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DCUM really opened my eyes. I have been living under a rock.
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Anonymous
| So OP, you applied to the "random" Quaker school without knowing its admission rate? |
Anonymous
| I am stupid. I don't get this thread. Anyone? |
Anonymous
| It's a forum for OP to boast, just like 75% of other DCUM posts. Unless she's way more sophisticated than that and is into meta-messages like "you're all obsessed" and where her kid goes to school is beside the point but probably not Sidwell. However, the 2nd interpretation would be more sophisticated, and certainly way more modest, than 98% of posters on DCUM, so I tend to doubt it. |
Anonymous
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Had I discovered DCUM right after we'd done admissions, I'd have had a similar reaction -- wow, so much energy and angst, so many theories and calculations, so much pontification based on such limited information; they're making this much harder than it has to be and boy am I relieved I didn't discover this site and let it frame my experience or shape my expectations. I conceptualized the application as something like mailing in the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. So when Ed McMahon showed up on our doorstep it was a delightful surprise.
I read the OP as making that point subtly and humorously. I've never understood the concept of anonymous bragging (is it just like some kind of tic or is it for people who want to brag IRL but know that no one would ever believe them. What's the pay-off? It's certainly not recognition because no one know WTF you are!), but I certainly can't dispute that it seems to be a favorite pastime of (most? many? some? a handful of obsessive?) DCUM posters. |
Anonymous
You don't understand it? Really? |
Anonymous
| She does seem a master at it.... |
Anonymous
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Yeah, I really don't get it. What pleasure or advantage does someone get out of *anonymously* claiming to have a brilliant child, lots of money, or a great job? You can't get respect that way -- people don't even know who you are. Is the game to get someone to respond as if they believe you/take you seriously when, in fact you're lying and/or casting yourself as an expert on a topic where you know next to nothing? How would that be fun?
I could wrap my head around this phenomenon if posting here were pseudonymic -- then, at least, there's kind of a second-life phenomenon where a poster crafts a persona over time and inhabits that identity on a regular basis. But here almost everyone's anonymous always, so the details never add up to form a picture (no matter how fictional). So it's not a satisfying literary exercise or role-playing game. It's baffling to me. But I see that it creates a really toxic environment and I wonder how often people are mislead by some of the utter BS offered here as advice from a self-styled well-informed source. |
Anonymous
| Does everyone realize there are other Quaker schools in the DC area? |
Anonymous
Some are too obsessed with Sidwell to see beyond. . . Quaker schools in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia: Friends Community School Quaker elementary school in College Park, Maryland. K - 6th grade The Siena SchoolSilver Spring, MD Bright students w/ LD, dyslexia, ADHD www.thesienaschool.org Friends Meeting School Quaker school in Ijamsville, Maryland. PreK - 8th grade Sandy Spring Friends School Quaker school in Sandy Spring, Maryland. Pre-K to 12th grade Thornton Friends School Quaker school with in Silver Spring, Maryland. Grades 6 - 12 Alexandria Friends School Quaker high school in Alexandria, Virginia |
Anonymous
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There are other Quaker schools, but there is no point in mentioning it was a Quaker school unless it was THE Quaker school.
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Anonymous
| And none of the othe schools would have fallen into the category of "living under a rock" or "more dramatic and stressful". |
Anonymous
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2 points. (a) some people (new families, even) do get their kids into Sidwell without it being a dramatic and stressful process -- it's not as if drama and stress increase your DC's odds of admission. (b) it's all drama here, regardless of which school posters' DCs end up getting admitted to. If people would not get fixated on prestige and were to focus instead on educational priorities and fit, then it's just not that hard to find a good school for your kid.
That said, having been around here a little longer, I'm coming to the conclusion that for a lot of DCUM posters "being a Sidwell applicant" is as close as they're ever going to come to Sidwell and deep down they know that, so they milk those "in the pool but not yet rejected" months for all they're worth and then some. |
Anonymous
Agreed. I also had no real clue how anxiety inducing this process was for many parents - there are so many wonderful schools in this area. But I also had no idea until after applications closed that the odds of getting in appeared to be so low (ratio of open spots to applicants) and we saw how stressed some parents were about the process at playdates etc. Anyhow my daughter starts a great school in a few weeks. She did get a number of offers and we were able to make a choice - I wonder if the fact that we were completely oblivious actually helped? |
Anonymous
Only if you assume that OP was pushing some secret agenda of bragging anonymously. Why not at least consider the idea that OP was posting earnestly? |
Anonymous
Because the OP herself just admitted it. It was THE Quaker school. I |