What is it like for non-sporty kids at Potomac?
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Anonymous
| We like a lot about Potomac but my son isn’t that sporty. From what I’ve read it’s a very sports heavy culture. Would he not fit in? |
Anonymous
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He’ll probably be weeded out in the admissions process like my son was. Admissions people are very good at predicting what type of kid will be a good fit at the school. My son had excellent stats ( GPA, standardized tests scores), great recommendations, interviews,
and more academic extra curriculars ( robotics club, …) and was waitlisted for 9th. All the kids we know who got in were amazing athletes. |
Anonymous
| I know two who got in for class of 2029. One amazing athlete other very good. Both extremely smart and driven. |
Anonymous
| There are plenty of kids at Potomac who do debate, theater, or robotics and are not sporty. My child’s friend group is a mix of sports kids and kids who do one of these non sports activities. |
Anonymous
What grade is your son applying to? |
Anonymous
Did these students come in before 9th grade? |
Anonymous
6th grade. |
Anonymous
| Potomac put a big emphasis on the “quality” of sports on their high school tour. —- and made clear they valued that over mere participation and giving kids a chance to try new things. They sounded a bit elitist about it. There’s no simple PE option if you don’t want to be on a team. Some schools we toured either had a pe program and or said they would encourage students to try out new sports and emphasized opps to join teams that didn’t have cuts. Of all the schools we toured (and we did 8 or 9), Potomac was most limiting for the non-sporty kid. Sidwell, gds, Burke, maret, wis, st Andrews and others all had better options/choices for someone who might want to be active or even play a sport but who isn’t necessarily sporty. |
Anonymous
True. But these non sporty kids are probably lifers who got in in kindergarten where the school couldn’t really gauge how sporty they will end up being. Every kid I know who got into high school there was a super star athlete. I think Potomac cares a lot about recruitment potential so they can brag about how many kids they got into top schools. |
Anonymous
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Robotics and weight training count for the mandatory "athletics" in US. The running teams are friendly, no cut, and focus on "personal best" performance. There also are other non-athletic options that fulfill the "athletics" requirement. Team sports are far from being the only option.
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Anonymous
Yes |
Anonymous
| How about socially - do these non-sporty kids feel like the don’t fit in or are excluded? |
Anonymous
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Potomac is generally quite cliquey year to year. If the grade has a critical mass of popular non sporty kids, a kid can find their way.
Many grades are driven by the social clout of popular kids and enabling parents. That all being said, classes are fairly large, so almost certainly the possibility of establishing a friend group. |
Anonymous
While there are kids who are not sporty and there are other activities as PPs have noted, sending your kid who is not sporty to a school that clearly prioritizes sports is not a great idea because it will be more difficult to find their people. Kids mature in HS so it could be fine, but Middle school is an especially tough time socially and feeling like you are at the bottom of the social pecking order because you don’t fit with the dominant culture is not something I’d sign my son up for. |
Anonymous
| Potomac has several robotics teams, some of which are very good. That could be a nice outlet and way to make friends for a non- sporty kid. |