Anonymous
Post 09/11/2025 06:54     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Anonymous wrote:OP just remember that you’re going to want to tour all these still at school, go to their various open houses possibly, and some sports events etc. And she’ll want to do shadow days.

She’s going to get overwhelmed making a choice and you are going to be overwhelmed with all the time commitments. Coming from a K-8 and good test scores and grades, I’d definitely trim the list. We were a similar profile and only applied to two schools, which still felt like plenty.

School fairs are helpful resources as well.
Anonymous
Post 09/11/2025 06:52     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DD has a list of 8 schools she’s interested in for HS. It’s really 5 for top interest, a sixth that’s a reach & two more that are maybes.

I’m pushing her to stick to 5 for sanity sake. Essays and time spent with more than 5 feels like extra, not needed stress.

I do understand, admissions are very competitive. Am I guiding her wrong to narrow her list to 5 vs. 6-8?

FWIW, she’s an A student, involved in different activities at school and plays competitive sports (she’s good, but not recruit for sports good). She’s looking at all Archdiocese schools. Testing is TBD…doing prep with a tutor, so hoping for a decent outcome.


You do realize that the whole financial aid yes or no question totally matters. If you need financial aid, you better add more schools. If you don’t, you probably don’t even need 8

Yeah apply to as many as you possibly can. When my kids applied a couple years ago, ERB or the testing company set up a platform where you could apply to most of the local independents. So you didn’t really need to keep filling out applications. Just basically choose which schools you wanted to send it to.

I even had schools they didn’t apply to contacting me after looking at their profile. This was after decisions had come out though and their school had already been chosen.
Anonymous
Post 09/11/2025 06:12     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Anonymous wrote:DD has a list of 8 schools she’s interested in for HS. It’s really 5 for top interest, a sixth that’s a reach & two more that are maybes.

I’m pushing her to stick to 5 for sanity sake. Essays and time spent with more than 5 feels like extra, not needed stress.

I do understand, admissions are very competitive. Am I guiding her wrong to narrow her list to 5 vs. 6-8?

FWIW, she’s an A student, involved in different activities at school and plays competitive sports (she’s good, but not recruit for sports good). She’s looking at all Archdiocese schools. Testing is TBD…doing prep with a tutor, so hoping for a decent outcome.


You do realize that the whole financial aid yes or no question totally matters. If you need financial aid, you better add more schools. If you don’t, you probably don’t even need 8
Anonymous
Post 09/06/2025 21:38     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Anonymous wrote:OP just remember that you’re going to want to tour all these still at school, go to their various open houses possibly, and some sports events etc. And she’ll want to do shadow days.

She’s going to get overwhelmed making a choice and you are going to be overwhelmed with all the time commitments. Coming from a K-8 and good test scores and grades, I’d definitely trim the list. We were a similar profile and only applied to two schools, which still felt like plenty.


This. We came from a Catholic K-8, and DC applied and got into 5 schools but then agonized over making a decision. 5 seemed like a lot compared to peers who probably averaged 3 applications, but I figured if they wanted to write the essays, five was fine.

If I had to do over again, I would limit it to 3. There was just too much information (open houses, shadow days, accepted students nights) for DC to be able to focus and whittle it down easily. They found it very overwhelming, and I wished that I had set a limit during the application process.
Anonymous
Post 09/06/2025 13:08     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Anonymous wrote:We received guidance from our k-8 to only apply to schools where we were willing to send your kid. (Vs. applying simply for the sake of having options or safeties). That should help to narrow the list as the process is a bit laborious for both you and the kid, especially now that several schools reinstated standardized tests.


This. Our k-8 advisors were also very good at giving us a sense of how many kids would likely be accepted at various schools for all of 9th grade. We took a school off our list because we understood they were only taking 20ish new kids total and DC was sort of lukewarm after the open house.

The number of schools you apply to is very kid/family specific so feedback here is going to be all over the place. Your school is your best resource for settling on a final number of schools to apply.
Anonymous
Post 09/06/2025 12:43     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Anonymous wrote:There are more local DMV kids graduating a private K-8 at 8th grade than openings for private 9th grade. Simple math says some people likely will get shut out from private in 9th. So apply widely.



It all works out. All of the kids in DC's class had excellent outcomes and multiple options that also included top public magnets. My guidance would be to apply to 5-7, unless you are fine with your public option. In that case, you can apply to your top choice and see what happens. I also recommend that families of 7th graders start attending open houses this year so that the 8th grade year is less hectic. Especially visit schools you might not know as well. It will save time next year.

Anonymous
Post 09/06/2025 12:03     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
There are more local DMV kids graduating a private K-8 at 8th grade than openings for private 9th grade. Simple math says some people likely will get shut out from private in 9th. So apply widely.
Anonymous
Post 09/05/2025 15:30     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Anonymous wrote:Do the schools know which/how many other schools were applied to?

Only if you tell them. They do ask, though.
Anonymous
Post 09/05/2025 15:07     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Do the schools know which/how many other schools were applied to?
Anonymous
Post 09/05/2025 14:34     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
We received guidance from our k-8 to only apply to schools where we were willing to send your kid. (Vs. applying simply for the sake of having options or safeties). That should help to narrow the list as the process is a bit laborious for both you and the kid, especially now that several schools reinstated standardized tests.
Anonymous
Post 09/05/2025 14:22     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
We looked at about 8 for tours and open houses and only applied to three. We had DC tour public high school before we ranked them. DC ranked the local public 4th, so we did not have them apply to more than their top 3.

They got into their first choice and are very happy there. I am not sure public would have worked as well but since they ranked it ahead of some other private options it did not make sense to me to have them apply to more.
Anonymous
Post 09/05/2025 14:14     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Our criteria was, if this is the only school DC got into, would we be happy sending them there or would we send to public and regroup? That was the baseline, and two of the schools we were considering failed that test, so we didn’t have DC complete the applications.

It’s a lot of effort. Make sure the school is one that you and DC would actually be happy with, like PP said.
Anonymous
Post 09/05/2025 14:11     Subject: Re:Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Are the additional 2-3 apps to schools that she would TRULY be happy to attend and you'd be happy to send her to?
Anonymous
Post 09/05/2025 13:33     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Where is she currently? I do think that kids coming from a K-8 have the potential advantage in that their HOS has an established relationship with various high schools and can actively advocate on his/her students' behalf. Or, if they are at a parish school that has some sort of connection, that would make a difference too. If private or parochial, the heads of school will be able to advise you on whether your list is too weighted toward reaches or likelies.

Coming from public school, I would err on the side of applying to more.


+1

We came from a K-8 and I know of several students that applied to 7+ schools and only got into one or two. We applied for only 4 and got into one.


Same. Coming from private doesn't guarantee a spot like it used to.
Anonymous
Post 09/05/2025 13:31     Subject: Right number of schools to apply to for HS
Anonymous wrote:Eh. Admissions are so competitive around here that it can be good to apply widely, but the process is hugely time consuming.

FWIW, DC’s k-8 recommended applying to 4-6 schools as a sweet spot and no more than 8. So your DC isn’t way off base, but trimming one or two could save a lot of effort.


Similar - we were encouraged to apply for 8. We applied for 5 and DD got into 3 and WL at one. She never made it off the wait list (that was her reach and #1), so she's at #2 and thriving. I'm actually happy she didn't get into her #1 as I think it would have been socially more difficult for us because we are not legacy or super rich (just moderately rich).