Reply to Information on Park School or Friends School in Baltimore?

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[quote=Anonymous]We have a kid starting lower school at Friends in the fall - coming from a different co-ed private with a strong reputation (leaving only for logistical reasons).  I don't therefore have tons of experience, but based on what we've seen first hand and what we've heard from friends with kids in local privates, I would say that lots of schools in the lower grades are willing to work with kids with some "extra" needs, though not probably discipline problems.  From what I can tell, the real competitive schools here are Gilman (all boys) and Bryn Mawr (all girls) - I know of younger siblings turned down at each who are doing great at Boys Latin, Roland Park Country Day, or Friends , all of which are very good schools.  Typically, all of the schools in the region have "learning specialists" on staff and if you look carefully, you'll see that many have been added in just the past 5 years.  I think that the downturn in the economy here has made the schools have to look more carefully at the applicants and try to figure out how to accomodate and challenge a wider range of kids.

We chose Friends in particular for a couple reasons:  1) we wanted co-ed at least for lower school, 2) we wanted less emphasis on sports - at Friends, everyone starting in middle school has to play an after school sport, which means that my unathletic kid will likely not be the worst on the team, 3) all kids learn an instrument in 3rd grade and must be in band or orchestra for the following TWO years - which has the added benefit of showcasing the musical kids and not just the athletes, 3) Friends is upfront on its website about trying to accomodate kids with learning differences - couldn't find that on any other school site, and since we have a younger DC with learning differences, we wanted a place that at least potentially will welcome him/her, 4) Friends also claims to do quite a bit of differentiation, which I asked about at length as one DC is quite advanced in math , 5) every single person who's ever said anything to me about Friends (and this does not include a single alum) has told me that the Friends grads are among the nicest kids s/he knows.  College placements are not as strong as some of the other schools (Gilman's is quite impressive) - but that's because it isn't the school's overriding purpose, which I like (not that I won't change my mind in the upper grades...).  I haven't had the sense that Friends is particularly progressive, if that is what you are looking for in particular.  It does though seem to be a lovely community.  I definitely recommend that you talk to Amy Mortimer, who is in charge of lower school admissions.  She has 3 kids there in upper/middle/lower school and she can definitely talk to you about all of your questions.

Re getting in during off-years - we arrived in B'more unexpectedly at the last minute last August and had no problems whatsoever at all the schools we looked at, including some of the very competitive ones.  FYI, the schools in B'more do their own testing rather than rely on WISC, but we had just had DC's done and we shared that so they only did a bit of supplemental testing, but if your kid hasn't done well on the WISC, no one here will ever know.

Good luck!!![/quote]

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