As for the whole Sidwell admissions process....
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Anonymous
| I was really put off by the whole cattle call approach to admissions. There were just way too many people at the tours and at the playdates. I know that they get a lot of applicants but I was much more impressed by Beauvoir who limited the number of applicants right from the beginning by requiring both parents to tour the school and only having a limited number of spaces for the tour. This seemed like a much more humane and realistic approach. Really, how did Sidwell get to know any of the kids that applied? It really seemed like a lottery. |
Anonymous
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. People will complain that Sidwell limited applicants by requiring both parents to tour the school and limiting the number of spaces, or they will complain that there were too many applicants and the whole thing was a cattle call and a lottery. There are not right choices here, but they seem to try to accommodate and get to know as many applicants as possible. |
Anonymous
| I can understand why someone would call it a cattle call. I also do think they try to put some type of limit on applications by requiring people to schedule a tour. The part that I felt needed work was the Saturday morning meet and greet with the pre-K and K applicants. When I toured the school, I found one of the K teachers I met to be very low energy and not very friendly. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and thought that maybe she was tired or feeling a bit under the weather. Guess who was assigned to assess my DC at the Saturday morning play date? She was still very low energy and not very warm--including with the kids. My kid gets along with pretty much anyone so she still had a good time at the playdate but I was struck by the teacher's aloofness. I would have liked to have seen a little more warmth expressed towards the children she was evaluating (and, yes, she wasn't warm with any of the children). We also met with someone from the school for the optional Q &A and I found her to be pretty aloof as well. I felt like getting information from her was like pulling teeth and we were asking relevant questions trying to get a better feel for the school. The reason I found this person's aloofness so striking was that I saw Josh Wolman interacting with another applicant and their family (my guess is they were applying to 3rd grade) and he was very warm and engaged. His demeanor and behavior was almost the complete opposite of what we experienced. Our experience made it easier when our daughter wasn't accepted. In the end she was accepted at a school that where all of our interactions during the admissions process were warm and where we felt like our child was really wanted. Our daughter is happy where she is and we are thrilled with the school. I now think that our experiences at Sidwell were clues that Sidwell, despite being a great school, wasn't the right place for our child. We had a similar experience applying to preschools where the teacher doing our child's evaluation was very aloof and low energy. We chose a different preschool because of that encounter and our child wound up at a preschool that was a great fit for her. These experiences have taught me to go with my gut. If you get a feeling when you are meeting with people that things aren't clicking as well as they should, they probably aren't. |
Anonymous
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Not to bash Sidwell, because I do believe this is a very good school. I have to agree with the OP, because I did not feel a connection to Sidwell. I can not say if it was the fact that there were quite a lot of people at the tour, or that the school simply was not the best match for my daughter. My daughter is very sociable, and is very popular among her school mates. She had excellent playdates at other schools, but I could not get a reading on how well she did at Sidwell. She was just standing there holding the teacher's hand when I returned to pick her up from the playdate. My gut instinct was that she was not comfortable. So therefore, I was not upset because of the Sidwell rejection. The school was not the best fit for my daughter, but quite a reputable school indeed. I am happy for the people that were accepted, if this is their 1st choice school.
We are fortunate to reside in our area where we have many quality independent schools, we just need to stop buying the hype, especially if it is not a comfortable environment for our wonderful, bright little children. Let's be realistic---When you have 150 children applying for 23 slots and majority of children scoring over 90% on WPPSI, its just a crap shoot for the school, just make sure your children are in the best environment for their development and self-esteem. So congratulations to all Sidwell accepts! |
Anonymous
Crap shoot indeed, but I got the clear impression there were far more than 150 applicants to PK or K for Sidwell, which probably explains the cattle call vibe. It stings, but these things all work out in the end. |
Anonymous
| So glad we have pulled out the two times we thought of applying to Sidwell. Won't apply again. |
Anonymous
00.12 Op here---I am not ruling out reapplying at the Upper School level, but not for lower school. |
Anonymous
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00:12, I think Sidwell gets 1000+ apps for Pk and k. That 'a 22 + 26 = 48 spots.
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Anonymous
.oo.12 OP here, I was just speaking of PK, but I there is no doubt in my mind that applicants topped 150+. I was speaking hypothetically(just making a point), but your real numbers prove my point! Once again, congrats to all new Sidwell applicants! Hopefully, we will get an accept at our 1st choice school today as well. |
Anonymous
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It is a cattle call.
Its an Open House/Tour/Come for a "look see"/See if you wanna apply. They know and you should know that way more families will show up than can ever be admitted. Not everyone who shows up will apply or may even really be interested in the school itself. I think if you really want and need individual attention you need to go on the off months and ask for an appointment. It may take more effort but if you need that level of interaction to understand what the school is about then do it. As for the aloof K teacher, she will probably suck as a teacher for your child. Just because it's Sidwell doesn't mean they have can't get some loser teachers. Some years that will happen in any private school. So remember that aloof non-warm teacher at the Open House could be your child's teacher for the whole year. |
Anonymous
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At one of the open houses in the fall, I remember the AD saying that last year Sidwell had 200+ applicants for just the preK class. Just imagine, last year's economy was terrible and they still got so many parents willing to shell out the $31k+ tuition.
We received a rejection letter yesterday but we are totally fine with it because it wasn't a good fit for DD anyway. PPs mentioned that they had no connection with Sidwell - we absolutely felt the same way - from beginning to end. |
Anonymous
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I will admit it, we applied to see if we could get in and were rejected.
We went with a school that better suited our child and have never looked back. The sting wears off quickly. |
Anonymous
As of 2-3 years ago, I was told they get around a thousand application total for all grades. I suppose that could have changed post-Obama but I suspect it's about the same as in the past. |
Anonymous
Last year it was 1200+ for all grades, most for Pk and K. |
Anonymous
| Perhaps 8:53, if fewer people "applied just to see if they got in" the feeling wouldn't be of such a cattle call. I find it ridiculous that you are now saying that the sting wears off quickly to a place that you had totally specious motivations for applying to in the first place. |