We love Field-awesome facility, great student teacher ratio, not too much pressure, great faculty. We are happy.

No one is saying that these schools are competitive because our kids were admitted--quite the opposite--our kids wer not admitted.
Listen, last year my kid applied to GDS for high from Alice Deal. he personally knew 20+ kids from Deal who also applied. none of those 20 friends were admitted. My kid had straight As through middle school, took Algebra 2 in 8th grade, had numerous leadership roles at school, did middle school debate at a national level and played 5 years of a travel sport. And he wasn't admitted and many of his friends who were as impressive or more so were not admitted either. And this is just one middle school out of dozens in the DMV. I was casually tracking the number of 9th interview slots that GDS filled last year (In Ravenna) and it's was 400+ . there were a phenomenal number of kids who applied. they interviewed kids at 20 per week for 20 weeks. Easily. it was all there in Ravenna for anyone who applied to see.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend applied to Maret 2 years ago and they said they had 125 applications or 6th. They take about 10 kids as well. I would imagine that GDS and Sidwell application numbers are similar but there is some overlap in applicants.

When my kid was applying to schools in 6th from DCPS (3 years ago) his friends (about 5 kids) who applied to GDS and Sidwell did not get in. They were great kids from full-pay families. A few applied again for 7th and got in then.

I admittedly don’t know maret’s precise numbers, but I really want to address what are perpetual myths on this board about admissions. They will never tell you this, but at the most selective privates in the country (not dc, the country), the admit rate is never much lower than 25-30%. Ever. I have read so much speculation on this board that frequently suggests or explicitly states that admission rates to top privates is 7%. 10%. And other completely incorrect numbers that freak people out. Those numbers are not right. They never have been.

I wish I could post this on every thread when parents are asking about admissions and getting bad information here. To be fair, the schools do not tell you this. They occasionally tell select board members for planning, but only some, and never in writing.

Anyway. Sidwell and gds are not guaranteed, but they are not nearly as competitive as dcum mythology strokes its collective ego with.

Thank you for the post. You said it much more eloquently than I ever could. It’s just not as competitive as people think.

I'm sorry but I beg to differ. Things have gotten much more competitive in the past two years. It's been a huge change since last admission's season, especially at the schools you are mentioning. Things are not like before. Especially if you are unhooked and bring nothing the school is actively looking for to the table. (Such as a particular sport, instrument, diversity, gender,etc) If there are 25 spots and 250 applicants that's ten percent. Those ratios were easily met last year at some schools. No idea of what the status is for this current season. I am referring to HS admissions last year, but numbers were up across all grades at many schools.

This is still just impressionistic. Private school applications were up, but I find it hard to believe that there has been some massive sea change that makes sidwell, gds, sta, etc. on par with Harvard and MIT in terms of competitiveness of admissions. After decades of not being so. Decades that included years in which private school applications went up. All you’re saying is apps were up. By how many? What information were you provided? Or are you just feeding off the emotion and frenzy that has surrounded school frustration in the pandemic? Frustration that, by the way, was felt by many gds and sidwell parents, given that those schools weren’t exactly fully open last year either.

The reality is, here in dc, parents whose kids were admitted want to think that admissions was insanely competitive, because it makes them feel like they are special. And it causes so much unnecessary and falsely-grounded anxiety for prospective applicants, and it feeds the false sense of superiority that so many here use to look down on others.

Unless you were at the year-end meeting of the HOS and board director and given that information, along with precise information on college matriculation, and in that meeting you were given information that indicates an absolutely massive deviation from where things have been for decades for schools far more competitive than dc schools, then you are just feeding the scare mongering.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend applied to Maret 2 years ago and they said they had 125 applications or 6th. They take about 10 kids as well. I would imagine that GDS and Sidwell application numbers are similar but there is some overlap in applicants.

When my kid was applying to schools in 6th from DCPS (3 years ago) his friends (about 5 kids) who applied to GDS and Sidwell did not get in. They were great kids from full-pay families. A few applied again for 7th and got in then.

I admittedly don’t know maret’s precise numbers, but I really want to address what are perpetual myths on this board about admissions. They will never tell you this, but at the most selective privates in the country (not dc, the country), the admit rate is never much lower than 25-30%. Ever. I have read so much speculation on this board that frequently suggests or explicitly states that admission rates to top privates is 7%. 10%. And other completely incorrect numbers that freak people out. Those numbers are not right. They never have been.

I wish I could post this on every thread when parents are asking about admissions and getting bad information here. To be fair, the schools do not tell you this. They occasionally tell select board members for planning, but only some, and never in writing.

Anyway. Sidwell and gds are not guaranteed, but they are not nearly as competitive as dcum mythology strokes its collective ego with.

Thank you for the post. You said it much more eloquently than I ever could. It’s just not as competitive as people think.

So, depending on who you believe, my DC either has a 30%+ chance of admission, or 1 out of 100. Gotta love DCUM.

I mean, you can pitch it that way, but the reality is your DC is facing odds of around 30% or higher at the top privates in the country, none of which are located here. This information is not incredibly easy to get, but it’s not terribly hard to get either.

Obviously you don’t have to take my word for it. I get that this forum is not super reliable. For whatever it’s worth though, my information is correct.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend applied to Maret 2 years ago and they said they had 125 applications or 6th. They take about 10 kids as well. I would imagine that GDS and Sidwell application numbers are similar but there is some overlap in applicants.

When my kid was applying to schools in 6th from DCPS (3 years ago) his friends (about 5 kids) who applied to GDS and Sidwell did not get in. They were great kids from full-pay families. A few applied again for 7th and got in then.

I admittedly don’t know maret’s precise numbers, but I really want to address what are perpetual myths on this board about admissions. They will never tell you this, but at the most selective privates in the country (not dc, the country), the admit rate is never much lower than 25-30%. Ever. I have read so much speculation on this board that frequently suggests or explicitly states that admission rates to top privates is 7%. 10%. And other completely incorrect numbers that freak people out. Those numbers are not right. They never have been.

I wish I could post this on every thread when parents are asking about admissions and getting bad information here. To be fair, the schools do not tell you this. They occasionally tell select board members for planning, but only some, and never in writing.

Anyway. Sidwell and gds are not guaranteed, but they are not nearly as competitive as dcum mythology strokes its collective ego with.

Thank you for the post. You said it much more eloquently than I ever could. It’s just not as competitive as people think.

I'm sorry but I beg to differ. Things have gotten much more competitive in the past two years. It's been a huge change since last admission's season, especially at the schools you are mentioning. Things are not like before. Especially if you are unhooked and bring nothing the school is actively looking for to the table. (Such as a particular sport, instrument, diversity, gender,etc) If there are 25 spots and 250 applicants that's ten percent. Those ratios were easily met last year at some schools. No idea of what the status is for this current season. I am referring to HS admissions last year, but numbers were up across all grades at many schools.

Anonymous wrote:Our DC applied for 6th to some of the very competitive schools OP and others mentioned; this was right before the pandemic. I noticed two things going to all the open houses, tours, etc. - you started seeing the same families over and over, and there were a lot of them. Granted, these events were not solely for kids applying to 6th, but the number of families at least interested in applying to the same set of schools for MS was a real surprise. If you were applying from public and did not have some sort of desired connection or exceptional extracurricular talent (and, truly, for 5th graders, few do), my impression is that you needed a really strong academic profile to be competitive. Also, I would take some of the numbers being thrown around with a grain of salt. I know only the specific admit number to one school (the one our DC attends), and it's quite a bit different than what's on this thread.

If your experience is pre-pandemic then it isn't relevant today in terms of admissions.

Anonymous wrote:But yield is taken into account, so picking a different school does not mean there is a spot at the school you turned down. Maybe, but not certainly. WL, at least among the more competitive privates, works out far less than one would hope. Plus, almost every unsuccessful applicant ends up on the WL. Very few (if any) outright rejections.

Sidwell, Potomac, St Albans and NCS definitely send out rejections. Those schools do have real waitlists but they might not (likely will not) move.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw- I know a lot of kids from our WOTP ES who left for private school for 6th. None got into Sidwell or GDS.

Same here. I knew about 6 kids who applied to both from our DCPS and none got in. Figure that there are about 10-12 spots at each school. Half will be each gender. Half of each gender will be URM (so 3 white girls, 3 URM girls). So if you are a white girl there may be 3 spots. Now 1-2 of those will often go to siblings or legacy applicants (who frequently join after elementary). So there may only be actual spot open for a white girl in 6th grade (for example). This is what makes the schools so difficult to get in to.

This person seems to claim it's 1:100.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend applied to Maret 2 years ago and they said they had 125 applications or 6th. They take about 10 kids as well. I would imagine that GDS and Sidwell application numbers are similar but there is some overlap in applicants.

When my kid was applying to schools in 6th from DCPS (3 years ago) his friends (about 5 kids) who applied to GDS and Sidwell did not get in. They were great kids from full-pay families. A few applied again for 7th and got in then.

I admittedly don’t know maret’s precise numbers, but I really want to address what are perpetual myths on this board about admissions. They will never tell you this, but at the most selective privates in the country (not dc, the country), the admit rate is never much lower than 25-30%. Ever. I have read so much speculation on this board that frequently suggests or explicitly states that admission rates to top privates is 7%. 10%. And other completely incorrect numbers that freak people out. Those numbers are not right. They never have been.

I wish I could post this on every thread when parents are asking about admissions and getting bad information here. To be fair, the schools do not tell you this. They occasionally tell select board members for planning, but only some, and never in writing.

Anyway. Sidwell and gds are not guaranteed, but they are not nearly as competitive as dcum mythology strokes its collective ego with.

Thank you for the post. You said it much more eloquently than I ever could. It’s just not as competitive as people think.

So, depending on who you believe, my DC either has a 30%+ chance of admission, or 1 out of 100. Gotta love DCUM.

It would never be 1 out of 100 because you’d never compete against the other sex, so maybe 1 out of 50 maximum.

No one said it was 1:100. Maret was 10 or 12 out of 100+

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend applied to Maret 2 years ago and they said they had 125 applications or 6th. They take about 10 kids as well. I would imagine that GDS and Sidwell application numbers are similar but there is some overlap in applicants.

When my kid was applying to schools in 6th from DCPS (3 years ago) his friends (about 5 kids) who applied to GDS and Sidwell did not get in. They were great kids from full-pay families. A few applied again for 7th and got in then.

I admittedly don’t know maret’s precise numbers, but I really want to address what are perpetual myths on this board about admissions. They will never tell you this, but at the most selective privates in the country (not dc, the country), the admit rate is never much lower than 25-30%. Ever. I have read so much speculation on this board that frequently suggests or explicitly states that admission rates to top privates is 7%. 10%. And other completely incorrect numbers that freak people out. Those numbers are not right. They never have been.

I wish I could post this on every thread when parents are asking about admissions and getting bad information here. To be fair, the schools do not tell you this. They occasionally tell select board members for planning, but only some, and never in writing.

Anyway. Sidwell and gds are not guaranteed, but they are not nearly as competitive as dcum mythology strokes its collective ego with.

Thank you for the post. You said it much more eloquently than I ever could. It’s just not as competitive as people think.

So, depending on who you believe, my DC either has a 30%+ chance of admission, or 1 out of 100. Gotta love DCUM.

It would never be 1 out of 100 because you’d never compete against the other sex, so maybe 1 out of 50 maximum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend applied to Maret 2 years ago and they said they had 125 applications or 6th. They take about 10 kids as well. I would imagine that GDS and Sidwell application numbers are similar but there is some overlap in applicants.

When my kid was applying to schools in 6th from DCPS (3 years ago) his friends (about 5 kids) who applied to GDS and Sidwell did not get in. They were great kids from full-pay families. A few applied again for 7th and got in then.

I admittedly don’t know maret’s precise numbers, but I really want to address what are perpetual myths on this board about admissions. They will never tell you this, but at the most selective privates in the country (not dc, the country), the admit rate is never much lower than 25-30%. Ever. I have read so much speculation on this board that frequently suggests or explicitly states that admission rates to top privates is 7%. 10%. And other completely incorrect numbers that freak people out. Those numbers are not right. They never have been.

I wish I could post this on every thread when parents are asking about admissions and getting bad information here. To be fair, the schools do not tell you this. They occasionally tell select board members for planning, but only some, and never in writing.

Anyway. Sidwell and gds are not guaranteed, but they are not nearly as competitive as dcum mythology strokes its collective ego with.

Thank you for the post. You said it much more eloquently than I ever could. It’s just not as competitive as people think.

So, depending on who you believe, my DC either has a 30%+ chance of admission, or 1 out of 100. Gotta love DCUM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend applied to Maret 2 years ago and they said they had 125 applications or 6th. They take about 10 kids as well. I would imagine that GDS and Sidwell application numbers are similar but there is some overlap in applicants.

When my kid was applying to schools in 6th from DCPS (3 years ago) his friends (about 5 kids) who applied to GDS and Sidwell did not get in. They were great kids from full-pay families. A few applied again for 7th and got in then.

I admittedly don’t know maret’s precise numbers, but I really want to address what are perpetual myths on this board about admissions. They will never tell you this, but at the most selective privates in the country (not dc, the country), the admit rate is never much lower than 25-30%. Ever. I have read so much speculation on this board that frequently suggests or explicitly states that admission rates to top privates is 7%. 10%. And other completely incorrect numbers that freak people out. Those numbers are not right. They never have been.

I wish I could post this on every thread when parents are asking about admissions and getting bad information here. To be fair, the schools do not tell you this. They occasionally tell select board members for planning, but only some, and never in writing.

Anyway. Sidwell and gds are not guaranteed, but they are not nearly as competitive as dcum mythology strokes its collective ego with.

Thank you for the post. You said it much more eloquently than I ever could. It’s just not as competitive as people think.

We learned our lesson last year and are starting earlier with our youngest- for 3rd next year and will try again in 4th. Anyone with anecdotal evidence that this will be easier?

But yield is taken into account, so picking a different school does not mean there is a spot at the school you turned down. Maybe, but not certainly. WL, at least among the more competitive privates, works out far less than one would hope. Plus, almost every unsuccessful applicant ends up on the WL. Very few (if any) outright rejections.

In our experience, a cohort of kids do get multiple acceptances between the schools mentioned, and this may lead to movement from the waitlist in the late spring once they decide which schools to decline.