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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are so silly with your "two or three posters" line. This is a 70 page thread and none believes it is two or three posters bashing the school. The truth is the truth and I started hearing murmurings when my daughter was in middle school from the upper school parents. I naively and arrogantly thought " oh well that kid can't cut it. It won't be my kid. " my kid was a superstar and still deeply dislike the experience especially at the end. And I had heard this from many parents for several years before my daughter became a senior. These were also the kids who graduated at the ltop of the class and won awards.

So you see silly poster of "there are only one or two of you" your dismissiveness makes me want to prove others points even more. I think the posters have been very balanced and fair.

Nope. Somewhere in the middle of this thread a few of you started identifying yourselves... and it really was just a couple of repeat posters. Including two very disgruntled grads from the early 90s, apparently, not that their experience is relevant 20 years later. Look, I have no connection to the place, but you need to understand that spraying hate around makes everyone wonder whether, I dunno, you're the Holton booster (less likely) or the problem really is you (more likely).

There are more than a couple of repeat posters on this thread.

And again. And again. And again.

[Anonymous]

Lacrosse family will be looking at NCS for high school. Is lacrosse considered to be a marquee sport at NCS (i.e., regarding attention, support, emphasis)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lacrosse family will be looking at NCS for high school. Is lacrosse considered to be a marquee sport at NCS (i.e., regarding attention, support, emphasis)?

The four biggest sports at NCS, on the metrics you mentioned, are soccer, crew, basketball, and lacrosse.

With respect to lacrosse in particular, the Athletic Director is one of the coaches of the varsity lacrosse team so there is plenty of emphasis/attention. NCS has been middle-of-the-pack in a very strong league for probably the past decade. The coaching is good, the competition in the league is excellent, and NCS players who want to play in college do so. Most of them in the past decade have gone the strong academic Division III route (for example: Middlebury, Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, Pomona), but they've also had Division I players (Yale, Stanford, most recently Cal Berkeley). Most of the recruiting in women's lacrosse is now focused on club play, so it will not hurt your daughter's recruiting chances to be at a middle-of-the-pack ISL school (as NCS is currently) rather than at one of the top two programs (St. Stephens St. Agnes and Georgetown Visitation).

[Anonymous]

There really truly are quite a few of use. I posted MUCH earlier in this thread and I just came back to see others posting similar things to me views. There are far, far more than 50% of kids who are unhappy. I realize kids can be unhappy anywhere, but NCS has a particularly toxic brew going.

I know I will be dismissed as the same poster as others, though I'm not. I'm a parent who really wanted to like the school and my deepest regret as a parent was sending my DD there. The surprising thing for me is what other parents eventually told me senior year about how unhappy their kids were. I, personally, found the administration to be entirely indifferent to the emotional well being of their students. My greatest fear is that they will have a suicide. I know there have been attempts. It really scares me. I'm glad my DD is out of there.

[Anonymous]

DD is currently in US. I can tell you the school has lots of opportunities and lots of good things. But, the present administration is just not that into the students. I'm not saying they are bad people, but as another poster pointed out, their priorities seem to be elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There really truly are quite a few of use. I posted MUCH earlier in this thread and I just came back to see others posting similar things to me views. There are far, far more than 50% of kids who are unhappy. I realize kids can be unhappy anywhere, but NCS has a particularly toxic brew going.

I know I will be dismissed as the same poster as others, though I'm not. I'm a parent who really wanted to like the school and my deepest regret as a parent was sending my DD there. The surprising thing for me is what other parents eventually told me senior year about how unhappy their kids were. I, personally, found the administration to be entirely indifferent to the emotional well being of their students. My greatest fear is that they will have a suicide. I know there have been attempts. It really scares me. I'm glad my DD is out of there.

I know exactly how you feel. I felt guilty for a long time. I also have been accused of being one of the two posters that keeps spewing hate. It occurred to me that the poster ( could be a troll completely unconected to NCS but who knows) who keeps trying to suppress this discussion with their rude attacks on NCS parents is mimicing the behavior the girls experience. I really believe the school.has no clue how profoundly unhappy their students are.

[Anonymous]

I am noticing more emphasis is being placed on the large donors and board members ( who are large donors to begin with). Although it would not be uncommon for these donors to receive some favor, it has recently (last couple of years) become over the top. It surprises me to see the obvious money grab.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am noticing more emphasis is being placed on the large donors and board members ( who are large donors to begin with). Although it would not be uncommon for these donors to receive some favor, it has recently (last couple of years) become over the top. It surprises me to see the obvious money grab.

All well and good to claim this but what specifically do you see?

[Anonymous]

Those donors know the perks that come with giving that money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year at least three Beavoir students ended up at Sidwell, so it cannot be for academic reasons. I think some leave because they prefer a coed environment as their daughters mature.

Ha. From all those ST Albans boys hovering around NCS, you'd think it as coed!

OK, so why do parents of many of the top Beauvoir students apply to Sidwell. You tell me.

[Anonymous]

I am curious about that as well. Is it just the coed thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am curious about that as well. Is it just the coed thing?

NP. It's the NCS thing. Beauvoir's head during our app year expressed her concerns, we foolishly applied anyway. DD is a NCS alum now and has nothing to do with the school. Her college experience was great; however, she refuses to talk about NCS and is totally disinterested in any of its alumni activities, etc. While she received a good education there, in hindsight, we should have applied out after lower school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious about that as well. Is it just the coed thing?

NP. It's the NCS thing. Beauvoir's head during our app year expressed her concerns, we foolishly applied anyway. DD is a NCS alum now and has nothing to do with the school. Her college experience was great; however, she refuses to talk about NCS and is totally disinterested in any of its alumni activities, etc. While she received a good education there, in hindsight, we should have applied out after lower school.

NP. Agreed that "the NCS thing" plays a role. For those who prefer single sex, more and more Beauvoir alumna head to Holton.

[Anonymous]

+1. You keep coming back to post again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. For 40+pages.

Which is exactly the point people here are making about the NCS bashers - just 1-2 people with ugly obsessions. (PS - I don't care about keeping this thread at the top because we don't/didn't have a kid at NCS. Several of us just think you're nuts, and this OCD hatred clearly undermines whatever points you're trying to make.)

That's simply not true. I am a new poster. But, my neighbors confirm the adverse rumours regarding the sorry state of health at NCS. Just my 2 cents. (PS: I don't care if my 2 cents seems like a million dollars)

[Anonymous]

Is the upper school experience much different than middle school?