NCS Parents - "I wish I had known x" type advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those who have noted that one survival tactic at NCS is for the girls to throw themselves into athletics - are their any sports which stick out as particularly popular or helpful in guarding against mean girl attacks?

Talk about obvious trolling ... my 5-year-old has more subtlety.

Not necessarily true. There is a hierarchy to everything in high school. My guess is that something like playing on a soccer team might allow for more friendships than say golf. The school might also emphasize one sport over another, for example field hockey over basketball, that might get one more attention and support from the student body.

+1. I have no experience with NCS, but attended a single-sex school myself. Field hockey, lacrosse and tennis got you status. Track was also helpful since the US Director was the coach. Volleyball, basketball and swimming were meaningless in the heirarchy of cool. This was 25yrs ago, so things change, but I'm pointing it out since the PP truly might not be stirring the pot on this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those who have noted that one survival tactic at NCS is for the girls to throw themselves into athletics - are their any sports which stick out as particularly popular or helpful in guarding against mean girl attacks?

Fencing.

I kid only because i assume you are kidding. Your daughter should just play a sport she likes. If you are that worried about "mean girl attacks" at a school, NCS or any other, then i would not recommend sending your daughter to the school. (By the way, my daughter goes to NCS and has never heard of such a thing.)

Nobody who writes a post like the top post ("survival tactics"?) is a current or prospective parent. The top post is a troll.

[Anonymous]

NCS is a bit like the hunger games but in this instance the odds will be forever not in your favor. Where to begin. Each day my daughter arrives only to be subjected to about a hours worth of verbal abuse at the hands of upper class (both literally and figuratively) students and administrators.
Then she is forced to learn an invented language known only to NCS alums and must take a cold shower after all athletic practices. Also, all girls, divided into "Dowdy House" and the "Hotties" are required to buy their clothes at Ann Taylor to prepare them for a life lived alone working as researchers at government agencies, think-tanks, and universities. Please don't get me started on the Smart board near the entrance that lists the location of each home and its value. Parents are segregated and the most wealthy meet with the head on a weekly basis to discuss vacation homes and the merits of flying private vs. commercial. NCS is a special place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NCS is a bit like the hunger games but in this instance the odds will be forever not in your favor. Where to begin. Each day my daughter arrives only to be subjected to about a hours worth of verbal abuse at the hands of upper class (both literally and figuratively) students and administrators.
Then she is forced to learn an invented language known only to NCS alums and must take a cold shower after all athletic practices. Also, all girls, divided into "Dowdy House" and the "Hotties" are required to buy their clothes at Ann Taylor to prepare them for a life lived alone working as researchers at government agencies, think-tanks, and universities. Please don't get me started on the Smart board near the entrance that lists the location of each home and its value. Parents are segregated and the most wealthy meet with the head on a weekly basis to discuss vacation homes and the merits of flying private vs. commercial. NCS is a special place.

Very funny!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NCS is a bit like the hunger games but in this instance the odds will be forever not in your favor. Where to begin. Each day my daughter arrives only to be subjected to about a hours worth of verbal abuse at the hands of upper class (both literally and figuratively) students and administrators.
Then she is forced to learn an invented language known only to NCS alums and must take a cold shower after all athletic practices. Also, all girls, divided into "Dowdy House" and the "Hotties" are required to buy their clothes at Ann Taylor to prepare them for a life lived alone working as researchers at government agencies, think-tanks, and universities. Please don't get me started on the Smart board near the entrance that lists the location of each home and its value. Parents are segregated and the most wealthy meet with the head on a weekly basis to discuss vacation homes and the merits of flying private vs. commercial. NCS is a special place.

Very funny!

+1, love it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those who have noted that one survival tactic at NCS is for the girls to throw themselves into athletics - are their any sports which stick out as particularly popular or helpful in guarding against mean girl attacks?

On the assumption this might be genuine (a lot of posts did say their kids liked athletics), there are many programs that the students seem to really like/enjoy/draw support from. A few that I frequently hear good things about in terms of low-stress, cohesiveness, etc, are cross-country/track (they train jointly with St. Albans); swimming (they train jointly with St. Albans); and field hockey (so, it's not ALL about training jointly with St. Albans). There's truly a sport for everyone there if they are interested (and not just traditional "ball sports" -- there is a dance team, and they have an excellent outdoors program with rock climbing and kayaking, also jointly run with St. Albans, for example).

[Anonymous]

My daughter adores being on the dance team, has been since seventh grade. There truly is a sport for everyone, even the unathletic. I am told, however, by my daughter that one's choice of sports confers no social status at all, unlike at STA, and that is rather refreshing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter adores being on the dance team, has been since seventh grade. There truly is a sport for everyone, even the unathletic. I am told, however, by my daughter that one's choice of sports confers no social status at all, unlike at STA, and that is rather refreshing.

Choice of one's sports confers social status at STA???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter adores being on the dance team, has been since seventh grade. There truly is a sport for everyone, even the unathletic. I am told, however, by my daughter that one's choice of sports confers no social status at all, unlike at STA, and that is rather refreshing.

Choice of one's sports confers social status at STA???

You've never heard of this phenomenon at boys' schools, at coed schools, in our male-dominated, athlete-worshipping American culture?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter adores being on the dance team, has been since seventh grade. There truly is a sport for everyone, even the unathletic. I am told, however, by my daughter that one's choice of sports confers no social status at all, unlike at STA, and that is rather refreshing.

Choice of one's sports confers social status at STA???

From observation, it doesn't seem that choice of sport is so important, honestly. Being a star in whatever sport and/or being recruited for college is still a big deal (as it is pretty much everywhere else in American culture, as far as I can tell -- even Obama likes being thought of as a decent basketball player).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter adores being on the dance team, has been since seventh grade. There truly is a sport for everyone, even the unathletic. I am told, however, by my daughter that one's choice of sports confers no social status at all, unlike at STA, and that is rather refreshing.

Choice of one's sports confers social status at STA???

You've never heard of this phenomenon at boys' schools, at coed schools, in our male-dominated, athlete-worshipping American culture?

Not PP, but I understand the question's emphasis to be not on the fact that sports can confer social status, which as the snarky PP suggests, is really a given, but that the choice (emphasis added) can confer social status. That question makes sense to me. Where I grew up in TX, football was religion and if you ran cross country, or played tennis, or basically participated in any other sport, it really didn't count for much in terms of social status. My DH is from Cali, and in his school it was water polo or volleyball that ruled. Only have a c former at STA so haven't really figured out if there is a hierarchy in sports, but I would be curious to hear from other parents.

[Anonymous]

When I went to NCS in the 90's for the girls it was Field Hockey, Tennis, and maybe Soccer... and STA, Lacrosse and Football.

[Anonymous]

Are there any openly gay girls in the upper school? Is the school supportive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there any openly gay girls in the upper school? Is the school supportive?

This is from a couple of years ago, but there were a number of girls who were out and the school was quite supportive.

[Anonymous]

Do girls get counseled out for poor grades? If so, how poor are the grades (i.e., will a report card filled with Cs to it)? Does this happen as early as middle school?