I work in admissions - not in a Big 5 - but in a school in the DMV. I have mentioned this before, but a trend we have noticed is families with more children (3-4) in the younger grades that result in over half of our kindergarten slots being taking by siblings. These families are also more likely to have high levels of continued enrollment. If they have several children enrolled and happy, they are less likely to leave on a whim. This results in fewer openings in non expansion years (natural churn rates are at an all time low for us).

Another trend we have noticed with schools in similar size and philosophy is that they are shrinking grades by a seat or two to bring teacher ratios down. I’ll note these were already low but parent surveys have indicated it was a priority. We had to up tuition to cover 2 less seats per grade. These seats were removed due to attrition; we didn’t kick people out just for lower ratios.

Our applications were also at record high numbers. Not all were good fits, but as others have mentioned, we could have filled new classes with excellent candidates we just didn’t have room for.

The pandemic changed everything.

The decline of public school, parents thought it would be better after COVID and things went back to in person but it's not it's actual worse. Public schools are terrible even I the affluent Virginia and Maryland areas

I think the flight from public school has ramped up another level. It happened in the 21 and 22 cycles, related to the pandemic and we all thought some kids would leave private when things went “back to normal” (which some did). But this feels like a new wave of people leaving public school and trying for private spots.

If it makes anyone feel better, we are at a school that is not one of the main ones discussed but our enrollment director shared a graph showing that applications have grown almost every year recently. The number of applications are at least 50% more than they were 7 years ago.

I know people joke about applications "always" being higher but I think there is some truth to it.

The conversations about schooling, teacher burnout, ineffective curriculum, staffing issues, over testing, and drugs and bullying in the bathrooms are hitting at the same time when private schools have expanded bus/after care/financial aid. Schools are tapping talent/revenue streams in new ways and every time they are able to take stronger applicants that meet their mission the more appealing the school is for future applicants.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our K-8 said they had many, many more applications than usual.

Every school we applied to this year said that.

Yeah. When I read it, I thought it was just the same spiel they always give, but now I’m thinking it really was true. Does anyone have theories as to why?

I've heard this every year..."this year was more competitive than usual" possibly true but think its a way to make parents feel better. Sigh.

Anonymous wrote:Our K-8 said they had many, many more applications than usual.

Every school we applied to this year said that.

Anonymous wrote:Hearing similar from DD's classmates families. This is DCPS. I also think the fact many competitive schools did not accept testing also hurt because it made the process that much more random.

Everyone coming from DCPS that we know had all As which makes that part more difficult to assess. We get that academic achievement and potential is just one part of the whole picture but it is an important part.

One school did have to introduce their own in-house test at the last minute this year for math because the teachers complained that in the previous 2 years there were kids coming in with shaky basic math knowledge and were having trouble keeping up.

Parents: you are your own worst enemy. Stop arguing with teachers that “math is soooooo boring” or insisting your child is gifted in math. Your kids need to build a solid foundation even if it looks “boring”. The best teachers will argue that your child is actually NOT gifted. The worst ones agree with you and pacify you by giving the next grades workbook.

How has outplacement gone for folks?

Our K-8 said they had many, many more applications than usual.

Hearing similar from DD's classmates families. This is DCPS. I also think the fact many competitive schools did not accept testing also hurt because it made the process that much more random.

Everyone coming from DCPS that we know had all As which makes that part more difficult to assess. We get that academic achievement and potential is just one part of the whole picture but it is an important part.

One school did have to introduce their own in-house test at the last minute this year for math because the teachers complained that in the previous 2 years there were kids coming in with shaky basic math knowledge and were having trouble keeping up.

I think the upper schools are definitely more competitive. Not sure about the lower schools.

It’s not just you. It definitely feels that way. It would be interesting to know if there were more applicants this year than most of the private schools had anticipated.

Is it just me or does it seem like there are fewer admissions this year? I’m hearing anecdotally that this was a hyper competitive year, due to the need to right size after expansions during Covid years. Is this true? My DD was accepted at one school and waitlisted and rejected at her other two choices.