One More Admissions Inquiry

[Anonymous]

There is a lot of talk about feeder pre - schools to DC independent schools. Are students who attend pre - schools such as NCRC, Little Folks, School For Friends, and St. Johns evaluated differently by admissions teams? Do students who attend regular pre - schools or even public school pre kindergarten programs looked over in the process because they did not attend one of the more exclusive programs???

[Anonymous]

I taught at a private school in Mont. Co. that starts in 3rd grade and sat on the admissions committe for entering third, fourth and fifth graders. I can say with great confidence that every single application is looked at very, very carefully and read by a number of faculty (teachers and heads) and staff (admissions people) no matter where that child had previously attended school. I would stay after school for hours poring over files and reading and rereading and thinking very carefully about every single applicant.

So, no, kids were not evaluated differently just because they came from a "feeder" school where I taught.

I hope that helps put your mind at ease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I taught at a private school in Mont. Co. that starts in 3rd grade and sat on the admissions committe for entering third, fourth and fifth graders. I can say with great confidence that every single application is looked at very, very carefully and read by a number of faculty (teachers and heads) and staff (admissions people) no matter where that child had previously attended school. I would stay after school for hours poring over files and reading and rereading and thinking very carefully about every single applicant.

So, no, kids were not evaluated differently just because they came from a "feeder" school where I taught.

I hope that helps put your mind at ease.

So the school didn't matter for applicants who were applying for the higher grades (2nd, 3rd or 4th grade, etc.) But to those with experience with Pre-K and K admissions, does it matter that the child attended NCRC, St. John's or Little Folks? Someone on another thread mentioned that directors from these preschools are actively engaged with the admissions directors at the private schools.

[Anonymous]

Previous teacher here again-

We also had directors, etc. from feeder schools like Goeorgetown Hill, Primary Day, the Episcopal one on River Road by the village, etc. actively engaged, BUT we gave equal consideration to every applicant. Just because a kid went to a feeder school and had the director making calls, etc. does not mean he/she was accepted.

Like I said before EVERY single applicant gets equal consideration.

[Anonymous]

Previous Teacher if you are still out there please respond . . . . . . . . .

Have you ever heard of admissions committes contacting parents via phone to tell them of their acceptance prior to letters being sent out? or sending letters out prior to the dates stated on the NAIS and AISGW websites???

[Anonymous]

Previous teacher back--

I have not heard of admissions directors calling families before acceptance letters go out to tell them that yes, their child is in.

I have heard of admissions directors calling in particulary "sticky" situations to tell families their child was not accepted. Meaning, a family with kids already at the school, alumni, etc. I feel like the school felt they owed the family a call, etc.

As far as sending letters before the date- I don't think so.
Not where I was.

[Anonymous]

Schools may give equal consideration to each applicant, but the idea that these feeder schools do not have some advantage at all is inaccurate. There is a reason they are looked at as "feeders". If your child gets into one of those preschools, short of having "issues" (which some children have), your regular, bright, happy child will probably end up in one of the top schools (Potomac, GDS, Beauvoir, Sidwell). My son went to one (Little Folks) and of his "graduating class", I don't know any who didn't go on to one of the more competitive schools (there are plenty of less competitive schools, but none of his Little Folks class went on to them). I would love to think our children were really a bunch of stars, but I suspect that they were looked at more favorably than the applicant of an unknown child who just took his WPSII and had a nice playdate.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the previous post. If you look at the numbers, it should be evident that a greater portion of children from some feeder schools are more likely to go to "top" private schools than from some others. I don't think that the preschools are somehow able to attract the brightest, but rather that the elementary schools accepting these children feel that these children have been adequately prepared to meet the challenges of their own school, or that they trust the recommendations more from the directors/teachers of the feeder schools, or simply they have had consistently good experience with the children coming from these preschools. If you want your child to go to one of the highly competitive private schools in the area, try to get him/her into one of these feeder schools -- this will save you a lot of headache and heartache.

[Anonymous]

Whether attending a feeder school helps your chances of being admitted later, depends on which feeder school you are in and which schools you anticipate applying to.

Some of the "feeder" preschools have a graduating class of 20 somthing kids who may all be applying on to the "top" schools for Prek or K. Obviously, Sidwell, Beauvoir, GDS, Maret are not going to fill more than 1/2 of their class with kids from one preschool. Let's say, this is completely random, they take 5 kids from feeder preschool 1. Some of those 5 will probably be siblings, so there may actually only be 1 or 2 slots from feeder preschool 1 available for non-sibling applicants.

Of the remaining slots, there may be a family with some features that stand out - big benefactor of the preschool, recognizable name, diversity of some kind, etc. So, if you are trying to go to one of these "top" schools from feeder preschool 1 you wouldn't have much of a chance. This leaves the other "top" schools, Beauvoir, GDS, Maret. So, assuming each one wouldn't fill their class with more than 5 from any given "feeder" school, and also taking into consideration some of those feeder kids will be siblings, you may actually have a better chance applying from a non-feeder school.

[Anonymous]

Your math makes no sense. If you have three well known feeder schools then that would be 3x5=15. At GDS, Sidwell, and Maret there would only be five spots left among the other 200-15=185 applicants.

[Anonymous]

20:42 here again. If you have 20 kids from the same preschool applying to the same school then they might have odds of 5/20 which are certainly better than 5/185.

[Anonymous]

I work in admissions in a DC independent school. We look at every candidate no matter what preschool they come from. Let me tell you there are some amazing kids out there who go to schools that are totally uninvolved with the admission process. I also happen to know that just because a director of a preschool gets involved in no way makes it easier to get in. The children must be good matches and it all has to do with their file not the preschool they are coming from. Just to note: All preschools are considered feeder schools.

This is similiar to students applying to college from Independent schools and public schools. If the applicant has the right record for the school they can come from some big name school or from Wilson High School in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in admissions in a DC independent school. We look at every candidate no matter what preschool they come from. Let me tell you there are some amazing kids out there who go to schools that are totally uninvolved with the admission process. I also happen to know that just because a director of a preschool gets involved in no way makes it easier to get in. The children must be good matches and it all has to do with their file not the preschool they are coming from. Just to note: All preschools are considered feeder schools.

This is similiar to students applying to college from Independent schools and public schools. If the applicant has the right record for the school they can come from some big name school or from Wilson High School in DC.

I am sure that overall the process is as you describe but I really also believe that is "admissions speak". I personally know someone who got into one of the "big 3" (for want of a better description) - admittedly not to Pre K or K - because they knew someone on the board. The parents told me themselves and when I went to their house for dinner I was actually introduced to the board member and told in their presence that they were the ones helping to place their DC in the school. In an ideal world things will happen as you describe but the reality is that there are influential people, who normally have kids in these so called "feeder schools" because of said influence, and their kids get in and I do believe it is sometimes at the expense of some child whose parents are Jane and Joe Average like myself. I have been on the outskirts of these types of circles all me life - being in the diplomatic circle - and the old boy network is, I'm afraid, alive and kicking. Of course no admissions team is ever going to admit this but it is a sad but true fact of life.

[Anonymous]

To 20:42 poster, assuming there are only 5 spots available, you then must subtract out the number of siblings in your class that will take up some (or all) of those 5 spots from your feeder schoool. In some years, a feeder school may have 5 siblings in its class for one of the "top 3" - this was the case in my child's class one year (fortunately DC was one of them). That "top 3" school took the 5 kids and no one else from that feeder school. There were also siblings from other schools in the class that year. There were a couple of kids (non-sibling, non-priority applicants) in that feeder school's class who did not get in to any of the schools they applied to that year and several who ended up accepted at their 5th choice school.

There is no way to know how the admissions process will shakeout for any given year. It depends on too many factors.

[Anonymous]

I think everyone is getting a little too bogged down in the math. I can only tell you what happened to my son. He came out of Little Folks. In any given year, only about 12-14 graduate (because there are 2,3, and 4 year olds, and they are in two mixed classes of about 18 kids each...in any given year only a third to a half of the class of 36 will be moving on).

Of his class of 14, a full 8 went to Beauvoir (including my son), 3 went to GDS, 2 went to Sidwell, and one moved out of the private schools to public school.

It may very well be that admissions directors look at every applicant equally. But I can not find any rational reason why this particular class of Little Folks got accepted to all top schools. You would have to see more than a few NOT get accepted by a top private elementary school for me to believe that there was not SOME edge to going to Little Folks.