applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, OP, but your kid sounds too vanilla to have succeeded this year. High SES white kids are a dime a dozen in the "top" MS privates game. Why don't you play another game for at least another year, like BASIS as has been suggested, or suburban GT.

Our neighbors at a JKLM moved to MoCo after 5th and sent their girl to Takoma MS in MoCo for 6th grade, partly to give her a shot at cracking the math/sci magnet at the school for 7th. She succeeded and has gone onto Montgomery Blair HS math/sci magnet.

This is total BS. You don't have to be a triliingual national-ranked tuba player who has started a few companies to get into these schools. The kids are 10. It's not the Ivy League. 99% of the admits are just reasonably smart kids (many whom are white) who take piano lessons or play rec soccer and basketball.
I know dozens of students at the "big 3" and they're no more uniquely accomplished than every other kid I know. Some (many) do get in on the merits of their parents or because they came form x or y feeder school. But they themselves are generic kids.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they decided that OP was a PITA and so rejected her kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, OP, but your kid sounds too vanilla to have succeeded this year. High SES white kids are a dime a dozen in the "top" MS privates game. Why don't you play another game for at least another year, like BASIS as has been suggested, or suburban GT.

Our neighbors at a JKLM moved to MoCo after 5th and sent their girl to Takoma MS in MoCo for 6th grade, partly to give her a shot at cracking the math/sci magnet at the school for 7th. She succeeded and has gone onto Montgomery Blair HS math/sci magnet.

This is total BS. You don't have to be a triliingual national-ranked tuba player who has started a few companies to get into these schools. The kids are 10. It's not the Ivy League. 99% of the admits are just reasonably smart kids (many whom are white) who take piano lessons or play rec soccer and basketball.
I know dozens of students at the "big 3" and they're no more uniquely accomplished than every other kid I know. Some (many) do get in on the merits of their parents or because they came form x or y feeder school. But they themselves are generic kids.

Apparently, you have to do/be something to get into these schools that OP's kid didn't/wasn't, at least this particular year. I'm not buying the X or Y feeder school connection. Friends with kids at the right "feeder schools" are telling the same story.

I'd bet money that the most prestigious privates are admitting Asians, Latinos, Blacks, low-income, native speakers of languages, prodigies etc. instead of OP's type kid when spots are scarce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again.

-I've since heard from more of the parents at our JKLM and the results are the same. It was a really hard year for admissions. No one I know got in from our JKLM (this is for middle school). I do know some Deal kids who got
accepted at St. Johns and Gonzaga and GDS. I know many others from Deal who were rejected or waitlisted everywhere they applied. All are "good students"--A's, good testing, top athletes, etc.

-I'm not saying this to trash DCPS (we actually love our kids' schools) but just as an FYI for other parents because my eyes were opened.

-I'm talking about admissions for the top DC privates: Sidwell, GDS, the Cathedral schools, WIS, Potomac, Maret. There are other schools that are easier to get accepted at. Even at the top
schools there are those who have 20 spots and those who have 5 for some of the middle school entry years making some far more competitive. We did apply to top schools. I figured, "if we're going to leave DCPS where we're
happy, and start paying a lot of money it's only going to be for a top school". I also naively thought that a "top" student at DCPS would get in to one of these top schools. Some of the parents
saying they (or friends) got accepted at private schools from DCPS are not talking about the top schools. They're applying to places like Burke or Field or Lowell or Sheridan, or the Catholic high schools. All great
schools but easier to get accepted to.

-I wonder if it's easier to get accepted to private school from an EOTP public than from a JKLM. I bet this is the case for good students. The independent schools probably figure if they're going to
fill a "public school applicant" spot, they will take a top kid from less polished public (or a kid who doesn't have Deal as the next option). This total sense to me and is a good thing.

Plenty of kids from Deal I know got accepted into Sidwell and Maret. I know 8 that applied and 6 got in.

OP was talking about getting into middle school, not high school.

To piggy back, there are good # of kids from Shepherd, Takoma, and Lafayette who go to private school for MS. It's not about being East or West of the Park. It's more about the student and their profile to be a fit within the school community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they decided that OP was a PITA and so rejected her kid?

"PITA"?????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they decided that OP was a PITA and so rejected her kid?

OP here.
Why so nasty?
I had zero contact with the schools outside tours where we walked around quietly and then said thank you.
No emails, no phone calls. Never once did I bother admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again.

-I've since heard from more of the parents at our JKLM and the results are the same. It was a really hard year for admissions. No one I know got in from our JKLM (this is for middle school). I do know some Deal kids who got
accepted at St. Johns and Gonzaga and GDS. I know many others from Deal who were rejected or waitlisted everywhere they applied. All are "good students"--A's, good testing, top athletes, etc.

-I'm not saying this to trash DCPS (we actually love our kids' schools) but just as an FYI for other parents because my eyes were opened.

-I'm talking about admissions for the top DC privates: Sidwell, GDS, the Cathedral schools, WIS, Potomac, Maret. There are other schools that are easier to get accepted at. Even at the top
schools there are those who have 20 spots and those who have 5 for some of the middle school entry years making some far more competitive. We did apply to top schools. I figured, "if we're going to leave DCPS where we're
happy, and start paying a lot of money it's only going to be for a top school". I also naively thought that a "top" student at DCPS would get in to one of these top schools. Some of the parents
saying they (or friends) got accepted at private schools from DCPS are not talking about the top schools. They're applying to places like Burke or Field or Lowell or Sheridan, or the Catholic high schools. All great
schools but easier to get accepted to.

-I wonder if it's easier to get accepted to private school from an EOTP public than from a JKLM. I bet this is the case for good students. The independent schools probably figure if they're going to
fill a "public school applicant" spot, they will take a top kid from less polished public (or a kid who doesn't have Deal as the next option). This total sense to me and is a good thing.

Plenty of kids from Deal I know got accepted into Sidwell and Maret. I know 8 that applied and 6 got in.

OP was talking about getting into middle school, not high school.

DP. I get what OP is saying but it isn't the only perspective. I know kids from EOTP elementary who were admitted to NCS, Maret and Potomac. I also know several kids who went to mid-tier privates for MS and then on to Big 3 for HS. I posted earlier that my DD was one of these kids. She isn't the only one - kids from Capitol Hill Day School, Friends Community School, and St. Peters that I know of have been admitted in decent numbers to top tier privates. Only one of them has a family hook that I know of. What I'm saying is that if OP is dead-set on a Big 3 (or 5 or whatever) there is more than one path from DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Many of the K-8 schools have really good outplacement, including Lowell. I think there is some advantage in the long run going to a K-8 and then a top private for HS as your children really earned the spot and will be ready when college application season arrives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they decided that OP was a PITA and so rejected her kid?

OP here.
Why so nasty?
I had zero contact with the schools outside tours where we walked around quietly and then said thank you.
No emails, no phone calls. Never once did I bother admissions.

No parent interview?
I assumed the parent interview was the reason why we didn't get into the only big 3 we applied to 2 years ago. Then this year, I did one parent interview at a different school and abandoned all applications because I could see that in spite of test results, extra-curriculars, social characteristics, they'd likely not find my family worth the FA we'd need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they decided that OP was a PITA and so rejected her kid?

OP here.
Why so nasty?
I had zero contact with the schools outside tours where we walked around quietly and then said thank you.
No emails, no phone calls. Never once did I bother admissions.

Give it a week, and call the admissions office at one of the schools. Tell them you were disappointed, and ask for feedback about your child and their application.

It could be an issue that you couldn't have visibility into -- how the child handled himself during his/her shadow day or interview, maybe the recommendation letters weren't as strong as you thought. Listen carefully to what they say, and what is between the lines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they decided that OP was a PITA and so rejected her kid?

OP here.
Why so nasty?
I had zero contact with the schools outside tours where we walked around quietly and then said thank you.
No emails, no phone calls. Never once did I bother admissions.

Ok fine.

What do you think your current school said about you and your spouse? There is always a place for them to share information about the family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they decided that OP was a PITA and so rejected her kid?

OP here.
Why so nasty?
I had zero contact with the schools outside tours where we walked around quietly and then said thank you.
No emails, no phone calls. Never once did I bother admissions.

Ok fine.

What do you think your current school said about you and your spouse? There is always a place for them to share information about the family.

NP. Why are you so interested?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they decided that OP was a PITA and so rejected her kid?

OP here.
Why so nasty?
I had zero contact with the schools outside tours where we walked around quietly and then said thank you.
No emails, no phone calls. Never once did I bother admissions.

Ok fine.

What do you think your current school said about you and your spouse? There is always a place for them to share information about the family.

What is wrong with you?
You are grasping at straws to be rude.
This doesn't explain why no one (over 20 kids) from our school was admitted.
There were simply a TON of applicants this year. Between 10 and 20 per spot at these schools for middle school.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for this advice, OP. Truly. I know you're getting flamed here but as someone who is going to be entering the PK madness next year, reading perspectives like this is really helpful.

[Anonymous]

If you are full pay and can afford the tuition easily, the best time to apply is Pk or K.

Then apply during their elementary growth years -- it varies by school; some is as early as 3rd or 4th.

6th grade is one of the hardest times at the most selective schools.

9th is easier because they all add seats, and they want to bring in high stats kids and/or athletes, looking ahead to who will make the school look best for college admissions.