Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC
St. Alban’s 5
NCS 2
GDS 1
Sidwell 8
Gonzaga 1
St. Anselm’s Abbey 1
Maret 1
WIS 1

Maryland
Holton 5
Landon 1
Heights 1
Stone Ridge 1
Bullis 2

Virginia
Potomac School 7
St. Stephens/St. Agnes 1
Basis McLean 3
Madeira 1

Wow these are pathetic numbers compare to some of the public schools in FX/MoCo.

You have to compare the cut-offs. When it is points lower in VA than DC, VA kinda looks pathetic.

None of my kids’ schools recommended prepping at all for PSAT. Mine did some individual prep for SAT/ACT in advance and f taking those- either in Spring of Junior year or fall of Senior year. I know many kids who are prepping summer before Junior year and take either SAT or ACT before the PSAT- especially if they are athletes. A kid who prepped can do very well. Some who do not prep do well. My kids do OK. They, however, do great on SAT/ACT with some prep. IMO- private schools do well because the kids prep, as has been mentioned. It has nothing to do with the quality of the education, IMO.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC
St. Alban’s 5
NCS 2
GDS 1
Sidwell 8
Gonzaga 1
St. Anselm’s Abbey 1
Maret 1
WIS 1

Maryland
Holton 5
Landon 1
Heights 1
Stone Ridge 1
Bullis 2

Virginia
Potomac School 7
St. Stephens/St. Agnes 1
Basis McLean 3
Madeira 1

Looks like Potomac and Sidwell are the clear winners here....nobody else even close...their student sizes aren't that much differnet with the exception of maybe Basis

STA and Sidwell are tied.
STA: 5/70 = 6%
Sidwell: 8/125 = 6%

Holton was also 6% (5/81) MD does have a slightly lower cut-off than DC (221 v 223)

Does being Commended add any value to your applications?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2022, the year with the asterisk.

How did the other DC private schools do in 2022?

Glad you asked. In the “year with the asterisk” GDS, Maret, NCS, and STA did not have 16 NMSF COMBINED. But I’m sure you have an excuse for that too.

Sidwell gets hated on everyday in this forum.

My kids are at one of the above schools (not Sidwell) and the college counselors do not really encourage or even mention trying it do well on the PSAT or any mention of the NSMF. Point being my child and others are not striving for it. In fact my child did better on SAT than two kids that received the award. My child’s score went up after PSAT as they were sick and I don’t even know if they submitted it.

Point being for whatever reason some of the top students are not focusing on this anymore. I don’t know why.

It sounds like your child attends GDS. It seems like GDS is having an identity crisis right now and it doesn’t know what to do—so the students are confused as well. That’s unfortunate.

Holton doesn't emphasize the PSAT at all. They only give it junior year, versus some schools that give it both sophomore and junior years.

Rock Ridge had an impressive showing, especially considering it’s one of the smaller HS’s in LCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell had 16 for class of 2022. It was a very strong cohort.

Class of 2022 was the class year when most students couldn't take the PSAT at all, and so they allowed, but did not well-publicize, an alternate entry option.

While this is true, most kids at Sidwell in class of 2022 actually took the PSAT on site at Sidwell. My kid did and is one of the 16. If you took it on site at Sidwell, alternate entry did not apply. I am embarrassed to admit we did not know about alternate entry at the time. It was a strong class IMHO.

What college your kid attends?

Class of 2022 was a strong class. Unfortunatly, they were also a victim of Covid so did not do as well as they should have. There were too many spillovers for kids who took gap years so it was an espeically hard year to apply to college.

Wasn’t for other privates in DC. Could it be that your score on the PSAT is meaningless?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think kids/schools prepare for the PSAT now that almost every college is test optional. And that also means the NMSF designation will become even less relevant.

It’s only helpful for attending off-the-run colleges on scholarship. They’ll start emailing you brochures asap.

Exactly. It’s becoming obsolete.

Not so much obsolete as déclassé.

No, definitely obsolete. In a test optional world, the SAT and PSAT no longer hold meaning for any student regardless of class.

Definitely not obsolete. For instance, 70% of UPenn’s most recently admitted class submitted SAT or ACT scores. I’m certain the other 30% had outstanding grades, recommendations, awards, and extracurriculars (and hooks your child probably doesn’t have).

If you think test scores are obsolete when 70% of admitted students submitted test scores to a top Ivy, then you need to look up the word obsolete.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think kids/schools prepare for the PSAT now that almost every college is test optional. And that also means the NMSF designation will become even less relevant.

It’s only helpful for attending off-the-run colleges on scholarship. They’ll start emailing you brochures asap.

Exactly. It’s becoming obsolete.

Not so much obsolete as déclassé.

No, definitely obsolete. In a test optional world, the SAT and PSAT no longer hold meaning for any student regardless of class.

Incorrect. The following colleges require the SAT or ACT in 2023-24:

MIT
Georgia Tech
UGA
All Florida public universities (including the University of Florida and FSU)
Georgetown University
University of Tennessee
Purdue (unless an applicant is unable to take the test)

“No matter what schools like Penn tell you, students with great scores will always enjoy an advantage over students who do not submit scores," Taylor said.”

https://www.thedp.com/article/2023/08/upenn-test-scores-sat-act-pandemic-optional-policy-admissions

Wow. You are right. The vast majority of colleges require scores. Oh, wait. I just checked. It's less than 20%.

Maybe schools will decide to go back to testing eventually, but for the current crop of high school students, it's really meaningless. Especially the SAT. You really think most high school students aren't thinking to themselves about how they don't have to worry about the SAT or ACT? Even if they plan to take them, they are aware they have an out. Doesn't have the same importance that it once did.

For those in the cheap seats, like you:

“No matter what schools like Penn tell you, students with great scores will always enjoy an advantage over students who do not submit scores," Taylor said.”

https://www.thedp.com/art...admissions

Your link doesn’t work. But after I googled the quote, I laughed when I saw the person who said it. The director of a college counseling service? Someone who sells test prep? Yeah, those of us in the “cheap seats” are apparently better able to smell bull than you, my oh so smart and elite friend.

Good luck to your child applying test optional. You’ll find out what some of us already know.

You are so kind. Thanks for the good wishes. They mean so much coming from a college admissions director like you. Since you “already know,” and all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems to be a school that tries to reduce the level of cutthroat competitiveness among students

Oh really?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/legacy/posts/list/1142902.page

The majority of the posts that say Sidwell was cutthroat come from students (now adults) who attended in the 90s and early 2000s. I think we can all agree that things can change and evolve in a span of 20 to 30 years.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/789139.page
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/951642.page

What a bore. Who keeps posting this? Are you applying to Sidwell and trying to get others not to? We are there now and it's not that bad. Our kids have been in the advanced/regular track and if you are placed properly and not forced to be advanced it's not that hard! There is a place for your child. Don't push them into something that will be too hard like Math 3 if they are not equipped. The rest is a luck of the draw. Some teachers are hard, some are not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems to be a school that tries to reduce the level of cutthroat competitiveness among students

Oh really?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/legacy/posts/list/1142902.page

The majority of the posts that say Sidwell was cutthroat come from students (now adults) who attended in the 90s and early 2000s. I think we can all agree that things can change and evolve in a span of 20 to 30 years.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/789139.page
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/951642.page

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC

BASIS SCHOOL 1
GEORGETOWN DAY SCHOOL 1
GONZAGA COLLEGE H. S. 1
MARET SCHOOL 1
NATIONAL CATHEDRAL SCHOOL 2
* SCHOOL WITHOUT WALLS 5
SIDWELL FRIENDS SCHOOL 8
ST. ALBANS SCHOOL 5 (!)
ST. ANSELM'S ABBEY SCHOOL 1
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE H. S. 2
WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL 1
* WOODROW WILSON H. S. 3 (!)

* indicates public.

Note that the numbers for DC schools are much smaller because the local score required to be a semifinalist is very high. I'd love to see data for commended students (score required for this does not vary by location) but the college board keeps that under an even tighter lock.

They don’t publish the names, but they publish the data (pages 13-14):

https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/guide_to_the_national_merit_scholarship_program.pdf?gid=2&pgid=61

Problem is it's not disaggregated enough for my taste. I'd like it broken down to the school level, if they're not going to give us the names.

It seems clear that there are many schools that attract the caliber of student who will be NM commended or higher. The 31 SF were spread among 12 high schools, and the 177 commended students were spread among 17 schools. For such a small city, we clearly have many wonderful high school options. There are 58 high schools in DC, 16 of them are private.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC

BASIS SCHOOL 1
GEORGETOWN DAY SCHOOL 1
GONZAGA COLLEGE H. S. 1
MARET SCHOOL 1
NATIONAL CATHEDRAL SCHOOL 2
* SCHOOL WITHOUT WALLS 5
SIDWELL FRIENDS SCHOOL 8
ST. ALBANS SCHOOL 5 (!)
ST. ANSELM'S ABBEY SCHOOL 1
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE H. S. 2
WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL 1
* WOODROW WILSON H. S. 3 (!)

* indicates public.

Note that the numbers for DC schools are much smaller because the local score required to be a semifinalist is very high. I'd love to see data for commended students (score required for this does not vary by location) but the college board keeps that under an even tighter lock.

They don’t publish the names, but they publish the data (pages 13-14):

https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/guide_to_the_national_merit_scholarship_program.pdf?gid=2&pgid=61

Problem is it's not disaggregated enough for my taste. I'd like it broken down to the school level, if they're not going to give us the names.

Northern Virginia Schools, interleaved with some commentary.

Private:

BASIS INDEPENDENT 3 - Last year was better, IIRC
BISHOP IRETON: 1
BISHOP O'CONNELL H. S. 3
FLINT HILL SCHOOL 4 - Yes, there is a significantly bright cohort at FHS.
HOMESCHOOL 6
IDEAVENTIONS ACADEMY FOR MATH AND SCIENCE 3 - They're a tiny school, this is a huge percentage of their students.
POTOMAC SCHOOL 7
ST. JOHN PAUL THE GREAT CATHOLIC H. S. 2
ST. PAUL VI CATHOLIC H. S. 2
ST. STEPHEN'S AND ST. AGNES SCHOOL 1
THE MADEIRA SCHOOL 1
TRINITY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL 1 - TCS seems to now reasonably reliably have a NMSF a year.

Public:
ANNANDALE HS 1
BRIAR WOODS H. S. 5
BROAD RUN H. S. 2
CHANTILLY H. S. 13
FAIRFAX H. S. 3
FREEDOM H. S. 7
GEORGE C. MARSHALL H. S. 6
HERITAGE H. S. 2
INDEPENDENCE H. S. 5
JAMES MADISON H. S. 7
JAMES W. ROBINSON SECONDARY SCHOOL 3
LAKE BRADDOCK SECONDARY SCHOOL 5
LANGLEY H. S. 13
LOUDOUN COUNTY H. S. 1
LOUDOUN VALLEY H. S. 3
MC LEAN H. S. 13
MERIDIAN H. S. 5
OAKTON H. S. 14 - 2nd to TJ
OSBOURN PARK H. S. 1 - I actually wasn't expecting to see them on this list, so good job.
PATRIOT H. S. 1 - Yay, Nokesville!
POTOMAC FALLS H. S. 3
RIVERSIDE H. S. 1
ROCK RIDGE H. S. 12 - Biggest concentration of NMSF in Loudoun.
STAFFORD H. S. 2
STONE BRIDGE H. S. 3
THE H. B. WOODLAWN PROGRAM 1
TJHS 165 - You knew they would be triple digits.
TUSCARORA H. S. 1
W. T. WOODSON H. S. 12 - Impressive
WASHINGTON - LIBERTY H. S. 6
WEST POTOMAC H. S. 1
WEST SPRINGFIELD H. S. 1
WESTFIELD H. S. 5
YORKTOWN H. S. 6

Anonymous wrote:DC

BASIS SCHOOL 1
GEORGETOWN DAY SCHOOL 1
GONZAGA COLLEGE H. S. 1
MARET SCHOOL 1
NATIONAL CATHEDRAL SCHOOL 2
* SCHOOL WITHOUT WALLS 5
SIDWELL FRIENDS SCHOOL 8
ST. ALBANS SCHOOL 5 (!)
ST. ANSELM'S ABBEY SCHOOL 1
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE H. S. 2
WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL 1
* WOODROW WILSON H. S. 3 (!)

* indicates public.

Note that the numbers for DC schools are much smaller because the local score required to be a semifinalist is very high. I'd love to see data for commended students (score required for this does not vary by location) but the college board keeps that under an even tighter lock.

They don’t publish the names, but they publish the data (pages 13-14):

https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/guide_to_the_national_merit_scholarship_program.pdf?gid=2&pgid=61