Hi Cathy,

I have heard great things about Nueva. I would apply and see what happens. The schools do have financial aid available and a lot of times the admissions office is not involved in awarding financial aid.

Ultimately the decision to accept or not accept a child is not always based on whether their parents can pay full tuition or not. Also, I am not sure if your child is a DYS, but they do offer financial aid for gifted school tuition.

One more clarification. Mirman is a non-for profit independent school. This means that all the money that comes in in the form of tuition, fundraising, gifts, etc, must be spent back on the students. They obviously have to be financially responsible and since they do not receive state or federal funding they have to have parents that can afford that tuition. A lot of those parents are also very generous and give in addition to the tuition they pay. I am grateful for these parents as my dd benefits from such gifts. Mirman has an IQ requirement, so any child that goes there is HG.

I am sad that not all HG children can attend the school, but as I mentioned earlier, they only have 30 spots for room one. That is an unfortunate reality but it does not take away from all the good things they are doing for the kids they do accept.

Right. Especially for people who haven't even been able to afford a house. And remember, that's 15 G/year. For 10 years. I just don't see it happening for us.

Yes, I have to admit that when I hear about 30K tuitions for K and 1st grade, I think "Egad! Those people have more money than sense!"

It must be a REALLY great school for that kind of cash! I mean, I can't even imagine having the kind of income that would make an annual tuition like that seem like a good deal!

Clearly I'm very firmly entrenched in the middle class...

It's actually more like 20K, but it is still a lot of money.

Well, I wasn't really talking about your particular case, Bianca. Someone else was throwing around the 30K figure.

BTW, no offense intended with my wiseacre remark. I'm sure you have plenty of sense!

No offense take Kriston. I have told my dd that she will have to earn lots of scholarship money for college as I will be broke by the time she gets there!

I think it's lovely that Mirman is working for so many gifted students. I have no qualms about Bianca sharing her positive reviews and I am interested in hearing about what they have to offer.

I am also aware that there are people who are unhappy with the whole Mirman deal, some of them parents of former students. I am sorry to hear any story about a child not having their academic needs met, and it seems particularly ironic and sad to hear this sort of thing in reference to a school that is purportedly for the gifted. It is important to remember though, that there is no one "Magic" solution when it comes to education. Every child and maybe even more so, every gifted child, will need something different.

I often say that homeschooling works great for my family, but is isn't going to be great for every family. Isn't it fantastic that we have choices? It would be better if there were more affordable methods of education, but at least we are not stuck with a single educational path for every American child. THAT would be a nightmare.

One other experience. I went to a Jesuit catholic school last year, as part of my tours. I was not getting great feedback from this school consultant that many of the preschools have on retainer to adviser. She was pushing the St. Ann's is for gifted. Anyway, I went since we were Catholic and the tuition is so low if your child is baptised. Although there were 30 kids to a class, they had amazing new facilities and a great curriculum. They also accelerated. I think it was the only school I saw that actually accelerated kids. And the results after 8th grade were great, in terms of where the kids went to high school. I know Jesuit grade schools are not everywhere and this one is technically hidden as a regular diocese school, though the high school is private and advertised as Jesuit.

So if there is a Jesuit group and church around, it may be an option to look at. Yes, they had religious curriculum but you are excused if you are not Catholic.

Ren

Thank you for the welcome, Camping was great. It was an easy park camp (Actual grass for the tents). I am looking forward to participating in the discussions.

Edwin