Norwood is great as a feeder too..a post elsewhere claimed 13 or 14 Norwood girls got in last year...that's unusual

What I've seen? Primary Day, Concord Hill, Harbor, Manor/Aidan/Lone Oak Montessori, St. Pat's, NPS all reliably prepare girls in a way the admissions office relies on.

thank you previous poster! I'm glad someone could address the question w/o jumping down someone's throat about it.

Back to the original post, I spoke with the Admissions Director last year to help us in deciding where to apply our daughter for K so that she'd be prepared in third grade. She told me that all of our options were good picks and named a few more. She also gave me a run down of where the kids came from and many of them were NOT from Primary Day.

Well, it is really nice that the French woman has spoken so positively about here hs experience here in the states and yes, she does speak impeccable English.

Anonymous wrote:No suprise that if you look at many of the top female leaders in this country, they are grads of women's colleges.

Did you know that France's top finance minister graduated from Holton?

I know her reasonably well from her prior role (she was chairwoman of a big law firm before she went into government). She did indeed go to Holton but for a year as a "post grad" year between French high school and university. I think it was largely to perfect her English (which is indeed perfect).

the question is about feeder schools for Holton. As someone said earlier, if a girl does a good job just about anywhere and does fine on the entrance test, she'll work out at Holton

agree with PP. Some of these responders take things out of proportion.

Don't be so dramatic. That is not what an earlier poster asked. If a kid wants to join the circus or become a chef; then they should go to those kind of trade schools and not have their moms snearing on the posts about private schools in this area.

What if my daughter happens to want to be the best trapeze artist in the world...does that make her mediocre? What if my son wants to become a great chef and open a fabulous restaurant? Does that make him average and a loser? Please if he/she doesn't become a lawyer/doctor/power broker have they failed? If all you care about is getting your child into some named college so you can feel good about yourself then I feel sorry for you. And your kids.

11:39, since when is it true that scaling back the type A madness = "mediocrity" ? could it just = sanity? contentedness? "Pride in a job well done without killing yourself with 8 hours of homework a night" ?

I'm no Elena Kagan, but compared to 98% of the females in the United States, I'm not "mediocre" either if the yardstick is educational attainment, income, all the SES bullshit. And yet ... perhaps my proudest accomplishment is knowing when to say 'when' and achieving a nice balance in life.

If my kid seeks this for himself, I will be proud.

PP -- aim for mediocrity and that's what you'll get. So many women fear excellence for themselves and then they pass that on to their children.

"If we had sent her to an average high school -- we're convinced she would have turned out average since no one would have pushed her to succeed."

What does this even mean?...average? My children are not average no matter where they go to school and what they enjoy doing. They both have distinct qualities that may not be academic that make them special, unique people. It is this obsession with academic/sports achievement in DC that makes me want to run far away. For boys and for girls. Some pushing is fine but to not take family vacations and be unable to just chill out together in front of a movie every now and again is just sad.

What will you remember on your deathbed...how great all that trigonometry homework was or that memorable family vacation you took? Let's get our priorities straight here.

She's actually the first female finance minister (Sec Treas equivalent) in any country. Amazing woman.

Yes I concur previous poster. It is such a huge deal in France to be a minister of any government segment...and very impressive to be a finance minister!

That's nice about your niece -- glad to hear she really liked Holton. My daughter didn't love the social part, but she loved the education and sports parts -- she's at an Ivy now. She said Holton really prepared her well for all of the hard work.