Getting into St. Albans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of 4 out of 10 admission rate for boarders it is 3 out of 10 (30%) for day students.

Therefore, the overall admission rate for STA is 35%. Pretty good despite phenotype, pedigree, legacy and bank account.

http://www.greatschools.org/washington-dc/washington/206-St.-Albans-School/

I don't think your math quite works. There are only 30 spots for boarders out of 330 spots in the Upper School. A 40% admissions rate for 30 spots doesn't bump the overall admissions rate up to 35%.

30.8%.

You're welcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of 4 out of 10 admission rate for boarders it is 3 out of 10 (30%) for day students.

Therefore, the overall admission rate for STA is 35%. Pretty good despite phenotype, pedigree, legacy and bank account.

http://www.greatschools.org/washington-dc/washington/206-St.-Albans-School/

I don't think your math quite works. There are only 30 spots for boarders out of 330 spots in the Upper School. A 40% admissions rate for 30 spots doesn't bump the overall admissions rate up to 35%.

30.8%.

You're welcome.

Thanks, that's why I was terrible at math -- could see there was an issue but too lazy/uninformed to do the calculations.

[Anonymous]

I am a big picture gal and there's no damn material difference between a 30.8 and 35% admit rate. Relatively easy bar compared to the more competitive admit rates elsewhere in the low teens. Don't need sophisticated math at all to make the inference.

[Anonymous]

Yup, 30 to 40 % admit rate is quite distinct from 10 to 20 %.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yup, 30 to 40 % admit rate is quite distinct from 10 to 20 %.

But what school in the area has a 10-20% admit rate? I think you need to compare apples to apples. If you live in DC and you don't want to send your child to boarding, what schools completely overshadow St. Albans? Are there a lot of them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup, 30 to 40 % admit rate is quite distinct from 10 to 20 %.

But what school in the area has a 10-20% admit rate? I think you need to compare apples to apples. If you live in DC and you don't want to send your child to boarding, what schools completely overshadow St. Albans? Are there a lot of them?

Sidwell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup, 30 to 40 % admit rate is quite distinct from 10 to 20 %.

But what school in the area has a 10-20% admit rate? I think you need to compare apples to apples. If you live in DC and you don't want to send your child to boarding, what schools completely overshadow St. Albans? Are there a lot of them?

I am a big STA fan, but have seen some numbers in past years and Sidwell is numerically fairly significantly more competitive. It is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, however, because Sidwell gets huge application numbers for Pre-K and K, and there are more spots for those grade levels at Beauvoir, the STA feeder elementary school. By the high school application stage, Sidwell does still get proportionally more applicants for every available space, in large part because an additional 50% of the population is eligible to apply there as opposed to single sex St. Albans, but I cannot remember the numbers. My sense is that there is some self-selection into different pools -- some families don't want STA because of the Episcopalian religious component or single-sex, while others seek it out for those elements or for its more traditional structure in some ways (dress code, family style lunch), and that although Sidwell is more competitive on paper, the "qualifications" of the graduating classes at STA and Sidwell end up pretty much in the same place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup, 30 to 40 % admit rate is quite distinct from 10 to 20 %.

But what school in the area has a 10-20% admit rate? I think you need to compare apples to apples. If you live in DC and you don't want to send your child to boarding, what schools completely overshadow St. Albans? Are there a lot of them?

I am a big STA fan, but have seen some numbers in past years and Sidwell is numerically fairly significantly more competitive. It is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, however, because Sidwell gets huge application numbers for Pre-K and K, and there are more spots for those grade levels at Beauvoir, the STA feeder elementary school. By the high school application stage, Sidwell does still get proportionally more applicants for every available space, in large part because an additional 50% of the population is eligible to apply there as opposed to single sex St. Albans, but I cannot remember the numbers. My sense is that there is some self-selection into different pools -- some families don't want STA because of the Episcopalian religious component or single-sex, while others seek it out for those elements or for its more traditional structure in some ways (dress code, family style lunch), and that although Sidwell is more competitive on paper, the "qualifications" of the graduating classes at STA and Sidwell end up pretty much in the same place.

Hey, you sound pretty fair and balanced. What are you doing on this site?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is what I hate about forums..the people from St. Pats who were accepted all now going to be under scrutiny possible by some jerk who wants to trash them on a forum. I know most of these families and they are nice..so I don't buy this. That being said..I love that people would want to hurt a child because there parents were idiots..if in fact this was true. What does this say about the complaining people?

I did not mean to associate St. Pat's families with this. I regret mentioning St. Pat's at all. Several people were upset about this situation and expressed it and based on what I was told by many reliable sources who have no reason to lie, I was upset. St. Pat's families are obviously a nice group and just because one member of the community has shown poor behavior, it should not be a reflection of the school. I think people know that already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please tell me what grade her son is entering next year. There are 4 going in to 4th and 7 in to 7th and one or two in to 9th (from St Pats). If it is a rising 4th grade parent then I know of whom you speak. If it is a rising 7th grade parent, I have no idea. Doesn't sound like anyone from that very nice class. Rising 9th I wouldn't know.

I am a new poster but to answer the poster I heard they are entering fourth grade.

[Anonymous]

Maret's admit rate is incredibly low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maret's admit rate is incredibly low.

Yes, those pre-K numbers are staggering. I don't know what they are for 9th grade, though (I'm sure still quite competitive).

[Anonymous]

Do most families have others writing "recommendations" for their applicant son?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do most families have others writing "recommendations" for their applicant son?

I think that it is the exception rather than the rule to submit recommendations from non-teachers. In any admissio s context. you will hear the old saying "the thicker the file, the thicker the student." On the other hand, if your potential recommender is someone like an influential board member who knows your child and your family extremely well, then I would go ahead and ask that person to make contact with the school.

[Anonymous]

Is there a large World Bank contingent at St. Albans? Or do such families usually end up at other privates, and if so, which ones (apart from, I would guess, Wash. Int.).