc. From reading these threads, it seems like we're wasting our time and money.

What do you/DH do for a living? We were in the same boat. We've been told that our interesting jobs helped separate us from the pack. We're at Beauvoir now, and love it. Good luck.

DH is a senior director for a finance company in NYC and travels twice a week to NYC. I'm a physician who works and teaches medical students and residents at Georgetown University Medical Center as well as in private practice. Unfortunately, not all that interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we fooling ourselves that our wonderful Dc who is a great kid with very high WPPSI, great school readiness and good recommendations but not at a feeder school but rather a small no name school would be considered to have any chance of gettng into a Top 3 Pre-K? No financial aid needed, no siblings, no almuni wha are friends, etc. From reading these threads, it seems like we're wasting our time and money.

How high is the WPPSI? And how are social skill? What adjectives would people use to describe your child when they meet him/her? If you tell me those things, I can give a more informed answer.

OP here: Dc's WPPSI was 99.9% with 99.9%ile in non-verbal, 99.5 and 99.6 in verbal. We see Dc as a regular friendly empathetic child. Dc is often described by strangers who meet Dc for the first time as very self confident, sweet, bright, charming, self assured. Dc had a wonderful narrative on the WPPSI report. Dc loves to paint, dance, sing, play sports, put together puzzles, and have books read to (read the words Dc knows but not reading books to self, almost 4 yrs old). If you're able to provide some insight that would be much appreciated.[/quote.

I am the responder to whom you are replying. It sounds to me like you have a better shot for dc than some other "unconnected" kids. With the ability to be as selective as they are, the schools are generally drawn - and I am talking solely about unconnected kids here - to children who are more charming and sweet in nature, along with exceptionally bright.

Which makes sense, if you think about it: when you are trying to balance out a student body that includes priority children who might have test scores that are not as good and temperaments that are not noteworthy, you are going to want to bring in brighter, more agreeable children from the rest of the applicant pool. Why not, right?

Best of luck to you - cast your net wide but focused (the best schools that fit your dc along with a couple of secondary schools that also fit your dc) - and hope for the best. Also, be sure to make it known that you are looking forward to becoming active and participating members of the school community. In other words, that you will contribute your time, professional talents and/or money as you are able.

Good luck!

OP: wow! Thanks so much for your insight. I really appreciate it. How best do we go about letting them know that we are looking forward to becoming active and particpating members. On our GDS tour and interview, we were quite clueless and did not realize that we were being interviewed. It was such a casual sit down chat learning about GDS. We haven't had an opportunity. We thought the parent essays were not the appropriate place to state that. For Sidwell, we have not yet completed our application, hoping to somehow commimicate this to them. We still have a playdate with Beauvoir and hope to convey this in person. We are truly committed to our DC's education and to DC's school. We are actually willing to move closer to the school to which DC is admitted to do just that. Although a busy physician, I'm willing to cut back my work hours so that I would be more available. Although not super wealthy, we can manage DC's tutition and would be more than happy to contribute to our DC's school. We would obviously want our DC's school to have financial resources to continue to provide a wonderful education to our child and hopefully grandchildren.

I think you absolutely need to make it clear that you are willing to move closer to DC's school. That will show your dedication.

The point about your grandchildren is precious. You should try to mention that at every opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:16:26 here again - looks like we were posting at the same time!

Thanks so much. You've been very helpful. Perhaps I missed this part, but just curious where did you chosse for your DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we fooling ourselves that our wonderful Dc who is a great kid with very high WPPSI, great school readiness and good recommendations but not at a feeder school but rather a small no name school would be considered to have any chance of gettng into a Top 3 Pre-K? No financial aid needed, no siblings, no almuni wha are friends, etc. From reading these threads, it seems like we're wasting our time and money.

What do you/DH do for a living? We were in the same boat. We've been told that our interesting jobs helped separate us from the pack. We're at Beauvoir now, and love it. Good luck.

DH is a senior director for a finance company in NYC and travels twice a week to NYC. I'm a physician who works and teaches medical students and residents at Georgetown University Medical Center as well as in private practice. Unfortunately, not all that interesting.

At least you're not lawyers. That will help (really).

Good luck.