Anonymous wrote:They do this every year. Almost all schools do – they just vary in how public/direct they are about it. I remember this exact same conversation happening last spring.

This has to be right. We decided to apply late, contacted 3 schools, were told all could still consider us, and almost instantly got accepted to a school that I believe had a waitlist from the regular pool. We decided to accept rather than continue with the process at the 2 other places that said they would consider us. These were not Big 3 obviously, but for the right candidate I'm sure this could happen at a Big 3 too.

Anonymous wrote:Inauguration year.

+1

They do this every year. Almost all schools do – they just vary in how public/direct they are about it. I remember this exact same conversation happening last spring.

They've definitely done this before---they did it when we were applying and my kid is a senior.

They're always looking for top kids or prominent families.

Anonymous wrote:Inauguration year.

As in you suspect they're making room for children of new executive branch appointees? There are no presidential children of age for Sidwell, and congress has turnover every other year so this year wouldn't be special on that front.

Inauguration year.

I’d imagine it’s targeted at other private school students who decide not to renew contracts.

Anonymous wrote:I don't see this online - what I see is a late application - which to me says you won't be considered along with March 7 decisions...but maybe to fill in any spots leftover after March 7 acceptances commit.

The text at the top of the admissions page says “The regular admissions process for the 2025/26 school year has closed. The late application process will open on February 3, 2025.” I don’t see anything about a decision timeline, so it’s unclear if they will make any decisions on the late round before decisions are announced for the regular round.

I don't see this online - what I see is a late application - which to me says you won't be considered along with March 7 decisions...but maybe to fill in any spots leftover after March 7 acceptances commit.

To OP, why not apply under the late cycle since it's available? No downside if you're interested.

If my child were an existing applicant, I can't imagine that a late deadline would be encouraging to me. Adding a formalized late cycle means more competition for the same number of limited spots. I'm sure all schools get one-off late applicants, but if the school is designing an official process for it, I would think it will get more of them than normal. And clearly the school wants more applicants, and (slightly different point) already knows at this point in the cycle that it wants more applicants.

Based on the dates, I'm assuming the school will mostly evaluate the current pipeline, make a pre-final decision on most applicants, wait until February to compare original applicants who are on the cusp to the late applicants, and then notify everyone at once in March. Maybe a really solid late pool could disrupt a few of the original definites as well.

Most of my comment here is total speculation so take it for what you will.

I've never heard of this and we were a Sidwell family.

What is a "late application round" - just extending the due date but still in the same pool informed the first week of March? Or a pool of applicants who could be used to fill in spots (along with wait list) that aren't filled by mid-March?

Especially with so many threads saying there's a record number of applications this year.

Why would they do this and how does it impact kids who applied for the regular deadline? We applied this year and I'm not sure if this makes me hopeful or nervous!

I think they do this every year. Doesn’t hurt to apply!

Sidwell has just announced a late application round. Is there typically a late application round, or is the school looking to add more applicants just this year? just wondering if it's even worthwhile to apply