Don't understand the crazy about sidwell friend

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just 1 point loser than DC. Use the % to compare them.

We all know that TJ kids academically are much more endowed than any top schools in DC/MD/VA. Why can we just accept this as a fact. My own DCs are not in TJ, but by all academic standards, TJ is well above any top private.

What private school(s) do you think come right after TJ? Our DD is a great student, loves math and applied to TJ this year. Everybody who knows her thinks that she has the highest chances of being accepted, but I'm thinking about plan B. Since now is the private school application season, perhaps it's worth applying to a couple of private schools just in case. Which private schools would you apply?

Holton

[Anonymous]

Sigh. Troll alert.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It got popular when Chelsea went there, and then when the Obama girls went there. This city is full of a$$ kissers, and people wanted to be there just to be able to say they send their kids to school with the president's kids.

I am not saying that social climbers are absent from the community. Nor am I saying that Sidwell is unique in being able to offer these attributes. But, reducing the many and varied reasons to a stupid axiom speaks only to your ignorance.

The Sidwell (or "Friends" as it used to be called) families of old see a major difference. Trust me.

And, the Sidwell Friends of old was segregated. What is your point? The world has changed and so should institutions.

The point is that the parents used to be interested and cultured. Now they're social climbers. One of the K dads a year ago was 80 years old! Come on.[/quote]

I don't get it. You think a dad is a social climber because he is in his 80s? The 80-year olds I know seem much more chill and comfortable in their own skin.

Yeah. Dude is in his 80s and still getting some action! Maybe he could run a little seminar for all of the worn out, but younger, DHs among the K parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It got popular when Chelsea went there, and then when the Obama girls went there. This city is full of a$$ kissers, and people wanted to be there just to be able to say they send their kids to school with the president's kids.

I am not saying that social climbers are absent from the community. Nor am I saying that Sidwell is unique in being able to offer these attributes. But, reducing the many and varied reasons to a stupid axiom speaks only to your ignorance.

The Sidwell (or "Friends" as it used to be called) families of old see a major difference. Trust me.

And, the Sidwell Friends of old was segregated. What is your point? The world has changed and so should institutions.

The point is that the parents used to be interested and cultured. Now they're social climbers. One of the K dads a year ago was 80 years old! Come on.[/quote]

Exactly. Maybe the 80 year old could give a pep talk to my late 30s DH.

I don't get it. You think a dad is a social climber because he is in his 80s? The 80-year olds I know seem much more chill and comfortable in their own skin.

Yeah. Dude is in his 80s and still getting some action! Maybe he could run a little seminar for all of the worn out, but younger, DHs among the K parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It got popular when Chelsea went there, and then when the Obama girls went there. This city is full of a$$ kissers, and people wanted to be there just to be able to say they send their kids to school with the president's kids.

I am not saying that social climbers are absent from the community. Nor am I saying that Sidwell is unique in being able to offer these attributes. But, reducing the many and varied reasons to a stupid axiom speaks only to your ignorance.

The Sidwell (or "Friends" as it used to be called) families of old see a major difference. Trust me.

And, the Sidwell Friends of old was segregated. What is your point? The world has changed and so should institutions.

The point is that the parents used to be interested and cultured. Now they're social climbers. One of the K dads a year ago was 80 years old! Come on.[/quote]

Exactly. Maybe the 80 year old could give a pep talk to my late 30s DH.

I don't get it. You think a dad is a social climber because he is in his 80s? The 80-year olds I know seem much more chill and comfortable in their own skin.

Yeah. Dude is in his 80s and still getting some action! Maybe he could run a little seminar for all of the worn out, but younger, DHs among the K parents.

Exactly. Maybe the 80 year old could give a pep talk to my late 30s DH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell is not for intellectuals; it's for the DC glitterati.

Oh give it a rest. I just looked at the grade lists for my two kids there. One grade has 4 people I'd consider either (a) wealthy enough to donate something like $100K to a college, or (b) important enough to rate as "famous for DC." The other grade has just 2. The other 100+ parents are just regular working people. Yes, they certainly skew more toward well paying jobs like doctors or lawyers, but none of the others are famous or fabulously wealthy. Some of you have unrealistic understandings of the families that actually attend these schools.

Funniest thing I've read all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell is not for intellectuals; it's for the DC glitterati.

Oh give it a rest. I just looked at the grade lists for my two kids there. One grade has 4 people I'd consider either (a) wealthy enough to donate something like $100K to a college, or (b) important enough to rate as "famous for DC." The other grade has just 2. The other 100+ parents are just regular working people. Yes, they certainly skew more toward well paying jobs like doctors or lawyers, but none of the others are famous or fabulously wealthy. Some of you have unrealistic understandings of the families that actually attend these schools.

Funniest thing I've read all day.

Just 100 Joe the Plumbers.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in DC and I'm pretty old. Sidwell and St. Albans/NCS were always the "it" schools. That was true as far back as the 1970s and it's still true today.
The city has grown and changed dramatically. I attribute the "crazy" about Sidwell to the "crazy" parent population. Sidwell hasn't changed much since I was in high school, but the parent population sure has.

[Anonymous]

It was sort of a fluke that the Obamas wound up at Sidwell. I heard that the Obamas’ first choice was GDS. The storied history of GDS as the first integrated private school in DC really resonated, and Eric Holder was a GDS trustee. However, the Secret Service wondered about securing the GDS campus on MacArthur. The USSS told the Obamas that they already proved that they could secure Sidwell from Chelsea Clinton’s years there, so the Obamas reluctantly passed on GDS.

Is the entire GDS parent body insecure?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Color me impressed. Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax County has about 455 students in its Senior class, and 119 of them, or a quarter of the class, are National Merit Semifinalists.

Yes, and TJ selects all of its students at the 9th grade juncture, with high test scores in hand. As compared to other dc privates, Sidwell regularly compares very favorably in terms of NMSF. Also, the NMSF cutoff is lower for va than dc. I have no idea how many more Sidwell, or other dc school kids, would be NMSF in the Virginia context. I am guessing g that PP us just offering facts to dispel any myth that may be out there that Sidwell students do not stack up well against other dc privates, but rather skate by on their families' status or legacy.

Wow, that's a lot of NMSFs. Sidwell had 11 last year out of a class of ~120, around 9%. I think that's a decent number; it's just that TJ is insanely high. The differences in cutoff scores wouldn't come close to making up the gap.

Anyway, I don't understand why people get worked up or defensive about this. It's not a judgment on you or your kid, how many semifinalists there are at the school. Not that I think it's possible to convince some people otherwise!

+1.

But isn't NMSF determined by the PSAT? It's hardly a comprehensive measure . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell is not for intellectuals; it's for the DC glitterati.

Oh give it a rest. I just looked at the grade lists for my two kids there. One grade has 4 people I'd consider either (a) wealthy enough to donate something like $100K to a college, or (b) important enough to rate as "famous for DC." The other grade has just 2. The other 100+ parents are just regular working people. Yes, they certainly skew more toward well paying jobs like doctors or lawyers, but none of the others are famous or fabulously wealthy. Some of you have unrealistic understandings of the families that actually attend these schools.

Funniest thing I've read all day.

Just 100 Joe the Plumbers.

Clearly you're skipping the very next sentence. I changed the bold to make it easier for you to see. A GS-14 government lawyer or an internist at a local hospital is going to have a nice life, but they're not celebrities. They're just working people who are lucky enough to have jobs that pay enough to afford private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell had 11 last year out of a class of ~120, around 9%. I think that's a decent number; it's just that TJ is insanely high. The differences in cutoff scores wouldn't come close to making up the gap.

This whole discussion is off-topic, but I think the real reason for the dramatic difference between TJ and the various private schools is explained by PP's earlier point about how and when the TJ students are picked. Most of the private schools are admitting 80% (more?) of their students long before 9th grade. A third or more of the students are admitted when they're in K or younger; most of the rest are admitted by middle school. By contrast, TJ gets all its students as they're coming into 9th grade, and the primary basis for picking students is how they perform on a standardized test that looks a lot like the PSAT. So it sort of stands to reason that the TJ students as a whole are going to blow the doors off the PSAT, doesn't it?

Not taking anything away from TJ. I'm just trying to explain how the different selection processes go a long way to explaining the different results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It got popular when Chelsea went there, and then when the Obama girls went there. This city is full of a$$ kissers, and people wanted to be there just to be able to say they send their kids to school with the president's kids.

This is true. Many, many people want it for the social climbing aspect.
- Mid 90s Sidwell grad who saw the change when Chelsea came

it was popular WELL BEFORE Chelsea went there. In the 80s, it was very sought after as well, and i'm sure before that too. it's a good school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It got popular when Chelsea went there, and then when the Obama girls went there. This city is full of a$$ kissers, and people wanted to be there just to be able to say they send their kids to school with the president's kids.

This is true. Many, many people want it for the social climbing aspect.
- Mid 90s Sidwell grad who saw the change when Chelsea came

it was popular WELL BEFORE Chelsea went there. In the 80s, it was very sought after as well, and i'm sure before that too. it's a good school.

Simple, lacking hyperbole and derision, and probably true. It does not mean it is the right fit for everyone, however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want to add to the poster above. Many of Sidwell's recent admits to HYPS have parents whose accomplishments and achievements you can easily Google. Your daughter's class might have been an exception. It should come as no surprise that accomplished parents often raise ambitious, intelligent children. In the classes I know well, the better known, more famous parents always had their children admitted to the top colleges.

I suppose the real question is whether the school support your ordinary, no-connections kid, as strongly as it does for the connected kids, for college placement among the HYPS? Are the non-connected kids disadvantaged in college placement?

Yes, good question.
As an a HYP alum interviewer in bethesda, I get a mix of MCPS magnet students and half privates. I'm frequently surprised who makes the cut and who does not. My 2nd impression is how many kids openly tell me that half their high school career and where they are applying is due to their parents making them do so.

Can you explain a bit more what you mean by "surprised who makes the cut"? Do you mean the connected students get in with Sidwell support despite not performing as well academically?