Admission Acceptance Rates at Beauvoir, Norwood and WES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We already know that many on this board are offended by historical context, facts and data. This data does not put anyone in their place but simply grounds potential circuitous hot air largely based on innuendo and anecdote. While statistics can mislead the information on private school endowment per pupil is telling even if some schools are either day, boarding and/or both.

For all the bombastic pride hurled around about "Big whatever" elite privates in the DC area where's the beef when it comes to endowment and support? Some of these fancy, rich local schools have been around for decades. Are you really getting your money's worth?

I have not found any published data yet on acceptance rates to area pre-K, K, 1, 3, 4 or 6th grades. These are highly skewed by whether one enters from designated feeder schools. For example, the acceptance rate for Beauvoir boys into STA (preferential treatment) may be significantly different than that of public school or other boys.

And many on this board bury themselves in data, hoping that will take away the sting they still feel over not being able to grab the ivy coated brass ring they really wanted all along but don't want to admit. So on and on they go about how the Cathedral is populated by ill-behaved legacies and kids of the deep pocketed, reminding us that Whitman is a better school than STA (again and again and again), and how we're all tossing our $34K down the drain, and how we should all be asking ourselves tough questions about our kids' educations to the administration to see what kinds of answers they'll give us.

[Anonymous]

14:52 Wonder no more. No progeny yet. Little three and Ivy graduate. Not from DC area as child. No allegances or axe to grind. Unbiased observer.

[Anonymous]

Check out comments from Beauvoir parents about Beauvoir. Confirms outside data.

Back to the original question, the answer is ... no.

Beauvoir is a great school if you don't care about the incidentals. You know, reading and math. Somehow, the school floats by with this perception that by being nurturing, it can just toss academic preparation out the window. See if you can get the administration to ever mention a word like rigorous or competitive. Because they pander to parent's ideas that this idylic stage of life should be for growing gardens and dressing up for a Christmas pageant (which indeed it should...but not full time), they have simply skated right past any accountability on academics.

If you want one of the Cathedral schools, you need to go to Beauvoir. And it is a nice school. It's just a school where from second grade on you're going to have to work with your kid at night to teach them the things Beauvoir won't.

If you don't want a Cathedral school but want to linger in the cotton candy land of hopes and dreams, then Beauvoir may also be for you.

But if you don't want the Cathedral schools and have the slightest desire for a school that teaches the 3 R's (in addition perhaps to lovely things like painting Van Gogh's sunflowers), then you need to head to another school.



10/11/2009 19:56 Subject: Re:Beauvoir
Anonymous



PP: Are you a Beauvoir parent? I'm not...it was just an interesting post to read and I was wondering if this was your family's personal experience or not.



10/11/2009 20:01 Subject: Re:Beauvoir
Anonymous



19:44 here. Yes, I was a Beauvoir parent (5 years). And I don't actually detest Beauvoir. I just think it was incredibly overrated. I am still incredulous that I had to teach my kid to read. WTH? And why didn't my kid know cursive after third grade? (or even get INTRODUCED to cursive) Why didn't my kid come out knowing math facts?

They should have spent a little less time patting themselves on the back about how much people want their kids to go to their school and spend a little more thinking through a curriculum.







10/11/2009 20:14 Subject: Re:Beauvoir
Anonymous



Not surprised here. These deficits are why in recent years it is not automatic for the Beauvoir boys to get into STA. STA has noticed these deficiencies compared to outside applicants.



10/11/2009 20:34 Subject: Re:Beauvoir
Anonymous



Anonymous wrote:
19:44 here. Yes, I was a Beauvoir parent (5 years). And I don't actually detest Beauvoir. I just think it was incredibly overrated. I am still incredulous that I had to teach my kid to read. WTH? And why didn't my kid know cursive after third grade? (or even get INTRODUCED to cursive) Why didn't my kid come out knowing math facts?

They should have spent a little less time patting themselves on the back about how much people want their kids to go to their school and spend a little more thinking through a curriculum.






Current Beauvoir parent here. Thanks for the heads-up. We've been pleasantly surprised by Beauvoir so far, but useful to know that we'll need to supplement in math later on.

[Anonymous]

We already know that many on this board are offended by historical context, facts and data. This data does not put anyone in their place but simply grounds potential circuitous hot air largely based on innuendo and anecdote. While statistics can mislead the information on private school endowment per pupil is telling even if some schools are either day, boarding and/or both.

For all the bombastic pride hurled around about "Big whatever" elite privates in the DC area where's the beef when it comes to endowment and support? Some of these fancy, rich local schools have been around for decades. Are you really getting your money's worth?

I have not found any published data yet on acceptance rates to area pre-K, K, 1, 3, 4 or 6th grades. These are highly skewed by whether one enters from designated feeder schools. For example, the acceptance rate for Beauvoir boys into STA (preferential treatment) may be significantly different than that of public school or other boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We already know that many on this board are offended by historical context, facts and data. This data does not put anyone in their place but simply grounds potential circuitous hot air largely based on innuendo and anecdote. While statistics can mislead the information on private school endowment per pupil is telling even if some schools are either day, boarding and/or both.

For all the bombastic pride hurled around about "Big whatever" elite privates in the DC area where's the beef when it comes to endowment and support? Some of these fancy, rich local schools have been around for decades. Are you really getting your money's worth?

I have not found any published data yet on acceptance rates to area pre-K, K, 1, 3, 4 or 6th grades. These are highly skewed by whether one enters from designated feeder schools. For example, the acceptance rate for Beauvoir boys into STA (preferential treatment) may be significantly different than that of public school or other boys.

Why are you reposting this?

[Anonymous]

I really don't think these stats mean anything. For instance, I know several families who, after going through the required testing, were counseled out of applying to Norwood. Not meanly, but the school gently told them the child's scores showed they didn't seem ready. These people didn't end up applying, but were effectively not admitted and don't show up in the statistics. It's one of the practices that made me love Norwood while we were applying. I think it's likely other elementary schools do the same type of thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really don't think these stats mean anything. For instance, I know several families who, after going through the required testing, were counseled out of applying to Norwood. Not meanly, but the school gently told them the child's scores showed they didn't seem ready. These people didn't end up applying, but were effectively not admitted and don't show up in the statistics. It's one of the practices that made me love Norwood while we were applying. I think it's likely other elementary schools do the same type of thing.

Agree, some schools want high applicant numbers to make themselves look good.

[Anonymous]

Anecdote: "She said..he said that she said..."

Perhaps the reason given by the school was not the real reason (confounder). The actual reason was that the child was applying for financial aid, was not from the proper feeder school, did not have the bucks etc. When you don't have all the facts one can speculate until the cows come home. What about the child with worse scores who is a legacy or building a wing. I doubt the school would serve a similar counseling.

[Anonymous]

The practice that you mentioned about Norwood seems unusual--I hadn't heard about it before. If that's the case, why don't all private schools schools just post a minimum WPPSI-III score that they will consider for applications on their websites, so people know whether to apply or not?

[Anonymous]

Because they want the leeway to accept children below the usual "cutoff" if they want them for other reasons (development, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Right, it's about what you bring to the table at the pre-K and K level...it's not about pure brains, if you can define that in a 3, 4, or 5 year-old on any given day. Can you spell leeway.

[Anonymous]

I get the point about leeway--I actually prefer that schools give leeway sometimes. However, the PP's comments about Norwood made it seem like they discouraged people from applying based SOLELY on the test scores. If that's the case, then the school never got to see what the family "brought to the table" (i.e. parent interview or child's playdate). They never considered giving any "leeway" at all.

If schools are flat out refusing to consider kids who are below a certain test score, it would be helpful if they made that info public. It might save some of us a lot of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The more interesting data, which no school would ever part with, would be the yield rates (i.e. what percentage of accepted students enroll), as well as where non-matriculants enroll (for example, do kids accepted at both Beauvoir and Sidwell choose Beauvoir more often, or vice versa?)

Maybe if you're obsessed with figuring out which school is most competitive, desirable, or exclusive, but not if you're primarily interested in deciding where to apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The more interesting data, which no school would ever part with, would be the yield rates (i.e. what percentage of accepted students enroll), as well as where non-matriculants enroll (for example, do kids accepted at both Beauvoir and Sidwell choose Beauvoir more often, or vice versa?)

Maybe if you're obsessed with figuring out which school is most competitive, desirable, or exclusive, but not if you're primarily interested in deciding where to apply.

Different poster here. I'd be interested in those stats/data just to put to rest once and for all some of the endless jabber about such issues. I know that's a pipe dream because the data is not available, and also because people would just find something else to jabber about, but that's my DCUM dream .... (I dream small.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get the point about leeway--I actually prefer that schools give leeway sometimes. However, the PP's comments about Norwood made it seem like they discouraged people from applying based SOLELY on the test scores. If that's the case, then the school never got to see what the family "brought to the table" (i.e. parent interview or child's playdate). They never considered giving any "leeway" at all.

If schools are flat out refusing to consider kids who are below a certain test score, it would be helpful if they made that info public. It might save some of us a lot of time.

When that happens, it is is not based only on test scores.