How to Get Into Sidwell Friends School: A Guide for Prospective Students

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Quick Answer for Busy Parents

Sidwell Friends admits most new Middle and Upper School students into three grades: sixth, seventh, and ninth. Applications open in August through the Ravenna platform, the Family Information Form is due December 1, and all remaining requirements close December 31. Applicants to those grades submit recommendations from current math and English teachers, prior and current-year report cards, an on-campus assessment, a video, and required in-school standardized testing. The SSAT and ISEE are optional. The School publishes no acceptance rate, but with roughly 16 seats in sixth grade, 16 in seventh, and 30 to 35 in ninth, admission is highly competitive.

Why Do Families Choose Sidwell Friends?

Thomas W. Sidwell founded the School in 1883, and it remains the only Quaker school in the nation’s capital. Its motto, Eluceat Omnibus Lux, translates as let the light shine out from all, and points to the Quaker belief in that of God in everyone. Families arrive for the academic reputation and the college outcomes. They stay, generally, for something harder to quantify: a school that builds shared silence into the weekly timetable and asks students to let their lives speak rather than let their transcripts speak.

Niche currently ranks Sidwell Friends first among private high schools in the District of Columbia and first for college preparatory private high schools across the Washington area. Every graduate enrolls in college.

Sidwell Friends at a Glance

How Hard Is It to Get Into Sidwell Friends?

Sidwell Friends does not publish an acceptance rate. Figures circulating on third-party sites are unverified, and we would rather give you something accurate than something quotable. The honest measure is capacity. The School fills most new places in what it calls expansion grades, and publishes those numbers itself: roughly 16 new students in sixth grade, 16 in seventh, and 30 to 35 in ninth. Every other grade depends entirely on attrition, and the School describes twelfth grade enrollment as rare. Understanding how competitive elite private schools actually are starts with seat counts rather than percentages.

What gets weighed: the recommendations from current math and English teachers, the assessment, the applicant video, report cards from both the prior and current year, and the family meeting. Because Sidwell keeps no GPA and has removed AP designations, there is no single number for a file to hide behind. Admissions reads for a child who thinks independently and for a family whose values fit a Quaker school.

Families weighing Sidwell usually look at a small set of DC peers at the same time, most often Georgetown Day School and, for girls, National Cathedral School. Each has a genuinely different character, and we would encourage comparing the strongest private schools in Washington, DC on culture rather than on ranking tables alone.

Top Tips for Applying

• Target an expansion grade. Sixth, seventh, and ninth are where the seats genuinely are.
• Open the Family Information Form in August; December 1 is earlier than most families expect.
• Do not request teacher recommendations before November 1. They will be rejected.
• Treat first-quarter grades as part of the application, because Sidwell collects them.
• Register for a fall tour or information session early, since capacity is limited.

Best Practices for Families

• Send only what is requested. The School states this plainly.
• Read the Quaker testimonies before the family meeting.
• Prepare your child to speak for themselves rather than to recite.
• Be candid about fit. Weekly Meeting for Worship and a service requirement suit some children and not others.
• If you are relocating to Washington, start early. Sidwell holds no places for later arrivals.

Questions About Getting Into Sidwell

Which grades does Sidwell Friends admit into?

For the Middle and Upper School, the expansion grades are 6, 7, and 9. Other grades open only when a current student departs.

Does Sidwell Friends interview applicants?

Families schedule a parent or guardian meeting by December 15. For ninth grade applicants this is held virtually and framed as an interview. The student’s own contribution comes primarily through the assessment day and the applicant video.

Is there an advantage for Quaker families?

The School states that it gives preference in admissions to members of the Religious Society of Friends, while otherwise not discriminating on the basis of religion. The overwhelming majority of students are not Quaker.

The Sidwell Friends Admissions Process, Step by Step

Every stage runs through Ravenna. Our private school admissions consultants guide families through each one.

1. Create a Ravenna account and student profile. This is the hub for forms, events, and status.
2. Complete the Family Information Form, due December 1. Allow twenty to thirty minutes.
3. Authorize your child’s current school to send transcripts and prior-year report cards, due December 15.
4. Request confidential recommendations from current math and English teachers, no earlier than November 1, due December 15.
5. Register for and attend the Sidwell Friends School Assessment, or a Be Our Guest Day, during the fall.
6. Schedule the parent or guardian meeting by December 15.
7. Submit the applicant video, the current-year first quarter report card, and testing by December 31.
8. Admitted students are invited to a full shadow day in March.

Sidwell Friends Admissions Calendar and Key Dates

Tours, information sessions, and open houses run through the fall and are booked via Ravenna. Specific dates are published there rather than fixed annually, so confirm rather than assuming last year’s calendar repeats.

Sidwell Friends Application Requirements

Teacher Recommendations

Two confidential forms, from the applicant’s current mathematics and English teachers. The November 1 embargo is absolute: forms received earlier are not accepted. The School’s reasoning is that a teacher needs a genuine term with a student first, which is sound but compresses the window for anyone who has recently changed schools.

Academic Records

Previous year’s report cards by December 15, then the current year’s first quarter or first trimester report by December 31. Fall performance is therefore part of the file rather than incidental to it.

Assessment Day: Two Formats

A student completes one or the other, never both. Admitted students are separately invited to a full shadow day in March.

The Applicant Video

Required by December 31 for grades 6, 7, and 9, with instructions issued after the Family Information Form is filed. This is the component families most often mishandle, usually by over-preparing it. A scripted answer delivered smoothly is transparent to an admissions reader and lands especially badly at a school whose culture prizes plain speech. What works is a child thinking out loud, in their own register, about something they genuinely care about.

Testing

Standardized in-school testing is required. Admissions testing is optional, and ninth grade applicants who elect to test may submit either the SSAT or the ISEE. Optional does not mean ignored, but Sidwell has deliberately limited how far a score can carry a file.

The Family Meeting

Booked by December 15 and virtual for ninth grade applicants. Admissions is testing whether a family understands the community it is joining. Sound interview preparation here is less about rehearsing answers and more about arriving with a real view of why this school, specifically.

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Questions About Academics and Testing

Why has Sidwell Friends removed AP courses?

A faculty Committee on Curricular Review evaluated the role of AP courses in the Upper School, and the School moved away from the designation. Since 2023-24 its profile to colleges highlights particularly rigorous courses instead of listing AP scores. The School notes that AP examination results, not the AP label on a transcript, determine any academic benefit.

Does Sidwell Friends calculate GPAs?

No. The School does not generate GPAs and therefore does not weight courses.

What does it take to graduate?

A minimum of twenty credits, plus physical education, a work program, community service, and senior projects. Students take a maximum of six courses, and the sixth only in the arts or computer science.

Student Life at Sidwell Friends

Academics

Upper School students work across English, history, mathematics, science, classical and modern languages, and the arts, with ninth and tenth graders required to enroll in five core subjects. The Computer Science and Engineering Program is a genuine strength. Language offerings run to Chinese, French, Latin, and Spanish, and the Global Citizenship program carries a dedicated Chinese studies strand, with Mandarin starting in Middle School. A learning support team works with classroom teachers where students need it.

Activities

More than 65 clubs and activities run across the divisions. Upper School clubs are student-led with faculty sponsorship and include Model UN, Student Democrats, robotics, chess, tea, microfinance, and the Female Empowerment Mission, alongside affinity groups such as the Black Student Union and the Biracial Club. Middle School options include the Chinese Culture Club, Globetrotters, the Heritage Spanish Speakers Club, Math Counts, and the Animal Welfare Club. Student publications include the newspaper Horizon, the satirical Oat, and the art magazine Quarterly. Clubs are student-founded and shift year to year, so treat any list as a snapshot.

Athletics

Thirteen sports across 22 teams, with boys competing in the Mid-Atlantic Conference and girls in the Independent School League. Teams are known as the Quakers, and the athletics identity centers on a fox, a nod to George Fox, who founded the Religious Society of Friends. Grades 7 and 8 play interscholastic sport during the final periods of the school day, while grades 9 through 12 practice and compete after school. The girls basketball program won the inaugural State Champions Invitational national title in 2022.

Arts

Visual and performing arts run throughout the Middle and Upper School, and the arts count toward graduation rather than sitting to one side of it. Upper School students can pursue theater and technical theater, jazz ensemble, chamber orchestra, chorus and chamber chorus, and dance.

Summer Programs

Sidwell Summer operates across both campuses and is open to students from beyond the School as well as those enrolled. Offerings change year to year and span academic enrichment, arts, technology, and sport, so check the current season rather than relying on a prior year’s list.

Notable Sidwell Friends Alumni

1. Chelsea Clinton, writer and global health advocate, daughter of President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton.
2. Malia Obama, filmmaker and Harvard graduate, daughter of President Barack Obama.
3. Sasha Obama, University of Southern California graduate, daughter of President Barack Obama.
4. Tricia Nixon Cox, daughter of President Richard Nixon, active with medical research institutions and the Richard Nixon Foundation.
5. Julie Nixon Eisenhower, author and former assistant managing editor of The Saturday Evening Post.
6. Archibald Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt and a decorated United States Army officer.
7. Setsuko, Princess Chichibu, member of the Japanese Imperial Family.
8. Walter Gilbert, molecular biology pioneer and Nobel laureate in Chemistry.
9. Bill Nye, engineer and science communicator.
10. Nana Meriwether, Miss USA 2012, two-time NCAA All-American volleyball player, and co-founder of the Meriwether Foundation.

What Families Say

It has always been our dream to send our son to Sidwell Friends. We heard about Cardinal Education from an acquaintance and started working with them when my son was in 7th grade. With their outstanding coaching, tutoring, and mentoring, our son got accepted into 9th grade, two years after.

— Parent of a 9th-Grade Student

A Final Word

Sidwell asks a specific question of every applicant, and it is not what have you achieved. A school that keeps no GPA, weights no course, and requires senior projects and community service is asking who your child is becoming. Families who hear that question and answer it honestly tend to do well here. Families who answer a different question tend not to, however strong the application looks on paper. If you would like help with either, we are in the Washington, DC area and glad to talk.

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