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[quote=Anonymous]The question was not what was the top academic school - which is clearly TJ. (tongue in cheek)

The question is what school do most 8th graders (with input from their parents) in DC/MD/VA want to go to.

The answer is there is no #1 that would be statistically significant. The Sidwell peeps believe it is Sidwell. The rest of us think that a whole bunch would fall at the top as equally desirable. Somebody made the mistake of using Gonzaga as an example and then a whole bunch of bean counting happened.

[quote=Anonymous]If you look back at the chart that someone compiled of multiple years of NMSFs (it's linked in the first couple of FAQ posts), Sidwell had the highest percentage of NMSFs (about 15%) over about a 5 year period, followed by St. Albans (at 14.3%), followed by NCS (11%).  As I recall, that chart was created in 2009 or so.  It is true that Sidwell's percentage is not the highest every year -- I think St. Albans' % was higher last year and maybe in another recent year, and a couple of years ago GDS had a whole slew of NMSFs.  On that chart, Gonzaga has 2 % NMSFs over the same time period.  This year I believe they had 6 total, and assuming a graduating class of about 200, that would be 3%.

My kids don't go to Sidwell, but I don't have trouble agreeing that for academics, Sidwell is generally, if not invariably, top of the heap in terms of selectivity in admissions and strength of the cohort.  Standardized tests aren't everything, but they are standardized, and they work for me as a decent proxy for academic aptitude -- every NMSF I met was a gifted student.

This feels very recent vintage American society to me -- nobody can stand to admit that their kid isn't the smartest, or doesn't go to the best academic school, etc. (at least until college when everyone goes bonkers over a short list of ten schools).  My kid is pretty smart.  My kid likes school.  My kid isn't the smartest, isn't the most athletic, doesn't deserve more playing time on the team, doesn't deserve a higher GPA, hasn't gotten screwed by the teachers, and guess what, my kid is fine by me and I think will achieve good academic and career success.[/quote][/quote]

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