Private School Decisions 2022 (Dallas, Howe: loans, law school, universities)

[DALLASMOM3289]

GH Pre k is full .. called admission office today.

[CMC_TX]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Well, this is the quietest this board has ever been on the Friday afternoon before Spring Break. It was finally our family’s turn to wait for 4pm this year.

Applied to 3 “tier 1/tier 2” schools for PK. Got accepted to our first choice which is wonderful because it’s only acceptance we got. 2 waitpools including a somewhat shocking wait pool from a “safety” school. I won’t be saying which ones because of the very small number of new students at each school and my fairly active participation on this public forum.

All of the decision letters mentioned “record breaking” applications, an “unconventional and competitive year”, “incredibly difficult decisions”, etc.

Hope that other families on here are celebrating good news this afternoon!

Did you tour Providence and what was your impression? Do you categorize it as “tier 2?”

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by CMC_TX

Did you tour Providence and what was your impression? Do you categorize it as “tier 2?”

No, I know a lot of families there & they love but the school is not a good fit for our fam so we didn’t even consider it. I think it’s an incredible academic program that yields excellent high school prep & matriculation for those who are interested in continuing at top tier private schools. We have friends who went through 8th at Providence and are now thriving at Hockaday, St Marks, & HP.

[Salinas81]

Hello. Anyone here on waitlist for St Marks or Greenhill 5th grade?

Thanks

[JTC Mom]

Surprising (to me, based on divergence from prior years experience)...4 from CKS were admitted to St. Mark's 5th grade. There are only 25 boys per grade at CKS so that is a relatively huge part of the class, especially given that St. Marks admits only 25 total in 5th. 7 were also admitted to Cistercian (some overlap, of course). That is a lot but a little more normal for a large CKS group to get into Cistercian.

[Citymom2020]

Originally Posted by Salinas81

Hello. Anyone here on waitlist for St Marks or Greenhill 5th grade?

Thanks

We are, haven’t heard anything tho in terms of movement off the waitlist. Have you?

[texasdallas4321]

Originally Posted by JTC Mom

Surprising (to me, based on divergence from prior years experience)...4 from CKS were admitted to St. Mark's 5th grade. There are only 25 boys per grade at CKS so that is a relatively huge part of the class, especially given that St. Marks admits only 25 total in 5th. 7 were also admitted to Cistercian (some overlap, of course). That is a lot but a little more normal for a large CKS group to get into Cistercian.

For the sake of accuracy, this is incorrect (my son is in the class). 3 applied to SMS and got in (the 4th pulled out mid application process). 10 got into Cistercian (yes, with SMS admittance overlap), 1 is waitlisted. Agree this is a very large group.

[A5MO]

That seems like a huge admissions rate for both schools to pull that many from one school.

Speaks great for School on flip side.

[Salinas81]

Originally Posted by Citymom2020

We are, haven’t heard anything tho in terms of movement off the waitlist. Have you?

No we have not.

[DFWGuy422]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Just a little contrarian thinking.

Stacy Dale and Alan Krueger completed two studies regarding smart kids with excellent bonafides and Ivy League and other hyper-selective school admissions. Between students who were accepted to these schools and those who were declined with similar inbound metrics there were between zero and very, very little long term benefits enjoyed by those admitted to these selective suite of schools. Further, within the second study SD and AK noted the the same per students admitted into selective schools and those who didn't apply to selective schools. And keep in mind the data sets were several thousands deep.

This quote sums up SD and AK's thesis.....

"However, when we adjust for unobserved student ability by controlling for the average SAT score of the colleges that students applied to, our estimates of the return to college selectivity fall substantially and are generally indistinguishable from zero."


It's worth noting that SD and AK found that some minority students did seem to bo better over time attending selective schools than whites, Asians, Jewish people.


Why did I post that?

It's not that school quality does not matter. It's that most people wildly overestimate the value of "alpha" schools per individual children vs. longer term outcomes.

A kid who looks to dominate at SMS, Hockaday, Cistercian or Greenhill would do the same and be no worse off academically at ESD, Parish, UA, Jesuit etc. I've seen this playout with my own children.

_______________________

This is super interesting and I'll be sure to check it out. I very much agree based on my observations. I think once you hit a certain threshold of school the returns for going up much more are fairly diminishing. The same bright kid could do equally well at UT vs Yale provided that comfort is similar, and the same logic would seemingly apply at the high school level even with more amorphous rankings.