Disappointed with lack of diversity at a top school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all the educational utopia mentioned that happens in boarding schools in New England, you should also know that many of the afore-mentioned schools rather resemble NYC Prep complete with non-caring and distant parents who shuttle them off there to get them out of the way. I went to school with many of them.

The dirty little secret is the huge drug problems they have as kids rush to spend their inheritances. Drug dealers are known to wait outside the school gates for their underage clients.

No such thing as a perfect school so please stop saying that your school is the best. There is, however, a perfect school for each child.

read Restless Virgins. It is easier for parents to send teens to boarding school. My schools do not have functions that resemble the Daughters of the Confederacy anymore than school functions I went to in the NY area. Same BS everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Our Big Three should move away from the backward, archaic views of the Old South and its Daughters of the Confedracy Tea Party model and move, instead, to one that is more similar to the New England model of an Andover, an Exeter, or a St Paul--a true BIG THREE that everyone in the whole country, and perhaps the whole world, would agree are worthy of that title. Something are purported and privincial BIG THREE here in DC fall woefully short of."

BRAVO INDEED! As an alumni of Exter, I totally agree. Andover and Exeter are titans compared to all this weeny tweenty whining by the supposed BIG THREE in DC. Lets be honest folks, outside of Maryland and Virginia and NW DC, nobody has ever heard of these schools. I have worked all over the world and I can guarantee that people in London have heard of Andover and Exeter; nobody cares or knows about Sidwell or NCS or GDS. Sidwell-- whats that???

To the prior post, this is an awesome reality check. And thanks for the history lesson, well put indeed.

As an "alumni" of Exeter, you should learn to spell.

[Anonymous]

We should probably also add sentence construction, contractions and other grammar issues. Not to mention the correct spelling of your alma mater........

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ditto for Landon!!!! Never seen so much Lilly Pulitzer in my life!!!

Hey - leave Lilly out of this! I like Lilly AND have 4 pairs of Jack Rogers sandals. I am involved in my kid's schools. But...I also work full time in a demanding job (okay, so I am not wearing the Lilly to work). I have no time to "lunch". You can't tell everything from appearances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to disagree. I didnt go to andover myself but know several people who did. I dont know if I agree with all that 11:46 said but I do agree that my classmates at Harvard who went to Andover were pretty frickin smart. There were nice ones and some were jerks, but all of them were scary bright and well-prepared for college. I got to know several of them in my house at Harvard and they are among the smartest people I still know. Also, in terms of drugs and alcohol, I thought they were more mature than us because they didnt go nuts at the first elixir of freedom the rest of us tasted as freshmen. They were old hands and had lived in dorms for 4 years. In contrast with the rest of the dorm, they did not seem to indulge in the drunken debauchery that non-boarding school kids like me sometimes joined in.

I am not saying the folks aren't smart, but that admissions pools and criteria (e.g., interest in greater geographic, economic, ethnic diversity) are changing and so these schools will look for smart folks around the US, not just five metro areas around the country.

[Anonymous]

Will everybody pleas just calm down.
We are talking about school here, not college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will everybody pleas just calm down.
We are talking about school here, not college.

Words of wisdom, but words that will likely fall on deaf ears. It seems there are few topics on these message boards that make people more rabid and toxic than the subject of DC private schools. A special award for toxicity goes to the Exeter alum reveling in her status as an a graduate of one of the "titans" of American prep schools. Only the security of anonymity could cause people to behave this way...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Our Big Three should move away from the backward, archaic views of the Old South and its Daughters of the Confedracy Tea Party model and move, instead, to one that is more similar to the New England model of an Andover, an Exeter, or a St Paul--a true BIG THREE that everyone in the whole country, and perhaps the whole world, would agree are worthy of that title. Something are purported and privincial BIG THREE here in DC fall woefully short of."

BRAVO INDEED! As an alumni of Exter, I totally agree. Andover and Exeter are titans compared to all this weeny tweenty whining by the supposed BIG THREE in DC. Lets be honest folks, outside of Maryland and Virginia and NW DC, nobody has ever heard of these schools. I have worked all over the world and I can guarantee that people in London have heard of Andover and Exeter; nobody cares or knows about Sidwell or NCS or GDS. Sidwell-- whats that???

To the prior post, this is an awesome reality check. And thanks for the history lesson, well put indeed.

I don't know - I went to a second or maybe third ? tier school and there were several kids there that had attended andover and exeter. So if those schools are so great, what were they doing at my school? I loved my school but it definitely wasn't an ivy league.

[Anonymous]

I attended a non-Ivy, but definitely top University. We had tons of Andover and Exeter grads. They were all incredibly bright, but more importantly--they were so well prepared for the rigors of a top school that implemented a strict curve. I can think of one that was a huge druggie, but our school wasn't really big on drugs and he was kicked out of Andover anyway so I can't call him a "grad."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will everybody pleas just calm down.
We are talking about school here, not college.

Right. As far as I understand, Andover and Exeter don't start boarding kids at K. Kids have to start their schooling somewhere, so they enroll at many of the independent and public schools in the area. I can appreciate the rigors of those schools, but unless my DC demonstrate a prolonged interest in wanting to attend a boarding school, I can't imagine sending them.

[Anonymous]

I agree, people need to chill. I went to an Ivy and I think we can all agree that Andover and Exeter are historic institutions with an extraordinary, and perhaps unparalleled legacy of academic achievement. We have all met their alumni and i, for one, have been quite impressed. As a grad student, I was a TA at Harvard's philosophy department and taught freshman philosophy. This may not be the PC thing to say but I have to admit (somewhat begrudingly) that the freshmen students I taught at Harvard who attended Andover (not so much Exeter) were hands down as intelligent, well read and skilled at writing as some of my juniors and seniors at the college. You just have to see their stats, their teacher to student ratio is often 4:1 or 5:1. As a teacher myself, Im sure I could do an awesome job with my students if I was always working with bright, motivated, intellectually curious kids in such small groups. Also, another thing you have to applaud these two academies for doing is paying their teachers good, solid salaries that. Several of my colleagues at Harvard considered teaching at Andover and Exeter because they paid twice as much as an assistant professor receieved at some colleges. The BIG THREE pay their teachers peanuts--around $28,000 to $45,000 per annum. This is less than a paralegal makes at any of the major law firms. So, its common sense and, as free market rules govern, you get what you pay for sometimes. That being said, I am always stunned by the level of talent that the three schools here are able to recruit. But, they really are not comparable to Andover and Exeter. The BIG THREE here have bright, good teachers. The faculty at Andover and Exeter are brilliant, truly gifted teachers with Ph.Ds from Ivy Leagues Colleges, MIT, and Oxford or Cambridge. This is just my honest, unbiased opinion of what I saw. And, although I wish we had a country where I could say that publlic school students were just as prepared and just as ready for college as the kids I saw from Andover and Exeter, I--unfortunately--cannot. It just is not true. Not yet, at least. The same goes for the BIG THREE here. Andover and Exeter attract talent from around the world in terms of students and faculty. Its like comparing Major League Baseball's ability to get the best players and coaches from all over the world (i.e., Andover and Exeter) to a local minor league team that uses all local talent. They are not the same league. Sorry, but thats just the truth. So relax, its not a race and everyone's little bratty children will just turn out fine.
PS
The Daughters of the Confederacy reference is funny as heck. Whenever I see the parents of the students here, I cant help but think that this captures you all perfectly.

[Anonymous]

Wow, I guess the gloves are off! Tell us how you really feel!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree, people need to chill. I went to an Ivy and I think we can all agree that Andover and Exeter are historic institutions with an extraordinary, and perhaps unparalleled legacy of academic achievement. We have all met their alumni and i, for one, have been quite impressed. As a grad student, I was a TA at Harvard's philosophy department and taught freshman philosophy. This may not be the PC thing to say but I have to admit (somewhat begrudingly) that the freshmen students I taught at Harvard who attended Andover (not so much Exeter) were hands down as intelligent, well read and skilled at writing as some of my juniors and seniors at the college. You just have to see their stats, their teacher to student ratio is often 4:1 or 5:1. As a teacher myself, Im sure I could do an awesome job with my students if I was always working with bright, motivated, intellectually curious kids in such small groups. Also, another thing you have to applaud these two academies for doing is paying their teachers good, solid salaries that. Several of my colleagues at Harvard considered teaching at Andover and Exeter because they paid twice as much as an assistant professor receieved at some colleges. The BIG THREE pay their teachers peanuts--around $28,000 to $45,000 per annum. This is less than a paralegal makes at any of the major law firms. So, its common sense and, as free market rules govern, you get what you pay for sometimes. That being said, I am always stunned by the level of talent that the three schools here are able to recruit. But, they really are not comparable to Andover and Exeter. The BIG THREE here have bright, good teachers. The faculty at Andover and Exeter are brilliant, truly gifted teachers with Ph.Ds from Ivy Leagues Colleges, MIT, and Oxford or Cambridge. This is just my honest, unbiased opinion of what I saw. And, although I wish we had a country where I could say that publlic school students were just as prepared and just as ready for college as the kids I saw from Andover and Exeter, I--unfortunately--cannot. It just is not true. Not yet, at least. The same goes for the BIG THREE here. Andover and Exeter attract talent from around the world in terms of students and faculty. Its like comparing Major League Baseball's ability to get the best players and coaches from all over the world (i.e., Andover and Exeter) to a local minor league team that uses all local talent. They are not the same league. Sorry, but thats just the truth. So relax, its not a race and everyone's little bratty children will just turn out fine.
PS
The Daughters of the Confederacy reference is funny as heck. Whenever I see the parents of the students here, I cant help but think that this captures you all perfectly.

Who gives a sh*t whether Andover and Exeter kids are smarter than/as smart as/dumber than other kids? This conversation is ridiculous. The bottom line is, why would you send your kid to a boarding school when you have great schools available in your own city? I went to a top boarding school (my family lived in a rural area where the local publics were awful and there were no privates) and wouldn't wish the experience on anyone. Think about it, people, is it really a good idea to send your kid away at one of the most vulnerable times in their life to live in a dorm with a bunch of other teenagers and little supervision? I'm so grateful that I live in a city with a range of great schools so my kid can have a great education AND the support and love of his family at home.

[Anonymous]

Who gives a sh*t whether Andover and Exeter kids are smarter than/as smart as/dumber than other kids? This conversation is ridiculous. The bottom line is, why would you send your kid to a boarding school when you have great schools available in your own city? I went to a top boarding school (my family lived in a rural area where the local publics were awful and there were no privates) and wouldn't wish the experience on anyone. Think about it, people, is it really a good idea to send your kid away at one of the most vulnerable times in their life to live in a dorm with a bunch of other teenagers and little supervision? I'm so grateful that I live in a city with a range of great schools so my kid can have a great education AND the support and love of his family at home.


I completely agree. I would only consider a boarding school if there were not other local options available to meet my child's needs. And quite frankly, I do not understand those who choose to needlessly send their kids off to boarding school.

[Anonymous]

I agree.