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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My friend applied to Maret 2 years ago and they said they had 125 applications or 6th.  They take about 10 kids as well.  I would imagine that GDS and Sidwell application numbers are similar but there is some overlap in applicants.

When my kid was applying to schools in 6th from DCPS (3 years ago) his friends (about 5 kids) who applied to GDS and Sidwell did not get in.  They were great kids from full-pay families.  A few applied again for 7th and got in then.  [/quote]

I admittedly don’t know maret’s precise numbers, but I really want to address what are perpetual myths on this board about admissions. They will never tell you this, but at the most selective privates in the country (not dc, the country), the admit rate is never much lower than 25-30%. Ever. I have read so much speculation on this board that frequently suggests or explicitly states that admission rates to top privates is 7%. 10%. And other completely incorrect numbers that freak people out. Those numbers are not right. They never have been.

I wish I could post this on every thread when parents are asking about admissions and getting bad information here. To be fair, the schools do not tell you this. They occasionally tell select board members for planning, but only some, and never in writing.

Anyway. Sidwell and gds are not guaranteed, but they are not nearly as competitive as dcum mythology strokes its collective ego with. 
[/quote]
Thank you for the post. You said it much more eloquently than I ever could. It’s just not as competitive as people think. [/quote]
 I'm sorry but I beg to differ. Things have gotten much more competitive in the past two years. It's been a huge change since last admission's season, especially at the schools you are mentioning. Things are not like before. Especially if you are unhooked and bring nothing the school is actively looking for to the table. (Such as a particular sport, instrument, diversity, gender,etc) If there are 25 spots and 250 applicants that's ten percent. Those ratios were easily met last year at some schools. No idea of what the status is for this current season. I am referring to HS admissions last year, but numbers were up across all grades at many schools.[/quote]

This is still just impressionistic. Private school applications were up, but I find it hard to believe that there has been some massive sea change that makes sidwell, gds, sta, etc. on par with Harvard and MIT in terms of competitiveness of admissions. After decades of not being so. Decades that included years in which private school applications went up. All you’re saying is apps were up. By how many? What information were you provided? Or are you just feeding off the emotion and frenzy that has surrounded school frustration in the pandemic? Frustration that, by the way, was felt by many gds and sidwell parents, given that those schools weren’t exactly fully open last year either.

The reality is, here in dc, parents whose kids were admitted want to think that admissions was insanely competitive, because it makes them feel like they are special. And it causes so much unnecessary and falsely-grounded anxiety for prospective applicants, and it feeds the false sense of superiority that so many here use to look down on others.

Unless you were at the year-end meeting of the HOS and board director and given that information, along with precise information on college matriculation, and in that meeting you were given information that indicates an absolutely massive deviation from where things have been for decades for schools far more competitive than dc schools, then you are just feeding the scare mongering. [/quote]

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