Anonymous
09/24/2019 11:56
Subject: Average SSAT needed for GP, SJ, and Gonz
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If your catholic (active) then you have a 75% chance of getting in.
Fake News. Acceptance rate is around 20%. This rate is for Catholics as well as non-Catholics. I know several Catholic parish school kids who were straight A students in Honors classes and did not get into Prep (they also played sports and were good kids). Truth is Prep is hard to get into. Easiest avenue appears to be for Mater Dei students, everyone else has to be a top student at their middle school.
The boy from our k8 who got in there was a straight C and didn’t do well in the SSAT, what apparently he thought it was very funny because he told everyone. Oh, he is into sports. But definitely never a top student!
Well, good luck to him. If he attended Prep he certainly isn't laughing anymore, Prep is tough academically. Tons of homework, quizzes, and tests. Boys have every class every day and homework in every class every day. Teachers (vast majority have advanced degrees) are excellent and do not mess around. Boys are pushed hard and learn at lot.
Anonymous
09/24/2019 11:22
Subject: Average SSAT needed for GP, SJ, and Gonz
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If your catholic (active) then you have a 75% chance of getting in.
Fake News. Acceptance rate is around 20%. This rate is for Catholics as well as non-Catholics. I know several Catholic parish school kids who were straight A students in Honors classes and did not get into Prep (they also played sports and were good kTruth is Prep is hard to get into. Easiest avenue appears to be for Mater Dei students, everyone else has to be a top student at their middle school.
The boy from our k8 who got in there was a straight C and didn’t do well in the SSAT, what apparently he thought it was very funny because he told everyone. Oh, he is into sports. But definitely never a top student!
The Admissions people and the Admissions Committee, if they have one, consider a range of attributes and then matches these to the various needs of the school. The more boxes the kid checks (academics, athletics, special talents, legacy connection. full pay, K-8 source, etc., etc) the more likely they are to gain admission.
They consider the total make-up of a class in this process. They cannot, for example, end up with not enough athletes to compete against their IAC rivals.
Prep serves a community, not a narrow slice of the most academically talented or motivated.
Anonymous
09/24/2019 03:59
Subject: Average SSAT needed for GP, SJ, and Gonz
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If your catholic (active) then you have a 75% chance of getting in.
Fake News. Acceptance rate is around 20%. This rate is for Catholics as well as non-Catholics. I know several Catholic parish school kids who were straight A students in Honors classes and did not get into Prep (they also played sports and were good kids). Truth is Prep is hard to get into. Easiest avenue appears to be for Mater Dei students, everyone else has to be a top student at their middle school.
The boy from our k8 who got in there was a straight C and didn’t do well in the SSAT, what apparently he thought it was very funny because he told everyone. Oh, he is into sports. But definitely never a top student!
Anonymous
09/18/2019 07:18
Subject: Re:Average SSAT needed for GP, SJ, and Gonz
Anonymous wrote:PP - You obviously understand all of this based on experience.
But to parents, grades and test scores are easy to understand.
And if your son or daughter has high test scores and grades, you might prefer it if those were the only criteria used.
That would certainly make the Admissions job easier. Just rank the applicants academically on a piece of paper and draw a line under the last name you have space for.
Schools aren't about to do this.
Parents who cannot see the world of these schools as the schools see it will continue to be mystified by results.
There is a formula and it's not very complicated.
Look at the past 5 years of your school... how many kids went to your target school.... GP/GZ/SJ.
Then rank the kids in your class
D1 athlete
legacy
great athlete
great student
If you have generally 5 kids that go to school x and your have a D1 likely and 5 legacies ahead of you... you are not getting in unless you are a a National Merit Scholar hopeful.
If you have 1 athlete and 2 legacies ahead of you and you are the smartest kid in the class you are 100% getting in.
Anonymous
09/18/2019 07:15
Subject: Re:Average SSAT needed for GP, SJ, and Gonz
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So anyone have a sense of HSPT scores needed for Gonzaga and SJC for the boy’s without legacy or athletic hooks?
It just needs to be better than the other boys in your specific schools 8th grade class.
Each 8th grade gets a certain number of spots per year. You are only competing against the kids in your school.
It’s not quite that simple for GZ at least. Our school has had years where no boys got in and others where a several got in. I would say a high gpa is important - mostly As and maybe a few Bs and at least 85 percentile on the HSPT.
That is extremely rare and I’m surprised your principal still has a job... if they do.
You are competing with your 8th grade in this order...
Legacies, athletes, grades
Look at how many go per year give or take 1 or 2 spots and see if anybody is blocking your child.
I don’t understand. What is extremely rare and what about the principal? (Clueless first- timer here with 8th grade DS at parish school.).
If you school generally send 1 or 2 kids to GZ then a 0 is not rare. But if they send 5+ each year to have 0 is impossible. The principals job is to get kids into one of their top 2 picks. That is his/her job.
Anonymous
09/18/2019 06:40
Subject: Average SSAT needed for GP, SJ, and Gonz
I now plenty of kids that got into Gprep with 50-70% scores. The application and its essay question were key components and they interviewed well. Scores aren't everything but, they can help when stellar.
Anonymous
09/16/2019 18:08
Subject: Re:Average SSAT needed for GP, SJ, and Gonz
PP - You obviously understand all of this based on experience.
But to parents, grades and test scores are easy to understand.
And if your son or daughter has high test scores and grades, you might prefer it if those were the only criteria used.
That would certainly make the Admissions job easier. Just rank the applicants academically on a piece of paper and draw a line under the last name you have space for.
Schools aren't about to do this.
Parents who cannot see the world of these schools as the schools see it will continue to be mystified by results.
But to parents, grades and test scores are easy to understand.
And if your son or daughter has high test scores and grades, you might prefer it if those were the only criteria used.
That would certainly make the Admissions job easier. Just rank the applicants academically on a piece of paper and draw a line under the last name you have space for.
Schools aren't about to do this.
Parents who cannot see the world of these schools as the schools see it will continue to be mystified by results.
pbraverman
09/16/2019 09:28
Subject: Re:Average SSAT needed for GP, SJ, and Gonz
Anonymous wrote:Understanding Admissions —- to the degree it’s possible —- requires you to look at this from the perspective of the school.
On any campus, there are different constituencies that Admissions has to serve. The CFO wants full classes and the tuition revenue associated with that. The coaches want athletes. The Drama department wants people interested in Theater. The faculty wants smart, hard-working kids. The Alumni want their kids and their friends admitted. And the list of constituencies goes on.
Above all, they don’t want problem kids or problem parents. They are expected to screen these out.
Admissions has to serve all these constituencies. and they have to maintain relationships over a period
Of years with schools that supply them applicants.
Admissions is going to be judged based on the satisfying the needs of almost everyone on campus.
From the outside the process looks capricious and unfair. But to the school, it’s rational.
This.
If parents understand only one thing about the admission process, it should be: THERE IS NO FORMULA. I've worked with kids who have SSAT scores in the teens who were offered admission at the most competitive schools in the DC area. I've worked with kids with SSATs in the upper 90s who were rejected. (In those rejection cases, I was not surprised, as there were serious flaws in their candidacies that were not directly related to grades or scores.)
Those simple facts should make it apparent that grades and scores do not tell the whole story, and my consistent experience is that — assuming a student's grades and scores are in the broad range of those among students who are accepted — the bulk of parents overestimate the importance of scores and grades in the process.