Feeling Incredibly Disappointed

[Anonymous]

OP, your DD sounds lovely. When she is in 11th grade I guarantee she turns to you one day out of the blue and says, “I am so glad I didn’t end up going to x.” Or “I can’t imagine going to x school.” My 16 year old said this to me the other day. Kids like this bloom where they are planted and she will thrive in high school.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your response. Yes, my son is one that applied to 6th and 7th grade. We were hopefull after the first time we felt encouraged by admissions staff to apply again. To be quite honest, we are a family of immigrants with no connections, no legacy family members etc. My son fell in love with St. Albans and he dreamed to be there. I do not want to put him through this a third time. He was pretty devastated yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are chances os WL movement at St Albans for 7th grade?

The waitlist won't move.
Are you the poster who was turned down for 6th and 7th?

If you are still interested, I would schedule a time to speak with the AD and have a frank conversation about the possibility of applying again. I know kids who were admitted on the third try. Ask if the waitlists were purely a numbers games (very possible at a school like STA) or if there is anything about your
son's application that make them think he would be a better fit elsewhere. Say, "i completely understand that you can't guarantee that my son will be admitted should he apply for 9th but is your gut feeling that he will always come up just shy of admission? Frankly, would you apply him again". If they give the green light
then you can see if your son is up for it. And then spend the next 1.5 years keeping his grades up, further developing his interests, etc AND exploring other options for high school.

Thank you for your response. Yes, my son is one that applied to 6th and 7th grade. We were hopefull after the first time we felt encouraged by admissions staff to apply again. To be quite honest, we are a family of immigrants with no connections, no legacy family members etc. My son fell in love with St. Albans and he dreamed to be there. I do not want to put him through this a third time. He was pretty devastated yesterday.

[Anonymous]

This is why people apply to reach, target, and safety schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for your response. Yes, my son is one that applied to 6th and 7th grade. We were hopefull after the first time we felt encouraged by admissions staff to apply again. To be quite honest, we are a family of immigrants with no connections, no legacy family members etc. My son fell in love with St. Albans and he dreamed to be there. I do not want to put him through this a third time. He was pretty devastated yesterday.

I am so sorry. We are also nobodies and got in on the third try. The third time around he applied to many schools and ironically was admitted to all of the Big3 schools. He just put in applications left and right to see where the cards might land. Let the time pass and see where you find yourselves when high school rolls around. Your son may want to throw in an application to STA as one of many others or he may be thriving in public and not even give private school a thought. Take the time and walk away completely from this for the next year. Kids change in such big ways between 7th and 9th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why people apply to reach, target, and safety schools.

"Safety" has gotten a lot tougher these last two years. I think only the parochial Catholic schools now qualify as a safety. Schools like St. Stephens St. Agnes are a target for an 8th grader without hooks.

Best of luck to everyone. This is a tough season!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry OP! But college admissions is much better from public, especially DCPS. Hopefully that’s a silver lining…

Only if they survive it, and don't fall through the cracks.the Kids trying to move out are often the one most at risk for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for your response. Yes, my son is one that applied to 6th and 7th grade. We were hopefull after the first time we felt encouraged by admissions staff to apply again. To be quite honest, we are a family of immigrants with no connections, no legacy family members etc. My son fell in love with St. Albans and he dreamed to be there. I do not want to put him through this a third time. He was pretty devastated yesterday.

I am so sorry. We are also nobodies and got in on the third try. The third time around he applied to many schools and ironically was admitted to all of the Big3 schools. He just put in applications left and right to see where the cards might land. Let the time pass and see where you find yourselves when high school rolls around. Your son may want to throw in an application to STA as one of many others or he may be thriving in public and not even give private school a thought. Take the time and walk away completely from this for the next year. Kids change in such big ways between 7th and 9th grade.

I am so glad that it worked out for your child. StA is his dream school so i think that is only school he wants to go to. I appreciate your guidance.

[Anonymous]

Next time, apply to some safety schools. You could call around this spring to see if some Catholic schools have space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Next time, apply to some safety schools. You could call around this spring to see if some Catholic schools have space.

I know a few people who were waitlisted or rejected at the “safety schools”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for your response. Yes, my son is one that applied to 6th and 7th grade. We were hopefull after the first time we felt encouraged by admissions staff to apply again. To be quite honest, we are a family of immigrants with no connections, no legacy family members etc. My son fell in love with St. Albans and he dreamed to be there. I do not want to put him through this a third time. He was pretty devastated yesterday.

I'm sorry to say but they seem to have quotas for immigrant families (from certain groups.) They only take a few and so they are competing with each other. It's awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for your response. Yes, my son is one that applied to 6th and 7th grade. We were hopefull after the first time we felt encouraged by admissions staff to apply again. To be quite honest, we are a family of immigrants with no connections, no legacy family members etc. My son fell in love with St. Albans and he dreamed to be there. I do not want to put him through this a third time. He was pretty devastated yesterday.

I'm sorry to say but they seem to have quotas for immigrant families (from certain groups.) They only take a few and so they are competing with each other. It's awful.

This is pure conjecture. Please don’t spread your speculation as fact. Very few spots are available for 9th grade at St. Albans (or any grade for that matter). There is no immigrant family quota at any school. Each class looks different, depending on who applies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm really sorry. 9th is so hard and Covid grading inflated GPAs so that almost everyone had straight As. I think the pool of "top" applicants was very large.

My kid made it in to a top school for 9th last year and it's been ok. My other two are in public. I really think I have a good perspective on the options and the private has just as many flaws as the public (different but just as many and we get to pay $50K for them). We are constantly wondering if we made a mistake. I mean, constantly. We signed the contract for next year and are still wondering if we should walk (and head back to public) in June when we're locked in.

Above post is the most relevant response in this thread thus far. There is a post in another thread by a parent of multiple private school kids who shares that other than at one of their children’s top private, they found in their experience the other privates left them wondering if they had any added value benefit over public.

We are blessed with terrific educational resources in our area. Your DC seems well grounded and likely to succeed no matter what. Celebrate and take comfort in that as you work through your disappointment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Turned down my our top three choices abs admitted by Maret. DH thinks this is a disaster- he’s harder to deal with than DC.

This makes me sad all around - for poor DC and for you. Sounds as if you have a lot of therapy in your family’s future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for your response. Yes, my son is one that applied to 6th and 7th grade. We were hopefull after the first time we felt encouraged by admissions staff to apply again. To be quite honest, we are a family of immigrants with no connections, no legacy family members etc. My son fell in love with St. Albans and he dreamed to be there. I do not want to put him through this a third time. He was pretty devastated yesterday.

I'm sorry to say but they seem to have quotas for immigrant families (from certain groups.) They only take a few and so they are competing with each other. It's awful.

This is pure conjecture. Please don’t spread your speculation as fact. Very few spots are available for 9th grade at St. Albans (or any grade for that matter). There is no immigrant family quota at any school. Each class looks different, depending on who applies.

Speculation, based on years of admissions we've observed.