The Quaker private school's alumni include Tricia Nixon, Albert Gore III and Chelsea Clinton. Three of Vice President-elect Joe Biden's granddaughters are current students, and sources told The Washington Post that Malia Obama said she wanted to go to Sidwell Friends because she and one of the Biden girls had become friends.

Barack and Michelle Obama had been urged to send Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, to public school, something that has not happened since Amy Carter in the 1970s. Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama, said the couple weighed "a number of great schools."

"In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now," she said.

Sasha will be in Sidwell's lower school in Bethesda, Md., while Malia will be in the middle school in Washington.