DC NMSFs 2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m curious if there’s any disjunction between the kids doing IMO and the PSAT NMSF list

This year's IMO team is either 10th or 12th graders.

[Anonymous]

What is IMO?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public:

Walls (6)
BASIS (3)
Latin (2)
DCI (2)
J-R (1)

Private:

Sidwell (11)
GDS (7)
STA (6)
NCS (3)
WIS (2)
SJC (2)
Maret (1)
Field (1)
Gonzaga (1)

JR is huge and lots more students than the other 4 schools above them and only had 1. i would have expected better.

JR sucks. Very little to no learning going on.

I personally know of 7 J-R students who have SAT scores over 1520…for whatever reason they didn’t do as well on the PSAT.

[Anonymous]

My kid is at JR and just missed the cutoff because of the double weight for verbal score. Would have easily exceeded the threshold if they doubled the math instead. Several of their friends are in a similar position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if more schools will start offering summer PSAT prep programs. Seems like Banneker, McKinley Tech, BASIS, Latin, DCI, Truth, etc. would have a group of students who, with more prep, could have a shot at NMSF. It would be a good investment for the schools in that it could get them more publicity and applicants...a virtuous cycle.

Getting NMSF in DC (with the highest cut-off in the nation) means performing at the level of a 1590-1600 SAT.

If you can get a bunch of kids at these DC schools to that level with "more prep" then you will accomplish what educators in America have never been able to do and you will make the national news.

Exactly.

And this whole JR conversation is crazy. At minimum, it is the perspective of a couple of people who clearly are still burned up about covid policies AND have a very narrow view of the population of successful students at JR.

First, the idea that the 15 or whatever kids in the eighth grade Algebra 2 class are all of the “academic superstars” is ridiculous, for a million reasons, not least of which is that many kids who could go the hyper-accelerated math route choose not to. Many parents (me, I’m one of these parents) don’t think it’s the best way to do math instruction and that Calc BC in 11th grade is plenty accelerated.

Second, the fact that only one JR kid happened to score an essentially perfect PSAT score on a single test given on a single day is not an indictment of the rest of the class. Get a grip, people. If it had been three kids (which is what I think it was last year), would that have mattered materially? If a bunch of kids missed the cut off by one point, does that matter?

This is like yelling into the wind, but it’s crazy that a couple of people with tired, old bones to pick and very narrow perspectives are taken as authorities on the quality of JR’s student body.

The truth is the quality of JR’s body has absolutely gone down hill if you are talking about high performing kids. The trend has been lots more of these families are not tracking to JR with the advent of honors for all and dumbing down even more the curriculum.

Common knowledge and you seem to be in complete denial of it.

The J-R cohort that my kid hangs out with are incredibly smart; no different than the peers of my older DC who graduated a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public:

Walls (6)
BASIS (3)
Latin (2)
DCI (2)
J-R (1)

Private:

Sidwell (11)
GDS (7)
STA (6)
NCS (3)
WIS (2)
SJC (2)
Maret (1)
Field (1)
Gonzaga (1)

JR is huge and lots more students than the other 4 schools above them and only had 1. i would have expected better.

JR sucks. Very little to no learning going on.

I personally know of 7 J-R students who have SAT scores over 1520…for whatever reason they didn’t do as well on the PSAT.

How on earth do you know this?

[Anonymous]

A lot of defensive J-R parents here.

1/538 NMSF is not impressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if more schools will start offering summer PSAT prep programs. Seems like Banneker, McKinley Tech, BASIS, Latin, DCI, Truth, etc. would have a group of students who, with more prep, could have a shot at NMSF. It would be a good investment for the schools in that it could get them more publicity and applicants...a virtuous cycle.

Getting NMSF in DC (with the highest cut-off in the nation) means performing at the level of a 1590-1600 SAT.

If you can get a bunch of kids at these DC schools to that level with "more prep" then you will accomplish what educators in America have never been able to do and you will make the national news.

Exactly.

And this whole JR conversation is crazy. At minimum, it is the perspective of a couple of people who clearly are still burned up about covid policies AND have a very narrow view of the population of successful students at JR.

First, the idea that the 15 or whatever kids in the eighth grade Algebra 2 class are all of the “academic superstars” is ridiculous, for a million reasons, not least of which is that many kids who could go the hyper-accelerated math route choose not to. Many parents (me, I’m one of these parents) don’t think it’s the best way to do math instruction and that Calc BC in 11th grade is plenty accelerated.

Second, the fact that only one JR kid happened to score an essentially perfect PSAT score on a single test given on a single day is not an indictment of the rest of the class. Get a grip, people. If it had been three kids (which is what I think it was last year), would that have mattered materially? If a bunch of kids missed the cut off by one point, does that matter?

This is like yelling into the wind, but it’s crazy that a couple of people with tired, old bones to pick and very narrow perspectives are taken as authorities on the quality of JR’s student body.

The truth is the quality of JR’s body has absolutely gone down hill if you are talking about high performing kids. The trend has been lots more of these families are not tracking to JR with the advent of honors for all and dumbing down even more the curriculum.

Common knowledge and you seem to be in complete denial of it.

The J-R cohort that my kid hangs out with are incredibly smart; no different than the peers of my older DC who graduated a few years ago.

Your anecdotal experience does not dispute the fact that the percentage of high performing kids at a school with the highest concentration of UMC and UC families in the city is small.

Stats don’t lie and why for the size of the school, only 1 kid made it. Also look at SAT averages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if more schools will start offering summer PSAT prep programs. Seems like Banneker, McKinley Tech, BASIS, Latin, DCI, Truth, etc. would have a group of students who, with more prep, could have a shot at NMSF. It would be a good investment for the schools in that it could get them more publicity and applicants...a virtuous cycle.

Getting NMSF in DC (with the highest cut-off in the nation) means performing at the level of a 1590-1600 SAT.

If you can get a bunch of kids at these DC schools to that level with "more prep" then you will accomplish what educators in America have never been able to do and you will make the national news.

Exactly.

And this whole JR conversation is crazy. At minimum, it is the perspective of a couple of people who clearly are still burned up about covid policies AND have a very narrow view of the population of successful students at JR.

First, the idea that the 15 or whatever kids in the eighth grade Algebra 2 class are all of the “academic superstars” is ridiculous, for a million reasons, not least of which is that many kids who could go the hyper-accelerated math route choose not to. Many parents (me, I’m one of these parents) don’t think it’s the best way to do math instruction and that Calc BC in 11th grade is plenty accelerated.

Second, the fact that only one JR kid happened to score an essentially perfect PSAT score on a single test given on a single day is not an indictment of the rest of the class. Get a grip, people. If it had been three kids (which is what I think it was last year), would that have mattered materially? If a bunch of kids missed the cut off by one point, does that matter?

This is like yelling into the wind, but it’s crazy that a couple of people with tired, old bones to pick and very narrow perspectives are taken as authorities on the quality of JR’s student body.

The truth is the quality of JR’s body has absolutely gone down hill if you are talking about high performing kids. The trend has been lots more of these families are not tracking to JR with the advent of honors for all and dumbing down even more the curriculum.

Common knowledge and you seem to be in complete denial of it.

The J-R cohort that my kid hangs out with are incredibly smart; no different than the peers of my older DC who graduated a few years ago.

Your anecdotal experience does not dispute the fact that the percentage of high performing kids at a school with the highest concentration of UMC and UC families in the city is small.

Stats don’t lie and why for the size of the school, only 1 kid made it. Also look at SAT averages.

Is it possible that it's just a one-year blip? (For the reason outlined way above -- that this cohort was virtual in 8th with no real faith in the default path).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High school applications for the current seniors were due during January of the second virtual year and there was no end in sight with DCPS. If you remember, the DC private schools were back in school, the rest of the country was back in school, and yet DCPS was still virtual--again with no end in sight. And high school was looming in the fall for this grade.

Everyone who could applied to private high school. The top privates took the brightest DCPS kids. Many others did not get a private spot. For every Deal kid I knew who got a Sidwell /GDS/NCS spot there were 2 who applied but were not admitted.

As such, this class at JR was stripped of most of it's top brain power.

It's fascinating to see this play out almost 4 years later.

I believe everything you say of course but also want to point out that the more liberal independent schools, including sidwell where my high schooler was at the time, weren’t in person during that fall, either. We were pissed.

I will say that the distance learning was likely better quality but yeah, we were still sitting on our couches without a concrete plan for in person (my own kid went back ionly in April of 21, so a year of distance)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if more schools will start offering summer PSAT prep programs. Seems like Banneker, McKinley Tech, BASIS, Latin, DCI, Truth, etc. would have a group of students who, with more prep, could have a shot at NMSF. It would be a good investment for the schools in that it could get them more publicity and applicants...a virtuous cycle.

Getting NMSF in DC (with the highest cut-off in the nation) means performing at the level of a 1590-1600 SAT.

If you can get a bunch of kids at these DC schools to that level with "more prep" then you will accomplish what educators in America have never been able to do and you will make the national news.

Exactly.

And this whole JR conversation is crazy. At minimum, it is the perspective of a couple of people who clearly are still burned up about covid policies AND have a very narrow view of the population of successful students at JR.

First, the idea that the 15 or whatever kids in the eighth grade Algebra 2 class are all of the “academic superstars” is ridiculous, for a million reasons, not least of which is that many kids who could go the hyper-accelerated math route choose not to. Many parents (me, I’m one of these parents) don’t think it’s the best way to do math instruction and that Calc BC in 11th grade is plenty accelerated.

Second, the fact that only one JR kid happened to score an essentially perfect PSAT score on a single test given on a single day is not an indictment of the rest of the class. Get a grip, people. If it had been three kids (which is what I think it was last year), would that have mattered materially? If a bunch of kids missed the cut off by one point, does that matter?

This is like yelling into the wind, but it’s crazy that a couple of people with tired, old bones to pick and very narrow perspectives are taken as authorities on the quality of JR’s student body.

The truth is the quality of JR’s body has absolutely gone down hill if you are talking about high performing kids. The trend has been lots more of these families are not tracking to JR with the advent of honors for all and dumbing down even more the curriculum.

Common knowledge and you seem to be in complete denial of it.

The J-R cohort that my kid hangs out with are incredibly smart; no different than the peers of my older DC who graduated a few years ago.

Your anecdotal experience does not dispute the fact that the percentage of high performing kids at a school with the highest concentration of UMC and UC families in the city is small.

Stats don’t lie and why for the size of the school, only 1 kid made it. Also look at SAT averages.

Gosh these type of PPs are tiresome. We get it, your family is better than all of ours. If you’re so great move to Virginia and your kid can go to TJ; or to MD and get them into the Blair magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High school applications for the current seniors were due during January of the second virtual year and there was no end in sight with DCPS. If you remember, the DC private schools were back in school, the rest of the country was back in school, and yet DCPS was still virtual--again with no end in sight. And high school was looming in the fall for this grade.

Everyone who could applied to private high school. The top privates took the brightest DCPS kids. Many others did not get a private spot. For every Deal kid I knew who got a Sidwell /GDS/NCS spot there were 2 who applied but were not admitted.

As such, this class at JR was stripped of most of it's top brain power.

It's fascinating to see this play out almost 4 years later.

I believe everything you say of course but also want to point out that the more liberal independent schools, including sidwell where my high schooler was at the time, weren’t in person during that fall, either. We were pissed.

I will say that the distance learning was likely better quality but yeah, we were still sitting on our couches without a concrete plan for in person (my own kid went back ionly in April of 21, so a year of distance)

DCPS HS were actually virtual all of 2020-2021 I believe, or only partially back starting in April 2021. A family in DCPS in December 2020 (when private school applications are being submitted) would have every reason to try to bail if possible given the disgraceful performance of the WTU in November 2020 (going on strike to keep IEP kids out of school).

DCPS schools partially reopened in April 2021 (with a few select kids back a bit earlier) but it was entirely based on the discretion of the the principal how many kids could come back. I believe (but others should correct me) that DCPS MS and HS did *not* reopen mosrly in person in April 2021 and continued to do a variety of hybrid/virtual all year for most kids. Elementary schools where parents were more keen to get kids in person (generally higher income) had more kids in person FT.

So yeah, fed up parents of Deal middle schoolers in Dec 2020 had every reason to apply to privates. I greatly greatly wish I had seen the writing on the wall and gotten more support for my kid at that point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High school applications for the current seniors were due during January of the second virtual year and there was no end in sight with DCPS. If you remember, the DC private schools were back in school, the rest of the country was back in school, and yet DCPS was still virtual--again with no end in sight. And high school was looming in the fall for this grade.

Everyone who could applied to private high school. The top privates took the brightest DCPS kids. Many others did not get a private spot. For every Deal kid I knew who got a Sidwell /GDS/NCS spot there were 2 who applied but were not admitted.

As such, this class at JR was stripped of most of it's top brain power.

It's fascinating to see this play out almost 4 years later.

I believe everything you say of course but also want to point out that the more liberal independent schools, including sidwell where my high schooler was at the time, weren’t in person during that fall, either. We were pissed.

I will say that the distance learning was likely better quality but yeah, we were still sitting on our couches without a concrete plan for in person (my own kid went back ionly in April of 21, so a year of distance)

DCPS HS were actually virtual all of 2020-2021 I believe, or only partially back starting in April 2021. A family in DCPS in December 2020 (when private school applications are being submitted) would have every reason to try to bail if possible given the disgraceful performance of the WTU in November 2020 (going on strike to keep IEP kids out of school).

DCPS schools partially reopened in April 2021 (with a few select kids back a bit earlier) but it was entirely based on the discretion of the the principal how many kids could come back. I believe (but others should correct me) that DCPS MS and HS did *not* reopen mosrly in person in April 2021 and continued to do a variety of hybrid/virtual all year for most kids. Elementary schools where parents were more keen to get kids in person (generally higher income) had more kids in person FT.

So yeah, fed up parents of Deal middle schoolers in Dec 2020 had every reason to apply to privates. I greatly greatly wish I had seen the writing on the wall and gotten more support for my kid at that point.

Deal was entirely virtual for the 2022-2021 school year (the year the current seniors applied to high school).
Their "partial re-opening" in April 2021 was to allow a select cohort of kids the opportunity to come to school for 2 hours per week to watch online lectures from their personal computer.
This is not a joke. IT WAS THAT BAD.

Meanwhile my second kid was at NCS and was attending school in person that entire year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if more schools will start offering summer PSAT prep programs. Seems like Banneker, McKinley Tech, BASIS, Latin, DCI, Truth, etc. would have a group of students who, with more prep, could have a shot at NMSF. It would be a good investment for the schools in that it could get them more publicity and applicants...a virtuous cycle.

Getting NMSF in DC (with the highest cut-off in the nation) means performing at the level of a 1590-1600 SAT.

If you can get a bunch of kids at these DC schools to that level with "more prep" then you will accomplish what educators in America have never been able to do and you will make the national news.

Exactly.

And this whole JR conversation is crazy. At minimum, it is the perspective of a couple of people who clearly are still burned up about covid policies AND have a very narrow view of the population of successful students at JR.

First, the idea that the 15 or whatever kids in the eighth grade Algebra 2 class are all of the “academic superstars” is ridiculous, for a million reasons, not least of which is that many kids who could go the hyper-accelerated math route choose not to. Many parents (me, I’m one of these parents) don’t think it’s the best way to do math instruction and that Calc BC in 11th grade is plenty accelerated.

Second, the fact that only one JR kid happened to score an essentially perfect PSAT score on a single test given on a single day is not an indictment of the rest of the class. Get a grip, people. If it had been three kids (which is what I think it was last year), would that have mattered materially? If a bunch of kids missed the cut off by one point, does that matter?

This is like yelling into the wind, but it’s crazy that a couple of people with tired, old bones to pick and very narrow perspectives are taken as authorities on the quality of JR’s student body.

The truth is the quality of JR’s body has absolutely gone down hill if you are talking about high performing kids. The trend has been lots more of these families are not tracking to JR with the advent of honors for all and dumbing down even more the curriculum.

Common knowledge and you seem to be in complete denial of it.

The J-R cohort that my kid hangs out with are incredibly smart; no different than the peers of my older DC who graduated a few years ago.

Your anecdotal experience does not dispute the fact that the percentage of high performing kids at a school with the highest concentration of UMC and UC families in the city is small.

Stats don’t lie and why for the size of the school, only 1 kid made it. Also look at SAT averages.

Gosh these type of PPs are tiresome. We get it, your family is better than all of ours. If you’re so great move to Virginia and your kid can go to TJ; or to MD and get them into the Blair magnet.

No one is saying that. What I find tiresome are people who do t acknowledge facts and reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High school applications for the current seniors were due during January of the second virtual year and there was no end in sight with DCPS. If you remember, the DC private schools were back in school, the rest of the country was back in school, and yet DCPS was still virtual--again with no end in sight. And high school was looming in the fall for this grade.

Everyone who could applied to private high school. The top privates took the brightest DCPS kids. Many others did not get a private spot. For every Deal kid I knew who got a Sidwell /GDS/NCS spot there were 2 who applied but were not admitted.

As such, this class at JR was stripped of most of it's top brain power.

It's fascinating to see this play out almost 4 years later.

I believe everything you say of course but also want to point out that the more liberal independent schools, including sidwell where my high schooler was at the time, weren’t in person during that fall, either. We were pissed.

I will say that the distance learning was likely better quality but yeah, we were still sitting on our couches without a concrete plan for in person (my own kid went back ionly in April of 21, so a year of distance)

DCPS HS were actually virtual all of 2020-2021 I believe, or only partially back starting in April 2021. A family in DCPS in December 2020 (when private school applications are being submitted) would have every reason to try to bail if possible given the disgraceful performance of the WTU in November 2020 (going on strike to keep IEP kids out of school).

DCPS schools partially reopened in April 2021 (with a few select kids back a bit earlier) but it was entirely based on the discretion of the the principal how many kids could come back. I believe (but others should correct me) that DCPS MS and HS did *not* reopen mosrly in person in April 2021 and continued to do a variety of hybrid/virtual all year for most kids. Elementary schools where parents were more keen to get kids in person (generally higher income) had more kids in person FT.

So yeah, fed up parents of Deal middle schoolers in Dec 2020 had every reason to apply to privates. I greatly greatly wish I had seen the writing on the wall and gotten more support for my kid at that point.

Deal was entirely virtual for the 2022-2021 school year (the year the current seniors applied to high school).
Their "partial re-opening" in April 2021 was to allow a select cohort of kids the opportunity to come to school for 2 hours per week to watch online lectures from their personal computer.
This is not a joke. IT WAS THAT BAD.

Meanwhile my second kid was at NCS and was attending school in person that entire year.

Yeah that’s what I remember - elementary schools came back FT in person for a lot of kids in April 2021 but MS and HS did not. What where they thinking, that covid was more dangerous for older kids, or that they could handle virtual better?

My sibling’s kids in private were back in person full time in fall 2020.