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To my knowledge, both types of schools (co-ed and single-gender) in our area reach capacity each year, indicating they are as popular as ever. Without a drop in numbers, OP's question/ premise within here is anecdotal at best.
Another potential metric would be the number of applications a given school receives in a given cycle. My understanding is that application numbers have been spiking over the last several years, and I assume that will have been the case this year, too. Until we see evidence to the contrary, there's no data to support the premise.... or rather, arguing about it one way or another is silly. |
This is not true. |
No you can’t. Their parents might force them or you might assume the ones going to co-ed didn’t get in but you are completely wrong. |
Ditto… when my son chose not to go to GZ every GZ parent we know was like I’m so sorry he didn’t get in what a surprise.. I was like he did get in and the shock! Kids aren’t shocked just the 80’s GZ parents. |
Every 8th-grade class is different, and every kid is different. So yes, it's very true that at one school, GZ and Visi remain far and away the top choices for kids. It can also be very true that at another school, other schools are far and away the top choices for kids. Using personal anecdotes to define an overall trend is a losing battle in both directions. Are there ANY local Catholic high schools that do NOT reach capacity each year, or which are experiencing declining applicant numbers? |
+1 the fact that these schools can fill their seats is not saying much |
Then what do you suppose it is saying? What an odd take. I have kids at both Visi and Gonzaga and know admission has gotten more difficult every year. I have a child from the GZ class last year that had a crazy, unprecedented yield. Schools overall are getting more and more applications as people are turning to private. |
It just shows that people are disappointed with the public options. |
That’s one possibility. Another is that these schools are popular. |
Being able to fill their seats just shows these schools are not completely failing. At Gonzaga, 35% of students receive need based financial aid, so they are giving out discounts to fill their seats. In addition they offer merit based scholarships, which most top private schools do not offer. So it seems they also need to give discounts to attract better students, which is pretty abnormal. The acceptance rate would be helpful to know, as we suspect it is significantly higher than peer schools. |
Am I understanding that you think Gonzaga is full because it is giving discounts? The merit aid is a handful of students. Do you suppose, perhaps, that financial aid might be a core part of the values of the school, not a scheme to fill seats? Again, I know many, many kids disappointed to not get into Gonzaga last year and I’d estimate 90% of those 20 or so I know are full pay. They give aid to be able to serve a range of students. They could easily fill their class with full-pay students but choose to give aid. You seem to have some odd ax to grind but the Catholic privates, even the diocesan ones, are good, extremely popular schools. No one is saying your school isn’t also great and amazing. |
You say they could easily fill their seats with full pay students, but provide no evidence. This is probably wrong. I’m just going to reiterate a few points. Need based financial aid is normal. At Gonzaga, 35% of students get financial aid. This makes sense but we have no idea if they could fill their seats with full pay students. Please don’t make up bogus things. Second, it is not normal for top privates to provide merit based scholarships, however Gonzaga does. This suggests that the academic high fliers there are all getting discounts to be there. That is fine, but know this is an unusual practice. |
The premise that any school is losing popularity because it gives need-based financial aid is ludicrous. We get it, you hate Gonzaga. That’s fine, but doesn’t mean it is not still popular by any valid metric. Financial aid isn’t one of them, for any school. |
I don’t think this is bc they’re single sex, it’s bc they are the top catholic options. Every city has its k-8 Catholics favor the top catholic hs. In San Fran, it’s st ignatius, which happens to be co-ed. At the top secular k-8s in dc, no one aims for stone ridge or visi or Gonzaga. |
Yep, Holton was a total disaster. |