I have heard about some of the cliquey social dynamics with the 8th grade class at SSSAS and this is definitely a concern for a potential incoming new student.

Anonymous wrote:At the virtual Admissions Open House for SSSAS, we were told 42 students in the incoming 9th grade (representing 2/3 of the class) were new to the school this year. Just double checked my notes! Things must have changed in recent years.

You need to refresh your math skills. The 9th grade has 114 students, 42/114 is 0.368 which is 36.8%, not 2/3 of the class.

Anonymous wrote:From their Wiki site:

The Middle School, representing grades 6 through 8, has 306 students total with the following breakdown: 97 in Sixth Grade, 99 in Seventh Grade, and 110 in Eighth Grade. The Upper School, representing grades 9 through 12, has 453 students total with the following breakdown: 114 in Ninth Grade, 106 in Tenth Grade, 115 in Eleventh Grade, and 118 in Twelfth Grade.[1]

I have an 8th grader at SSSAS now and it is a gigantic grade and has been oversubscribed since K. As of today the directory says they have 103 students, while the 9th grade has 114 (so a difference of only 11). For comparison, the 7th grade has 94 and 6th has 86. In the past there has been an 8th grade exodus for boarding schools and some of the big Catholic boys schools (like Gonzaga) but I have no idea how many people are applying out. The 8th grade is also very girl heavy, I believe it is about 2/3 girls in the grade.

Also you should talk to some current 8th grade parents re that grade as the majority of them will probably still be there in 9th. There are some strong cliques and other issues that seem to be specific to that grade, I am not sure if it is due to the fact that it is so large for SSSAS or the gender imbalance or what, but everyone knows about it and IMO it's a real problem.

At the virtual Admissions Open House for SSSAS, we were told 42 students in the incoming 9th grade (representing 2/3 of the class) were new to the school this year. Just double checked my notes! Things must have changed in recent years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From their Wiki site:

The Middle School, representing grades 6 through 8, has 306 students total with the following breakdown: 97 in Sixth Grade, 99 in Seventh Grade, and 110 in Eighth Grade. The Upper School, representing grades 9 through 12, has 453 students total with the following breakdown: 114 in Ninth Grade, 106 in Tenth Grade, 115 in Eleventh Grade, and 118 in Twelfth Grade.[1]

My freshman was incoming this year from a new school; there were at least 25-30 new kids.

This past year was somewhat unusual because a lot of families moved away during the pandemic (I know this was true at some other schools as well).

Anyway I think the Wikipedia page is out of date too, it’s usually 100 in 8th, 115-120 in 9th, so 15-20% expansion.

I also heard the current 8th grade is quite full.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks like on average 4 graduates a year (out of a typical class of 115) get into an Ivy. Yea, that's worth $45k.

yup and I'll bet on average 2-3 of those are girl's lax players.

I cannot believe I’m on here correcting this because the attacks on St Stephens college list are so ridiculous, BUT…

Around 5% of the graduating class (looking at last 5 years) goes to an Ivy, Stanford, or MIT
Around 10% goes to Williams, Georgetown, John’s Hopkins, and similar top private schools
Around 20-25% goes to UVA, William and Mary, or other top public schools
The rest go to a mix of solid colleges and universities.

No one is going to argue that this compares to Sidwell, where something like 18% of kids go to an Ivy. But not all of us want an academically intense experience for our kids. And of course St Stephens sends more kids to top colleges than a local public school, mostly because the population of kids is richer.

And not all of our kids want Ivy. SSSAS does an awesome job of helping kids find the right college based on fit not name.

Anonymous wrote:I have a spouse who teaches at BI and the staff there is very dissatisfied. The Catholicism is a huge part of things each day, naturally. They take a big group to the Right to Life March each year and many are Trump supporters. SSSA is equal in terms of academics and more laid back. I would never send my kid to BI.

The only thing that BI came close to SSSAS in was girls lacrosse and with Rick gone, that’s gone too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From their Wiki site:

The Middle School, representing grades 6 through 8, has 306 students total with the following breakdown: 97 in Sixth Grade, 99 in Seventh Grade, and 110 in Eighth Grade. The Upper School, representing grades 9 through 12, has 453 students total with the following breakdown: 114 in Ninth Grade, 106 in Tenth Grade, 115 in Eleventh Grade, and 118 in Twelfth Grade.[1]

My freshman was incoming this year from a new school; there were at least 25-30 new kids.

This past year was somewhat unusual because a lot of families moved away during the pandemic (I know this was true at some other schools as well).

Anyway I think the Wikipedia page is out of date too, it’s usually 100 in 8th, 115-120 in 9th, so 15-20% expansion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s say my DC is high achieving. If the end goal is UVA, where should by DC attend: BI, SSSAS or West Potomac?

If your DC is academically high achieving and doesn't have any special interests which might be better served at one of the other schools, I would just go to West Pot. Save your money.

I agree with this.
Signed, mom of kid in 2nd year UVA whose kid went to ACHC.

Anonymous wrote:From their Wiki site:

The Middle School, representing grades 6 through 8, has 306 students total with the following breakdown: 97 in Sixth Grade, 99 in Seventh Grade, and 110 in Eighth Grade. The Upper School, representing grades 9 through 12, has 453 students total with the following breakdown: 114 in Ninth Grade, 106 in Tenth Grade, 115 in Eleventh Grade, and 118 in Twelfth Grade.[1]

My freshman was incoming this year from a new school; there were at least 25-30 new kids.

From their Wiki site:

The Middle School, representing grades 6 through 8, has 306 students total with the following breakdown: 97 in Sixth Grade, 99 in Seventh Grade, and 110 in Eighth Grade. The Upper School, representing grades 9 through 12, has 453 students total with the following breakdown: 114 in Ninth Grade, 106 in Tenth Grade, 115 in Eleventh Grade, and 118 in Twelfth Grade.[1]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have friends who went to SSSA starting in 9th. They said it was very hard to get into a friend group. Many of these kids have been together through yes and MS. Other than that I have heard great things about both schools.

Definitely something to consider, but they add a decent number in 9th so 2/3 of the incoming class are new to the school. Are a lot of incoming BI students peers from local Catholic k-8 schools like St. Mary’s?

Not even close. Maybe a fifth or sixth of freshmen are new at Saints.

How many students in the high school? How many are added in 9th?

We applied to ninth last year and were accepted. We asked this question and were told it was over 1/3 of the 9th grade would be new in 9th grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have friends who went to SSSA starting in 9th. They said it was very hard to get into a friend group. Many of these kids have been together through yes and MS. Other than that I have heard great things about both schools.

Definitely something to consider, but they add a decent number in 9th so 2/3 of the incoming class are new to the school. Are a lot of incoming BI students peers from local Catholic k-8 schools like St. Mary’s?

Not even close. Maybe a fifth or sixth of freshmen are new at Saints.

How many students in the high school? How many are added in 9th?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have friends who went to SSSA starting in 9th. They said it was very hard to get into a friend group. Many of these kids have been together through yes and MS. Other than that I have heard great things about both schools.

Definitely something to consider, but they add a decent number in 9th so 2/3 of the incoming class are new to the school. Are a lot of incoming BI students peers from local Catholic k-8 schools like St. Mary’s?

Not even close. Maybe a fifth or sixth of freshmen are new at Saints.

Anonymous wrote:Let’s say my DC is high achieving. If the end goal is UVA, where should by DC attend: BI, SSSAS or West Potomac?

If your DC is academically high achieving and doesn't have any special interests which might be better served at one of the other schools, I would just go to West Pot. Save your money.