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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Agree about the difficulty of coming from public. My DC (who had excellent grades, nearly perfect SSAT scores, two club sports, and played an instrument at a high level) was waitlisted from 2 of the Big 3s. As public school parents, we had no clue how the private school process worked. For instance, we didn't understand the value of a "first choice" letter. We also didn't realize that the applicants coming from K-8 privates would have someone advocating for them. It all worked out; DC got into top choice after writing a heartfelt letter, but I wish we had understood the process better at the outset.
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What is a first choice letter?

also a public school parent very new to all of this[/quote]

If your child has a clear first choice you should let that school know via an emailed note. 
You can go further and say that your child will attend if admitted (if that is the case). 
Ultimately schools want to extend offers to qualified kids who as close to a sure thing as possible.  They don't like to move to the waitlist.

Only do this with one school---the DC independent school community is weirdly tight.  You never know who is close friends with who. [/quote]

Has anyone else done this?  We are down to applying to two schools.[/quote]

yes, people do this all the time. 
The schools want to have their choices nailed down as much as possible prior to sending acceptance letters out. 
Let's say STA (random example) has 20 spots or 9th grade.  When they compose this group of admits they want to have 80-90% of them in the "Will definitely say yes" category. 
They can do this with a combination of siblings, legacy (yes--many still apply for 9th because they know they'll get the boost), recruited athletes, repeat applicants (kids who also applied in 6th or 7th or both), private school applicants who have a HOS telling them "John's first choice is STA" and parents who just make it very clear that they will accept if given a spot.  Trust me.  I've seen this work out at several privates over multiple years.  The schools wield the power of choosing families but they also REALLY don't want to be going to the waitlist.   [/quote]

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