My kids would disagree about extra curriculars at DCI. A lot of them are great but the downside is that the scheduling is wacky because they don't annoucne the clubs far enough in advance. Sports have been a wake up call that they cut in middle school. I'm curious how much Latin pushes advanced kids academically and if most middle school sports have competitive tryouts. - low on the waitlist at Cooper and main campus so have the same question as OP but with a guarantee to for DCI |
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We toured Latin 4th St and DCI. Latins facilities are old and subpar. There is not much extracurriculars for the 5th and 6th graders and forget about sports. You can’t really do sports till high school and not a lot.
My point is that 4th St was so lacking compared to DCI. Cooper is likely much, much worst. |
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Commute can determine a lot. Try getting your 6th grader to/from DCI from the SE swathe of Capitol Hill every day.
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Not true on the sports front there is a good out of MS sports - some start in 6 - all start in 7th Also availability for clubs and theater as early as 5th And it’s 2nd street - maybe you toured a different school?? |
I’m the PP. Yes, it was Latin. That was typo error. I specifically asked the high school student who gave us the tour who has been thru it. No sports at all in 5th, think 1 or 2 open in 6th, and even if sports are open in 7th, she said that many kids don’t get it. Basically you don’t really do sports till high school and as I said not many options. DCI has a ton more sports, open to middle school kids, and the school has sports director and end of year reception for all the sports teams so that should tell you something. As to clubs, you are being misleading. There are not many “clubs” at all in 5th, 6th. Look at the schedule at DCI, you have at least 12 plus clubs minimum offered all the time to anyone. |
Since I have two kids at Latin who are in clubs every day at lunch it’s possible I may know more than you about this subject….and depending on the age of the HS their experience probably was different then how it works now - schools evolve On sports you are right there are tryouts and cuts - unfortunately that is what you have to do for the popular ones - there are always no cut sports each season. The reality is both DCI and Latin are good schools and offer great programs for MS kids and in this city that should be celebrated |
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Celebrated doesn't have to mean glossing over obvious shortcomings. Latin Cooper's current building has few windows and no grass and there's a chaotic feel to the set up this year. Latin and DCI still insist on lumping academic stragglers into the very same English, science and social studies classes as highfliers through 8th grade, meaning weaker prep for IB Diploma in HS than necessary. Latin's facilities just aren't that great - their not-so-renovated building was an elementary school. DCI essentially pretends to do partial immersion without actual immersion - where are the lunch language tables? The extra curriculars done in languages? The support for true summer immersion study? Where are the native speakers of French and Chinese? Look hard enough and you might find a handful.
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Lunch language tables? Ummmm it's middle and high school.
There are language lounges though! |
| Language lounges where kids mostly speak English, at least according to my kid. |
People, these are MS and HS kids. They want to hang with their friends. |
This is a challenge at Latin and BASIS. The 5th graders cannot compete against middles schools so the pickings are slim. I would suggest you compare the 5th grade offering to ES sports offerings in DC. I am no aware of robust elementary sports leagues. |
Great! Hang out with friends speaking French, Chinese or Spanish. Hang out a lot. |
Theyé sending kids to Yale and the Naval Academy, but maybe thatś not your idea of ¨push the most capable kids across the board¨ or maybe your kid isnt as capable as you think |
| Right, the odd strong student gets into a top school, particularly if they're URM. DCI just isn't a powerhouse school sending lots of grads to elite colleges, not yet anyway. |
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What? One kid from DCI gets into Yale a couple of years ago and you say, "Theyé sending kids to Yale"?
A kid from Eastern High School was accepted to Columbia two years ago. I guess we need to say, "Wow. Eastern must be great--they are sending kids to the Ivy League!" |