Are the new 9th graders the top of the class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyway, the best way to determine is to look at the senior class outplacement.

Yes but the seniors don’t say when they joined the school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our Big 3, the academically strongest students tend to be new 9th graders (unless they’re athletic recruits). I have yet to come across an athletic recruit who was also a top student academically. The recruits tend to be average students, at best.

Not my kid and what a jealous thing to say. Athletes tend to be excellent students because they have incredible focus and avoid a lot of nonsense.

DP. Jealous of what? 🤣
A hit dog will holler! At my children’s Big 3, the vast majority of athletic RECRUITS are mediocre to average students. It’s a relatively small school, so this isn’t a state secret. Obviously, not every single athletic recruit is a terrible student, but the majority at THIS school aren’t great.

I know! Most of the athletes are stuck in the classes with the lifers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've had kids at two Big3 schools and honestly most of the top kids are lifers or close to it. it's very hard to perform (I.e catch up) to the level required to get As in English and history if you arrive in 9th. it's such a giant gap between public and private in these subjects and many 9th grade admits are from public. the public kids are usually accelerated in math but that only gets you so far and sometimes it's not a great foundation.

I'd say 75% of the top kids arrive earlier than 9th. Maybe 85%. My own kids arrived in 9th so I've experienced this first hand.

Yep, my experience too.
DD arrived at current school in 6th from another top private. She's currently tied for top student. I'd say the top 5% are all lifers except her. Public school kids are advanced at math, nothing else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thinking about applications to various schools next year and how to think about the later grades and whether to do K8 or K12. Not sure if there is any way to know this, but are the kids who enter at 9th grade typically the strongest academically in the more competitive schools? I mean, in a K12, does it generally track that the later the student enters, the stronger academically they have to be? Or does it not really work like that because the more competitive schools are really good at teaching the kids they have so they all kind of even out?

Yes. It is very clear in everything not just academics. The new kids entering in 9th grade push the lifers to the side. It is not even close. The most competitive schools are picking the very top students and athletes.

+1000, the arriving 9th graders have been chosen to cover a variety of niches and many, many excel

Presence of parents with kids who entered a top school in 9th is strong for this topic! LOL.

Reality is some of those entering in 9th will be among top in class, as will be many who are lifers/entered earlier. Many of those entering in 9th will also be pretty strong academically but admitted for their athletic abilities in a particular sport or talent in robotics/music, etc. At our top K-12, the vast majority of the kids at the top of the class (attending Ivies/Top Colleges) entered the school in the early (think 4th and lower) grades. Contrary to what everyone wants to believe, the top privates are not just looking for academic powerhouses. They want kids who will do well academically (they need to be able to handle the work), but are well-rounded and will contribute in other ways to the community, too.

Unlike college, many private schools are on the smaller side. To excel in lots of things they need well rounded kids. So they do indeed often prioritize that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thinking about applications to various schools next year and how to think about the later grades and whether to do K8 or K12. Not sure if there is any way to know this, but are the kids who enter at 9th grade typically the strongest academically in the more competitive schools? I mean, in a K12, does it generally track that the later the student enters, the stronger academically they have to be? Or does it not really work like that because the more competitive schools are really good at teaching the kids they have so they all kind of even out?

Yes. It is very clear in everything not just academics. The new kids entering in 9th grade push the lifers to the side. It is not even close. The most competitive schools are picking the very top students and athletes.

+1000, the arriving 9th graders have been chosen to cover a variety of niches and many, many excel

That makes sense. It’s far easier to judge the potential success of a rising 9th grader with an established track record than a 4 year old who goes on to be a school “lifer.” For the 4 year old, it’s mostly the parents who are being judged-not the kid. That can lead to a broad range of abilities by the time high school rolls around.

Exactly. And people here wax on and on about how it's better to come into k-12s earlier because 9th is so competitive.

Some private schools admit 4 year olds. So then you’re choosing amongst 3 year olds. That is far from an exact science.

Inherently bizarre to me as someone who was public then Andover. 3 years old?!

Yes and they are often wrong about which kids will be successful. I used to live in Houston and it's well know that George Bush was rejected from the top school (st Johns), yet he became president. His father paid his way into the "rich kid" school, which is known to take kids who buy their way in and very smart kids who boost their scores - a dichotomy.

[Anonymous]

DC is weird because the vast majority of competitive high schools are part of a K-12 and take most of their class in the lower school. STA goes from 60 to 80 in 9th grade, for example, and NCS is even less.

I grew up in another major city and the competitive high schools often didn't have lower schools at all, or had very small ones. I just looked up the school I graduated from, and they jump from 50-60 in 8th to 140-150 in 9th. That's a real different vibe. It also lets them functionally screen for students who will do well in the college process, since by 8th grade, you have real information about someone as a student. It was routinely mentioned that the strongest students were the new 9th and 10th graders. I can't think of many (any?) school in DC that works that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do parents know all this information? Seems like broad generalizations with little to no way to verify accuracy.

THIS. I’m hoping this is all conjecture. If it isn’t, then man these private school parents are even more effed up than I thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do parents know all this information? Seems like broad generalizations with little to no way to verify accuracy.

I know because I talk to my children. At my child’s Big 3, grade comparison is rampant (for better or worse). Kids discuss their grades with each other. In turn, children who talk to their parents identify top students (as part of a typical conversation when discussing one’s day and/or how one did on a quiz/test/paper).

If this is all true, it’s really sad on every level, from the parents on down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our Big 3, the academically strongest students tend to be new 9th graders (unless they’re athletic recruits). I have yet to come across an athletic recruit who was also a top student academically. The recruits tend to be average students, at best.

Not my kid and what a jealous thing to say. Athletes tend to be excellent students because they have incredible focus and avoid a lot of nonsense.

DP. Jealous of what? 🤣
A hit dog will holler! At my children’s Big 3, the vast majority of athletic RECRUITS are mediocre to average students. It’s a relatively small school, so this isn’t a state secret. Obviously, not every single athletic recruit is a terrible student, but the majority at THIS school aren’t great.

I don’t believe you and yes you are jealous because only a jealous person would say such things. I know this world and the athletics are very focused and don’t party and basically train and finish class work and then prioritize sleep. Also hope you are not being racist because many top athletes of color are downgraded as not intellectual. Hint Travis Hunter just graduated college with a 4.0

Your projection is a confession. You’re triggered by my post, but it has nothing to do with me.

Most of the athletic recruits at MY children’s very academically focused high school end up attending Division 1 schools for their sport. Those schools are usually not very difficult to gain admission to for an average student at MY children’s school (eg, Kentucky, Bama, GMU, St. John’s, etc). My children are excellent students so those universities are of zero interest. I’m certainly not jealous of anyone who devotes that much time to a sport, and then ends up at a school a non-athlete can gain admission to with very little effort. Only a handful of the students I know are Ivy+ recruits, and I’m still not jealous of them. Good for them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do parents know all this information? Seems like broad generalizations with little to no way to verify accuracy.

I know because I talk to my children. At my child’s Big 3, grade comparison is rampant (for better or worse). Kids discuss their grades with each other. In turn, children who talk to their parents identify top students (as part of a typical conversation when discussing one’s day and/or how one did on a quiz/test/paper).

If this is all true, it’s really sad on every level, from the parents on down.

DP. You think it’s sad that teens talk to their parents about their day (which includes a range of topics)? It’s sad that your children obviously don’t talk to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is weird because the vast majority of competitive high schools are part of a K-12 and take most of their class in the lower school. STA goes from 60 to 80 in 9th grade, for example, and NCS is even less.

I grew up in another major city and the competitive high schools often didn't have lower schools at all, or had very small ones. I just looked up the school I graduated from, and they jump from 50-60 in 8th to 140-150 in 9th. That's a real different vibe. It also lets them functionally screen for students who will do well in the college process, since by 8th grade, you have real information about someone as a student. It was routinely mentioned that the strongest students were the new 9th and 10th graders. I can't think of many (any?) school in DC that works that way.

That is different, but why wouldn’t the K12s here still screen for students who would do well in the college process? What else would they be looking for?

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, there are still many legacy admits to colleges- so you’d have to pull that data (amongst the many other data points) to even attempt to analyze if lifers or 9th grade admits fared better in the admissions process.

[Anonymous]

Most students getting admitted for 9th grade, even the non-athletes, still have some kind of hook that distinguished them from other applicants with similar credentials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do parents know all this information? Seems like broad generalizations with little to no way to verify accuracy.

I know because I talk to my children. At my child’s Big 3, grade comparison is rampant (for better or worse). Kids discuss their grades with each other. In turn, children who talk to their parents identify top students (as part of a typical conversation when discussing one’s day and/or how one did on a quiz/test/paper).

If this is all true, it’s really sad on every level, from the parents on down.

NP. Why? It’s true. My teenager monologues to decompress in the car, and so I know about the academic careers of all sorts of kids, including once I never met.

I guess on one hand it would be nice if there were zero competition and everybody studied for the sheer love of learning, but on the other hand, the thrill of competition seems to keep them focused through the boring bits…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyway, the best way to determine is to look at the senior class outplacement.

Yes but the seniors don’t say when they joined the school!

.

Those inside the school obviously know. It’s easy for them to look at the results from the Instagram pages to see which kids land where.