Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Think about it this way:
Andover's acceptance rate is 13%. They pull from all over the country and the world, and are one of the most coveted private high schools.
Aside from some kindergarten classes, where there are simply very few slots, I can't imagine day schools in this area--even the best ones--having an acceptance rate that is that much lower than a top independent boarding school.
My guess is that you have a few schools that hover around 15-25%, and then the rest are significantly higher.
That's fine; acceptance rate is simply NOT a proxy for excellence. UChicago had a very high acceptance rate before they started accepting the Common App, simply because they had a self-selecting applicant pool. As soon as they started taking the Common App, their acceptance rate plummeted and people started talking about how great the school is. The school didn't change; the number of applications did.
If it's true that Andover's acceptance rate is around 13% (and when I checked, this claim at least has some basis in reality), this stat does strongly suggest hat the DC area schools' acceptance rates must be higher.
Maybe not. Andover admits roughly 300 students for 9th. The year my son joined the 9th grade at STA there were 17 admits.
Andover might be a better school but there are a ton of spaces.
It's a boarding school with a much higher profile and prestige factor than STA that receives tons of applications from all over the country.
True but not all parents are on board with Andover or Phillips Exeter or any of the boarding schools. Out of control drugs, sex, and mental health issues. That reduces the applicant field. You really have to want Harvard to give up parenting your kids in their teens.
STA’s admissions at 9th is under 10% because there are fewer rigorous and prestigious options in DC in proportion to the number of families that can afford to send their kids to a $55K school. Also the degree of extreme politicization of curriculum at GDS and Sidwell is pushing more moderate families to STA. Unfortunately the Trumpy MAGA crowd comes along too.
STA admits between 20-25 students in 9th. Sometimes as low as 17 as PP said. They attract hundreds of applicants from all over the DMV.