I
see many negative, ignorant, and all around idiotic assesments of Sidwell on
UrbanDictionary.com
I attended GDS, a niehboring private school for 10 years, andgraduated in 2003. Sidwell was always an institution I respected deeply, even though they rejected my
high school application.
Sidwell - Sidwell Friends School, founded in 1883 by Thomas Sidwell, has been the leading academic school in Washington D.C. for several decades, and routinely tops the national rankings list for private school academics. Priding itself on its diversity, as well as its fierce Quaker and consequently
liberal values, Sidwell students demonstrate a compassion, friendliness, and acceptance uncharacterstic to more socially elitist/slightly racist nearby schools such as St. Albans, and national schools as a whole. Sidwell has the lowest acceptance rate in both 7th and 9th grade of any private school in Washington, and focuses heavily on class loads and advanced courses. It is not uncommon for a Junior to be taking the classes equivalent to those of a college Sophmore. While many Sidwell students have gone on to be senatores, prominant scientists, and famous journaists (see Howard Fineman and
Bob Woodward), even more famous politicians send their children there. (Bill
Clinton, Al Gore, and Bill Bradley). Sidwell has the highest percent of its graduates attend Ivy Leauge of any school in the
country (
average roughly
23%). In summation, Sidwell has some unsavory, like any other school in the country, but overall, the people there are some of the nicest, most brilliant students I have yet to meet.