St. Albans acceptance rate = 25 to 30%?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Think about it this way:

Andover's acceptance rate is 13%. They pull from all over the country and the world, and are one of the most coveted private high schools.

Aside from some kindergarten classes, where there are simply very few slots, I can't imagine day schools in this area--even the best ones--having an acceptance rate that is that much lower than a top independent boarding school.

My guess is that you have a few schools that hover around 15-25%, and then the rest are significantly higher.

That's fine; acceptance rate is simply NOT a proxy for excellence. UChicago had a very high acceptance rate before they started accepting the Common App, simply because they had a self-selecting applicant pool. As soon as they started taking the Common App, their acceptance rate plummeted and people started talking about how great the school is. The school didn't change; the number of applications did.

If it's true that Andover's acceptance rate is around 13% (and when I checked, this claim at least has some basis in reality), this stat does strongly suggest hat the DC area schools' acceptance rates must be higher.

Maybe not. Andover admits roughly 300 students for 9th. The year my son joined the 9th grade at STA there were 17 admits.
Andover might be a better school but there are a ton of spaces.

It's a boarding school with a much higher profile and prestige factor than STA that receives tons of applications from all over the country.

Absolutely. But they would need to get 3000 applications for a 10% admit rate vs 170 for STA.
It seems reasonable that Andover might actually end up with a higher admit rate because of the number of spots they have to fill.

[Anonymous]

If you have a boy you’re more likely to get in there than a co-ed school like GDS or Sidwell, for obvious reasons. Beyond that I don’t think anyone can give you exact percentages.

[Anonymous]

I have heard the acceptance rate is 1.9%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Think about it this way:

Andover's acceptance rate is 13%. They pull from all over the country and the world, and are one of the most coveted private high schools.

Aside from some kindergarten classes, where there are simply very few slots, I can't imagine day schools in this area--even the best ones--having an acceptance rate that is that much lower than a top independent boarding school.

My guess is that you have a few schools that hover around 15-25%, and then the rest are significantly higher.

That's fine; acceptance rate is simply NOT a proxy for excellence. UChicago had a very high acceptance rate before they started accepting the Common App, simply because they had a self-selecting applicant pool. As soon as they started taking the Common App, their acceptance rate plummeted and people started talking about how great the school is. The school didn't change; the number of applications did.

If it's true that Andover's acceptance rate is around 13% (and when I checked, this claim at least has some basis in reality), this stat does strongly suggest hat the DC area schools' acceptance rates must be higher.

Maybe not. Andover admits roughly 300 students for 9th. The year my son joined the 9th grade at STA there were 17 admits.
Andover might be a better school but there are a ton of spaces.

It's a boarding school with a much higher profile and prestige factor than STA that receives tons of applications from all over the country.

True but not all parents are on board with Andover or Phillips Exeter or any of the boarding schools. Out of control drugs, sex, and mental health issues. That reduces the applicant field. You really have to want Harvard to give up parenting your kids in their teens.

STA’s admissions at 9th is under 10% because there are fewer rigorous and prestigious options in DC in proportion to the number of families that can afford to send their kids to a $55K school. Also the degree of extreme politicization of curriculum at GDS and Sidwell is pushing more moderate families to STA. Unfortunately the Trumpy MAGA crowd comes along too.

STA admits between 20-25 students in 9th. Sometimes as low as 17 as PP said. They attract hundreds of applicants from all over the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have a boy you’re more likely to get in there than a co-ed school like GDS or Sidwell, for obvious reasons. Beyond that I don’t think anyone can give you exact percentages.

No, not necessarily. GDS traditionally takes about 50 kids for 9th. 50/50 girl/boy split. Sidwell takes about 35 total.
STA has taken as few as 17 in recent years.
So these schools are probably all around the same for 9th if you are just looking at male spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have heard the acceptance rate is 1.9%.

I have heard that it is 25-30%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have a boy you’re more likely to get in there than a co-ed school like GDS or Sidwell, for obvious reasons. Beyond that I don’t think anyone can give you exact percentages.

this isn't accurate. STA's graduating class is considerably smaller (approx. 80 at STA v. approx. 125 at Sidwell).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard the acceptance rate is 1.9%.

I have heard that it is 25-30%.

for 4th it is less than 5% non-beauvoir boys and for 7th and 9th less than 10 percent.

[Anonymous]

Someone once told me it was 1.7%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have a boy you’re more likely to get in there than a co-ed school like GDS or Sidwell, for obvious reasons. Beyond that I don’t think anyone can give you exact percentages.

this isn't accurate. STA's graduating class is considerably smaller (approx. 80 at STA v. approx. 125 at Sidwell).

Oh goodness, fractions aren't your strong suit.

[Anonymous]

I don’t thing Admissions Rate is all that meaningful as a measure of anything.

It’s, of course, highly sensitive to how many people apply to these schools and who these people are.

The number of applicants could be driven up by a large number of applicants for which the school would be a significant stretch academically and impossible without very significant financial aid.

The pool of applicants smart enough and rich enough to attend is almost certainly quite small.

If this wasn’t true, the other private schools would be filled with students who applied to STA and were rejected.

I think the market size of kids is much smaller than others on here do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard the acceptance rate is 1.9%.

I have heard that it is 25-30%.

I have heard that it is 19.875678492012981% with a 0.000000000000001% margin of error.

[Anonymous]

1.2% acceptance rate.

[Anonymous]

The AD announced in the tour we took that there are 1,575 applications for each spot open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The AD announced in the tour we took that there are 1,575 applications for each spot open.

Exactly!

That number is a tad high, of course. But if you think you are going to get a straight answer out of an Admissions guy( (while they are in “sales mode”) I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.

I’ve seen all sorts of games played with these numbers including considering everyone who expressed interest as an applicant. You will NEVER get a straight answer because it’s to their disadvantage to give you one.

On one hand they encourage you to apply. On the other they tell you how hard it is to get in which apparently incents some to apply because it’s obviously highly desired.