Anonymous
Post 01/07/2025 19:14     Subject: bullis or st andrews
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Acceptance rate for both schools is low. Absolutely apply to both.




That is absolutely not true. They are both much easier to get into than many of the other schools. An A-/B student should have no problem getting in unless they have behavioral problems.


My A/B student was waitlisted from both schools, no behavioral problems. Why do people keep saying these are easy schools to get into? Is it because their child got in but got rejected from a "big 3"?


For those coming from the private k-8's, these generally are easier to get into than others.
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2025 10:02     Subject: Re:bullis or st andrews
Anonymous wrote:OP, it depends on which grade you're applying to. Ninth grade will be the most competitive for each, and SAES' middle school is also very full. Lower School is easiest for SAES because they constructed a new building to allow for some growth.



Why would they want to grow? The campus is so small and cramped.
Anonymous
Post 01/05/2025 20:58     Subject: Re:bullis or st andrews
Entering before 9th grade gives your child another advantage once they're enrolled. It's a chance to get comfortable in a new environment, get to know teachers and curriulum, make friends, make mistakes, adjust to the homework load --- all before having classes and grades on the official transcript that colleges will see.
Anonymous
Post 01/04/2025 17:18     Subject: bullis or st andrews
The world is 50/50 male/female. People choose coed or single sex schools depending on whether or not they want their kid’s school experience to reflect this. There are arguments for and against both types of schools. But if you choose a coed school, you don’t want it to be 80% male.


Humans are born at about a 50/50 rate, yes, but once active in the world, there are more females in America actively in place within schools, stores, and even homes. Males are incarcerated are higher rates in this country and don’t live as long as women. The point is that society doesn’t have even amounts of genders, so why should our schools?

Just look at your own home, I bet there are either more males or more females in your own home. Your workplace isn’t 50/50 gendered, your gym, your grocery store, etc. Students should be admitted based off of their own hard work of doing amazing work in their classwork, extra-curriculars, volunteerism, communities, etc. but if you are have a son, then their gender is a factor against them in a small school that has plenty of girls already.

I wish I had known this when I was applying and I just would want any other parents of sons to be aware and to perhaps not put all your eggs into the St. Andrew’s basket just in case….or apply to 6th grade or earlier.
Anonymous
Post 01/04/2025 13:53     Subject: bullis or st andrews
Anonymous wrote:Being born a boy shouldn’t place you at a disadvantage when applying for a spot in a school, however, at St. Andrew’s, that’s what kids get waitlisted for: being the gender that they apparently already have too many of. To the poster who somehow thinks that kids are only rejected for not being an A/B student: you couldn’t be more wrong. There are only just a couple of spots available in 8th grade, and a few more in 9th, but since an already established class pre-exists, kids get rejected for not being a specific gender, which has nothing to do with academics. I wish they would just be transparent and not waste our time and money and just say: hey, we have spots, but only if your kid is a girl.

Meanwhile, Bullis is more than thrilled to welcome the same boy that St. Andrew’s waitlisted. My guess is that they have more spots available and allow a larger 9th grade class size than St. Andrew’s and that they don’t care as much about keeping the genders equal in number. That seems so silly anyway. Nowhere else in life are there an equal number of girls as boys. Imagine if you couldn’t get a job at a workplace not because you weren’t skilled enough, but because the job already had too many people of your gender working there already…that’s not right. The world isn’t 50/50 gendered. And I wouldn’t care if my kid was in an uneven distribution of boys/girls in a class.


It’s a small school, particularly in MS. Unsurprisingly, more boys than girls tend to apply for MS. If it is lopsided toward boys, there are not enough girls in the class to offer social opportunities for the girls. This was something the girls in my son’s class complained about in MS. So. . , yeah they want to bring more girls into that class for HS. They also need to be able to field sports team (which r mandatory participation in HS). The class has to work. I’m sorry it didn’t work for your son, I hope he is thriving where he landed.
Anonymous
Post 01/04/2025 10:36     Subject: bullis or st andrews
Anonymous wrote:Being born a boy shouldn’t place you at a disadvantage when applying for a spot in a school, however, at St. Andrew’s, that’s what kids get waitlisted for: being the gender that they apparently already have too many of. To the poster who somehow thinks that kids are only rejected for not being an A/B student: you couldn’t be more wrong. There are only just a couple of spots available in 8th grade, and a few more in 9th, but since an already established class pre-exists, kids get rejected for not being a specific gender, which has nothing to do with academics. I wish they would just be transparent and not waste our time and money and just say: hey, we have spots, but only if your kid is a girl.

Meanwhile, Bullis is more than thrilled to welcome the same boy that St. Andrew’s waitlisted. My guess is that they have more spots available and allow a larger 9th grade class size than St. Andrew’s and that they don’t care as much about keeping the genders equal in number. That seems so silly anyway. Nowhere else in life are there an equal number of girls as boys. Imagine if you couldn’t get a job at a workplace not because you weren’t skilled enough, but because the job already had too many people of your gender working there already…that’s not right. The world isn’t 50/50 gendered. And I wouldn’t care if my kid was in an uneven distribution of boys/girls in a class.


This sounds like the experience of a specific year where SAES had more boys in the cohort. Surely they're not boy heavy in the 8th grade year after year?
Anonymous
Post 01/04/2025 09:45     Subject: bullis or st andrews
Anonymous wrote:Being born a boy shouldn’t place you at a disadvantage when applying for a spot in a school, however, at St. Andrew’s, that’s what kids get waitlisted for: being the gender that they apparently already have too many of. To the poster who somehow thinks that kids are only rejected for not being an A/B student: you couldn’t be more wrong. There are only just a couple of spots available in 8th grade, and a few more in 9th, but since an already established class pre-exists, kids get rejected for not being a specific gender, which has nothing to do with academics. I wish they would just be transparent and not waste our time and money and just say: hey, we have spots, but only if your kid is a girl.

Meanwhile, Bullis is more than thrilled to welcome the same boy that St. Andrew’s waitlisted. My guess is that they have more spots available and allow a larger 9th grade class size than St. Andrew’s and that they don’t care as much about keeping the genders equal in number. That seems so silly anyway. Nowhere else in life are there an equal number of girls as boys. Imagine if you couldn’t get a job at a workplace not because you weren’t skilled enough, but because the job already had too many people of your gender working there already…that’s not right. The world isn’t 50/50 gendered. And I wouldn’t care if my kid was in an uneven distribution of boys/girls in a class.


The world is 50/50 male/female. People choose coed or single sex schools depending on whether or not they want their kid’s school experience to reflect this. There are arguments for and against both types of schools. But if you choose a coed school, you don’t want it to be 80% male.
Anonymous
Post 01/04/2025 07:47     Subject: bullis or st andrews
The even distribution (or close approximation) of boys/girls per class is more important the smaller your class is. SAES aims for 95ish kids per class and Bullis aims for more like 150ish so not only is Bullis taking more kids, but there’s more wiggle room re gender balancing. We have a DS applying to schools for 9th and have factored this into our application strategies.
Anonymous
Post 01/04/2025 03:21     Subject: bullis or st andrews
Being born a boy shouldn’t place you at a disadvantage when applying for a spot in a school, however, at St. Andrew’s, that’s what kids get waitlisted for: being the gender that they apparently already have too many of. To the poster who somehow thinks that kids are only rejected for not being an A/B student: you couldn’t be more wrong. There are only just a couple of spots available in 8th grade, and a few more in 9th, but since an already established class pre-exists, kids get rejected for not being a specific gender, which has nothing to do with academics. I wish they would just be transparent and not waste our time and money and just say: hey, we have spots, but only if your kid is a girl.

Meanwhile, Bullis is more than thrilled to welcome the same boy that St. Andrew’s waitlisted. My guess is that they have more spots available and allow a larger 9th grade class size than St. Andrew’s and that they don’t care as much about keeping the genders equal in number. That seems so silly anyway. Nowhere else in life are there an equal number of girls as boys. Imagine if you couldn’t get a job at a workplace not because you weren’t skilled enough, but because the job already had too many people of your gender working there already…that’s not right. The world isn’t 50/50 gendered. And I wouldn’t care if my kid was in an uneven distribution of boys/girls in a class.
Anonymous
Post 01/03/2025 22:41     Subject: bullis or st andrews
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:When do SAES decisions come out?

The same day all the non-Catholic private schools come out, in March. Maybe the first Friday? In 2023 it was March 3.

+1 It's the afternoon of the first Friday in March. Catholic schools and Baltimore schools each use different dates.


Many independent schools (including Bullis) moved it up a week this year so it will be the last Friday of February.
Anonymous
Post 01/03/2025 16:36     Subject: Re:bullis or st andrews
Like all PK-12 schools, the best strategy for admission is to enroll early. 6th grade at latest. Otherwise if you're a boy applying for 7th or 8th, you're trying to secure one of just a couple of spots. If you're trying for 9th, you're competing against MANY other boys for one of 15 spots. (Girls have a slight edge because all-girls' schools are more of a draw.)
Anonymous
Post 01/03/2025 11:08     Subject: bullis or st andrews
Anonymous wrote:I think at one point (quite some time ago now), SAES was less selective and because of that history, smaller campus/facility, and sports that compete in a a lower sports conference, people assume that means it’s easier admit. While it’s true that they do have a range of students at SAES, it’s a small school and the demand for 35-ish spots coming into 9th grade is high.

For Bullis, I think that their history of recruiting athletes with lower academic stats has given folks the idea that it’s an easier admit. When they publish their college matriculations, there are those here who immediately jump on the “look at all of those hooked athletes” train to discredit the overall list. It’s far more diverse racially than many of the schools in our area (something we see as a pro) and I do think that some people do not like that although they outwardly champion diversity. If you are an insanely awesome athlete, Bullis will work with you to make sure you are able to navigate the academics, but the curriculum is no joke and you still have to be able to do the work. There’s a lot of demand for a coed, non religious school so the application pool is always large.

People who promote the concept of a Big 3 love to look down on these schools because even though they will never admit it, they value a perceived prestige above all else. These are the same posters who spend a lot of energy dismissing the quality of any non-Ivy. It’s silly. The bottom line is that both SAES and Bullis are solid schools with a lot to offer students and quite a few families recognize that (hence competitive admissions).


+1000. Trashing these schools to elevate the "Big Three"... the favorite pastime of DCUM society moms
Anonymous
Post 01/03/2025 09:44     Subject: bullis or st andrews
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:When do SAES decisions come out?

The same day all the non-Catholic private schools come out, in March. Maybe the first Friday? In 2023 it was March 3.

+1 It's the afternoon of the first Friday in March. Catholic schools and Baltimore schools each use different dates.