Georgetown Day School, Sidwell Friends, or St. Alban's?

[Farmer]

We are moving to DC, and accordingly, my child is transferring schools. By the time we arrive, my child will be entering his junior year. We have been in contact with these schools, but due to COVID we have not visited (now that we are vaccinated, we plan to do so).
My son is very academic and has good grades, but is indifferent to sport and not athletic. He is involved in many extracurriculars, such as mock trials and Model UN. Based on what we have read, we think GDS is very interesting and has very good college matriculation. Sidwell is of course an excellent school, but we have heard that is very intense and stressful for students. I find this odd, given that it's a Quaker school. St. Alban's also sounds very interesting, but we worry that going to a single-sex school will cut him off from girls.
Our main concern is given how GDS and Sidwell are K-12, if coming in as a junior year will cut him off from the other students; if everybody else has been attending the school for the past decade, won't he stand out? St. Alban's is 7-12, so there are similar concerns.
That aside, this is what we are looking for in a school
1. Strong academics, but not so intense to cause burnout (I went to Exeter, and I remember how many other students had mental breakdowns due to the workload)
2. International atmosphere (students from different parts of the world)
3. Openness to new ways of teaching
4. Opportunities for extracurriculars
One last thing; he is more interested in politics and social studies than STEM, and also enjoys art and music classes.
Any information about these schools is appreciated.

Clarification: I realize I was very unclear in this post. I apologize profusely. He has applied to a few schools in the area for admission for this fall. We have been accepted into a few schools including SAS, but they do not require a firm answer for about a month. Georgetown Day and Sidwell confirmed they have a few spots open for junior year and we have applied. We have not received a formal letter of admission from GDS or SFS, but the admissions officers say that his grades are on the upper range of accepted students.

[Anonymous]

Are you talking about the upcoming academic year, as in starting as a junior in August 2021? Or would you be starting as a junior in August 2022?

[Anonymous]

Look at st anselm’s abbey

[Anonymous]

Gds roughly doubles its class size between 8th and 9th grade, so most kids would not have been there for 10 years. But entering as a junior is unusual.

PS: It's Georgetown Day School, no country.

[Farmer]

Anonymous wrote:Gds roughly doubles its class size between 8th and 9th grade, so most kids would not have been there for 10 years. But entering as a junior is unusual.

PS: It's Georgetown Day School, no country.

So it would be like transferring to a high school?

I know transferring is unusual in general, but I do not want to make switching schools more difficult than it is.
Thank you for the information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gds roughly doubles its class size between 8th and 9th grade, so most kids would not have been there for 10 years. But entering as a junior is unusual.

PS: It's Georgetown Day School, no country.

In the most recent class of ~130, 28 came in PK or K. About 50 entered in 9th.

[Anonymous]

St. Albans starts in 4th. I’d say also look at Potomac and maybe Maret. 11th grade openings will be by attrition so I’d cast a wide net.

[Anonymous]

All these schools let in about 15% of all student applicants for 9th grade. You lay need to keep this in mind and cast a wider net for high school.

[Anonymous]

Cut STA off your list since he isn’t good at sports. And the all boys thing is not good. I went to NCS the sister school and would never send my son to STA.

It’s very hard to get into all of these schools. I would apply to Maret, GDS, Sidwell. Maybe Burke and Field and Potomac as well. You need to cast a wide net. Bullis as a back up.

They all start well before ninth grade. The only ones that don’t are the catholic schools like Gonzaga and prep. But a lot of those kids know each other from church catholic grade school, country club, etc.

If you have not bought a house yet you could try to get a place in the Whitman or BCC districts.

[Anonymous]

OP, congrats on your upcoming move. The PPs are correct in telling you to cast a much, much wider net. It is a freak occurrence for one of these schools to have an opening in 11th grade. Not saying miracles don’t happen, but cover yourself. Also, the admission teams will be very honest with you if you get in touch with them. Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cut STA off your list since he isn’t good at sports. And the all boys thing is not good. I went to NCS the sister school and would never send my son to STA.

It’s very hard to get into all of these schools. I would apply to Maret, GDS, Sidwell. Maybe Burke and Field and Potomac as well. You need to cast a wide net. Bullis as a back up.

They all start well before ninth grade. The only ones that don’t are the catholic schools like Gonzaga and prep. But a lot of those kids know each other from church catholic grade school, country club, etc.

If you have not bought a house yet you could try to get a place in the Whitman or BCC districts.

Thanks for the reply.
Why would you not send your son to STA?
I understand they are all competitive, but the admissions directors at each school have confirmed his grades are at the high end of the admitted range. We also have applied successfully applied to some of the schools you mentioned, so we know he will go somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Farmer wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gds roughly doubles its class size between 8th and 9th grade, so most kids would not have been there for 10 years. But entering as a junior is unusual.

PS: It's Georgetown Day School, no country.

So it would be like transferring to a high school?

I know transferring is unusual in general, but I do not want to make switching schools more difficult than it is.
Thank you for the information.

I don't understand your question, since of course switching schools in 11th grade is transferring high school. The fact that it starts in PK will not make switching schools more difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, congrats on your upcoming move. The PPs are correct in telling you to cast a much, much wider net. It is a freak occurrence for one of these schools to have an opening in 11th grade. Not saying miracles don’t happen, but cover yourself. Also, the admission teams will be very honest with you if you get in touch with them. Best of luck.

Thank you for the reply.
We have been in touch with the admissions teams, and they all said that his grades and scores are on the higher end of the range for admitted students. They said that they have a few openings, but competition is much higher than for regular admission.
He has also applied to several schools in the area, and has been admitted to each one we've heard back from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut STA off your list since he isn’t good at sports. And the all boys thing is not good. I went to NCS the sister school and would never send my son to STA.

It’s very hard to get into all of these schools. I would apply to Maret, GDS, Sidwell. Maybe Burke and Field and Potomac as well. You need to cast a wide net. Bullis as a back up.

They all start well before ninth grade. The only ones that don’t are the catholic schools like Gonzaga and prep. But a lot of those kids know each other from church catholic grade school, country club, etc.

If you have not bought a house yet you could try to get a place in the Whitman or BCC districts.

Thanks for the reply.
Why would you not send your son to STA?
I understand they are all competitive, but the admissions directors at each school have confirmed his grades are at the high end of the admitted range. We also have applied successfully applied to some of the schools you mentioned, so we know he will go somewhere.

This means nothing if they don't have the space, which is usually what it comes down to. That said, most of these schools usually do admit 1-2 kids for 11th grade, most often for athletics, however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, congrats on your upcoming move. The PPs are correct in telling you to cast a much, much wider net. It is a freak occurrence for one of these schools to have an opening in 11th grade. Not saying miracles don’t happen, but cover yourself. Also, the admission teams will be very honest with you if you get in touch with them. Best of luck.

Thank you for the reply.
We have been in touch with the admissions teams, and they all said that his grades and scores are on the higher end of the range for admitted students. They said that they have a few openings, but competition is much higher than for regular admission.
He has also applied to several schools in the area, and has been admitted to each one we've heard back from.

I’m confused. When is he starting? He applied already or not? Very confusing.