Which prestigious private high schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have your heart set on Maret, Sidwell, GDS for high school, you'd do better trying your darndest to get in at the K level.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you don't choose private early, going to any one of the elites won't be impossible, but it will be much more difficult.

Not necessarily -- it's easier to get in based on connections (sib, legacy, staff, feeder schools) earlier and easier to get in on academic achievement (test scores, transcripts, teacher recommendations) later.

Lots of kids in DC go from public to elite private schools for MS and HS. At GDS the HS graduating class is 5x as large as the same cohort was in K. And I think that the class size doubles between 6th and 9th. These ratios will, no doubt vary from school to school (because there are different entry years), but that's the kind of data you might want to look at.

[Anonymous]

This post is from a year and a half ago. I suspect the OP has made her decision by now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:will be essentially off limits if I don't make the decision now apply to a feeder preschool for my 3 YO?

I know the chances are never zero, but I am stressed about whether I really need to worry about this now. We live in Potomac and really want to send my DS to a local preschool, and maybe local elementary school/Catholic school, but need to understand what options I am giving up by doing that.

Thanks

At Holton some of the people didn't start there until junior year. It was a really smart strategy. Those parents saved tons and tons of money sending their kids to public schools until the last 2 years and then the kids got to graduate with a private school diploma. I wish I would have thought of that. Slots opened up for juniors because some kids bailed to go to the publics or moved or whatever.