Feedback on Potomac Upper School

[Anonymous]

DD got into Potomac US. It will be helpful to get perspectives on the following things -

1) how is the socio economic environment of the school? Is it uber wealthy and does that make it harder for working class families with no generational wealth to fit in?

2) Has the grading practices improved? In last threads it seemed like there were delays in providing feedback?

3) any other things that we should know that are typically not shared with admitted families?

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

Good questions. We are in a similar position though for intermediate school and curious about the responses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD got into Potomac US. It will be helpful to get perspectives on the following things -

1) how is the socio economic environment of the school? Is it uber wealthy and does that make it harder for working class families with no generational wealth to fit in?

2) Has the grading practices improved? In last threads it seemed like there were delays in providing feedback?

3) any other things that we should know that are typically not shared with admitted families?

Of course it is. You knew that when you applied. It’s in McLean Va and costs $52,800 for upper grades.

[Anonymous]

But does it make it harder for other families to fit in?

[Anonymous]

Congratulations to your DD. My DD in US has enjoyed Potomac and has friends with differing socioeconomic backgrounds. In case this is helpful, we were civil servants for a number of years while kids at Potomac and we did not have any issues with feeling out of place.

I do think grading practices have improved in last year vs the issues we observed with older child.

[Anonymous]

There are rich kids everywhere. Public school and private school. The thing you will have to worry about at Potomac is the school purposely makes things too hard. It’s very bizarre and well known.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
There are rich kids everywhere. Public school and private school. The thing you will have to worry about at Potomac is the school purposely makes things too hard. It’s very bizarre and well known.

Could you please eleborate on it? What kind of things are harder?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But does it make it harder for other families to fit in?

Np. Not in Upper School, but we have found the community exceptionally welcoming, more so than our public elementary (which had lots of wealthy families too).

[Anonymous]

I have two students in US at Potomac. They are very different students, and both are thriving. They have not had any issues with receiving grades or comments back late, but they both have heard stories from teammates about delays a few years ago, particularly in two departments. My students have had different teachers in each subject and zero issues. I did go to a presentation almost two years ago from the then academic head (who then became the interim head of the US for a year), and that was one of her focuses, and she was candid about it being an issue, so I do think it has been fixed.

Yes, the school overall has a fair number of wealthy students, but it also has a lot of students from varied socio economic backgrouds, geographic areas w/in the dmv, etc. I think the wealth is less apparent at Potomac than some other schools b/c it doesn't have the carpool culture that we experienced at our previous school. There the flashier parents were constantly on campus, at the front of the carpool line, etc. At Potomac, everyone takes the bus (except K, juniors can park at a church and take a shuttle, seniors can park on campus & siblings of drivers). It kind of removes a level of awareness about who has what. Frankly, in the US, no one really cares either. I also think the bus system makes it easier for the school to pull in kids from all over the dmv, so that somewhat dilutes the mclean wealth.

I guess I would add that the US is very hard. The amount of work is manageable, but the level expected of these kids is very high. They are not thrown in over their heads - 9th is a lot easier, there are things on executive function, etc to help, but it is not a school where you can get by with just memorization. You need to be able to defend your argument and also work well in groups. Even the way math is taught - you need to understand it inside and out. There is no quick cramming for tests. If that's what you're used to, it will be a big wake up call and take a while to get used to. They also expect a very high level of writing, even in the non-english classes, eg the level of writing in history, labs, etc is surprising.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the detailed feedback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations to your DD. My DD in US has enjoyed Potomac and has friends with differing socioeconomic backgrounds. In case this is helpful, we were civil servants for a number of years while kids at Potomac and we did not have any issues with feeling out of place.

I do think grading practices have improved in last year vs the issues we observed with older child.

‘Civil servants’ who work for the feds can make over $400,000 combined. Let’s not play.

[Anonymous]

Would like to hear more about the Potomac upper school experience.

We are deciding between Potomac and a Big 3 for 9th grade. At the admitted students day, one thing that gave us pause is the lack of diversity of the admitted students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two students in US at Potomac. They are very different students, and both are thriving. They have not had any issues with receiving grades or comments back late, but they both have heard stories from teammates about delays a few years ago, particularly in two departments. My students have had different teachers in each subject and zero issues. I did go to a presentation almost two years ago from the then academic head (who then became the interim head of the US for a year), and that was one of her focuses, and she was candid about it being an issue, so I do think it has been fixed.

Yes, the school overall has a fair number of wealthy students, but it also has a lot of students from varied socio economic backgrouds, geographic areas w/in the dmv, etc. I think the wealth is less apparent at Potomac than some other schools b/c it doesn't have the carpool culture that we experienced at our previous school. There the flashier parents were constantly on campus, at the front of the carpool line, etc. At Potomac, everyone takes the bus (except K, juniors can park at a church and take a shuttle, seniors can park on campus & siblings of drivers). It kind of removes a level of awareness about who has what. Frankly, in the US, no one really cares either. I also think the bus system makes it easier for the school to pull in kids from all over the dmv, so that somewhat dilutes the mclean wealth.

I guess I would add that the US is very hard. The amount of work is manageable, but the level expected of these kids is very high. They are not thrown in over their heads - 9th is a lot easier, there are things on executive function, etc to help, but it is not a school where you can get by with just memorization. You need to be able to defend your argument and also work well in groups. Even the way math is taught - you need to understand it inside and out. There is no quick cramming for tests. If that's what you're used to, it will be a big wake up call and take a while to get used to. They also expect a very high level of writing, even in the non-english classes, eg the level of writing in history, labs, etc is surprising.

Not the OP but thank you for the detailed response. We are also considering Potomac and this is helpful. It’s great to see DCUM can still be useful even amid the deluge of troll posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would like to hear more about the Potomac upper school experience.

We are deciding between Potomac and a Big 3 for 9th grade. At the admitted students day, one thing that gave us pause is the lack of diversity of the admitted students.

I didn’t think they had already had the admitted students day for US yet? When we applied a few years ago, their diversity rates among current students were about the highest out of the schools we had applied to. If it was an event for accepted but not yet enrolled students, I’d take that with a grain of salt bc that’s likely just for kids on the fence. My kids knew they would accept so didn’t attend. You can get all the percentages from admissions if you want to look at the current US. Good luck w/ your decision - my kids love it there.