I know of at least two K-8 kids who are waitlisted for upper school. Admissions letter says it was the most competitive admissions season in the history of the school. Wonder if that's true for other schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that our K-8 applies and sends a lot of students every year to St. Andrew's. Probably min of 5+ kids admitted to 9th each year? Slots are hard to come by if you aren't connected somehow.

Every child at my son's K - 8 that applied to St. Andrew's got accepted.

What school?

Anonymous wrote:We got into middle for saes, got box in mail today. We applied from public, A student.

Congratulations!

What are the expansion years at SAES before 9th? Thank you.

We got into middle for saes, got box in mail today. We applied from public, A student.

SAES parent. I agree that SAES has probably the strongest preference for local private K-8s of any school in the area. Maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of the new students for 9th come from a half-dozen or so private K8s most years and they want to keep those bonds strong. Those K8s also provide many of their strongest students year after year based on my experience in my kids classes.

My children joined in 9th where the class more or less doubles, so that is about 45 kids.

In each of my child’s classes, I would count about 15-20 kids from k-8s (and that is just the kids that I know. It may be more.). Add to that recruited athletes (no idea of that number), and I would say that those two groups make up at very least half of the new kids entering at 9th. So everyone else is competing for maybe 20 slots.

So yes, if you have a good student out of a K-8 and are full pay (which was over situation) you face pretty good odds of admission.

I think they are definitely more likely to accept kids from schools they have good relationships with. So, I'd say it depends on what grade you are applying for and what school they are coming from.

Anonymous wrote:I know that our K-8 applies and sends a lot of students every year to St. Andrew's. Probably min of 5+ kids admitted to 9th each year? Slots are hard to come by if you aren't connected somehow.

Every child at my son's K - 8 that applied to St. Andrew's got accepted.

Op—what grade is your DC applying for and are you coming from private or public? Will you be full pay or need aid? What type of student are they? What were their test scores? These factors are important in terms of gauging chances.

I know that our K-8 applies and sends a lot of students every year to St. Andrew's. Probably min of 5+ kids admitted to 9th each year? Slots are hard to come by if you aren't connected somehow.

It really depends on how many kids commit to stay for the following year and what grade you are applying for. I think the current 8th grade is 55ish kids and they shoot for 95ish range for high school classes. So, that’s 40 or so spots. Then you have to consider financials (full pay vs FA), legacy and sibling applications, and boy/girl ratios. There are not a ton of coed schools in our area so you can count on a lot of applicants for a handful of spots.

I know quiet a few kids who without issues that were rejected. There are a lot of applications at these schools!

Not that hard unless you have child with learning disabilities or behavior issues.

With their notification day this Friday, I'm trying to set expectations. How competitive is entry to SAES during its expansion years, relative to other non-Big 5 K-12s?