How hard is it to get into 6th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend applied to Maret 2 years ago and they said they had 125 applications or 6th. They take about 10 kids as well. I would imagine that GDS and Sidwell application numbers are similar but there is some overlap in applicants.

When my kid was applying to schools in 6th from DCPS (3 years ago) his friends (about 5 kids) who applied to GDS and Sidwell did not get in. They were great kids from full-pay families. A few applied again for 7th and got in then.

I admittedly don’t know maret’s precise numbers, but I really want to address what are perpetual myths on this board about admissions. They will never tell you this, but at the most selective privates in the country (not dc, the country), the admit rate is never much lower than 25-30%. Ever. I have read so much speculation on this board that frequently suggests or explicitly states that admission rates to top privates is 7%. 10%. And other completely incorrect numbers that freak people out. Those numbers are not right. They never have been.

I wish I could post this on every thread when parents are asking about admissions and getting bad information here. To be fair, the schools do not tell you this. They occasionally tell select board members for planning, but only some, and never in writing.

Anyway. Sidwell and gds are not guaranteed, but they are not nearly as competitive as dcum mythology strokes its collective ego with.

This is just not true. I’ve been to 2 presentations (one to the school board) at our k-12 by the AD. You are correct for K, but as you rise in grades the percentages decrease dramatically. I believe close to 40% are offered spots for K and by the time it’s 9th grade that drops to closer to 12% on average. AD spoke specifically about our school as well as similar schools in the region.

Are you able to provide a screenshot or link to the presentation that said the admissions rate is 12%? The numbers I saw for higher ranked schools, not in dc, were nowhere near that low, and they were for middle and high school admissions.

The admissions rate is solely a function of the number of applicants and number offers given, not prestige or ranking. People in DC unhappy with their local school systems are not applying to Dalton or Andover. They are applying to the schools here, and if there has been a jump because of the pandemic, it's just numbers, not an indication of increased prestige or better ranking. I have no idea what the numbers are here or elsewhere, but to say it's not possible for a DC school to have a low admissions rate because the schools are not as prestigious or highly ranked as schools with higher admission rates seems an odd argument to make.