Reply to St. John’s Open House On Sunday

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DD and I went to SJC’s Open House yesterday. For the most part I was impressed. A bit overwhelming due to the amount of people attending and the rain, Neverless we walked away with a good sense of the school. One thing that I took note of was when we went to the athletic building. Each sport had its own table with the coaching staff. I saw majority of the coaches were engaged with the exception of basketball. It seemed every prospect went to the table but, the coaches had a look like,”Write your name and keep moving.” Another parent mentioned the basketball coaches recruit and being at the Open House is just a formality. How true is this? [/quote]

You need to be realistic about just how good your kid is if he hopes to play basketball at St. John's (or GZ, GC DM and several other WCAC schools).  They are all recruiting across the region.

Just take a look at last season's roster.  According to Maxpreps.com there was only 1 kid under 6' (5'11") and plenty of 6'5 + kids there.  They were ranked 137 nationally and that was a relative down year for them.

Football is even more competitive.  They play a national schedule plus GZ, GC and DM and those 3 teams are also nationally ranked powerhouses. The days of the 5'10" suburban white kid playing on those teams are long gone unless he is an exceptionally gifted athlete. Sports there are backed by big donors such as the founder of Under Armour.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/under-armour-founder-gives-16-million-to-st-johns-college-high/2015/11/06/7adc7724-84bf-11e5-9afb-0c971f713d0c_story.html

Other sports may be less competitive there but your kid will still need to be a solid-strong athlete to play on most of the teams that have cuts.[/quote]

+1000. These schools are moving towards an IMG model. I am not saying they will be exactly like IMG but, the pressure is on to win. They are no longer looking for novice players. If your child is not already playing on a AAU, travel or highly competitive league chances are they won’t be a fit. [/quote]

It's unfortunate because that's not what the great majority of families are looking for in a high school.[/quote]

I think you might be looking at this a bit myopically.  SJC also has the Scholars program, which is targeted at kids in the 99% of HSPT.  And they have invest heavily in arts.  So the recruiting is across the board - they want to raise the level in every area.  Sports recruiting is maybe a bit more visible.

They have about 250 - 275 kids per call.  Let's say 20 Scholars and 100 recruited athletes across all sports.  That's half the admits gone before the first kid looking to avoid Wilson applies.[/quote]

The scholars program is really just a specifically designed schedule consisting of all honors and AP courses.  Anyone who goes to SJC can sign up for these courses and essentially get the same education as those in the scholars program.  I think they go on a couple of trips and get a dedicated college counselor.  Beyond that the only other perk is a small scholarship.  We turned it down.[/quote]

Completely untrue description. [/quote]

It was made very clear to us when my son was offered the program that the courses he would take in the scholars program would not be exclusive to those in the scholars program, i.e. students from the non scholars program would also be in the classes.  It would be very expensive for SJC to design a program for only 20 students to have exclusive access to the honors and AP classes.

Therefore, any kid who gains admission to SJC in the non scholars program can design a similar curriculum minus the field trips and the college counselor.

Prove it otherwise if you see this as untrue.[/quote]

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