Anonymous
Post 03/01/2019 07:18     Subject: Is Potomac alot harder to get into than SSSAS or Langley?
Legacies may be qualified candidates but so are the hundreds that get rejected for no good reason. Let’s be kind that today there will be many disappointed kids who worked
Just as hard as the legacies and just get shut out because they have no hook.
Anonymous
Post 02/28/2019 22:28     Subject: Is Potomac alot harder to get into than SSSAS or Langley?
Anonymous wrote:Potomac is difficult to get into because it is a numbers game. 1/3 of the class is from VA, 1/3 from DC and 1/3 from MD. Then you have legacies, siblings and Board connections. That's why its tough to get into Potomac.

Only a third of Potomac’s student body is from VA? I call BS.
Anonymous
Post 02/28/2019 21:32     Subject: Is Potomac alot harder to get into than SSSAS or Langley?
Anonymous wrote:Potomac is difficult to get into because it is a numbers game. 1/3 of the class is from VA, 1/3 from DC and 1/3 from MD. Then you have legacies, siblings and Board connections. That's why its tough to get into Potomac.
. I assume Potomac has recovered from the sexual molestation scandal, in which many of the parents were actually defending the perpetrator?
Anonymous
Post 02/28/2019 20:20     Subject: Is Potomac alot harder to get into than SSSAS or Langley?
Potomac is difficult to get into because it is a numbers game. 1/3 of the class is from VA, 1/3 from DC and 1/3 from MD. Then you have legacies, siblings and Board connections. That's why its tough to get into Potomac.
Anonymous
Post 02/28/2019 15:26     Subject: Is Potomac alot harder to get into than SSSAS or Langley?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The top students at any of these schools will do the best with college admissions. I guess you could argue maybe the tippy top student at GDS or Sidwell might do slightly better than the same kid from Potomac, but if you look at other threads that have students in both schools, most Cathedral parents will tell you that the curriculum is very similar if not identical at both schools even though others would like to argue that they are Sooo different. It could also just be a difference in legacy status at one school versus another. Bottom line-if your kid would be at the top of SSSAS and towards the middle or bottom at Cathedral/GDS/Sidwell/Potomac-guess where your kid should go?? Assuming college admission is the end game rather than the school experience and atmosphere.

That wasn't my question. If you compare apples to apples, is it your contention that the (top/middle/bottom) SSSAS students will end up with similar college admissions as those at the (top/middle/bottom) from Sidwell or GDS?


In general, I'd say the middle at Sidwell or GDS does better than the top at SSSAS. And to add insult to injury, the top at T.C. does better than the top at SSSAS.


This is not really true. The class size at TC is HUGE, and at SSSAS it's like 100 kids. If you compare the top 20 students at TC to SSAS, yes, TC "does better." But if you compare the top 5%, they both do well. And if you compare the bottom 25%, well, of course SSAS is significantly better than TC!
Anonymous
Post 02/19/2019 16:15     Subject: Is Potomac alot harder to get into than SSSAS or Langley?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Potomac got over 800 applications schoolwide this year and have a large yield from the spots they do offer. Langley will be less competitive just being a K-8 but certainly not “easy”. More are attracted to the K-12 so they only have to apply once but the reality is that kids change over the years and the good fit in K may not turn out to be the great fit in MS or HS, so these families may indeed need to look elsewhere anyhow. Nothing is a guarantee and IMO educational needs are fluid and need to be assessed every year to make sure your child is continuing to benefit from where they are in school.


I agree with the pp. Last year was odd with Potomac admissions if I recall correctly. Yields were completely off and they had to go deep into their waiting list. Probably won’t happen again but keep in mind OP that their wait list does move.

As more NOVA kids look to the DC Big3 for high school, Potomac becomes a 2nd or even 3rd choice.

I am not sure what grade(s) you are referring to, but the yield for K was almost 100%, hence the 5 extra Kindergarteners vs normal (classes should be 16 kids but are 18, 18 & 17). I would think they’ll be extra careful this year not to risk this. In a normal year they’d add 6 first grade spots but, unless there’s attrition, I’d assume there will only be one spot to get the numbers for that class to where they should be.

SSSAS is significantly easier to get into than Potomac or Langley.


Sorry to clarify, the lower yields last year were for 7th and 9th. Potomac K admissions is by far the most challenging in NOVA.


One person called off waitlist for seventh. K is hard because literally you have nothing to differentiate.
Anonymous
Post 02/19/2019 15:07     Subject: Is Potomac alot harder to get into than SSSAS or Langley?
P.S. T.C. is T.C. Williams, the public HS in Alexandria, for the uninitiated.
Anonymous
Post 02/19/2019 15:06     Subject: Is Potomac alot harder to get into than SSSAS or Langley?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The top students at any of these schools will do the best with college admissions. I guess you could argue maybe the tippy top student at GDS or Sidwell might do slightly better than the same kid from Potomac, but if you look at other threads that have students in both schools, most Cathedral parents will tell you that the curriculum is very similar if not identical at both schools even though others would like to argue that they are Sooo different. It could also just be a difference in legacy status at one school versus another. Bottom line-if your kid would be at the top of SSSAS and towards the middle or bottom at Cathedral/GDS/Sidwell/Potomac-guess where your kid should go?? Assuming college admission is the end game rather than the school experience and atmosphere.

That wasn't my question. If you compare apples to apples, is it your contention that the (top/middle/bottom) SSSAS students will end up with similar college admissions as those at the (top/middle/bottom) from Sidwell or GDS?


In general, I'd say the middle at Sidwell or GDS does better than the top at SSSAS. And to add insult to injury, the top at T.C. does better than the top at SSSAS.
Anonymous
Post 02/19/2019 14:58     Subject: Is Potomac alot harder to get into than SSSAS or Langley?
But legacies are typically just as qualified as non-legacies, so I don't know why you'd put them aside.