Does anyone who applied to the Big 3 for pre-K ever get into all of them?

[Anonymous]

As I read this, I am very interested in what percentage of people are applying to schools because they believe they are the "top" or have the most cache and how many go visit a bunch of schools and try to think where their child would fit best. Seems that there are definitely two ways of thinking about it.

I think you're right. I would never invest $50,000/yr x 4 years for my child to attend private Podunk U. Simply go to State U. On the other hand, I certainly would make the investment to attend Harvard.

Likewise, I would never invest $35,000/yr to attend a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th quartile area D.C. private school with excellent public schools around including Blair Magnet, Richard Montgomery IB and TJ. Only a learning disability or psychosocial dysfunction would stir me in the direction of a private institution.

[Anonymous]

Hey TJ lady is back! Now things will get interesting.

[Anonymous]

Quo Vadis?

[Anonymous]

Yes. Sidwell, GDS, and Beauvoir for PreK last year.

[Anonymous]

My nephew got into Sidwell, Beauvoir, and one other top school. Waitlisted at GDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Sidwell, GDS, and Beauvoir for PreK last year.

Can you share where you chose to go and what your reasoning was please?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Top 3 based on what? On DCUM? Outside of this forum, you never hear anything about these 3 particular schools being widely considered "the best". In fact, Worth Magazine named it's top 100 schools in the country and the DC area schools were:

#13 St Albans School
#17 National Cathedral School
#22 Potomac School
#28 Sidwell Friends
#43 Georgetown Day
#45 St Andrews (DE)
#49 Landon
#61 Maret
#71 Thomas Jefferson (Public, VA)

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/43718.page#295224

Clearly, if 9 area schools are considered tops in the nation, then it's pretty tough to try and cull out a "Top 3" or "Big 3" (Hey, maybe it should be the "Elite 8"

The other posters above are correct - you are doing your child a disservice if you only focus on schools that are called out on this anonymous board as the top whatever. These schools are very different than each other. For example, a student who would thrive at a Sidwell, Potomac, or St Albans might be a fish out of water at GDS (GDS students are generally not as athletic, more liberal and casual, little more "experimental", etc).

I really think parents need to stay away from trying to chase school prestige and just focus on places where their kids will be comfortable and do well.

These are my top 3 DC area schools:


Sidwell
St Albans
Maret


Therefore, we shall apply to each one and take the highest on the list that gives us an admission. That's our plan. If we don't get in one of these top 3 privates we head to Blair Magnet.

Did your child test into the Blair magnet last year? Acceptances for that program don't go out until March, I thought.

[Anonymous]

Oh please pp -- the poster is presuming her kid will get into MB -- is that just too much for you to consider?

[Anonymous]

Not the PP but just looked at the Blair info. They only take 100 kids and 9th grade entry only. The test was in December though so maybe the PPs son aced the test so they know he will be accepted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh please pp -- the poster is presuming her kid will get into MB -- is that just too much for you to consider?

I can see that. I'm seeking information. I understand that between 700 and 800 students apply for the magnet but that it accepts only 100 students a year. In addition to the testing and recommendations, is there a lottery to determine which kids get the slots? I haven't found any clear information on this.

[Anonymous]

The Blair website says there is a selection committee. Since they are asking for recommendations, writing samples, etc. presumably they are looking at some factors in addition to test scores. It says they draw from 42 middle schools for their 100 spots. All very interesting - I live in MoCo and didn't know much about the program. It does add some fuel to the fire for TJ lady though - they say they had 53 NMSFs in 2009, presumably out of a class of 100.

[Anonymous]

Are you sure? One half of the magnet class is a National Merit Finalist? Does TJ have similar numbers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Blair website says there is a selection committee. Since they are asking for recommendations, writing samples, etc. presumably they are looking at some factors in addition to test scores. It says they draw from 42 middle schools for their 100 spots. All very interesting - I live in MoCo and didn't know much about the program. It does add some fuel to the fire for TJ lady though - they say they had 53 NMSFs in 2009, presumably out of a class of 100.

I read recently a report on the other magnet program at Blair (CAP), and it noted a handful of NMSFs from the CAP program for whatever year the report was written. I am sure most of the Blair NMSFs come from the science magnet program, but it's definitely not all of them. I'd also have to imagine that with a non-magnet school of close to 1000, there must be at least a few NMSFs from non-magnet students. It seems that other comparably-sized schools in DC/MD/VA (w/o magnet programs) generate about 2-9 NMSFs per class. So if we assume 3-4 from CAP, plus 5-6 from non-magnet class, that leaves about 43-45 from the science magnet. Still pretty impressive numbers, and much higher than TJ on a percentage basis.

[Anonymous]

There were none from the Blair non magnet program in 2009. And if this assumption is wrong I suspect your assumptions about the number from CAP is erroneous also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There were none from the Blair non magnet program in 2009. And if this assumption is wrong I suspect your assumptions about the number from CAP is erroneous also.

Thanks, shit-for-brains. I never said it was for 2009, and I don't recall what year it was for. However, I did spend 2 minutes to search on google and quickly found two links that refer to CAP NMSFs and non-magnet NMSFs: http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/8940 and http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/2239 . There are probably others, but I'm not interested in looking for them.

So your assumptions are erroneous too. So screw off, you jerk.