Answer: 100% (whether looks determined by an application photgraph and/or interview!)

There was a thread a while back on the affect of the parents' looks on admissions. I think that if looks affect an AD, it's the parents' looks. The fact that the kids just happen to be attractive follows from that.

It's clear that looks don't matter at Bullis.

Looks matter, but that is also because looks have impact on confidence and other behavioral qualities. So the pure impact of looks on admission, for example, is not clear (once a kid is confident, however he got there, it becomes an attractive quality to schools)

Oh, looks definitely matter. Just like every other corner of our terrible society.

DC native here. When my sister was in the 3rd Grade at Beauvoir, my parents had her apply to Sidwell as well as NCS to keep options open. Sidwell asked for a photo. My mom just grabbed whatever photo she could find - it was unstaged to say the least. Mom was extremely surprised to hear from the admissions director how much he/she (not sure who was in charge back then) LOVED the photo. Apparently they went on and on... I definitely don't think it had anything to do with the fact my sister was "attractive," but rather it was authentic and down-to-earth. FWIW, my sis got into Sidwell that year but parents chose to keep her with her friends and go on to NCS.

I knew an admissions director at one school (mentioned here often) who used to comment very negatively on all the perfect little girls coming in their smocked dresses and bows. Not everyone is looking for the same thing necessarily!!

It's really about how hot the mom's are. the cute kids are just a subset.

I've noticed that many of the kids at CHDS, Lowell, and GDS all seem to have that messy skate kid thing going. While the kids at Sheridan, NPS, Beauvoir, and St. Pats seem more buttoned down.

Coming in late, but the reason the earlier posts came off as racist was this assumption that AA kids were somehow from a different culture, but were welcomed into our white culture. When the fact is that DC has been a predominantly black city since . . . certainly my lifetime.

While "cuteness" may be a hidden factor in admissions--unfortunately--I tend to think that the admissions committee would not admit a child who was "cute" but unqualified.

"decisionS", I meant

I agree with those who say that looks matter. How much, I have no idea, but they do at least garner some attention where otherwise there might not have been much. My 2 1/2 year old gets lot of attention for her looks, and I have seen how that endears her to people, even if she's moody with them and refuses to be the sweet girl they expect her to be. By extension, that makes them more open to us, her parents.

Whether looks have an actual effect on admission decision, however, is up for debate.

Anonymous wrote:We applied to GDS Maret and WIS and NONE of these schools requested a photograph. What schools do?? The whole topic here is stupid and the fact so many parents are measuring the potential impact of their child's natural born physical presentation and if it may to their successful education is a pathetic reflection on the parents. Ick.

Pre-K WIS--photo was optional. I don't recall for GDS, though.

Anonymous wrote:We applied to GDS Maret and WIS and NONE of these schools requested a photograph. What schools do?? The whole topic here is stupid and the fact so many parents are measuring the potential impact of their child's natural born physical presentation and if it may to their successful education is a pathetic reflection on the parents. Ick.

I'm not sure about that. I agree, parents almost taking pride in their children's looks is a bit pathetic, but then, frankly, taking pride in your children's intelligence is also pathetic. You get what you get, and you have done nothing to create that big brain or beautiful cherub (other than passing on your DNA).

However, as to saying that it will matter to future success, you're wrong. There are studies which show the exact opposite. Looks matter (or what we consider physical attractiveness, either in terms of being tall for men, in good physical shape, etc) in terms of initial job offers and wages, but they are also shown to matter in terms of promotions.

And the top schools in this area are not altruistic institutions looking for the children who are going to "fit" well into their environment. They're looking for kids who are going to "fit" well into EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL LIVES. And the to extent that looks will matter in the future, you can bet that looks are going to matter now.