Acceptance Rate at St. Patrick's, Norwood, and Potomac

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've obviosuly hit on a nerve with some St Patrick's posters here. I honestly don't know much about St. Patrick's - there does not seem to be a lot of discussion of this school on this forum. I'd be interested in learning more. Perhaps PP's could begin a new thread on St Patrick's and tell us more about it.

There have actually been lots of threads on St Patricks and they all seem to quickly get nasty. There are several people on these boards who seem to heartily dislike the school or at least greatly enjoy bashing it; calling it "easy" to get into, or second/third tier, or producing "the dumbest children in my kids' school." The level of viciousness of some of the posters is over-the-top. There are also people who call it snobby and snooty and cookie-cutter and claim it has little diversity and only attracts a "certain" type of person, by which I think they mean WASPY but dont really know. Its best to look oneself at a school's diversity application rates, acceptances, and speak to current families in a school to make that determination. There have been strong rebuttal posts on those accusations, too. That said, there are also many posts from parents at the school who are extremely pleased, the head of school seems widely admired and connected, and the graduates have strong acceptance rates at well respected local privates from 7th and 9th grades (see website) as well as a few who go to boarding school. I think they used to have more who went to MOCO publics but that seems to be changing. On these threads, the bashing group loves accusing the other of being "boosters" as you see on other sites as well. My guess is that these vast differences of opinion are due to its "rising" status, as it seems to become more competitive as the years pass. Therefore, people who have much older kids may have seen a different schoool 10 or so years ago and people who's children dont get in now, who "expected to" or considered it a sure-thing based on old wisdom, get angry and hold a grudge because they don't know or understand its changing status. I would also say its in an unusual position. It ends at 6th or 8th (depends on family choice and room) so it cannot compete with the PK/K-12th (incl. Cathedral schools), it has a pretty traditional curriculum unlike some other PK/K-6/8, and, in part due to its location, it attracts a wealthy NWDC crowd that tends to also look at some of the other DC schools that are more universally held up as the most competitive. Due to location, its admissions applicant overlap with Potomac or Norwood is probably rather small but interestingly, every year at least one St P graduate seems to go on to Potomac. These would all be good qustions to ask the AD and I read all of these facts on the website. Hope that helps.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the stats. Are you a St. Patrick's parent? If so, would you please tell us more about your personal experience with the school?

[Anonymous]

Thanks 20:35. That helps provide better a context for St. Pats.