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Joined: Jun 2009
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Hi, Is anyone familiar with the Rocky Mountain School For The Gifted in Boulder, CO and have any opinions to share? We are planning to go visit it soon to check it out. It *sounds* good, but we are new to schooling and are not familiar with the usual promotional rhetoric as seen in Val's funny and enlightening post. My concern is that although my DD5 is starting K this fall, academically she is probably ready to start 2nd grade (higher in reading). She is fairly reserved and a perfectionist, so I don't think a grade skip would be a good fit right now even if we could somehow talk the school into it. All that being said, however, I don't want to put her in a school that is so advanced that she would be considered 'behind', if you know what I mean. Thoughts and comments appreciated! Dawn
Last edited by sdrothco; 08/26/18 08:43 PM.
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I'm also wondering if this school would be 'overkill' for a child with a FSIQ of 138 on the WPPSI? I did not see them state a minimum score on their website, so they probably have a loose definition of the term "gifted". 138 is a good score and I don't think you have any problems keeping up. Good luck! K will be a new adventure for both of you!
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Hi Floridama, Thanks for the response! Hopefully the school isn't full of those kind of parents for which having a gifted kid is a status symbol. I am rather nervous about K, but it is exciting too. I'm trying to get all my ducks in a row so we know our options in case we run into trouble at our currently enrolled school. I wish I had had her tested earlier. If I had, then I would be more confident of our school choice.
--Dawn
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RMSGC usually requires an IQ of 125+, so 138 should not put your child at the bottom of the grouping. We've never had a kid there, just attended some of the their community education events. The commute and the tuition are out of our league.
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Cricket, thanks for the reply! If they start at 125, then we should be fine. Do you have an impression of how good they really are from the events? Any positive or negative comments? Its hard to make decisions when all you have is the hype. We don't live in boulder, but my DH works down the road, so it is doable. I'm hoping we can get a financial aid package. --Dawn
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Do you have an impression of how good they really are from the events? Any positive or negative comments? Not really, unfortunately. The enrollment coordinator does seem to understand the difference btwn gifted and high achiever at least and I liked her a lot when I spoke with her. ...I'm hoping we can get a financial aid package. My understanding is that they offer up to 50% off of the tuition -- so tuition could be as low as around $7K/year. They do utilize some outside firm to determine who they offer aid to and how much.
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Thanks for the feedback, Cricket! I really appreciate it! It will be interesting to visit the school.
--Dawn
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Sdrothco, we do have some experience with the school, and live in Broomfield. Year before last we had a horrendous public preschool experience with our son, then 3, and were looking for a better PreK option. We applied to RMSG's Explorers program. He was accepted but we needed full day and the school ended up cancelling their full day program due to lack of enrollment. It was a last minute decision (June) that left us scrambling to find another full day option. We were a little bummed but still considered them this year as our son is now going into K. We did a school visit this spring and thought things went really well but in the meantime started considering other options as we found that there was a new gifted charter school opening in our district, which would of course be free. Anyway, the enrollment coordinator never called us back after our visit day, which I think is a little odd. I don't know if it was a money thing or not (he was accepted last year which seems even stranger). We don't have big bucks to throw around but I didn't get the impression upon visiting that they are that kind of school. As a matter of fact, I felt very comfortable there and the director seems really down to earth. The classes are super small, though, so I wonder how the school is doing. Do you know how many children will be in the K class? I don't think a WPPSI of 138 would be a problem there at all. When I called she told me that they work with the whole range of gifted kids. Your child's academic performance seems high enough that she would struggle in public school without a lot of accomodations.
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They were having some significant financial problems and had sent out info that they might be closing last school year. Something came through at the last minute that allowed them to remain open although I don't know what. The financial aid is part of their plan to keep the school financially viable -- they figured that it made more sense to have classes more full with some kids paying less than have smaller classes full of kids who could pay the full tuition. The classes are very small, though, as you mention.
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The financial troubles would be a good thing to keep in mind. It would be very frustrating to get all set to go there and have it fall through at the last minute as happened to Mom2boys. Perhaps, though, the troubles will provide an opportunity to get a lower tuition rate. The full price is just *so* high, I'm not sure how we could make it work. The small classes are probably a good thing since the kids are supposed to get individualized learning.
Mom2boys, are you referring to the Westgate charter school? I had heard a bit about it but I never looked into it much since it is out of our district. Do you know if they are accepting out of district kids?
Do either of you know of other well regarded schools for GT kids? Our district's GT school is Hackberry Elementary (jeffco), but I have heard poor reviews of the non GT part of the school (its not a great area) which make me nervous about sending my sensitive DD there. We don't have any GT-only charters in our district. I have heard great things about Alexander Dawson, but its tuition is even more ridiculous than RMS. We also looked at Peak 2 Peak, but didn't get in since we are out of district. I'm also not sure about their gifted program since we had not tested DD at that point. Stargate is wait listing their in district kids, so out of district is again out of luck.
This whole ordeal has been frustrating. It should not be this hard to find an appropriate education for a child. It seems you either have to have *a lot* of money, or live in the right district and get lucky to win the school lottery. We have actually been considering moving just to get to a better district.
We currently have DD enrolled in a parochial school, but again had not had her tested when we enrolled and have not approached them yet about accommodations. I'm not even sure what to ask them for. I don't want to grade skip her; I really want her to have the half day for play time. But I have no idea how they could provide appropriate work in a K classroom...
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