From what I have observed, many of Alexandria's top students do tend to attend TC or out-of-area HS privates- even if they attended privates for the lower/middle school grades - including SSSA. For whatever reason, many SSSA families choose to leave after middle school, either for other more prestigious HS options or TC Williams.

Anonymous wrote: I would describe it as Republican/Clubby/Suburban/Conformist.

Interesting stereotype. There are some very connected (a few are well known) Dems who send their kids there.

Anonymous wrote:It's not known for its academics so much.... therefore, the people who send their kids there are looking for something else that a private school may offer (i.e., social cachet).

"so much" is subjective. It is a better choice than the local public schools and there are not a lot of choices in northern Virginia. Perhaps it is chosen for location and decent academics. So perhaps it is a quality of life choice, commuting into the city can be a pain in the neck.

And I would say that most if not ALL of the schools in the area (private and public) have headmasters and principals who are political and social suck ups.

Anonymous wrote:It's not known for its academics so much.... therefore, the people who send their kids there are looking for something else that a private school may offer (i.e., social cachet).

I don't get this. If you live in the City of Alexandria, your choices are 1) trouble public schools, 2) Blessed Sacrement/Bishop Ireton, 3) SSSAS, 4) ACDS, 5) Burgundy, 6) Browne, 7) Grace, 8) a horrible commute for your child, or 9) to move.

If you aren't Catholic and feel uncomfortable sending your child to a Catholic school and you eliminate #1, #8, and #9, your choices are SSSAS, ACDS, Burgundy, Browne, or Grace. Of these choices, only SSSAS offers high school. So if you attend ACDS, Burgundy, Browne, or Grace, your child either needs to attend TC Williams (which has the second lowest SAT score in NoVa outside of the schools in Manassas), Bishop Ireton Catholic school, a school requiring a long commute (for the schools in DC, MD, or other private high schools in Nova), to move, or ironically SSSAS!

So if you are not Catholic, like living in Alexandria or have roots there, don't want to send your child to TC Williams, don't want to have your child to have a long commute, and don't want to move, SSSAS is a logical pick. So guess what, SSSAS is very popular choice for Alexandria families. They must all want to be snobs! Imagine them not wanting to have to move to Arlington, Vienna, Fairfax, Falls Church, Springfield, Burke, or McLean either when their child turns 5 or 14. Oh the snobbery of them all.

Maybe it is because the school is not in the District, but it def. has a different vibe then the DC schools. I would describe it as Republican/Clubby/Suburban/Conformist. While it has it's fair share of alums, I'd guess a large number of parents attended less competitive public schools and universities in the south. Social status and athletics are the golden ticket more so then academics. Bullying is common, starting in the youngest grades, and little is done about it. In general, it is not viewed as an overly selective or intellectual place - but a school where members of a certain social group (or those wanting to break into a certain social group) tend to flock.

It's not known for its academics so much.... therefore, the people who send their kids there are looking for something else that a private school may offer (i.e., social cachet).

Anonymous wrote:11:58's post is frightening, and, unfortunately, seems to corroborate what I've heard about SSSAS, having lived just down the street from the school for over ten years.

Why would SSSAS have more "social climbing" than other top schools in the DC area? Not sure I understand how parents at SSSAS would materially differ from those at say St Albans, NCS, or Maret? It's the same kind of folks (lawyers, bankers, consultants, etc) that work for the same kinds of companies. Are you suggesting SSSAS does something to specifically attract status aware parents more so than other schools?

Interesting post PP - what you wrote makes sense to me. That said - the uber-competitiveness seems unreal having graduated 20 years ago when good grades, general well-roundedness and 1300 SAT scores could get you into most top 20 universities (or so was my experience as a small town girl). Never thought I'd think of my part time job at Bobs Big Boy as the good old days ..... but it's a different world now for sure.

I think that the 11:58 post (and the 22:42 post) could have been written about any of the upper schools that are written about on this board. When you're talking about the K-3, K-8, non-upper-schools, the dynamics are different (and so people tend to have a perception of those schools as "nicer")

SSSAS is no different from any school. Period. I went to a public school in a small town in the South, and pp could be describing my school. That's life.

Furthermore, is it a surprise that a school that has a large percentage of well-to-do kids will have a large percentage of well-to-do kids honored as high-achieving? Is the pp alleging that these kids were not otherwise deserving? The pp seems to think it is unfair because there are kids that are doing well because they have advantages (tutors, trainers, etc -- and, by the way, I didn't know anyone at my public high school who took the SAT who didn't do private SAT test prep). I'm just surprised that someone would reject public school, go through the admissions process for one of these competetive schools, write big checks every year, and then complain about how life isn't fair because some people have more advantages than others.

I agree with the PP. There are always certain people who benefit more than others, however, a number of kids also benefit by networking and being friends with these families.

SSSAS is no different than any other competitive school.

Sooner or later someone's going to flame this. Sadly what has been described would probably fit many many schools.

11:58's post is frightening, and, unfortunately, seems to corroborate what I've heard about SSSAS, having lived just down the street from the school for over ten years.

Thank you.