Everyone has different goals. I think for a lot of these parents and students, St David’s to Loyola to Notre Dame / Georgetown would be viewed as a desirable outcome. |
SILS academics are more rigorous. The exmissions is limited by families needing merit scholarship to afford private independent school. |
What's wrong with FP or Loyola? Both fine schools. |
We are one of these families. Proudly heading to Xavier. |
They are, but you don’t need to spend 600,000 or more to gain admission and be ready for them. |
| agree - you can go public k-8 and go to loyola or FP. which, if you're in a strong district, is a great path IMO |
How strict and disciplinary is the school? How was your child’s experience? |
Definitely moving up in the world since they got a new HOS two years ago who is fantastic who then poached Columbia Grammar & Prep's insanely talented college admissions person. |
Are you the woman on the UES moms FB group that brings up birch every possible instance? |
So funny. People don’t even rank Birch but they do rank Dwight. If there’s a 5T birch is it |
How was that person insanely talented? I think the new guy they got was pretty impressive actually. On paper. Who know if he will work long term but this years results were extrodinay for a 3t school. Half the grade is going to a top 30 school. |
isn’t birch special needs like York prep? |
I don’t think it explicitly is. They take many because they don’t want more rigorous academics. Some there don’t have special needs |
I think Birch has more scaffolding and support for kids with mild, manageable needs. So they can take a kid from Gaynor or or Windward but not from Gateway (if my understanding of those schools is correct). But unlike those schools, this is not all of the kids - there are plenty of kids without needs. I know a kid who graduated from there several years ago who was very sharp and got a very good college placement and has thrived. I think that was the exception, not the rule at the time but they were not alone. I agree with what others have said that the school seemed to almost be in a death spiral but hired a good HOS and has really improved things. It will not be stealing kids from TT (or even 2T) anytime soon but it is finding its niche and doing OK. |
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Yes it’s not just special needs but rather integrated. We have a family with a son there and they actually really like it.
We looked at it when we looked at York prep as well. I think it’s better than York prep. But we think Trevor is better and a bit more challenging. The one issue was the class size was small in one grade. |