Is it really as simple as "just go private for middle + high school"?

[Anonymous]

A good boarding school is probably an easier admit.

[Anonymous]

OP: Forums like this are full of public school trolls who can't afford private who bad mouth private and overhype how amazing and diverse publics are. And it sounds like your social circle is currently rah-rah public school parents (who can't afford private). Nobody calls their baby ugly. If private primary schools were a pointless waste of money the good ones wouldn't all have waitlists, competitive admission, and cost a pretty penny. You know what I mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi,
I live in a part of DC with decent elementary schools but bad middle and high schools. Something I hear casually said among the other parents at our elementary school is that they might "just go private" for middle or high school.

Is it really that straightforward? Are there just tons of private schools with openings in 6th grade? I think my fear is that we count on that and then end up not getting in anywhere. And what kind of criteria do they use to admit kids? Is it based on the kid's academic / extracurricular performance? Do siblings get in automatically?

I guess I just need a complete primer on privates. Thank you for any info and for taking pity on a total novice.

It's a striver wannabe / miser thing to say. Nobody who can afford private primary says this. And it's deluded because you can't make up for lost time. k-6th is 7 pivotal years of life. Your kid is not on the same rung when they transfer in at age 12 or 13; from academics, to socially, and everything in-between.

This is true. Last year I had an 8th grader and a 9th grader transfer into a top local private that costs over 50 grand per student from public. Both got straight A’s in public, were in a gifted program where they took all academic courses, and still had to adjust to the harder workload. Socially they were okay.

[Anonymous]

Just reads these boards in March after admissions decisions are released. There are many people who apply to 5+ schools who don’t get admitted anywhere.

[Anonymous]

We did not send our kids to private school because we did not feel that STEM education was rigorous enough for our high achieving kids. Of course, magnet public schools in those days were highly competitive and difficult to get into. Couple that with our race, we knew that we would be discriminated for admissions. So, we decided to buy or rent an apartment in a good school pyramid. Thankfully, kids got into magnet schools and got superb STEM and Humanities education from 4th grade to 12th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi,
I live in a part of DC with decent elementary schools but bad middle and high schools. Something I hear casually said among the other parents at our elementary school is that they might "just go private" for middle or high school.

Is it really that straightforward? Are there just tons of private schools with openings in 6th grade? I think my fear is that we count on that and then end up not getting in anywhere. And what kind of criteria do they use to admit kids? Is it based on the kid's academic / extracurricular performance? Do siblings get in automatically?

I guess I just need a complete primer on privates. Thank you for any info and for taking pity on a total novice.

This is such a prole tell. Do y’all REALLY think there’s no difference between private school lifers and transfer kids who only go from 7-12th or 9-12th? Of course you don’t. You’re trying to rationalize being a cheapskate.

[Anonymous]

My kids transferred from DCPS to Big3 schools (two different ones) in 9th grade. One graduated in the top 10 kids in their class and is now at a top 10 university and the second is on target to do so.

It's definitely possible to do this. We are nobody special and our kids are smart but not genius or prodigy level or anything like that. We didn't do any supplementation throughout elementary or middle school (we're really not tiger parents at all--we left for private because our inboundary high school is really lacking.)

The first semester of 9th grade was a major step up but we watched their grades very carefully and had tutors ready to go. After that they were on their own and just took off. They fit in super well socially. That was not an issue at all. The left (or are leaving) with life-long friendships.

Our story is not everyone's story but there are plenty of families like us out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi,
I live in a part of DC with decent elementary schools but bad middle and high schools. Something I hear casually said among the other parents at our elementary school is that they might "just go private" for middle or high school.

Is it really that straightforward? Are there just tons of private schools with openings in 6th grade? I think my fear is that we count on that and then end up not getting in anywhere. And what kind of criteria do they use to admit kids? Is it based on the kid's academic / extracurricular performance? Do siblings get in automatically?

I guess I just need a complete primer on privates. Thank you for any info and for taking pity on a total novice.

There are plenty of excellent and good schools that are not Sidwell or GDS that have openings and would admit a competitive candidate. You just have to cast a wide net. Kids from WES, St. Andrews, CES, Norwood, etc. go on to great high schools, including the top independent ones and the highly ranked religious ones (NCS, Visi, Stone Ridge, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did not send our kids to private school because we did not feel that STEM education was rigorous enough for our high achieving kids. Of course, magnet public schools in those days were highly competitive and difficult to get into. Couple that with our race, we knew that we would be discriminated for admissions. So, we decided to buy or rent an apartment in a good school pyramid. Thankfully, kids got into magnet schools and got superb STEM and Humanities education from 4th grade to 12th.

Interesting. Well I’m glad your kids were able to avoid the discrimination in the pyramid which it didn’t exist.

How’d you happen to find yourself in this private/independent school forum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just reads these boards in March after admissions decisions are released. There are many people who apply to 5+ schools who don’t get admitted anywhere.

And many of them have kids who are all A students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our story is not everyone's story but there are plenty of families like us out there.

"Plenty" relative to the number of DC area families that hope to follow the exact same path?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi,
I live in a part of DC with decent elementary schools but bad middle and high schools. Something I hear casually said among the other parents at our elementary school is that they might "just go private" for middle or high school.

Is it really that straightforward? Are there just tons of private schools with openings in 6th grade? I think my fear is that we count on that and then end up not getting in anywhere. And what kind of criteria do they use to admit kids? Is it based on the kid's academic / extracurricular performance? Do siblings get in automatically?

I guess I just need a complete primer on privates. Thank you for any info and for taking pity on a total novice.

This is such a prole tell. Do y’all REALLY think there’s no difference between private school lifers and transfer kids who only go from 7-12th or 9-12th? Of course you don’t. You’re trying to rationalize being a cheapskate.

The biggest difference is that the people who come in as transfers aren't jerks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not send our kids to private school because we did not feel that STEM education was rigorous enough for our high achieving kids. Of course, magnet public schools in those days were highly competitive and difficult to get into. Couple that with our race, we knew that we would be discriminated for admissions. So, we decided to buy or rent an apartment in a good school pyramid. Thankfully, kids got into magnet schools and got superb STEM and Humanities education from 4th grade to 12th.

Interesting. Well I’m glad your kids were able to avoid the discrimination in the pyramid which it didn’t exist.

How’d you happen to find yourself in this private/independent school forum?

Probably by browsing Recent Topics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not send our kids to private school because we did not feel that STEM education was rigorous enough for our high achieving kids. Of course, magnet public schools in those days were highly competitive and difficult to get into. Couple that with our race, we knew that we would be discriminated for admissions. So, we decided to buy or rent an apartment in a good school pyramid. Thankfully, kids got into magnet schools and got superb STEM and Humanities education from 4th grade to 12th.

Interesting. Well I’m glad your kids were able to avoid the discrimination in the pyramid which it didn’t exist.

How’d you happen to find yourself in this private/independent school forum?

Probably by browsing Recent Topics.

And if the PP poster is referring to the MoCo criteria-based MS magnets, then, yes, they did change the admissions process to make the student bodies more representative, which was another way of saying that there were too many Asian-American students.

[Anonymous]

Wouldn’t the worst time to transfer in be for middle school? It’d probably be easier socially to do it at 9th.