Are Average Scoring kids ever accepted into Sidwell?

[Anonymous]

Why is it anyone who posts something about Sidwell that is not 100% flattering MUST be someone who is jealous? Seriously. Get over yourself.

[Anonymous]

PP can you suggest some unflattering things to say about Sidwell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think you should send your kid to Sidwell if they have average scores - especially in the higher grades. I don't know much about the admission process for high school, (my kids are lifers) but i just don't see the point of putting your kid in to such a high octane academic environment if they don't have really, really solid learning abilities. the high school is rigorous and we have yet to come across a teacher who is an easy grader.

Well if accepted for whatever reason I more than likely will even though I know the chances are slim..its only K and to somewhat give a tone that a average scoring 5year hardworking inquisitive 5year old does not stand a chance to do well sounds crzy to me...I guess you would have told the parent of Larry Bird or Michael Jordan to put them in a different sport if they missed too many layups at AAU tryouts...by 8th grade middle school parent and students as well as teachers should be able to determine if the child will be built for rigor of the highschool course..if the conclusion is no..then O well the child will have had a awsome educational foundation that will probrably put him a step or so ahead of others at another school...

[Anonymous]

You had me until the part about putting your child a step or two ahead of the others, like its a race . . . to what? Regardless of scores, the point is to find the school where your DC can thrive. Otherwise, what the point? To display the fact that your child goes to Sidwell? To win the race? There are a ton of great schools in the DC area for all sorts of learners.

[Anonymous]

Average intelligence can get in. These schools survive on their endowment which depends on the parent pool, not the average IQ of their student body. Sidwell can't just admit all the kids who apply with IQ's in the 140 and above range not looking at ability to pay or they would not have a school. Or more accurately they might have a school, but not one with a new gym and track, new underground parking garage and soccer field, new green energy middle school and new library, high teacher salary and excellent retirement benefits.That type of "academic environment" only comes from big donors who's talents didn't exactly lead them to the Nobel Prize in chemistry.Felating political advisor, yes, self-absorbed political correspondent,yes. Jonas Saulk types, NO.

In response to many posters on this thread who have said that if you aren't smart being surrounded by intellectual rigor can be"crushing" I could not disagree more. I never felt "crushed"being in the room with a classmate who was clearly brilliant. Inspired, yes, curious , yes, but "crushed" why ? I'd rather get a C and stretch my mind in a class that get an "A" for simply regurgitating correctly what I needed to to get the favor of my teacher on a paper.Education can be many things ,and I'm sure it varies at Sidwell , but it should always be a stretch for all of us. The object isn't to get an "A". If this is the prevailing obsession at Sidwell as people on this sight have posted,then I'd say there is not much true intellectual rigor at that school after all.

Go for it if you want, but read the Upper School thread on this sight and take off the rose colored glasses about the school The kids there are far from exceptional.

[Anonymous]

You are talking out of your butt, 22:45. It's kinda obvious you don't know of what you speak concerning the school actually named in the thread title. Or should I say, "tightle"?

[Anonymous]

One thing you should NOT do is ask about the homework load during the parent interview at the upper school level -- really dumb parent of 99th percentile SSAT child who was waitlisted

[Anonymous]

22:45, well put.

I would add that I have learned at least as much from friends who weren't able to graduate from high school as ones who are brilliant in an academic sense. A lot of high IQ kids could benefit from the experience of being around less academic kids who are smart in ways that have nothing to do with abstract reasoning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing you should NOT do is ask about the homework load during the parent interview at the upper school level -- really dumb parent of 99th percentile SSAT child who was waitlisted

But thats a perfectly legitimate question.