Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell has some kids on scholarship but come on, folks. Why are you even arguing about this? Obviously most Sidwell students come from money. If they didn't, Sidwell would not exist. They take on some scholarship students to make themselves feel good and boost their diversity, but the school exists to serve wealthy families who want a certain kind of education.

That's not an insult. It's just reality. Stop acting like a few scholarship kids somehow makes Sidwell something it is not. It's disingenuous and unbecoming.

Correcting false statements is not unbecoming. Neither is pretending that you are in the mind of others, knowing why they send their children to a particular school, why they dedicate resources to supporting financial aid at that school. Personally, The reason that I donate as much as I do to Sidwell is that I am extraordinarily grateful for the education that my children are receiving their period for the few years that I attended private school growing up, I received financial aid. That experience changed my life. It changed my career direction, my academic engagement across the board, my college opportunities, and most importantly it exposed me to ideas and people I hadn’t encountered before. Paying it forward, so to speak, is important to me. So, I donate a significant (for our family) amount to Sidwell, as I also do to the high school I attended years ago. Just like we donate to other organizations where my husband or I feel it is important to pay it forward, or where we have seen organizations make a particularly positive and strong impact using resource as well. does it feel good to be able to support organizations we care about financially? Yes, that feels really good and I’m glad we are able to do it. I hope that everyone, whether putting a dollar into the church basket, donating through their employer community funds, donating time or money to community activities, or donating funds to things they care about, feels good about it. It’s a good thing to do. No need to state, somewhat dismissively and pejoratively, that people contribute to things they care about “to feel good”.

This is hilarious. And I’m a Sidwell parent. There is a lot of wealth at Sidwell. And it is middle class and above families getting financial aid. You don’t see low income families. The ultra rich Sidwell families think you are poor if your family makes 150k.
Kids coming from poor families don’t even know to apply to Sidwell.
Full disclosure - we get aid and we make 200k

Please tell me one thing that I said that is not true. I grew up middle class and am now by all reasonable measures rich. Going to a private school, and receiving financial aid to do so, and I want to help provide options to others. I do that I’m part by donating to Sidwell and in part by donating to other schools and organizations. And if you and your kids don’t know any of the students who are financially strapped, there’s not much I can do about that. I personally am not crazy about the idea of the school providing financial aid to families who make $200,000, But I generally think they do a good job and decision making and use of resources, so I choose to support them strongly. Personally, the question I would have for you is, if you are making $200,000 a year, absent extraordinary circumstances, why are you applying to have other people pay for your kids to go to school? Seems both that you might like to take advantage of other peoples generosity, while insulting it, and also that you think that the school provides great how are you for your kids to make it worth it. Yes?

I take issue with you saying I’m taking advantage of Sidwell and other people’s generosity. I applied for financial aid and did not lie about our income or assets. I was thrilled when we were offered aid by Sidwell. As you said yourself - we trust Sidwell to make the right decisions.
Clearly we are at the lower end of the income scale at Sidwell. And we could never afford to send multiple kids to Sidwell on a net 200k income. You are delusional if you think there are families at Sidwell making less than 100k. This is not public school. Let’s get real.

I trust them to make the right decisions for the most part, and strongly personally disagree with providing financial support to families making $200,000 a year. It’s just not enough of a disagreement to stop me from donating. Just explain to your kids when they are older why you asked and applied for other people to pay for them to go to their school while you were in the top 5 percent. You are a part of what many of the major donors tolerate out of me or difference to the school based on their other decision-making. I don’t think you will find many people who have support as donors for paying for your kids. No, you did not violate any rules. But for anyone who wants to know who is taking advantage of many donors see as a loophole, it’s you. You may be proud of it and think it’s just a great thing for your family, but really, as you don’t even seem to know that there are farm kids as they are called at the school, do you really think you should be accepting those donations to support your kids? Really?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. I'm not particularly impressed by what I've seen.

Agree. Similar results at our local publics.

Same reaction. I've looked at similar instagrams for a few MCPS HS (including several non-W ones) and Sidwell seems fine but not better by any measure. A few of the other privates are more eye-popping. Maybe the Sidwell kids are still deciding, maybe the high flyers are too cool to post (my MCPS kid is very happy about his enrollment plans but flat out refuses to post to his HS instagram site.) Or maybe despite the White House kids who go there, Sidwell is just a good private school with normal kids at a wide range of levels.

The bethesda mag annual compilation of college destinations says you’re wrong, however. Plus that annual data dump is broken down by school, so you can’t even claim that thing that Moco parents do when 1/2 the school goes to UMD, sputtering that it’s about financial aid. Not in Potomac, it isn’t.

PP here. You're absolutely right that tons of MCPS kids go to UMD (a great and competitive school) as well as other local publics like Towson & St. Marys. But at least some of those publics currently show more admits to very very top schools than Sidwell. Obviously that's drawing from a much bigger class size, but my point is that there's nothing particularly impressive about the Sidwell list. Which btw is completely fine! There are tons of great schools beyond the T-whatever and like I said above, maybe some kids aren't into the boast post. But the list posted doesn't live up to the OP's hype.

Another difference is that it is not Sidwell culture for everyone to post their acceptances.

It certainly was the culture as recently as the class of 2020.

They did that because of COVID.

+1 also not repeated in 2021

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell has some kids on scholarship but come on, folks. Why are you even arguing about this? Obviously most Sidwell students come from money. If they didn't, Sidwell would not exist. They take on some scholarship students to make themselves feel good and boost their diversity, but the school exists to serve wealthy families who want a certain kind of education.

That's not an insult. It's just reality. Stop acting like a few scholarship kids somehow makes Sidwell something it is not. It's disingenuous and unbecoming.

Correcting false statements is not unbecoming. Neither is pretending that you are in the mind of others, knowing why they send their children to a particular school, why they dedicate resources to supporting financial aid at that school. Personally, The reason that I donate as much as I do to Sidwell is that I am extraordinarily grateful for the education that my children are receiving their period for the few years that I attended private school growing up, I received financial aid. That experience changed my life. It changed my career direction, my academic engagement across the board, my college opportunities, and most importantly it exposed me to ideas and people I hadn’t encountered before. Paying it forward, so to speak, is important to me. So, I donate a significant (for our family) amount to Sidwell, as I also do to the high school I attended years ago. Just like we donate to other organizations where my husband or I feel it is important to pay it forward, or where we have seen organizations make a particularly positive and strong impact using resource as well. does it feel good to be able to support organizations we care about financially? Yes, that feels really good and I’m glad we are able to do it. I hope that everyone, whether putting a dollar into the church basket, donating through their employer community funds, donating time or money to community activities, or donating funds to things they care about, feels good about it. It’s a good thing to do. No need to state, somewhat dismissively and pejoratively, that people contribute to things they care about “to feel good”.

This is hilarious. And I’m a Sidwell parent. There is a lot of wealth at Sidwell. And it is middle class and above families getting financial aid. You don’t see low income families. The ultra rich Sidwell families think you are poor if your family makes 150k.
Kids coming from poor families don’t even know to apply to Sidwell.
Full disclosure - we get aid and we make 200k

Please tell me one thing that I said that is not true. I grew up middle class and am now by all reasonable measures rich. Going to a private school, and receiving financial aid to do so, and I want to help provide options to others. I do that I’m part by donating to Sidwell and in part by donating to other schools and organizations. And if you and your kids don’t know any of the students who are financially strapped, there’s not much I can do about that. I personally am not crazy about the idea of the school providing financial aid to families who make $200,000, But I generally think they do a good job and decision making and use of resources, so I choose to support them strongly. Personally, the question I would have for you is, if you are making $200,000 a year, absent extraordinary circumstances, why are you applying to have other people pay for your kids to go to school? Seems both that you might like to take advantage of other peoples generosity, while insulting it, and also that you think that the school provides great how are you for your kids to make it worth it. Yes?

I take issue with you saying I’m taking advantage of Sidwell and other people’s generosity. I applied for financial aid and did not lie about our income or assets. I was thrilled when we were offered aid by Sidwell. As you said yourself - we trust Sidwell to make the right decisions.
Clearly we are at the lower end of the income scale at Sidwell. And we could never afford to send multiple kids to Sidwell on a net 200k income. You are delusional if you think there are families at Sidwell making less than 100k. This is not public school. Let’s get real.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. I'm not particularly impressed by what I've seen.

Agree. Similar results at our local publics.

Same reaction. I've looked at similar instagrams for a few MCPS HS (including several non-W ones) and Sidwell seems fine but not better by any measure. A few of the other privates are more eye-popping. Maybe the Sidwell kids are still deciding, maybe the high flyers are too cool to post (my MCPS kid is very happy about his enrollment plans but flat out refuses to post to his HS instagram site.) Or maybe despite the White House kids who go there, Sidwell is just a good private school with normal kids at a wide range of levels.

The bethesda mag annual compilation of college destinations says you’re wrong, however. Plus that annual data dump is broken down by school, so you can’t even claim that thing that Moco parents do when 1/2 the school goes to UMD, sputtering that it’s about financial aid. Not in Potomac, it isn’t.

PP here. You're absolutely right that tons of MCPS kids go to UMD (a great and competitive school) as well as other local publics like Towson & St. Marys. But at least some of those publics currently show more admits to very very top schools than Sidwell. Obviously that's drawing from a much bigger class size, but my point is that there's nothing particularly impressive about the Sidwell list. Which btw is completely fine! There are tons of great schools beyond the T-whatever and like I said above, maybe some kids aren't into the boast post. But the list posted doesn't live up to the OP's hype.

Another difference is that it is not Sidwell culture for everyone to post their acceptances.

It certainly was the culture as recently as the class of 2020.

They did that because of COVID.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. I'm not particularly impressed by what I've seen.

Agree. Similar results at our local publics.

Same reaction. I've looked at similar instagrams for a few MCPS HS (including several non-W ones) and Sidwell seems fine but not better by any measure. A few of the other privates are more eye-popping. Maybe the Sidwell kids are still deciding, maybe the high flyers are too cool to post (my MCPS kid is very happy about his enrollment plans but flat out refuses to post to his HS instagram site.) Or maybe despite the White House kids who go there, Sidwell is just a good private school with normal kids at a wide range of levels.

The bethesda mag annual compilation of college destinations says you’re wrong, however. Plus that annual data dump is broken down by school, so you can’t even claim that thing that Moco parents do when 1/2 the school goes to UMD, sputtering that it’s about financial aid. Not in Potomac, it isn’t.

PP here. You're absolutely right that tons of MCPS kids go to UMD (a great and competitive school) as well as other local publics like Towson & St. Marys. But at least some of those publics currently show more admits to very very top schools than Sidwell. Obviously that's drawing from a much bigger class size, but my point is that there's nothing particularly impressive about the Sidwell list. Which btw is completely fine! There are tons of great schools beyond the T-whatever and like I said above, maybe some kids aren't into the boast post. But the list posted doesn't live up to the OP's hype.

Another difference is that it is not Sidwell culture for everyone to post their acceptances.

It certainly was the culture as recently as the class of 2020.

A lot of kids posted that year, but not everyone

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. I'm not particularly impressed by what I've seen.

Agree. Similar results at our local publics.

Same reaction. I've looked at similar instagrams for a few MCPS HS (including several non-W ones) and Sidwell seems fine but not better by any measure. A few of the other privates are more eye-popping. Maybe the Sidwell kids are still deciding, maybe the high flyers are too cool to post (my MCPS kid is very happy about his enrollment plans but flat out refuses to post to his HS instagram site.) Or maybe despite the White House kids who go there, Sidwell is just a good private school with normal kids at a wide range of levels.

The bethesda mag annual compilation of college destinations says you’re wrong, however. Plus that annual data dump is broken down by school, so you can’t even claim that thing that Moco parents do when 1/2 the school goes to UMD, sputtering that it’s about financial aid. Not in Potomac, it isn’t.

PP here. You're absolutely right that tons of MCPS kids go to UMD (a great and competitive school) as well as other local publics like Towson & St. Marys. But at least some of those publics currently show more admits to very very top schools than Sidwell. Obviously that's drawing from a much bigger class size, but my point is that there's nothing particularly impressive about the Sidwell list. Which btw is completely fine! There are tons of great schools beyond the T-whatever and like I said above, maybe some kids aren't into the boast post. But the list posted doesn't live up to the OP's hype.

Another difference is that it is not Sidwell culture for everyone to post their acceptances.

It certainly was the culture as recently as the class of 2020.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell has some kids on scholarship but come on, folks. Why are you even arguing about this? Obviously most Sidwell students come from money. If they didn't, Sidwell would not exist. They take on some scholarship students to make themselves feel good and boost their diversity, but the school exists to serve wealthy families who want a certain kind of education.

That's not an insult. It's just reality. Stop acting like a few scholarship kids somehow makes Sidwell something it is not. It's disingenuous and unbecoming.

Correcting false statements is not unbecoming. Neither is pretending that you are in the mind of others, knowing why they send their children to a particular school, why they dedicate resources to supporting financial aid at that school. Personally, The reason that I donate as much as I do to Sidwell is that I am extraordinarily grateful for the education that my children are receiving their period for the few years that I attended private school growing up, I received financial aid. That experience changed my life. It changed my career direction, my academic engagement across the board, my college opportunities, and most importantly it exposed me to ideas and people I hadn’t encountered before. Paying it forward, so to speak, is important to me. So, I donate a significant (for our family) amount to Sidwell, as I also do to the high school I attended years ago. Just like we donate to other organizations where my husband or I feel it is important to pay it forward, or where we have seen organizations make a particularly positive and strong impact using resource as well. does it feel good to be able to support organizations we care about financially? Yes, that feels really good and I’m glad we are able to do it. I hope that everyone, whether putting a dollar into the church basket, donating through their employer community funds, donating time or money to community activities, or donating funds to things they care about, feels good about it. It’s a good thing to do. No need to state, somewhat dismissively and pejoratively, that people contribute to things they care about “to feel good”.

This is hilarious. And I’m a Sidwell parent. There is a lot of wealth at Sidwell. And it is middle class and above families getting financial aid. You don’t see low income families. The ultra rich Sidwell families think you are poor if your family makes 150k.
Kids coming from poor families don’t even know to apply to Sidwell.
Full disclosure - we get aid and we make 200k

Please tell me one thing that I said that is not true. I grew up middle class and am now by all reasonable measures rich. Going to a private school, and receiving financial aid to do so, and I want to help provide options to others. I do that I’m part by donating to Sidwell and in part by donating to other schools and organizations. And if you and your kids don’t know any of the students who are financially strapped, there’s not much I can do about that. I personally am not crazy about the idea of the school providing financial aid to families who make $200,000, But I generally think they do a good job and decision making and use of resources, so I choose to support them strongly. Personally, the question I would have for you is, if you are making $200,000 a year, absent extraordinary circumstances, why are you applying to have other people pay for your kids to go to school? Seems both that you might like to take advantage of other peoples generosity, while insulting it, and also that you think that the school provides great how are you for your kids to make it worth it. Yes?

Anonymous wrote:Lots of Ivy and top 20s. and a Deep Springs admit! I kind of like the Deep springs choice. So cool.

Congratulations !

Anonymous wrote:What does?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. I'm not particularly impressed by what I've seen.

Agree. Similar results at our local publics.

Same reaction. I've looked at similar instagrams for a few MCPS HS (including several non-W ones) and Sidwell seems fine but not better by any measure. A few of the other privates are more eye-popping. Maybe the Sidwell kids are still deciding, maybe the high flyers are too cool to post (my MCPS kid is very happy about his enrollment plans but flat out refuses to post to his HS instagram site.) Or maybe despite the White House kids who go there, Sidwell is just a good private school with normal kids at a wide range of levels.

The bethesda mag annual compilation of college destinations says you’re wrong, however. Plus that annual data dump is broken down by school, so you can’t even claim that thing that Moco parents do when 1/2 the school goes to UMD, sputtering that it’s about financial aid. Not in Potomac, it isn’t.

PP here. You're absolutely right that tons of MCPS kids go to UMD (a great and competitive school) as well as other local publics like Towson & St. Marys. But at least some of those publics currently show more admits to very very top schools than Sidwell. Obviously that's drawing from a much bigger class size, but my point is that there's nothing particularly impressive about the Sidwell list. Which btw is completely fine! There are tons of great schools beyond the T-whatever and like I said above, maybe some kids aren't into the boast post. But the list posted doesn't live up to the OP's hype.

Another difference is that it is not Sidwell culture for everyone to post their acceptances.

It certainly was the culture as recently as the class of 2020.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. I'm not particularly impressed by what I've seen.

Agree. Similar results at our local publics.

Same reaction. I've looked at similar instagrams for a few MCPS HS (including several non-W ones) and Sidwell seems fine but not better by any measure. A few of the other privates are more eye-popping. Maybe the Sidwell kids are still deciding, maybe the high flyers are too cool to post (my MCPS kid is very happy about his enrollment plans but flat out refuses to post to his HS instagram site.) Or maybe despite the White House kids who go there, Sidwell is just a good private school with normal kids at a wide range of levels.

The bethesda mag annual compilation of college destinations says you’re wrong, however. Plus that annual data dump is broken down by school, so you can’t even claim that thing that Moco parents do when 1/2 the school goes to UMD, sputtering that it’s about financial aid. Not in Potomac, it isn’t.

PP here. You're absolutely right that tons of MCPS kids go to UMD (a great and competitive school) as well as other local publics like Towson & St. Marys. But at least some of those publics currently show more admits to very very top schools than Sidwell. Obviously that's drawing from a much bigger class size, but my point is that there's nothing particularly impressive about the Sidwell list. Which btw is completely fine! There are tons of great schools beyond the T-whatever and like I said above, maybe some kids aren't into the boast post. But the list posted doesn't live up to the OP's hype.

Another difference is that it is not Sidwell culture for everyone to post their acceptances.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell has some kids on scholarship but come on, folks. Why are you even arguing about this? Obviously most Sidwell students come from money. If they didn't, Sidwell would not exist. They take on some scholarship students to make themselves feel good and boost their diversity, but the school exists to serve wealthy families who want a certain kind of education.

That's not an insult. It's just reality. Stop acting like a few scholarship kids somehow makes Sidwell something it is not. It's disingenuous and unbecoming.

Correcting false statements is not unbecoming. Neither is pretending that you are in the mind of others, knowing why they send their children to a particular school, why they dedicate resources to supporting financial aid at that school. Personally, The reason that I donate as much as I do to Sidwell is that I am extraordinarily grateful for the education that my children are receiving their period for the few years that I attended private school growing up, I received financial aid. That experience changed my life. It changed my career direction, my academic engagement across the board, my college opportunities, and most importantly it exposed me to ideas and people I hadn’t encountered before. Paying it forward, so to speak, is important to me. So, I donate a significant (for our family) amount to Sidwell, as I also do to the high school I attended years ago. Just like we donate to other organizations where my husband or I feel it is important to pay it forward, or where we have seen organizations make a particularly positive and strong impact using resource as well. does it feel good to be able to support organizations we care about financially? Yes, that feels really good and I’m glad we are able to do it. I hope that everyone, whether putting a dollar into the church basket, donating through their employer community funds, donating time or money to community activities, or donating funds to things they care about, feels good about it. It’s a good thing to do. No need to state, somewhat dismissively and pejoratively, that people contribute to things they care about “to feel good”.

This is hilarious. And I’m a Sidwell parent. There is a lot of wealth at Sidwell. And it is middle class and above families getting financial aid. You don’t see low income families. The ultra rich Sidwell families think you are poor if your family makes 150k.
Kids coming from poor families don’t even know to apply to Sidwell.
Full disclosure - we get aid and we make 200k

Wow, getting financial aid while earning 200K. I don't like the sound of this. I guess Sidwell and the wealthy parents are very generous to provide aid to the top 10%.

Most of Sidwell is 1%ers.

Median HHI: Probably 750 K

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell has some kids on scholarship but come on, folks. Why are you even arguing about this? Obviously most Sidwell students come from money. If they didn't, Sidwell would not exist. They take on some scholarship students to make themselves feel good and boost their diversity, but the school exists to serve wealthy families who want a certain kind of education.

That's not an insult. It's just reality. Stop acting like a few scholarship kids somehow makes Sidwell something it is not. It's disingenuous and unbecoming.

Correcting false statements is not unbecoming. Neither is pretending that you are in the mind of others, knowing why they send their children to a particular school, why they dedicate resources to supporting financial aid at that school. Personally, The reason that I donate as much as I do to Sidwell is that I am extraordinarily grateful for the education that my children are receiving their period for the few years that I attended private school growing up, I received financial aid. That experience changed my life. It changed my career direction, my academic engagement across the board, my college opportunities, and most importantly it exposed me to ideas and people I hadn’t encountered before. Paying it forward, so to speak, is important to me. So, I donate a significant (for our family) amount to Sidwell, as I also do to the high school I attended years ago. Just like we donate to other organizations where my husband or I feel it is important to pay it forward, or where we have seen organizations make a particularly positive and strong impact using resource as well. does it feel good to be able to support organizations we care about financially? Yes, that feels really good and I’m glad we are able to do it. I hope that everyone, whether putting a dollar into the church basket, donating through their employer community funds, donating time or money to community activities, or donating funds to things they care about, feels good about it. It’s a good thing to do. No need to state, somewhat dismissively and pejoratively, that people contribute to things they care about “to feel good”.

This is hilarious. And I’m a Sidwell parent. There is a lot of wealth at Sidwell. And it is middle class and above families getting financial aid. You don’t see low income families. The ultra rich Sidwell families think you are poor if your family makes 150k.
Kids coming from poor families don’t even know to apply to Sidwell.
Full disclosure - we get aid and we make 200k

Wow, getting financial aid while earning 200K. I don't like the sound of this. I guess Sidwell and the wealthy parents are very generous to provide aid to the top 10%.

Most of Sidwell is 1%ers.