What is a safety school anymore?

[Anonymous]

It seems like private admissions has become more competitive. Schools that were "safeties" are waitlisting and rejecting. I am trying to understand this. I don't have any good explanations other than dissatisfaction with public schools, but that can't be all.

[Anonymous]

Grace Episcopal? WES?

[Anonymous]

flint hill. heard of them rejecting some applicants i was surprised to hear

[Anonymous]

I think all the well-known privates are selective. Even DCUM perennial least favorites Bullis and Flint Hill. Both of those schools reject and waitlist plenty of kids. Schools like Field and Edmund Burke so too. It's competitive, but thankfully won't be like NYC.

[Anonymous]

Public.

[Anonymous]

Flint Hill is still a safety school. Look on their website. They still have admission open houses on Wednesdays because classes are not full.

[Anonymous]

I think t depends on a kid's profile. A school may be a "safety" for one kid, but a reach for another. Some schools however are so competitive that they are a toss-up.

Also I think lots of school will let you tour if you call them. Though I am surprised that Flint Hill can't fill classes at the US level because I know they get a good amount of applications.

[Anonymous]

I believe that Flint Hill's Upper School tends to fill up because there are few private alternatives for high school in Northern Virginia. However, their Lower and Middle Schools have experienced a significant loss of students over the last several years.

[Anonymous]

The private school scene in DC has changed a lot in twenty even ten years. Maret used to be a safety now it's really hard to get into. The idea that kids with over 80% on their HPST can't get into SJC is mind-boggling. I think by high school many are not satisfied with public school offerings for whatever reason.

Don't want to turn this thread into FH bashing, but I think they were hit hard by Exxon moving to NJ. I knew people who worked there sent kids to FH. Also FCPS elementary schools are solid, but that said they are attracting kids from all over NOVA something they weren't doing even ten years ago.

[Anonymous]

Flint Hill.

[Anonymous]

Madeira.

[Anonymous]

St Andrews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think t depends on a kid's profile. A school may be a "safety" for one kid, but a reach for another. Some schools however are so competitive that they are a toss-up.

Also I think lots of school will let you tour if you call them. Though I am surprised that Flint Hill can't fill classes at the US level because I know they get a good amount of applications.

I agree with this. It totally depends on the applicant and where s/he is coming from.

A kid coming from, for example, a well regarded K-8 with top grades and high SSAT scores (say a minimum of 75-80%) will hope for admission to say Sidwell or a Cathedral school or Maret but isn't guarteed any of those since they are competing against other kids with similar stats. Those kids will consider some of the other schools as safety schools and apply to one or two just in case.

On the other hand, a kid with mediocre scores, and/or grades, or coming from a less well regarded school, or with a history of LD or behavioral issues, wouldn't even apply to those super academically, totally intense, competitive schools but might be applying to and hoping for the schools those others kids consider a safety. These kids have their own safety schools and so on down the line of academic success/test scores since those are typically what most private middle and high schools look at, just like colleges. Most kids end up at a school where they do well and are a great fit but there is so much angst that gets generated by the process. It's not healthy for teenagers quite honestly.

It is kind of a messesd-up system but would be difficult to change. Perhaps kids should be limited to applying to only 3 schools and have to rank them by order of preference, but that would infuriate lots of people and require all the privates to cooperate. Maybe the schools that aren't so intensely academic shouldn't use the same standardized test. Maybe the artistically oriented schools should require a "talent" submission kind of like performing arts schools? I dint know what would work but the current system seems designed to create the most stress for everyone.

[Anonymous]

St. Andrews, Good Counsel

[Anonymous]

St. Andrews and Madeira may be considered safeties by some on this board and they probably were in the past, but over the last several years have met smart kids who have been WLed and rejected.

Five years ago, Madeira would take anything with a pulse that wanted to board, but last year a reasonably intelligent girl on my street with respectable SSATs was put on the waitlist for boarding! I was dumbfounded.