Are there "normal" families at these top schools?

[Anonymous]

Maybe all of the above.

Although I'm not sure you are referrring to PP, PPP, or PP on some of the other threads today. Must be that collective time of month . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Immediate PP, I assume you're talking about WES, but I can't be 100% sure since you also say WIS, and there have been many WIS posts on the board lately, which you seem to be referring to. If you mean WES, are you a parent there? We were very impressed with WES as a possible school for DC, and we've looked at lots of schools. Why are you diminishing it? What's the problem with WES that unsuspecting applying parents don't know about?

We applied to WES a few years ago. We got in. But then we got off the Beauvoir wait-list and went there. We forfeited $9,000 in the process. But we felt it was worth it. Obviously, we thought well enough of WES to send our DC there. And this may seem trivial, but we loved the uniforms. Here's what we did not like. The campus. It's fine inside, but not 20K a year fine. Didn't like that it ended at 8th grade, and that it didn't feed to STA/NCS, Maret, GDS. We are one of those place-saver parents - we'll pay 20K per year for 8 years to assure a spot in a great private HS. Also got the sense that the families were more suburban oriented than urban. As DH put it after a new parent event, it felt like we were at X Country Club. Finally, and this sounds awful, but I'm trying to be helpful here - DC is very, very smart. We thought that since it is harder to get into Beauvoir than WES, that Beauvoir kids generally did better on the tests than WES kids. We want DC to be around the smartest kids around. I guess one last thing. Many, probably most, WES families also applied to Beauvoir, and often always St. Patrick's. They did not get into either, so that left them at WES. DH and I did not want to be part of the rejected pile at WES. Sorry. I know I sound awful, but apart from my school obsession, I'm actually quite nice and functional.

WES doesn't require testing at the Pre-K entry level, so I'm not sure about your logic. Nor does it pan out. DC tested at 99.8% and fits in with his classmates at WES.