<p>No, I can’t. The school does not publish their profile to the web. Also, in the interests of protecting at least some of my D1’s privacy, I don’t want to identify the school, aside to say that yes, it is a public school, and no, it is not located in a wealthy school district. And, as skrlvr points out, “entry-by-test” is important. </p>
<p>I can tell you that the school does not receive much local press acclaim, let alone anything from the national media. It is not on any top ten lists, or top 20 lists. The parents don’t care about the lack of recognition. All we care about is that our children are receiving an excellent education and are well-equipped (to put it mildly) to go off to college and independent life. </p>
<p>You should be justifiably proud of your daughter, and thrilled that you’ve been able to offer her tremendous educational opportunities. She might have still ended up essentially the same person if she went to the local public…or not. You’ll never know, and it doesn’t make any difference, because you’re happy with how things have ended up. My D1 occasionally speculates about what her life would have been like if she’d taken different turnings in her K-12 education. Would she have been better off if we’d put her in the more demanding elementary and middle school programs, or if we’d sent her to one of the Ivy feeder privates hereabouts? Again, we’ll never know, and it makes no difference at this point. Our pleasure and satisfaction and pride is with her, not with how others might rank her schools. </p>
<p>Here is a question…which is more frustrating, reading through this entire thread and realizing that people aren’t really listening to one another or the 18+ inches of snow that fell overnight on top of the 40+ inches already on the ground? I thought it was the snow but having read through this thread just now, I think I will change my mind!</p>
<p>vicariousparent-
That is a very important question. I too, have a central vac, but alas, it is not hooked up (built into the house but not functional) so I chose not to mention it. Thought it would confound the data.</p>
<p>But alas, if you have a central vac, you are already run in the elite circles, not with the peons. Now, if you have that little extra part at the baseboard under your sink where you can just sweep the kitchen crumbs and they magically <em>disappear</em>, … now THAT is the Intel winner of vacuums.</p>
<p>Wait, the real elite don’t know how many vacuum cleaners they have, because they have a staff to manage that. </p>
<p>Counting hot sauce in the fridge doesn’t make the cut, because everyone ends up having 14 bottles of hot sauce buried in the fridge because you can’t find the bottle you swore was open, so you open up another, only to find the one that was already there hidden behind the Grey Poupon.</p>
<p>We have a bidet in our 1/2 bath (does that make it a 3/4 bath?) in our basement. Where in the Standard App should we mention this? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>We have a central vac hookup in our garage too…and another in our basement. And we sprung for two hoses so we wouldn’t have to schlep them up and down the stairs. I think that would count for something extra. God I hope there isn’t a supplemental question on the CSS Profile about number of vacuums. How will this affect need based aid?</p>
<p>Oh never mind…I forgot…If I have central vac…I shouldn’t NEED need based aid.</p>
<p>toblin: The Common App is being revised to have a box you can check for bidet and number of vacuum cleaners (and of course how many hours per week it is used, and whether you’ve had it for all 4 years of high school or not).</p>
<p>Dang - no central vac, no bidet, and hot sauces don’t count. I guess all I have to offer is Grey Poupon. I just don’t think that’s enough for the ivies. I’m doomed.</p>
<p>National Merit Corp. has a number of what they term “other selection units.” These include US citizens studying/testing abroad, US Commonwealths, Washington, D.C., and boarding schools which enroll students predominantly from outside their respective states. From my knowledge, this was developed so that, for example, the students studying at Exeter wouldn’t skew the national merit cut-off for New Hampshire kids (in theory, this is “better” for residents of the state). Practically it means that students at Exeter, Andover, Lawrenceville, etc. are competing just with each other for National Merit…this may be easier for them (if they come from a high testing state) or harder (if they come from a low-testing state). For example, it probably “hurts” a Mississippian or Arkansan attending Andover, for example, in that they may have a higher cut-off than if they were competing with their home state. That’s why you never see boarding school students listed with “home” students in the state registers.</p>
<p>I just read the last 41 posts in one sitting and can’t stop laughing! This is a very entertaining thread! Gotta hand it to CCers! Applause.</p>
<p>POIH, in post 389, you gave a link from Harker’s newsletter for those interested in musical theater (though honestly, The Nutcracker is not MT…it’s ballet). The article mentions lots of kids (including elementary aged ones) who got to be in a professional production of The Nutcracker. I have to say this caught my eye. It so happens when my kid was 9, she was one of many kids who were selected by audition from Northern Vermont to be in a professional production of The Nutcracker that comes to our state each year. It is the same idea as what those Harker kiddies did. And ya know, every single kid was from public schools in the region. No different than what those Harker kids did. Now, maybe Harker had more kids from their one school in the show (don’t know but could be) than the number of kids from any one particular VT public school in the professional ballet here, but that makes sense to me because the kinds of families who send their kids to Harker, also enroll them in enriching activities like ballet lessons. Kids all over VT also do that but they are a smaller segment of each public school population. They are spread out. For example, both my daughters grew up dancing at a dance studio 25 miles from my house and kids came from many different public schools around the region each afternoon, night and weekend. Many schools were represented and these were the families from each school who paid (and could pay) for this kind of enrichment. Harker is just full of these types. But here, my kid had the exact same experience being in a professional Nutcracker production as the kids from Harker…but there were many different public schools represented in the kids that were cast. </p>
<p>07DAD wrote:
</p>
<p>I can think of a local girl who after graduating our high school did a PG year at Andover and then went onto Middlebury. Should we credit Andover for her maturity, poise and intelligence, when her first 13 years of school were here at our rural publics? </p>
<p>vicariousparent wrote:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Agreed! I haven’t read anyone argue about the top notch education one receives at fine prep schools. </p>
<p>(and btw, I was wondering earlier today if anyone was gonna bring up those with a central vac!)</p>
<p>SlitheyTove wrote:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Totally cracked me up!</p>
<p>Also…really good post (not humorous) you wrote in#401.</p>
<p>skrlvr…your post 400 (won’t paste it all here) really sums it up and I very much agree. </p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for the laughs to many of you.</p>
<p>My D1 auditioned for and was assigned a part in the [Pacific Northwest ballet](<a href=“PNB's Nutcracker-Party Scene Children - YouTube”>PNB's Nutcracker-Party Scene Children - YouTube; ) version of the Nutcracker when she was 9 or 10.
I was horrified-because do you know how much time they have to take off from school for rehearsal?
It is * months* !
Not to mention, it would have meant we had to cancel our family winter holiday to Eastern Wa.
I suggested to her, that she could get her ears pierced instead
( I originally was going to have her wait until she was 12… and when we came back from vacation, she changed her after school class from ballet- to choir)</p>