What’s Something About Your School You Would Have LOVED To Know Before Enrolling

[Anonymous]

Wish I’d had psychic insight into our grade cohort. I learned the hard way that a school experience is highly dependent on who your child is in a grade with, and older grade cultures and overall school culture don’t do much to affect the wrong mix of kids in a grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Your school”. You mean the ones I attended? Or do you mean my kid’s school?

The way dcum invest so much of their own identity into their kid’s school is pathological.

The school where I pay tuition. Does that work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were new to private school and picked a k-8 for our child - were told by k-8 admissions office when we were applying, "we have great placement for HS, look at all the great schools our 8th graders get admitted to" - wish we had known that the HS chances were heavily influenced by whether or not you were a recruited athlete, had a sibling at the HS already, were a big donor at the k-8 school - guess it's a good lesson for college.

Ours is similar- on paper it seems to send a lot of kids to a desirable HS. But from the inside it’s well-known that they’re all legacies and disproportionately boys, with even girls who are legacies with better stats getting shut out.

This. Never count on a private to get you anywhere competitive if you don’t meet one of those categories. Your best bet is a diverse public school with some diverse activities.

Uh oh - a public school parent found this thread!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wish I had known that there were so many vocal Trump supporting families and country club members.

Is this at Visi?

I have not seen this at Visi - how are families politically vocal at a HS anyway?

Bumper stickers in the carpool line.

Trump bumper stickers on cars at Visi should not be surprising to anyone. Isn't the profile of a typical Visi family conservative, successful, wealthy, country club, Catholic types, who are more likely than not to support Trump? And it shouldn't be problematic either. We live in a divided, but free, country, so people on both sides can and do support their candidate.

is there something bad about this that I am missing?

Visi is actually not a ‘political bumper sticker car’ type of place. Usually the only stickers are Visi or Gonzaga stickers and ones identifying a kid’s sport. As a parent, you spend FOREVER in the Visi carpool line so I can say this with confidence. Although you can’t tell by cars, you can tell by interactions. My DD has friends whose families support Trump. She says if they had not mentioned it, she would not have guessed so girls aren’t exactly going around waving Trump flags. That said there are some obviously nationally well known political families whose DDs attend - largely Republican - however some local Dems - i.e., Angela Alsobrooks’ daughter graduated from there last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would have loved to connect with other parents who came from public school. I still don't feel like we've found them.

Are you at Visi? Or are you just saying in general?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That some of the really cool electives in the course catalogue aren't actually offered every year, or ever.

There's a secret menu of course options that you have to know to ask about because it isn't advertised anywhere (e.g. extra AP classes as independent study).

Just because the student handbook says there's always transportation provided for something, like having a bus for away games for a sports team or for practices that are off-campus, doesn't mean it actually is.

Which school is this?

Ireton

Can you talk more about the types of electives/courses that are actually not offered? And how do figure out the “secret APs.” We are looking at BI for next year!

Electives depend on student interest so if they don't have enough people sign up for something, it won't be offered. Guitar Ensemble comes to mind; there's actually one Guitar class with Guitar 1, 2, and Ensemble combined together. There was a Shakespeare Seminar listed in the catalogue for years that never happened and they finally took it out this year. The STEM and Art electives are usually popular enough, English and Social Studies not as much. The school won't be able to say for sure if something will be offered next year but you could ask what the roster size is for this year and what their minimum is; if there are 15 kids enrolled right now, there's a good chance it'll be offered again. If it's only 7, that could be one that's borderline.

By secret menu, I mean that the school is very accommodating to kids who want to challenge themselves. It sounds like a positive thing and it can be, absolutely! But for competitive kids who are trying to take the most rigorous course load offered by the school, it can feel like there's no ceiling on whether they're doing "enough". If a student goes in thinking they're bound by what the handbook says for AP pre-reqs or assumes they need to choose classes within the confines of an 8 course schedule, they come to learn that there are kids who have asked and received permission to take another AP as a 9th class via independent study, or to take Theology over the summer even if it's not for credit recovery so they can fit in another AP during the school year, or to take Honors Physics over the summer so they can move right into AP Physics. And pro tip, grades for summer classes don't count towards the GPA so it's a good way to get non-weighted classes like PE off the transcript so they don't weigh the GPA down. These are just some examples I've heard about from my child and other parents, I have no idea what else is possible because it feels sometimes like the sky is the limit. Which again, is a great thing and it's not AT ALL a dig against BI, we really love the school and it's fantastic they're willing to work with students that way to maximize their education. It's just hard to help my child manage the stress when it feels like we're constantly saying "Oh we didn't know they would allow someone to do that, that's good to know".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wish I had known that there were so many vocal Trump supporting families and country club members.

Is this at Visi?

I have not seen this at Visi - how are families politically vocal at a HS anyway?

Bumper stickers in the carpool line.

Trump bumper stickers on cars at Visi should not be surprising to anyone. Isn't the profile of a typical Visi family conservative, successful, wealthy, country club, Catholic types, who are more likely than not to support Trump? And it shouldn't be problematic either. We live in a divided, but free, country, so people on both sides can and do support their candidate.

is there something bad about this that I am missing?

Yes, you are missing a lot. If you support trump, you support a convicted felon who is also an overt racist and misogynist. He’s also a criminally convicted rapist.

Being a trump supporter is shorthand for you’re a POS person. I actually appreciate the bumper sticker so I know who I’m dealing with upfront.

[Anonymous]

I wish I knew the this level of authoritarianism and arrogance.

[Anonymous]

Parents will try and deter your child from applying to top schools because of their own issues.

[Anonymous]

That they lie about the percentage of students who go on to 4-year colleges (it's not 100% like they claim - hasn't been the whole time we've been here).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That they lie about the percentage of students who go on to 4-year colleges (it's not 100% like they claim - hasn't been the whole time we've been here).

That’s actually reassuring to me, because the financial benefits of having DC go to CC then transfer to a 4-year are really appealing, but it’s felt really weird to think about being the family that dropped that percentage to 99.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That they lie about the percentage of students who go on to 4-year colleges (it's not 100% like they claim - hasn't been the whole time we've been here).

That’s actually reassuring to me, because the financial benefits of having DC go to CC then transfer to a 4-year are really appealing, but it’s felt really weird to think about being the family that dropped that percentage to 99.

I consider it false advertising. What's wrong with stating 99% vs 100% from the very beginning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That they lie about the percentage of students who go on to 4-year colleges (it's not 100% like they claim - hasn't been the whole time we've been here).

That’s actually reassuring to me, because the financial benefits of having DC go to CC then transfer to a 4-year are really appealing, but it’s felt really weird to think about being the family that dropped that percentage to 99.

Feels like they would still say 100% in your scenario.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That they lie about the percentage of students who go on to 4-year colleges (it's not 100% like they claim - hasn't been the whole time we've been here).

That’s actually reassuring to me, because the financial benefits of having DC go to CC then transfer to a 4-year are really appealing, but it’s felt really weird to think about being the family that dropped that percentage to 99.

You get what you pay for and your kids experience socially and community wise will be so different especially transferring in 2 years late don’t do that to your kid unless you have to

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That some of the really cool electives in the course catalogue aren't actually offered every year, or ever.

There's a secret menu of course options that you have to know to ask about because it isn't advertised anywhere (e.g. extra AP classes as independent study).

Just because the student handbook says there's always transportation provided for something, like having a bus for away games for a sports team or for practices that are off-campus, doesn't mean it actually is.

Which school is this?

Ireton

Can you talk more about the types of electives/courses that are actually not offered? And how do figure out the “secret APs.” We are looking at BI for next year!

Electives depend on student interest so if they don't have enough people sign up for something, it won't be offered. Guitar Ensemble comes to mind; there's actually one Guitar class with Guitar 1, 2, and Ensemble combined together. There was a Shakespeare Seminar listed in the catalogue for years that never happened and they finally took it out this year. The STEM and Art electives are usually popular enough, English and Social Studies not as much. The school won't be able to say for sure if something will be offered next year but you could ask what the roster size is for this year and what their minimum is; if there are 15 kids enrolled right now, there's a good chance it'll be offered again. If it's only 7, that could be one that's borderline.

By secret menu, I mean that the school is very accommodating to kids who want to challenge themselves. It sounds like a positive thing and it can be, absolutely! But for competitive kids who are trying to take the most rigorous course load offered by the school, it can feel like there's no ceiling on whether they're doing "enough". If a student goes in thinking they're bound by what the handbook says for AP pre-reqs or assumes they need to choose classes within the confines of an 8 course schedule, they come to learn that there are kids who have asked and received permission to take another AP as a 9th class via independent study, or to take Theology over the summer even if it's not for credit recovery so they can fit in another AP during the school year, or to take Honors Physics over the summer so they can move right into AP Physics. And pro tip, grades for summer classes don't count towards the GPA so it's a good way to get non-weighted classes like PE off the transcript so they don't weigh the GPA down. These are just some examples I've heard about from my child and other parents, I have no idea what else is possible because it feels sometimes like the sky is the limit. Which again, is a great thing and it's not AT ALL a dig against BI, we really love the school and it's fantastic they're willing to work with students that way to maximize their education. It's just hard to help my child manage the stress when it feels like we're constantly saying "Oh we didn't know they would allow someone to do that, that's good to know".

This is all extremely helpful insight. Thank you! -Poster interested in BI