I'm glad you applied to multiple schools and increased your odds, OP. When we went through the process the only schools we felt were a reasonable commuting distance were Potomac and GDS. Our son diligently worked at SSAT prep and scored in the 80s and 90s, did his student visits and tried to show his best side... and then we got waitlisted at both schools.

It’s a lot. We were going to apply to four for high school but ended up narrowing it down to three.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The process is indeed stressful but I’ve found that the when it’s over I realized that I put a lot of that stress on myself.

Rest assured that you will be accepted to at least one school that is a top choice and you will be happy.

For now, just relax until March, which I know is hard to do because this has been such a significant commitment of your time over the past few months.

Huh? We were shut out for 7th grade with an awesome kid.

Reapplied for 9th. Know many kids (10+) who were shut out.

I get being positive but this is not truthful unless you are applying to lower tier schools.

7th is not an entry year - so being shut out - when you knew the chances were close to 0 is not something to complain about.

huh? 7th is an entry year for most schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The process is indeed stressful but I’ve found that the when it’s over I realized that I put a lot of that stress on myself.

Rest assured that you will be accepted to at least one school that is a top choice and you will be happy.

For now, just relax until March, which I know is hard to do because this has been such a significant commitment of your time over the past few months.

Huh? We were shut out for 7th grade with an awesome kid.

Reapplied for 9th. Know many kids (10+) who were shut out.

I get being positive but this is not truthful unless you are applying to lower tier schools.

7th is not an entry year - so being shut out - when you knew the chances were close to 0 is not something to complain about.

Anonymous wrote:Really hope DC gets into one of the schools we're applying to, because I don't want to put them through all this again (until college). It's been a pain in the arse for me too.

For those parents who have BTDT, please tell me it was worth it?

Multiply it by two for twins, then get back to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It made me not send our child to a k8 school as the thought of doing it all over again sounded terrible.

The thing is some kids don't want to go to the same school for K-12. The majority don't infact.

Right but then if the kid doesn’t want to stay, he will be motivated to apply out. Or he can stay. With a K-8, you have to apply out.

Exactly. And far more actually want to stay than not. I don’t know why you’re saying a majority don’t, but it’s not at all true. But applying out is always an option.

It's most everything bad about privileged, high-pressure, competitive DC all rolled into one package, even if you try to stay level headed about it. And in pandemic era, everything is so up in the air about decisionmaking, just adding to the ridiculousness of the process. So yes, it stinks, absolutely.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It made me not send our child to a k8 school as the thought of doing it all over again sounded terrible.

The thing is some kids don't want to go to the same school for K-12. The majority don't infact.

Right but then if the kid doesn’t want to stay, he will be motivated to apply out. Or he can stay. With a K-8, you have to apply out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The process is indeed stressful but I’ve found that the when it’s over I realized that I put a lot of that stress on myself.

Rest assured that you will be accepted to at least one school that is a top choice and you will be happy.

For now, just relax until March, which I know is hard to do because this has been such a significant commitment of your time over the past few months.

Huh? We were shut out for 7th grade with an awesome kid.

Reapplied for 9th. Know many kids (10+) who were shut out.

I get being positive but this is not truthful unless you are applying to lower tier schools.

I am not sure what you mean when you say “shut out”? Did your kid attend a private school and were they happy? Or did you go “Big 3 or bust” and not get accepted to any and stayed public? All of those schools are different so there should be a “top choice” for you that’s not “Big 3”. I am not sure I fully understand how someone could say that they applied to Princeton, CalTech and Julliard and didn’t get into any and therefore they were “shut out” of college admissions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The process is indeed stressful but I’ve found that the when it’s over I realized that I put a lot of that stress on myself.

Rest assured that you will be accepted to at least one school that is a top choice and you will be happy.

For now, just relax until March, which I know is hard to do because this has been such a significant commitment of your time over the past few months.

Huh? We were shut out for 7th grade with an awesome kid.

Reapplied for 9th. Know many kids (10+) who were shut out.

I get being positive but this is not truthful unless you are applying to lower tier schools.

I agree with PP. We applied to competitive schools from a good private elementary school and got our 3rd choice. We are not happy now and wondering what we will do for HS. It's not a good fit... academically it is, but not culturally. It's frustrating to pay 40k+/yr for something were not really happy with.

Anonymous wrote:It made me not send our child to a k8 school as the thought of doing it all over again sounded terrible.

The thing is some kids don't want to go to the same school for K-12. The majority don't infact.

Anonymous wrote:The process is indeed stressful but I’ve found that the when it’s over I realized that I put a lot of that stress on myself.

Rest assured that you will be accepted to at least one school that is a top choice and you will be happy.

For now, just relax until March, which I know is hard to do because this has been such a significant commitment of your time over the past few months.

Huh? We were shut out for 7th grade with an awesome kid.

Reapplied for 9th. Know many kids (10+) who were shut out.

I get being positive but this is not truthful unless you are applying to lower tier schools.

The process is indeed stressful but I’ve found that the when it’s over I realized that I put a lot of that stress on myself.

Rest assured that you will be accepted to at least one school that is a top choice and you will be happy.

For now, just relax until March, which I know is hard to do because this has been such a significant commitment of your time over the past few months.

It made me not send our child to a k8 school as the thought of doing it all over again sounded terrible.

Really hope DC gets into one of the schools we're applying to, because I don't want to put them through all this again (until college). It's been a pain in the arse for me too.

For those parents who have BTDT, please tell me it was worth it?