How important is HSPT at Gonzaga?
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Anonymous
If you have the right scores/grades. If you follow Black Parents Navigating Private Schools on FB, we are definitely shut out if we don't satisfy the entrance criteria, unlike the narrative on this board that you can be a salivating, backwards neanderthal and still get in just because you are an URM. It is an urban myth designed to cushion the fall when mediocre white kids or white kids who are not connected don't get in. |
Anonymous
| We lived in NE dc before moving to MD. My DS is in 8th grade and is now used to taking public transport (metro and bus) on his own. He was not uncomfortable with the area or the commute he would have to take. But I can understand if others are uncomfortable. |
Anonymous
If you have lived in this area for any amount of time, you learn how the system works. |
Anonymous
| Who are the ‘right people.’ Is this a D.C. thing. It feels like the odds are stacked against any applicant that does not fit the required mold. Yuck. |
Anonymous
I guess you could say they are "stacked" because everyone doesn't have the same chance. Even in public school, you have to live inside the geographic boundaries. But versus the public schools, most private schools are a different world. They are different from one another. They have different missions and histories. They appeal to different groups and have different constituencies. I don't think this is any different from other major metros in this regard. I wouldn't worry too much about the "right People" thing. That happens, but it's rare. There really aren't a lot of "right people". But the rest of the stuff the school looks for in applicants (the mold) is real. What you might worry about is understanding at which school your son best fits. Where his mold is the norm and not aspire to shoehorn him in somewhere where he "doesn't fit the required mold". |
Anonymous
I wouldn't say it's even close to "insider" information. It's information that people new to the area and/or new to the DC private school world are unlikely to have. Those who are from here or have lived here for a significant period know a lot of it. They get it by experience and osmosis. I feel sorry for people coming to this forum to learn. They need to find someone or multiple people they trust to learn about these schools and who sends their kids to them and why. |
Anonymous
Yeah, our kids go to a Catholic k-8 and in our time in the dc area, we have lived in a few neighborhoods with Catholic high school. Our knowledge about the process is gleaned from our own school and neighbors, friends, acquaintances, and coworkers with first hand experience with the process whether as part of the process or who has kids or relatives gone through the application process. |
Anonymous
| I don’t think it is that hard. In Philly you have different families going to Malvern vs St Joe’s vs Ryan or Father Judge. |
Anonymous
The answer is if they were not admitted for other reasons… alum child, rec from donor or athlete… they better be “something else” so grades might matter at that point. If you have 1 of the other only the number of D’s matter. |
Anonymous
Oddly Gonzaga is the least diverse ADW Hs, even less diverse than Prep so no they don’t care. |
Anonymous
Well statistically speaking Gonzaga is the least diverse school in the ADW and yes it’s odd. |
Anonymous
If the people you know donate $ it will bump you up. |
Anonymous
Interesting question. My family started going to GZ in 1940’s but in the 60’s we had long time GZ families send their kids (at least the younger ones) to St. Johns during the DC riots. You’ll have 3 older brothers who went to GZ but the younger few go to STJ. Some things never change. |
Anonymous
Gonzaga isn't part of the ADW. It's a Jesuit school and it reports to the Jesuit Province in Baltimore. Maybe you are using ADW to mean in the Washington, DC area. And because it's a Catholic school run for and by Catholics it's not particularly surprising that there aren't large numbers of URMs there. |
Anonymous
Fortunately my kid has not reported any issues taking the metro or walking from Union station to the school and back. I understand how it must seem a little scary if you don’t live in DC but I have not heard of any reported issues and most of the boys commute by metro all the time |