anyone's child who has sibling at sidwell rejected for K?

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]M/F, scores if you don't mind[/quote]

Male, 98th% , Quaker ,would have needed FA, outright rejected.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yes - the sense of entitlement at Sidwell is shameful, especially since its a Quaker school. We withdrew our app since we did not think we fit in with the privledge few attitude.[/quote]
Could you please provide specifics? What specifically did anyone say/do that suggested a sense of entitlement?[/quote]

We asked about FA of a Sidwell Parent on the parent tour and her response was and I quote, " I wouldn't know" period and she looked away.She did this in front of about 20 other prospective families. Can you get more pretentious than that?

Another Sidwell mother flipped me off when I was just too slow for her in traffic. I guess she forgot that she had that Sidwell bumper sticker on her car. Too bad we were both going to pick up our kids at Sidwell . Suddenly, she was all nice and meek as she realized I was . I guess, a real human being worthy of respect since my child also went to Sidwell. That shouldn't happen . People like this should never be admitted to a Quaker school.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]To 19:34: I am struggling to understand why anyone for whom Quaker values are important would want their DC to attend Sidwell in the first place. Your complaint seems to be that Sidwell has lost its way and no longer prioritizes Quaker principles. However, you must have realized that before you received the rejection letter, right? Even as a non-Quaker, that seemed pretty obvious to me during the admissions process. This is one of the many reasons we chose not to send DC there even though s/he was accepted. So I imagine that a Quaker who takes his or her religion seriously would not want to send their DC to a school like that anyway. So why all the anger about your DC being rejected? I honestly don't understand...[/quote]

Because I loved my Quaker school when i was a kid and I am sorry to see what was once a fine Quaker school in DC destroyed by such poor stewardship that , in my opinion, just went for the money and has allowed itself to become filled with people who mock Quaker values while they say that they are just at the school for "the rigorous academics" and the Ivy League placement rate, etc. I am not angry or upset about any rejection. I am sorry that the Quaker school that I wanted to send my DC to no longer exists.Perhaps now that Sidwell has it's new Middle School,it's new Library, it's new Gym at the Upper School,its renovated green energy meeting house, it's new Soccer Field and underground parking garage and the Obama's will ensure plenty of application fee money for eternity...let's please just start saying, NO to the money. Can we turn over a new leaf and become a Quaker School again? It may take 20 years to recover the spirit of what once was, but can we please try???

Hey, here is a suggestion for the admissions team: instead of springing a surprise essay on the parents on the day of their parent tour why don't you have members of the parking lot guards, the house keeping team report on their interactions with them as they pull in. ask directions, walk into the school, etc.. great way to weed out the pretenders who treat their fellow human beings like doggy do.Maybe the Head of School should dress like a janitor on tour day and see what Sidwell seeking parent responds to his outstretched hand.You are looking for 24 families out of about 5,000 right applicants, right. You might get that in the present environment.

[Anonymous]

Being a Quaker school has nothing to do with any tax exemption Sidwell enjoys, just like Maret and GDS.

To my knowledge, Thomas Sidwell was not a Quaker, so the school has always balanced the dichotomy described in previous posts.

Has it maybe gone too far in recent years? Possibly.
Are there some good ideas that the school could consider?
Probably.

[Anonymous]

All the Sidwell parents I have met (wealthy or poor) have been nothing short of delightful. I have not seen a sense of entitlement anywhere. Granted, most of my exposure has been in lower school, but it seems like a great community, and I can only assume that most of the detractors here are either insecure or sour grapes.

[Anonymous]

I only like the poor parents.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]Being a Quaker school has nothing to do with any tax exemption Sidwell enjoys, just like Maret and GDS.

To my knowledge, Thomas Sidwell was not a Quaker, so the school has always balanced the dichotomy described in previous posts.

Reply: He owned in his personal library 34 books dating back to 1600's all on Quaker beliefs, practices and various struggles, bought property and developed it into a Quaker school , presided over the sale of part of that land not to enrich himself but to get money to build a Quaker lower school and then specified in his Will that if the school failed the proceeds form the sale would go to a list of teachers and custodians of that school that he had selected. Sounds like a Quaker to me. Also he specified in his Will that the Board of the School must always be mainly Quaker, but perhaps you are correct and he wasn't a Quaker.... LOL...Yours is a rationalization if I've ever heard one. Why the need to rationalize?

Has it maybe gone too far in recent years? Possibly.
Are there some good ideas that the school could consider?
Probably.

[/quote]

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]I only like the poor parents. [/quote]

Reality check: the poverty level for a family of four in Washington, DC is something like 35K a year. So, sorry but the familes that you've met who make 70K a year are not "poor people" uh, that is what we call the middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I only like the poor parents.

Reality check: the poverty level for a family of four in Washington, DC is something like 35K a year. So, sorry but the familes that you've met who make 70K a year are not "poor people" uh, that is what we call the middle class.


I only like the really poor parents.

[Anonymous]

FYI, Thornton Friends School closed in 2009. The Alexandria Friends School (www.afriends.org) is an offshoot of TFS (at what was once the TFS-VA campus) and maintains the Thornton Program there. It is the only Quaker school in northern Virginia, offering grades 9-12 with plans for a middle school.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Hey, here is a suggestion for the admissions team: instead of springing a surprise essay on the parents on the day of their parent tour why don't you have members of the parking lot guards, the house keeping team report on their interactions with them as they pull in. ask directions, walk into the school, etc.. great way to weed out the pretenders who treat their fellow human beings like doggy do.Maybe the Head of School should dress like a janitor on tour day and see what Sidwell seeking parent responds to his outstretched hand.You are looking for 24 families out of about 5,000 right applicants, right. You might get that in the present environment.[/quote]

I really love this idea. We are middle class and have seen instances of this type of thing at our school. We are practically the only parents that talk to the janitors. I was itching to have my daughter try out for the 3rd grade at Sidwell...now I'm not so sure.
Can anyone comment on the kids? Are they nice?

[Anonymous]

Folks, there is no surprise essay anymore, at least there was nothing of that sort this year. Get the facts straight please.

[Anonymous]

BS! There was too--we applied and had to do them. It's ridiculous and such a silly way to asses the "fit" of the child applying.

[Anonymous]

There was not a surprise essay for us--only the one on the application, nothing at the playdate for LS at least.