High school recommendations from our k-8 school and how should I feel about?
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Anonymous
| If your kid a. had adhd (that didn't manifest in academics - was more socially oriented when kid was 8,9 in impulse control and was now under control) and b. was at a K-8 that never flagged any academic issues ever (even when asked about tutoring), and then the school raised Dwight as an option for high school, how would you feel? To me it's the lowest hanging fruit private that I would have expected to be floated as an option if we'd all for years been working on academic issues. But maybe I'm understanding it wrong? |
Anonymous
| The only option? |
Anonymous
They said ‘schools like Dwight’ and are putting a list together I just would have thought this wouldn’t be the first time we were getting the signal that he needed a lot of academic support |
Anonymous
| Does he need executive function support? Will he thrive in a super rigorous environment or in a more relaxed environment? It's not like Dwight is a school for kids with learning disabilities. |
Anonymous
| I wouldn't be excited about it but Dwight is fine. Curious to see what other schools count as "schools like Dwight." Please let us know. I'm guessing Birch? |
Anonymous
| We just finished this process for our 8th grader at a K-8. They are just recommendations and you can do your own research and apply wherever you want. Just be honest with yourself about your child's strengths and weaknesses and where they are most likely to thrive. My kid is a very good student but we didn't even bother applying to the pressure cookers because I just knew they would not be up for the workload. Has your kid taken the ISEE yet? Once you have that score and the 7th grade grades you'll be able to develop a more meaningful list. |
Anonymous
I think if your school is recommending “schools like Dwight”, your kid can still get into Birch, Calhoun, Hewitt, LREI, Grace Church, & Brooklyn Friends if they are pleasant and you are full pay. |
Anonymous
I wouldn't lump Grace Church in with those. It has gotten a lot more competitive to get into and better exmissions too. |
Anonymous
Op, honestly none of those would have been on my ideal wish list. Ds is somewhat smart - 3 years in a row when he was younger he scored 97s/ 98s on G&T. ISEE we only did one practice with no prep and he got high 7s (not amazing but again, no prep). Yes he has adhd, and I would not have been the parent beating the drum for horace mann, but I guess I would have expected them to float things like fieldston as a first thought starter. Honestly, when they said dwight (absent them warning us for years about academic issues) my feeling was that I've wasted money. We've been paying for years of tuition with them in part because of their exmissions and I could have just done public and I'm pretty sure locked dwight down. I dont mean to sound like an ah - so apologies if that's how it's coming across - but I kept asking them how he was doing over and over and they told me all was well. |
Anonymous
| Yeah, I would be surprised (annoyed) by the Dwight suggestion as well. What K-8 school are you at now just out of curiosity? |
Anonymous
| How would you feel about Trevor or Columbia Grammar? |
Anonymous
I would be taken aback in that situation too. I don't think it's a complete waste if he liked his time at the school and ends up prepared for high school. Like a PP suggested, I would also look at Columbia Prep & Trevor Day. They may not be as guaranteed, but there's a wide range of students at both. Fieldston is a tough admit for high school - it was our neighbor's top choice, kid was waitlisted and ended up at Trevor. |
Anonymous
op - i mean i would have felt more fine about those suggestions than the dwight one. Honestly for a kid whose teachers never sounded the alarm about academics, even when pushed, my expectation for the conversation was more that we'd talk about TT and consider how realistic and land on maybe 1-2 stretch choices in that tier and then a number of T2 choices/ maybe a couple of wild cards. I did not think the first suggestion would be dwight. |
Anonymous
| Did you ask why? Having just gone through this process, we had a wide range of schools. My child has ADHD, but is academically high achieving with excellent ISEEs too, so we applied to a variety of schools, with schools like Dwight being what we considered "safeties," even though honestly there's no such thing. We knew programs like Dwight would not be spooked by their diagnosis in case others were. My child got into 8/9 schools we applied to and the one they didn't get into still feels weird, and our K-8 was baffled but I couldn't be bothered to follow up since they got into higher ranked schools. I find that K-8 often push the safeties first, maybe to soften expectations of TT? Honestly I didn't listen to our K-8 recommendations ultimately, but smiled and nodded and agreed with their initial recommendations so as not to be flagged as a problem. Then I did my own research, and didn't rely on them too much during the process. Annoying in light of how much money we've spent, but I let my child's grades, test scores, interviews and recommendations do the heavy work and ultimately that was enough. |
Anonymous
You have to ask yourself whether TT schools will be a good overall fit for him. My son went to HM from a progressive K-8, and the adjustment was pretty big. He figured it out quickly, but there’s not much room to stumble. There is support available, but kids need to be proactive in seeking it because they do not offer retests, extra credit, or other second chances on assessments. |