Sidwell Admissions Non-Entry Years

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how often Sidwell has openings in non-entry years? If there is an opening, do they always seek to fill it, or do they save the spot for an official entry year the following year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how often Sidwell has openings in non-entry years? If there is an opening, do they always seek to fill it, or do they save the spot for an official entry year the following year?

All depends. There is no silver bullet answer on this. Also, if they lost a "quiet boy," they may not necessarily replace with a "loud girl."

[Anonymous]

Openings are rare in off years, but there are fewer applications too... Still, very hard to get in either way

[Anonymous]

I have heard that they will only fill if there is more than one opening... and also no new kids for 5th grade when they move to the middle school.

[Anonymous]

We just went on one of the school tours and were told that they only have 1 or at a max 2 openings on non-entry years. They also said the waitlist for these grades is very long and it is a real challenge to get in.

[Anonymous]

... and the "1 or 2 max openings" are for VIPs coming from out of town. Make no mistake.

[Anonymous]

This doesn't really go to the original question, but I'm happy we waited to apply for an entry year class. It was really nice for my child to start with a bunch of kids, and there were a lot of social events over the summer so my kid felt not so new on the first day. For new 6th and 7th graders there is also an optional one week summer camp to introduce the kids to the school that's also very nice. I think it would be more difficult to be the 1 or 2 new kid(s) in a class without those helpful things.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone whose child joined Sidwell in a non-entry year speak to the experience -- both in terms of admissions and transition?

[Anonymous]

We applied in a non entry year once, I think it was 1st grade. Basically they don't even take applications until they know if they will have spaces to fill. So it's not the normal cycle because they won't know that until February. I think we filled out some kind of short form, no fee, and they said they would get back to us if any spots opened up and they were going to consider any applications. We never heard anything more (and I am an alum so I think they would have at least let us apply if there had been a space).

[Anonymous]

We applied each of our DS's for fifth grade. One was admitted - they had attrition that year. The other year they did not even read the application - they said they didn't anticipate any spots. That one reapplied for sixth and was admitted.

For the process, they had one day of interviews for fifth grade applicants - so fewer individuals but fewer slots.

For the transition, we thought it was great. While there were fewer new kids, everyone was equally new to middle school, so DS slid right in. There were no new kid events, but there were orientation events for the entire class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We applied each of our DS's for fifth grade. One was admitted - they had attrition that year. The other year they did not even read the application - they said they didn't anticipate any spots. That one reapplied for sixth and was admitted.

For the process, they had one day of interviews for fifth grade applicants - so fewer individuals but fewer slots.

For the transition, we thought it was great. While there were fewer new kids, everyone was equally new to middle school, so DS slid right in. There were no new kid events, but there were orientation events for the entire class.

Thank you PP, this is very helpful. At what point were you notified whether or not there were 5th grade spots?