Anonymous wrote:If your two choices were Dwight and Birch for high school which would you choose and why?

Birch is a great school these past two years.

Good luck to everyone today! Hope everyone gets their first choice

Anonymous wrote:Dwight. They have more resources. Birch seems to be struggling.

Struggling how? Financially? I feel like the new college admissions person and the new head of school and new head of admissions are bringing some energy to the school.

Dwight we know little about. Will have to do our research...

Anonymous wrote:If your two choices were Dwight and Birch for high school which would you choose and why?

I think Birch has a better reputation. Dwight used to have a pretty bad rep years ago but that might be changing. I know a smart kid who applied this year for 9th. We will be getting most of our high school decisions today. We applied to 11 schools and they are all different. I think once we have our acceptances we will do a deeper dive into curriculum and also culture and commute. I think if you have the opportunity to re-visits to each school that would be helpful.

Dwight. They have more resources. Birch seems to be struggling.

Anonymous wrote:If your two choices were Dwight and Birch for high school which would you choose and why?

Birch

If your two choices were Dwight and Birch for high school which would you choose and why?

Fantastic color! This is all very helpful! It seems they have done great with TT placements. Any color on that?

I think the emphasis on the fundamentals is part of the uptick as well as the focus on traditional values. People correctly perceive the school as old school and not “woke”. The curriculum doesn’t change much in response to social trends and to the extent it does change it changes slowly. This is true even in non political areas—it took a long time for the school to embrace and emphasize STEM, for example. And they still don’t call it STEAM 😂😂 That said, it’s a parish school of a Jesuit church so it’s not exactly conservative. (If you aren’t familiar with the various orders of priests and sisters, Pope Francis was a fairly conservative Jesuit.) Its Jesuit identity is counterbalanced by the head of school (Mary Larkin) who definitely embraces tradition and (for better and for worse) runs the school with an iron fist.

As for joining the parish, many people do join the parish to improve their chances of getting into the school and many parish members apply and enroll. I don’t know how many seats go to folks who aren’t in the parish, but that definitely is a factor in what makes it so hard for non members to get accepted even though the school wouldn’t be considered TT.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thank you. This is all very helpful.

I'm not sure we would go as far as becoming members of the church for a seat. We are a bit cost insensitive and would prefer not to cause friction with a first grade move. We are very focused on traditional values though. From what we heard, we weren't alone on this front, that was a part of the recent bump in applications.

Is the takeaway that we were all vying for 12 or so K spots?

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If you factor sibling and parish member priority that might be the case. The total number of available spots would be higher. They go from one day assessment for Pre-K 3 & 4 to four days of assessment for K, so the application pool is higher at K.
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Anonymous wrote:Thank you. This is all very helpful.

I'm not sure we would go as far as becoming members of the church for a seat. We are a bit cost insensitive and would prefer not to cause friction with a first grade move. We are very focused on traditional values though. From what we heard, we weren't alone on this front, that was a part of the recent bump in applications.

Is the takeaway that we were all vying for 12 or so K spots?

If you factor sibling and parish member priority that might be the case. The total number of available spots would be higher. They go from one day assessment for Pre-K 3 & 4 to four days of assessment for K, so the application pool is higher at K.

Thank you. This is all very helpful.

I'm not sure we would go as far as becoming members of the church for a seat. We are a bit cost insensitive and would prefer not to cause friction with a first grade move. We are very focused on traditional values though. From what we heard, we weren't alone on this front, that was a part of the recent bump in applications.

Is the takeaway that we were all vying for 12 or so K spots?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just went through exmissions at a TT preschool with our daughter. She was accepted across the board to the TT girls schools and two of the co-eds. We had our heart set on co-ed Catholic but were unfortunately declined at Saint Ignatius. We thought it would be best for her in terms of discipline, structure, etc. We also had heard that in the earlier years the education tends to be more rigorous. Our school has no feedback Saint Ignatius and we have no idea where we went wrong in the process. The only feedback we received was that applications were up across the board this year as more families either return to, or, are choosing to stay in the city. Regardless, we are choosing from great options but always heart breaking not to get the "one" and have no idea why.

Regarding St. Ignatius, it’s becoming more popular as tuition goes up, especially because it does teach the fundamentals better than many TT and kids can easily handle the TT work when they transfer in after 8th grade. Are you a member of the parish? If not, consider becoming a member and becoming active in a ministry that speaks to you. That could move the needle for you. That said, I am a member of the parish and know many parish members whose kids have gone there (mine do not so take this with a grain of salt). They all report that the school is rigorous but very old school and rigid.

I wasn't sure if the person was being serious. St. Ignatius has a nursery school (1 class at Pre-K 3, 2 classes at Pre-K 4, and 3 classes at K). K is the most competitive entry point, because tuition decreases and many families are looking to apply out from private / public preschools. If the person is serious about sending their child, 1st grade is a possibility.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We just went through exmissions at a TT preschool with our daughter. She was accepted across the board to the TT girls schools and two of the co-eds. We had our heart set on co-ed Catholic but were unfortunately declined at Saint Ignatius. We thought it would be best for her in terms of discipline, structure, etc. We also had heard that in the earlier years the education tends to be more rigorous. Our school has no feedback Saint Ignatius and we have no idea where we went wrong in the process. The only feedback we received was that applications were up across the board this year as more families either return to, or, are choosing to stay in the city. Regardless, we are choosing from great options but always heart breaking not to get the "one" and have no idea why.[/quote]

Regarding St. Ignatius, it’s becoming more popular as tuition goes up, especially because it does teach the fundamentals better than many TT and kids can easily handle the TT work when they transfer in after 8th grade. Are you a member of the parish? If not, consider becoming a member and becoming active in a ministry that speaks to you. That could move the needle for you. That said, I am a member of the parish and know many parish members whose kids have gone there (mine do not so take this with a grain of salt). They all report that the school is rigorous but very old school and rigid.





Lol[/quote]



I'm not sure I understand...[/quote]

Anonymous wrote:
My kid wrote their college essay about predicting the boom in Instagram when they were in nursery school - got them into HYPSM (just kidding).

Kinda funny to think that the singular "they" when talking about your kid wasn't really a thing either back then.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the HM matriculation insta, some of the toddlers in the photos are wearing UPenn-branded shirts. They are now going to... well, I don't want to give out the spoiler.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these people bought baby sweatshirts for a dozen different top colleges and took photos in all of them in anticipation of future matriculation photos. (It’s 2026, this is certainly a phenomenon people could have anticipated in 2008 internet-wise)

They would have had to predict Instagram which came out two years later!
(I have a high schooler, and I only found out about these pages a month ago...)

My kid wrote their college essay about predicting the boom in Instagram when they were in nursery school - got them into HYPSM (just kidding).