Getting into St. Albans

[Anonymous]

PP you were waitlisted at Beauvoir when?? Where did you decide to send DC?? or are you still in the process???

[Anonymous]

He (or was it we) got waitlisted at Beauvoir, GDS, and Sidwell last year for pre-k admission. He's now in pre-K at one of our fine local DC public schools and has many friends and is very happy. We applied to a few schools again for K. If we had to stay it would not be a disappointment as we're expecting another child and the financial drain to send two kids to private school would be too draining.

[Anonymous]

OP again.

Getting into Beauvoir.

Your friend may be right about the phone call/letter from a current Beauvoir parent, but I would not stress. It is of course helpful to have a letter from a family which is a sincere testament to your parenting and how this child is a natural match for Beauvoir. I do think they take this into consideration. But I wouldn't start flooding the admissions office with phone calls. Absolutely not. Feels like an 11th hour plea.

Okay, back to how to get into Beauvoir. This is what I know. Firstly, and this may depress you all, it was only after my son got into Beauvoir that I realized that his preschool was a gigantic feeder into Beauvoir. There are a few of them -- Little Folks, NCRC, and Aiden Montessori. And I'm going to say, in hindsight, that getting into the right preschool clearly influenced his chances for Beauvoir.

Secondly, he took the WPSII and did well. You can't prepare for it, but I understand they are being evaluated for how they express themselves and how they learn. As for expressing himself, my son has a good vocabulary, which I'm sure was aided by me speaking to him in adult language (not crazy adult language, like, "My! How serendipitous that it is raining!"...adult language, like, "Grab that cup before it topples.").

He had a playdate, and I don't know that they would have gotten much out of him there, except that he has a good vocabulary and he has a nice smile. So in the end, if there is perhaps one piece of advice for preparing for that process, for goodness sake, enrich your child's vocabulary by using complex, rich words. And always look for opportunities to talk with your child.

That's all I can offer.

[Anonymous]

Thank - you for the reply; I am glad your public school option has been successfully. What schools did you decide to apply to this year for him? Good Luck with the new little one Have you heard how any of the schools listed deal with waitlist children?

[Anonymous]

OP that was good insight. Thanks for sharing. I am sure many parents have done the things you suggested. However, the pre-school feeder school attendance might be tough due to the limited number of available spaces at these particular schools.

What about families from other counties whose children probably do not attend the DC pre-schools identified; I wonder how they fair in the process??

[Anonymous]

OMG, did I say we got waitlisted at Sidwell ... talk about a Freudian slip. Most definitely not. They rejected us. We were waitlisted just at Beauvoir and GDS. Since GDS's entry class is so much smaller than Beauvoir's I wasn't very hopeful. I had also heard that very few if any say no to GDS. I pursued Beavuoir all spring and summer but got nowhere. I would just get the answering machine and never got a return call. I'm sure there is movement on the Beauvoir waitlist but we weren't one of them.

I don't know how he did all the play date but like OP, my son has a great vocabulary, a great smile, and is an all-around nice kid. I had also heard about the right preschools but we just couldn't afford to do the abbreviated schedules that NCRC and similar schools offer. I have a job! And we couldn't afford a nanny so we never even considered it. My kid went to CapKids downtown from birth on. I'm sure he didn't get the packagaing or the right recommendation letter despite the director's best intentions.

To answer your question finally - schools will either ask you to fill out a postcard and mail it in to be placed on the waitlist, express in writing your desire to be kept on the waitlist, or do nothing unless you don't want to be on the waitlist. There may be other permutations but those are the most common.

HTH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP that was good insight. Thanks for sharing. I am sure many parents have done the things you suggested. However, the pre-school feeder school attendance might be tough due to the limited number of available spaces at these particular schools.

What about families from other counties whose children probably do not attend the DC pre-schools identified; I wonder how they fair in the process??

all things being equal you're probably a great candidate. Schools like international kids because they add to their diversity.

[Anonymous]

PP, I don't think the person is from a different country. The person is from a different county.

I'm not sure how much diversity you get from PG county.

[Anonymous]

There are many surrounding counties why do you believe the poster is from PG County; just curious is this how DC independent schools fill the minority applicants with PG county children?

[Anonymous]

PP, that was me. No, I just picked a surrounding county. just wanted to point out the word was county, not country. actually, pg county is pretty diverse, at least economically.

[Anonymous]

So basically, to get your child into St. Albans, you need to make sure your two year old, whose personality is barely formed, presents himself well for the preschool playdate. Right?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for clarifying the response. I did not want people to think they had to move to Prince Georges County to get there kids in DC independent schools (LOL) You know parents will do anything

[Anonymous]

I do think that to get into these top schools the groundwork has to be laid early. If you're thinking about 6th grade at St. Albans and you've never thought about the process beforehand so you're not in the right parish or not in the right elementary school you're probably out of luck.

[Anonymous]

OP again.

In response to the post on your 2 year old (how that will determine whether you get into St. Albans), I'm afraid there is something true to that, at least for this school. St. Albans is part of the Cathedral Foundation. As such, there is a deliberate effort to include children who can be accomodated from Beauvoir. And to the extent that a select group of pre-schools have an advantage in feeding into Beauvoir, then you are right that the pre-school playdate ends up having a large role in whether your child will go on to STA or NCS. But I certainly can attest to many children who went both to these feeder pre-schools and to Beauvoir who did not "get in" to St. Albans. My original post was really just to say, here are some things that ARE within your power.

[Anonymous]

Some of this is good advice, but doesn't really apply to older kids. My kids and several other kids I know went to DC public schools and then to St. Albans between 4th and 6th grade. And it wasn't hard, although we did know lots of people who had gone there or whose kids were there. And our kids had good grades/test scores. To teh mom who's always hoped your son would get in to St. Albans: why? Is it just because of its name? What about the school do you think would be right for YOUR child? This is a problem I see so often -- parents who want their kid to go to a particular school because it's what the PARENT wants, not necessarily because it's the best fit for the kid.