Ugh! Should have hired a tutor for SSAT :(

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a quick second on the high scores don’t guaranteed much of anything-we applied from public this year to MS and my DC was WL at all the top schools despite a composite SSAT of 89%. We were flabbergasted-great kid in every other way also. Did get in finally off WL, but a top score isn’t this golden ticket you would think it would be.

yes, this was my son too. Coming from a public. All A's, 90%+ SSAT, top athlete. Didn't get in any of the top 5 schools he applied to. Going to public middle school. However, I can think of 5+ boys at our school alone who also fit this profile and also didn't get in. Which is crazy except when you think about it, most of the top schools only had 5 boy slots total for 6th grade. My son's school could have filled them all. And they're one DC area elementary school out of how many (dozens?) of schools with kids applying to the top privates for middle school. It's just a total lottery. A 90%+ score isn't a guarantee of ANYTHING.

I know connected kids with mediocre grades, low SSATs (below 50%), no leadership positions, one was an athlete and the other played sports but only on teams with no cuts and they both got into a smaller, coveted private folks fall all over themselves to get into. Both kids got in over other kids with high (all had SSATs in at least mid 70% and a couple had upper 90%, extracurriculars, competitive athletes/strong music and arts extracurriculars, A to A- students, very strong recommendations, and good kids. The kids who got in had wealthy, connected parents. It confirmed for me that money and connections still talk. George W. Bush got into Yale with a C average. Same thing happens here at DC privates no matter what they post on their websites. You should know this so that you understand and prepare your kids for the reality that in America family name and connections still matter no matter what you might hear about equity and merit based admissions.

I totally believe this. It's how the world works and I'm sure it's how the DC schools work. Not to a person (obviously they don't fill every spot this way) but to some degree for sure.
My son and his friends had it all--the grades, the 90%+ SSATs (or in several cases 95%+), stellar athletic skills, great interviews, interesting extracurriculars, great recs. No red flags at all. I recognize that I'm probably not objective about my son but when I look at some of the other kids I know who didn't get in, I'm blown away. These are great kids. They're leaders who have their "s$%&t together. Still no dice.
The only thing--they're public school kids with parents who are feds or the like. I know the top schools take some kids like this but it would seem that private schooled kids from wealthy and/or connected families can have a much easier time of getting chosen.

[Anonymous]

Did you sit in on the interviews? And did you get copies of the recs?

[Anonymous]

I think you are underestimating how many truly outstanding applicants these schools get and the reality that only a small percentage can be admitted. 98 - 99 percentile SSAT is very different than high 80s / low 90s. It just is. Sidwell and STA/NCS incoming 9th grade students tend to have very high scores in the high 90s as well as stellar grades, recs, extra-curricular, etc. I am sure your DC is terrific. It’s just very competitive. The power/money/legacy element is very minor.

[Anonymous]

Every year, some parents of kids applying out of K-6 and K-8 schools to other privates complain their child didn’t get enough support from their school’s outplacement. Admission to these schools is heavily weighted toward kids already in a private school. It is part of the business model. How would NCS ever explain how they didn’t take any Beauvoir kids? It would not fly. But they are under no pressure to take kids from public schools. And the lifers at the K-12s don’t even have to apply so they don’t have to compete.

Of course the process favors privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:98 - 99 percentile SSAT is very different than high 80s / low 90s. It just is.

Maybe, but speaking from personal experience, it won’t necessarily get even a well-qualified candidate accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you are underestimating how many truly outstanding applicants these schools get and the reality that only a small percentage can be admitted. 98 - 99 percentile SSAT is very different than high 80s / low 90s. It just is. Sidwell and STA/NCS incoming 9th grade students tend to have very high scores in the high 90s as well as stellar grades, recs, extra-curricular, etc. I am sure your DC is terrific. It’s just very competitive. The power/money/legacy element is very minor.

Absolute fallacy....it’s no small thing to have the right political connections and big bucks in this town of power brokers. Agree with PP that kids from public are at a disadvantage in this process-even though, when they do manage to squeak in, they tend to do much better academically then the private school “lifers”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:98 - 99 percentile SSAT is very different than high 80s / low 90s. It just is.

Maybe, but speaking from personal experience, it won’t necessarily get even a well-qualified candidate accepted.

+1 sadly.

[Anonymous]

more highly qualified applicants than slots.
same for ugrad, grad, jobs, etc.