Has your first choice school changed since you started applications?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Same for us!

Same here! It's last on our list after the interviews. If admissios is reading this they should take rhe feedback

+3 My DC applied for high school and after the interview it moved to last place. Between the horrible online open house and the completely uninterested interviewer, hard for DC to be excited about this school. It is also difficult to get a feel for the school because DC hasn’t been on campus and toured or shadowed like the other schools they are considering.

+4. This was us last year. We were shocked our child was accepted as, based on the interviewer’s complete lack of interest, we guessed we were already in their “No” column. I doubt their Admissions team is reading DCUM, but hopefully someone tips them off to this feedback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Same for us!

Same here! It's last on our list after the interviews. If admissios is reading this they should take rhe feedback

+3 My DC applied for high school and after the interview it moved to last place. Between the horrible online open house and the completely uninterested interviewer, hard for DC to be excited about this school. It is also difficult to get a feel for the school because DC hasn’t been on campus and toured or shadowed like the other schools they are considering.

+4. This was us last year. We were shocked our child was accepted as, based on the interviewer’s complete lack of interest, we guessed we were already in their “No” column. I doubt their Admissions team is reading DCUM, but hopefully someone tips them off to this feedback.

I really don’t think they much care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, we were gunning for a top private but after both virtual and in-person events, we're not so sure anymore.

Pros: A bit more confident in the academics and college preparation in general compared to our public, but less so on math. Beautiful facilities.
Cons: Less diversity, both racially and economically. Financial impact (see below). May be harder to get into top colleges than coming from our public.

Ultimately it's a cost-benefit analysis. We're in that boat where we make enough to not qualify for any significant financial aid and engender no sympathy for having to make such a choice, but the cost is high enough that it has *severe* tradeoff implications for our travel (we like to take an extended trip each summer that is part tourism but also part cultural experience, learning about other parts of the world and ways of life being part of their holistic education), retirement/529 contributions, extracurricular/camp budget, and so on. Basically tuition would eat up the vast majority of our saving/disposable income not allocated to covering basics like mortgage, utilities, food, clothes, etc. In fact we'd probably have to cut back on some of those things. Contrasted to going to our public and having ~$100k additional per year available for savings and disposable income purposes. Given how much we realize we'd have to give up, the benefit has to be REALLY worth it, and after a lot of research and talking to other families and getting down to those financial brass tacks and thinking about the opportunity costs, the value just doesn't seem to be what we thought it would going into the process.

Your family situation sounds a LOT like ours, right down to the details about travel, camp, etc. Renovations, whatever. I have a 45 yr old kitchen.

Just posting to say that we are so. glad. we stayed the course and kept kid in private all they way through (a secular k-8 then big 3). We gave up a lot of $ things and we were never close to being eligible for financial aid. The education and overall experience was excellent. Choose wisely, yes, but don't let anyone tell you that the public K-12 experience around here is "just as good" in 2022. Not on balance it isn't.

But how do you know, if you kept kid in private all the way through? I'm not saying you didn't have an excellent experience, but it's very hard to know what the alternative would have been like.

FWIW, I have had kids in both private and public and like both. They both have pluses -- and negatives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Same for us!

Same here! It's last on our list after the interviews. If admissios is reading this they should take rhe feedback

+3 My DC applied for high school and after the interview it moved to last place. Between the horrible online open house and the completely uninterested interviewer, hard for DC to be excited about this school. It is also difficult to get a feel for the school because DC hasn’t been on campus and toured or shadowed like the other schools they are considering.

+4. This was us last year. We were shocked our child was accepted as, based on the interviewer’s complete lack of interest, we guessed we were already in their “No” column. I doubt their Admissions team is reading DCUM, but hopefully someone tips them off to this feedback.

I’d rather be pleasantly shocked, than get shot down after thinking I’m in.

[Anonymous]

Our number one is still our number one, but our number two is a close second. And it was one we threw in last minute. I am glad we were open to the process and thankful to be able to tour this fall before things shut down again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah ours changed drastically based on the admissions interviews and our interactions with the school. Our original top choice was just awful during the interview process, and we had separate interviews for two kids, each with different admissions officers. In both interviews, the interviewers gave off big "IDGAF" energy. They barely wanted to get to know us or our kids, one just talked at us and the other was barely engaged.

And then our last choice school, the one that we threw in last minute turned out to be really great. Our daughter liked her interactions with the school and we really liked our conversation. We still haven't been able to visit in person b/c of COVID so if we get in, we'll have to figure out if the online vibe matches the in-person one.

I am still shocked though by our formally first choice school. Like I know you are a highly sought after school, but I would imagine that a LOT of parents (and kids) are turned off by that kind of attitude.

Is this gds?

Not pp, but I could have written this and our top choice was GDS. I don’t know what to make of the parent interview, but seemed as though the interviewer was just checking the boxes but not really interested in getting to know us.

Same for us!

Same here! It's last on our list after the interviews. If admissios is reading this they should take rhe feedback

+3 My DC applied for high school and after the interview it moved to last place. Between the horrible online open house and the completely uninterested interviewer, hard for DC to be excited about this school. It is also difficult to get a feel for the school because DC hasn’t been on campus and toured or shadowed like the other schools they are considering.

+4. This was us last year. We were shocked our child was accepted as, based on the interviewer’s complete lack of interest, we guessed we were already in their “No” column. I doubt their Admissions team is reading DCUM, but hopefully someone tips them off to this feedback.

+5 I would be shocked if my DC is accepted. Interviewer was clearly just dialing it in and didn’t really seem interested in DC’s answers. I know they could fill the 9th grade spots 10xs over so they don’t really have to try and sell the the school. Just interesting how different the approach is from other top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangely enough, I wish we had applied to a couple of less academically rigorous/intense schools. I am starting to doubt our decision to limit our applications to the Big 3. Even if our child gets in, it may not be the most enjoyable experience. Our back up is our strong public school, which we would be fine with.

Were you influenced by talking to current families or more from the characterizations of pressure cookers on this board?

Both. This board makes the top schools sound incredibly joyless but current parents also freely admit that the academics are very intense. I have an academically strong child but I can't help but wonder if they would have a more enjoyable experience at a school like Bullis or SSSAS as opposed to GDS/Sidwell/St. Albans, etc. - particularly since I don't think the college outcomes from any of these schools for unconnected children are measurably different. Too late at this point but I think I would have done things a little differently. This is for a 9th grader.

Depends on the kid. I attended one of these schools and I have a kid at another of them. The experience at Bullis and SSSAS vs. GDS/Sidwell is remarkably different. St. Albans is a bit in the middle and, of course, single sex which makes a difference. I agree that the outcomes are not different, particularly for the top 10 to 20 percent of students at either assuming no connections (and, it is not a good assumption that the Bullis/SSSAS kids are less connected that GDS/Sidwell/Albans). If you have an athletic hook, for many sports, your kid would be better at SSSAS or Bullis (lacrosse, football, track as just a few examples). The key is to find the right fit for your child and put him in an environment where he will thrive.

As I also have a rising 9th grader, I'll answer the original question as well. For my senior, I would not have bet on her ending up where she did, but we all fell in love and it worked out great for her. For the younger, we cast a much narrower net and she has been pretty consistent in her top choice (which was not on the older one's list and would have been a terrible fit). I've come around to that one being my favorite as well but the second choice would be just as fine for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangely enough, I wish we had applied to a couple of less academically rigorous/intense schools. I am starting to doubt our decision to limit our applications to the Big 3. Even if our child gets in, it may not be the most enjoyable experience. Our back up is our strong public school, which we would be fine with.

Were you influenced by talking to current families or more from the characterizations of pressure cookers on this board?

Both. This board makes the top schools sound incredibly joyless but current parents also freely admit that the academics are very intense. I have an academically strong child but I can't help but wonder if they would have a more enjoyable experience at a school like Bullis or SSSAS as opposed to GDS/Sidwell/St. Albans, etc. - particularly since I don't think the college outcomes from any of these schools for unconnected children are measurably different. Too late at this point but I think I would have done things a little differently. This is for a 9th grader.

I know a medical specialist who says med school was a breeze after getting through SSSAS … doubt that would be less rigorous. Bullis for sure though.

My nephew breezed through Duke and graduated in 3 years while playing a division 1 sport after leaving Bullis.

I don't get all the Bullis hate here. As an alum, I can say that it did an incredible job of preparing me for college and law school. Worked as hard in my senior year Literature seminar at Bullis as I did in any college class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangely enough, I wish we had applied to a couple of less academically rigorous/intense schools. I am starting to doubt our decision to limit our applications to the Big 3. Even if our child gets in, it may not be the most enjoyable experience. Our back up is our strong public school, which we would be fine with.

Were you influenced by talking to current families or more from the characterizations of pressure cookers on this board?

Both. This board makes the top schools sound incredibly joyless but current parents also freely admit that the academics are very intense. I have an academically strong child but I can't help but wonder if they would have a more enjoyable experience at a school like Bullis or SSSAS as opposed to GDS/Sidwell/St. Albans, etc. - particularly since I don't think the college outcomes from any of these schools for unconnected children are measurably different. Too late at this point but I think I would have done things a little differently. This is for a 9th grader.

Depends on the kid. I attended one of these schools and I have a kid at another of them. The experience at Bullis and SSSAS vs. GDS/Sidwell is remarkably different. St. Albans is a bit in the middle and, of course, single sex which makes a difference. I agree that the outcomes are not different, particularly for the top 10 to 20 percent of students at either assuming no connections (and, it is not a good assumption that the Bullis/SSSAS kids are less connected that GDS/Sidwell/Albans). If you have an athletic hook, for many sports, your kid would be better at SSSAS or Bullis (lacrosse, football, track as just a few examples). The key is to find the right fit for your child and put him in an environment where he will thrive.

As I also have a rising 9th grader, I'll answer the original question as well. For my senior, I would not have bet on her ending up where she did, but we all fell in love and it worked out great for her. For the younger, we cast a much narrower net and she has been pretty consistent in her top choice (which was not on the older one's list and would have been a terrible fit). I've come around to that one being my favorite as well but the second choice would be just as fine for me.

I have kids at both STA and Sidwell and I would say the rigor is the same. They both ask a lot of high schoolers. STA is not a step down in intensity in our experience (in fact, some years I would say it is more intense--depending on the teachers my kids got for the same subjects in each school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangely enough, I wish we had applied to a couple of less academically rigorous/intense schools. I am starting to doubt our decision to limit our applications to the Big 3. Even if our child gets in, it may not be the most enjoyable experience. Our back up is our strong public school, which we would be fine with.

Were you influenced by talking to current families or more from the characterizations of pressure cookers on this board?

Both. This board makes the top schools sound incredibly joyless but current parents also freely admit that the academics are very intense. I have an academically strong child but I can't help but wonder if they would have a more enjoyable experience at a school like Bullis or SSSAS as opposed to GDS/Sidwell/St. Albans, etc. - particularly since I don't think the college outcomes from any of these schools for unconnected children are measurably different. Too late at this point but I think I would have done things a little differently. This is for a 9th grader.

I know a medical specialist who says med school was a breeze after getting through SSSAS … doubt that would be less rigorous. Bullis for sure though.

SSSAS is no more rigorous than Bullis. STA, Potomac, GDS yes; SSSAS absolutely not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangely enough, I wish we had applied to a couple of less academically rigorous/intense schools. I am starting to doubt our decision to limit our applications to the Big 3. Even if our child gets in, it may not be the most enjoyable experience. Our back up is our strong public school, which we would be fine with.

Were you influenced by talking to current families or more from the characterizations of pressure cookers on this board?

Both. This board makes the top schools sound incredibly joyless but current parents also freely admit that the academics are very intense. I have an academically strong child but I can't help but wonder if they would have a more enjoyable experience at a school like Bullis or SSSAS as opposed to GDS/Sidwell/St. Albans, etc. - particularly since I don't think the college outcomes from any of these schools for unconnected children are measurably different. Too late at this point but I think I would have done things a little differently. This is for a 9th grader.

I know a medical specialist who says med school was a breeze after getting through SSSAS … doubt that would be less rigorous. Bullis for sure though.

My nephew breezed through Duke and graduated in 3 years while playing a division 1 sport after leaving Bullis.

Bullis is a stronger school than SSSAS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, we were gunning for a top private but after both virtual and in-person events, we're not so sure anymore.

Pros: A bit more confident in the academics and college preparation in general compared to our public, but less so on math. Beautiful facilities.
Cons: Less diversity, both racially and economically. Financial impact (see below). May be harder to get into top colleges than coming from our public.

Ultimately it's a cost-benefit analysis. We're in that boat where we make enough to not qualify for any significant financial aid and engender no sympathy for having to make such a choice, but the cost is high enough that it has *severe* tradeoff implications for our travel (we like to take an extended trip each summer that is part tourism but also part cultural experience, learning about other parts of the world and ways of life being part of their holistic education), retirement/529 contributions, extracurricular/camp budget, and so on. Basically tuition would eat up the vast majority of our saving/disposable income not allocated to covering basics like mortgage, utilities, food, clothes, etc. In fact we'd probably have to cut back on some of those things. Contrasted to going to our public and having ~$100k additional per year available for savings and disposable income purposes. Given how much we realize we'd have to give up, the benefit has to be REALLY worth it, and after a lot of research and talking to other families and getting down to those financial brass tacks and thinking about the opportunity costs, the value just doesn't seem to be what we thought it would going into the process.

Your family situation sounds a LOT like ours, right down to the details about travel, camp, etc. Renovations, whatever. I have a 45 yr old kitchen.

Just posting to say that we are so. glad. we stayed the course and kept kid in private all they way through (a secular k-8 then big 3). We gave up a lot of $ things and we were never close to being eligible for financial aid. The education and overall experience was excellent. Choose wisely, yes, but don't let anyone tell you that the public K-12 experience around here is "just as good" in 2022. Not on balance it isn't.

+1

[Anonymous]

Our top choice changed, and we dropped GDS altogether. Their essay questions were so ridiculous and out of touch with actual normal human children that we decided the school wouldn't be a good fit for our family. Also, their inflexibility on allowing any access to the school was a turnoff. Some schools at least offered limited access - on weekends, masked and vaccinated, etc. The overall vibe of "we're so amazing, you're lucky we're even considering letting you spend $50k on us, sight unseen" is ok for some, but we just couldn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Strangely enough, I wish we had applied to a couple of less academically rigorous/intense schools. I am starting to doubt our decision to limit our applications to the Big 3. Even if our child gets in, it may not be the most enjoyable experience. Our back up is our strong public school, which we would be fine with.

Were you influenced by talking to current families or more from the characterizations of pressure cookers on this board?

Both. This board makes the top schools sound incredibly joyless but current parents also freely admit that the academics are very intense. I have an academically strong child but I can't help but wonder if they would have a more enjoyable experience at a school like Bullis or SSSAS as opposed to GDS/Sidwell/St. Albans, etc. - particularly since I don't think the college outcomes from any of these schools for unconnected children are measurably different. Too late at this point but I think I would have done things a little differently. This is for a 9th grader.

Depends on the kid. I attended one of these schools and I have a kid at another of them. The experience at Bullis and SSSAS vs. GDS/Sidwell is remarkably different. St. Albans is a bit in the middle and, of course, single sex which makes a difference. I agree that the outcomes are not different, particularly for the top 10 to 20 percent of students at either assuming no connections (and, it is not a good assumption that the Bullis/SSSAS kids are less connected that GDS/Sidwell/Albans). If you have an athletic hook, for many sports, your kid would be better at SSSAS or Bullis (lacrosse, football, track as just a few examples). The key is to find the right fit for your child and put him in an environment where he will thrive.

As I also have a rising 9th grader, I'll answer the original question as well. For my senior, I would not have bet on her ending up where she did, but we all fell in love and it worked out great for her. For the younger, we cast a much narrower net and she has been pretty consistent in her top choice (which was not on the older one's list and would have been a terrible fit). I've come around to that one being my favorite as well but the second choice would be just as fine for me.

I have kids at both STA and Sidwell and I would say the rigor is the same. They both ask a lot of high schoolers. STA is not a step down in intensity in our experience (in fact, some years I would say it is more intense--depending on the teachers my kids got for the same subjects in each school).

I am now conflicted about STA. It seemed so perfect for my son and he absolutely loved his visit. We do not want him at an intense school like Sidwell. He would be miserable. He felt that student intensity immediately during the online session and refused to apply. I guess we read the STA vibe wrong! Probably worrying over nothing since chances of admissions are so low, but this is a bummer.

[Anonymous]

Last couple of months has only increased my desire to stay away from DC schools, with all the metro slowdowns and very restrictive Covid policies in place in DC.