Anonymous wrote:BTW don't assume that minority kids who play baseball or football at the local Catholic high schools are only "recruited athletes." There are many who are full pay, and others like my son who does get some FA, who are also top students.

Don't make that assumption at IAC schools like St Alban's as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lacrosse isn't, and probably never will be, equal to baseball. More kids play baseball, more colleges have programs, etc. It is also a more affordable game for kids to play. Don't confuse the lunatic following lacrosse has spread over a few dozen prep schools with something that is a real national scope game.

In this area, lacrosse is the premium spring sport at privates in dc/baltimore. A big bonus for the high schools is that the college programs are disproportionately at elite schools. You seem stuck in the 80's.

No, you seek stuck in the lax cheerleader section. What I wrote is lacrosse is a sport taken too seriously for what it is at a couple dozen prep schools. In the DMV + Baltimore you see that. Go 100 miles west or 100 miles south and you don't see that. Baseball is huge in every corner and county of America. Yes, some good academic colleges have lacrosse. But every one of those colleges has baseball and baseball goes hundreds of more colleges deep in the sport. In this area prep school lacrosse is the world to those idiot parents. But then there's the other 99% that doesn't care about it.

BTW don't assume that minority kids who play baseball or football at the local Catholic high schools are only "recruited athletes." There are many who are full pay, and others like my son who does get some FA, who are also top students.

Anonymous wrote:Be careful what you wish for, OP.

Recruited athletes don't always fare well in privates where there are kids who have been there since elementary school. They may play (which maybe is your only concern), but they may not be well-liked or included socially.

This from a Mom whose kid was not recruited, played for years at private and played in college - so I am happy how it turned out for my son, but I can tell you that a bunch of parents of "recruited" players were really resentful and didn't include the recruited kid's parents in their social circle. And, the kid wasn't particularly well-liked.

Maybe that's not on your radar, but it should be.

Definitely didn't happen that way at one of the Catholic schools mentioned here for my non Catholic son. He was welcomed warmly, made firends easily, and is well liked by his classmates and their parents. he is often invited to their homes for social events. He is friendly, outgoing, and enjoys his school. So I would not generalize. If he's entering in 9th garde, all the kids are new even if some know each other well form middle school.

Anonymous wrote:Lacrosse isn't, and probably never will be, equal to baseball. More kids play baseball, more colleges have programs, etc. It is also a more affordable game for kids to play. Don't confuse the lunatic following lacrosse has spread over a few dozen prep schools with something that is a real national scope game.

In this area, lacrosse is the premium spring sport at privates in dc/baltimore. A big bonus for the high schools is that the college programs are disproportionately at elite schools. You seem stuck in the 80's.

Just to clarify. I wrote the 15:01 post, but not the 17:22 post. You can't assume who is writing the replies.

Lacrosse isn't, and probably never will be, equal to baseball. More kids play baseball, more colleges have programs, etc. It is also a more affordable game for kids to play. Don't confuse the lunatic following lacrosse has spread over a few dozen prep schools with something that is a real national scope game.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if your son is as gifted as you say, apply to both STA and SJC. With your HHI, and what your son can contribute to the school, both will make it financially workable.

I don't think SJC would offer $$$ to a family of three or even four making $160k. However, StA and Prep might. OP, please be aware last year's admissions were brutal. Don't assume your son will get in. Make sure he preps hard for the admissions tests.

This is normally true for Catholic schools but Plank is pouring money into the sports. So, OP might catch that wave.

Np, but I don't think you can reject pp's comments as just sour grapes. The issue to what degree to "recruit" for athletics is one that is constantly debated at the "academic" independents (nothing that follows is going to apply to the sports powerhouse schools, most of which are parochial and not independents anyway). The school my child is out follows the teacher-coach model and only actively recruits for football (and even that is a hot button issue), a sport at which they are not surprisingly very good. There is resistance, particularly among the active donor alumni (most of whom no longer have children at the school) for lowering academic standards for athletes. Lacrosse is way more high profile than baseball, but they have a lot of home grown kids that are talented and have resisted recruiting.

The class size increases by only 20 to 30 kids at middle then again at upper school, so that doesn't leave a lot of spaces for kids who are there primarily for athletics, particularly if at least five slots are going to "football" kids.

I am in another city, but I would not be surprised to find that same issues at St. Albans and similarly academic schools.

Anonymous wrote:Be careful what you wish for, OP.

Recruited athletes don't always fare well in privates where there are kids who have been there since elementary school. They may play (which maybe is your only concern), but they may not be well-liked or included socially.

This from a Mom whose kid was not recruited, played for years at private and played in college - so I am happy how it turned out for my son, but I can tell you that a bunch of parents of "recruited" players were really resentful and didn't include the recruited kid's parents in their social circle. And, the kid wasn't particularly well-liked.

Maybe that's not on your radar, but it should be.

No it should not be on your radar. What a ridiculous statement. This poster said there was one kid who was shunned because he took some full pay lifer's spot on the sports team at STA(?). There may be a couple kids and parents at IAC schools (WCAC schools are all high schools only) who get their panties in a twist because some athlete comes in at high school and all of a sudden their kid doesn't make a team, but the majority don't shun the new kids as a result. We tell our kids from an early age that there is no guarantee you will make a team just because....there will always be kids who are better than you athletically. Find something else to do, or work harder to make a team. And if someone shuns you or your kid that is their problem, not yours. If the school let your kid in then they belong there and deserve to be there and to experience all the school has to offer without worrying about whether they offend someone by being a better athlete than someone else.

And FWIW your child will be accepted more easily in 9th grade at STA if he is an athlete than if he isn't.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if your son is as gifted as you say, apply to both STA and SJC. With your HHI, and what your son can contribute to the school, both will make it financially workable.

I don't think SJC would offer $$$ to a family of three or even four making $160k. However, StA and Prep might. OP, please be aware last year's admissions were brutal. Don't assume your son will get in. Make sure he preps hard for the admissions tests.

I think 160k easily gets FA for a recruited athlete at any of those schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be careful what you wish for, OP.

Recruited athletes don't always fare well in privates where there are kids who have been there since elementary school. They may play (which maybe is your only concern), but they may not be well-liked or included socially.

This from a Mom whose kid was not recruited, played for years at private and played in college - so I am happy how it turned out for my son, but I can tell you that a bunch of parents of "recruited" players were really resentful and didn't include the recruited kid's parents in their social circle. And, the kid wasn't particularly well-liked.

Maybe that's not on your radar, but it should be.

Should not be a problem at SJC or Prep, both start in 9th. I've gathered that StA can be a social nightmare, and pp's post appears to confirm that.

Fixed so it doesn't look like I was typing with my elbows:
Just visit some open houses and see what clicks. Have met many happy families at SJC, Prep, Gonzaga, St. Albans. Visit days can be a great way for the kids to see if they can picture themselves at a school. Sites like this often take a negative turn -- adults regress when talking about schools, it is odd!, so take what you read here with a grain of salt. Luckily, being part of a team is a tried and true way for a boy to make new friends quickly, and by high school the parents don't run the social life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be careful what you wish for, OP.

Recruited athletes don't always fare well in privates where there are kids who have been there since elementary school. They may play (which maybe is your only concern), but they may not be well-liked or included socially.

This from a Mom whose kid was not recruited, played for years at private and played in college - so I am happy how it turned out for my son, but I can tell you that a bunch of parents of "recruited" players were really resentful and didn't include the recruited kid's parents in their social circle. And, the kid wasn't particularly well-liked.

Maybe that's not on your radar, but it should be.

Should not be a problem at SJC or Prep, both start in 9th. I've gathered that StA can be a social nightmare, and pp's post appears to confirm that.

Just visit some open houses and see what clicks. Have met many happy families at SJC, Prep, Gonzaga, St. Albans. Visit days can be a great way for the kids to see if they can picture themselves at a school. Sites like this often take a negative turn -- adults regress when talking about schools, it is odd!, so take what you read here wit ha grain of salt. Luckily, being part of a team is a tried and true way for abou tomake new friends quickly, and by high school the parents don't run the social life.

Anonymous wrote:Be careful what you wish for, OP.

Recruited athletes don't always fare well in privates where there are kids who have been there since elementary school. They may play (which maybe is your only concern), but they may not be well-liked or included socially.

This from a Mom whose kid was not recruited, played for years at private and played in college - so I am happy how it turned out for my son, but I can tell you that a bunch of parents of "recruited" players were really resentful and didn't include the recruited kid's parents in their social circle. And, the kid wasn't particularly well-liked.

Maybe that's not on your radar, but it should be.

Should not be a problem at SJC or Prep, both start in 9th. I've gathered that StA can be a social nightmare, and pp's post appears to confirm that.

Anonymous wrote:OP, if your son is as gifted as you say, apply to both STA and SJC. With your HHI, and what your son can contribute to the school, both will make it financially workable.

I don't think SJC would offer $$$ to a family of three or even four making $160k. However, StA and Prep might. OP, please be aware last year's admissions were brutal. Don't assume your son will get in. Make sure he preps hard for the admissions tests.