Anonymous
12/01/2025 19:14
Subject: Re:What is it like for non-sporty kids at Potomac?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Your child will be fine. I always laugh about outsider’s view of Potomac being a sports school. Like most top independents in this area they don’t for sports and many of their programs are not very competitive overall. No serious athlete chooses Potomac if that’s all they care about. For this reason, many different types of kids do well there. I have two kids at Potomac since kindergarten. One is a sporty kid, one is not. They both found their people and thrive in different ways. Your kid will be fine.
I’m PP that said it’s painful to watch nonsporty boy try to find their place. Agree Potomac isn’t a powerhouse athletic school like some of those in the IAC or WCAC, but in our experience the social pecking order for boys is indeed tied to athletic prowess (and wealth).
I’m the PP you are replying to. I guess I can see some truth to that, but without outing myself, my non- sporty boy is definitely popular and in the “in” crowd even though I cringe to describe him or the social scene that way. I think a lot of it is also kid and grade specific.
Anonymous
12/01/2025 18:29
Subject: What is it like for non-sporty kids at Potomac?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We like a lot about Potomac but my son isn’t that sporty. From what I’ve read it’s a very sports heavy culture. Would he not fit in?
There is a requirement that you are on a team for pretty much every season. Usually sports team. But robotics team also fills the requirement
It should but it doesn't.
Robotics kids STILL have to do 10 seasons of sports in high school
This is simply not true. Every US student has to participate in some type of school activity for 2 of the 3 seasons. As someone mentioned above, one season has to be what they call "sweaty" but that includes all kinds of things like the musical, conditioning, yoga etc. So at most a kid is looking at 4 "sweaty" seasons across all four years of high school, with the broad definition they use giving kids lots of options that do not involve having to play a true "sport".
This is the correct answer. Pp stating they need to do 10 seasons of a sport plus robotics is using out of date information.
Anonymous
12/01/2025 13:14
Subject: What is it like for non-sporty kids at Potomac?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We like a lot about Potomac but my son isn’t that sporty. From what I’ve read it’s a very sports heavy culture. Would he not fit in?
There is a requirement that you are on a team for pretty much every season. Usually sports team. But robotics team also fills the requirement
It should but it doesn't.
Robotics kids STILL have to do 10 seasons of sports in high school
This is simply not true. Every US student has to participate in some type of school activity for 2 of the 3 seasons. As someone mentioned above, one season has to be what they call "sweaty" but that includes all kinds of things like the musical, conditioning, yoga etc. So at most a kid is looking at 4 "sweaty" seasons across all four years of high school, with the broad definition they use giving kids lots of options that do not involve having to play a true "sport".
Anonymous
12/01/2025 10:40
Subject: What is it like for non-sporty kids at Potomac?
Two of my three at Potomac are not at all into athletics and are very, very happy. The theater program is wonderful and so is the visual arts.