Actually, I believe that only schools who hold Azaela Festivals should be considered. |
But, seriously, does Sidwell have a family event comparable to the Azalea Festival? I mean an event to which students, parents, and siblings are invited and that builds a sense of community. (I have never attended the Azalea Festival, and I have children at neither Landon nor Sidwell, just at STA, where we have the annual Christmas House Tour and the Flower Mart). |
Sidwell does not have an event comparable to the azalea festival or any events that involve the entire school community. I went to sidwell so I am speaking from experience. |
Landon also has fundraising dances. See the Landon Dance thread. |
Any insight on why the police were called to Landon over the weekend? I heard it was for underage drinking by a number of students. Does anyone know Landon's policy on dealing with such incidents? |
Last year,they had one 8th grader (off campus) taken to the hospital for alcohol od--stomach pumped. This was last year. Kid remained a problem all year long--nothing done.
Realize the incident was off campus, but the other problems were definitely on campus. |
Sidwell has a Homecoming, which is mainly for current students and families, as well as other events for each of teh divisions within the school, but to my knowledge, there isn't anything like the Azelea Festival. |
An 8th grader at Landon with alcohol poisoning??? That's awful! It's also sad if the school did not do anything about it. Perhaps that is why more incidents of alcohol abuse happened at Landon over the weekend.
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Have you thought of letting your son make the decision? I tend to feel that the child should be fully invested in where he will be attending. It is really hard to try to judge which school would be academically superior for your son. In hs it really comes down to teacher quality and fit. There will most likely be teachers at both schools that inspire him. My hunch is that you want to send him to Landon and feel Sidwell is better and that is why you are hesitating. He will thrive at the place that is the best fit for him. I vote to let him choose. |
Best idea yet. Isn't decision time past? |
OP here. This discussion has been very useful. As one PP said, very much depends on the teachers, and there is not that much difference between the two schools in terms of academic strength (that is, apart from the obvious differences such as co-ed vs. single sex, and PE occasionally vs. sports every day). DS likes both schools. We have jointly made a decision -- I will not share it here now -- but we still like both schools and cannot be sure whether the decision made will prove to be the right one. We will see. I may share more insights down the road. Many thanks again for all the useful suggestions and observations! |
Well after 5 pages of posts and advice, thanks for wasting our time!
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OP didn't indicate that there were two acceptances in hand (and it was posted a day or two before decisions were due). Always looked BS to me.
And my sense is that most people on this board are here precisely to waste time, LOL! |
Sidwell is very guarded about this info, for some reason. Maybe the revelation of weaker-than-expected matriculation stats would hurt the school's reputation. Hard to get this info for Potomac School also, although the school has released "acceptances," which is totally misleading. Can't find the data for GDS or Georgetown Visitation either. Could someone post a link for any of these four schools? |
Private school = not public domain. |