<p>What I read from Babouche's post is that her sound foubnd a much more stellar peer group. What SPS does so well is to pick great kids. My mother, an educator, says she's never before seen a high school without mean girls.</p>
<p>What...? No "mean girls"? What about the girls who hazed the freshman into their dorm?</p>
<p>That whole thing was so stupid. All girls involved had fun that night and no complaints of bad treatment. Newb night is an SPS tradition. What was done was all in fun as reported by all. A recently dismissed employee was said to have called the police. All girls were interviewed. All stuck up for the seniors.</p>
<p>Blair, I'm curious, does SPS admissions say they have space in 5th form (11th grade)?</p>
<p>Yes.. they usually have 10 spots.</p>
<p>That's crazy, there were 2 this year, one girl one guy. However, I'm going to call my cousin who'd love to transfer!</p>
<p>The application deadline passed.. and the interview deadline is tomarrow..?</p>
<p>They're more flexible about deadlines for friends and family.</p>
<p>right but the interviews are booked up.. I needed to schedule mine at a very inconvenient time.. and she said that was the last spot open on the list...and it's a phone interview!</p>
<p>She has connections. Though she didn't get in the first time because of pathetic stats (65 SSAT) but she's done well at another prep.</p>
<p>D'yer Maker : Our son wasn't and still isn't an overachiever except in subject he likes like math and sciences. When we sent him to SPS we had no idea what he would become. We knew the foundations were solid, but you never know what peer pressure or school culture can do to your kid. Kids at SPS are bright but far from perfect. The school emphasize responsibility and that coupled with the lack of contnuous parental control make kids to tend to become mature and responsible. Also, the workload and activities makes them very efficient. There is also the friendship they develop, all the little crises they have to overcome, most of the time on their own</p>
<p>Thanks babouche! I hope some of the kids who post and lurk here take note and stop sweating so much. If all the students admitted were as cookie cutter as some of the "profiles" suggest, these schools would suck. The reason that they're great is because the students are terrific -- not perfect or even close -- but terrific in so many ways, which also means flawed.</p>
<p>I think the best admissions officers find wonderful students without a slavish commitment to fitting some formulaic standard of excellence.</p>
<p>I once hired grad students in a very competitive profession and had to sort through hundreds upon hundreds of resumes to pick the ones that would get interviews. The ones who had it all just blended into each other after a while. Sure some got interviews, but if I had to spend several days in interviews you can bet I was going to be around interesting people. All worth hiring...but I limited the number of all-around perfect robots. While many had very career-oriented jobs before graduating, I personally tended to like the ones who were confident enough to take one last chance to have a "real" summer doing something outside of their future all-consuming profession...like the guy who sold beer at Orioles games for his summer job.</p>
<p>Like someone else pointed out, I don't think any of us have been in a college admissions office culling applications. We're all guessing what they do. But I think it's at least as worth spending the next 38-40 days believing that the "work-in-progress" students can get into AESDGHDKSLHECMPXZ... as it worth convincing ourselves that only the creme de la creme have a shot.</p>
<p>Again, thanks for expounding on your earlier post, babouche!</p>