It is much less diverse than the other IAC schools, for sure.

Lots of hot moms and people on their 2nd marriages.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously at least one person has had the experience of being excluded by a Belle Haven/Old Town crowd. Anyone with kids in school knows that every class is different so just because it didn’t happen to you doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Let it go.

Defensive much?

No. Yawn.

Great school - loved it for HS for my DS. Great education, parent/teacher/student community and commute. DS made friends from all over, but mostly from Alexandria and nearby overall. Parents were awesome - even the "in crowd" of lifers was very friendly and welcoming to our DS and family. Worth every dime.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously at least one person has had the experience of being excluded by a Belle Haven/Old Town crowd. Anyone with kids in school knows that every class is different so just because it didn’t happen to you doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Let it go.

Defensive much?

Anonymous wrote:Obviously at least one person has had the experience of being excluded by a Belle Haven/Old Town crowd. Anyone with kids in school knows that every class is different so just because it didn’t happen to you doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Let it go.

Obviously at least one person has had the experience of being excluded by a Belle Haven/Old Town crowd. Anyone with kids in school knows that every class is different so just because it didn’t happen to you doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys miss the point. Of course any one can point anecdotally to a kid here or there not from the Belle Haven or Old Town area.

The point is the population at SSSAS is overwhelmingly from those two areas, and if you aren't from those areas, you get ostracized unless you are an athlete (particularly lacrosse).

That's what happens to schools that have homogeneous student bodies. SSSAS has a lot of great things going for it, but the lack of diversity at that school is undeniable.

Not our experience.

PP also keeps repeating this, even though it is almost just mathematically not possible for it to be true, based on the size of the student body at SSSAS and the number of available kids (who don't go to public school) in those very small neighborhoods. Also, if pp knew anything at all about SSSAS, they would know that there are more kids from Del Ray, Beverly Hills and the neighborhoods immediately surrounding the schools than there are from Belle Haven and Old Town. For that matter, I'm sure there are more kids from the non-Belle Haven parts of Fairfax County than there are from both of those neighborhoods combined.

By the way, the neighborhoods that most SSSAS students hail from -- City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, Arlington, Prince George's County, Prince William County -- make geographic sense for a school in Alexandria, and that is a HUGE geographic area. The drive from the house of one of my dc's friends in Prince George's County was more than 30 miles from the house of another friend in McLean.

I'm the one who said that the school is not perfect by any means (my DC doesn't even go there, anymore) but this as a point of criticism is just very odd.

Anonymous wrote:You guys miss the point. Of course any one can point anecdotally to a kid here or there not from the Belle Haven or Old Town area.

The point is the population at SSSAS is overwhelmingly from those two areas, and if you aren't from those areas, you get ostracized unless you are an athlete (particularly lacrosse).

That's what happens to schools that have homogeneous student bodies. SSSAS has a lot of great things going for it, but the lack of diversity at that school is undeniable.

Not our experience.

^^^meaning there are country club climbers in North Arlington, just fewer than in Belle Haven.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in North Arlington with good schools. I can name four SSSAS students within blocks. And I don’t have a child there — just know the kids and their parents, and I see the bus!

+ 1

PLENTY of kids from North Arlington at SSSAS. Of course there are.

That’s not diversity.

You guys miss the point. Of course any one can point anecdotally to a kid here or there not from the Belle Haven or Old Town area.

The point is the population at SSSAS is overwhelmingly from those two areas, and if you aren't from those areas, you get ostracized unless you are an athlete (particularly lacrosse).

That's what happens to schools that have homogeneous student bodies. SSSAS has a lot of great things going for it, but the lack of diversity at that school is undeniable.

Anonymous wrote:We live in North Arlington with good schools. I can name four SSSAS students within blocks. And I don’t have a child there — just know the kids and their parents, and I see the bus!

+ 1

PLENTY of kids from North Arlington at SSSAS. Of course there are.

We live in North Arlington with good schools. I can name four SSSAS students within blocks. And I don’t have a child there — just know the kids and their parents, and I see the bus!

There are areas near Alexandria with bad/mediocre public schools so there are kids from these areas at SSSAS. Think South Arlington, etc. There are almost no kids from North Arlington and McLean where public schools are good but of course the whole school doesn’t come from Belle Haven and Old Town. So when people say there are kids from Arlington and Fairfax it’s true but concentrated to certain areas of Arlington and Fairfax.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they increasingly have students from places other than Alexandria. The faculty is excellent, and I think folks from other communities talk about the quality of instruction (at least that was true for us — people we knew talked about the teachers’ being very strong. So we looked there)

Wrong. It is one of the most homogenous populations for a private school. Super high population comes from Old Town or Belle Haven. Most of the kids and parents have known each other and socialized for years. If you are not one of them, you are pretty much ostracized.

Nope. Not even close but nice try.

Truth hurts. No other IAC school draws primarily from such a small and homogenous area. Kids who try to break in and aren't part of that group typically have bad experiences. The school has little geographic, racial and economic diversity.

When I car-pooled from Chevy Chase, there were two or three other kids in my grade from there, a couple from Spring Valley, one from Kalorama, another from Foxhall, etc. Most were students WERE Virginians, but we had a solid DC/CHCH contingent.

And what year was this? 1995?