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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Slightly different perspective here. All of my US kids are lifers, so maybe that's why I come from a different place. Daily life at US is, despite the advertised virtues, short on the Quaker values implied to be at the core of the school's identity. The virtue signaling is over the top.

It's all relative to what other schools may be like. I don't know any other school so cannot speak to that. But my view is that the school's policies around academics (teacher's interactions with students) are draconian. Definitely not warm.

Also, the school's recent turn of focus to sports has undermined the atmosphere of academic excellence. That, again, just in my opinion, has suffered.

Socially, based on what I have heard from my kids over the years and what some acquaintances have shared, there's as much of a mean-kid culture at Sidwell as at any other school. There are the popular kids, the ahtletes, the mean girls, the 'try hards', and the senior whose mom is on the Board and by all accounts should have been kicked out right now for a few nefarious acts, not to mention running the (against the school policy) poker enterprise in the senior center.  And sure, the basketball playoffs are good-spirited. They're the playoffs and attendance at any sporting events at Sidwell do not draw the kids who are not part of the 'in' crowd, or even the generally happy kids.

Have my kids come out with a good education? They graduated (as recently as last year) seem to have. But do I think it is any different than elsewhere, no. [/quote]

This sound more like our experience there than other PPs

I’ll also say that as a parent of a current student who was attending admissions sessions for my younger child - I was shocked at the difference between (a) what they were presenting and [b]the kids/teachers they allow applicants and new admits to ‘meet’ and ‘hear from’ [/b]and (b) our years of experience there as parents of a high school student.

They are very carefully selecting who will fit the reality they wish to project. 
[/quote]

That’s anywhere though right? You put out what you want to attract.

But I agree it’s still alarming that what they’re saying doesn’t match your real-life experience with the school [/quote]

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