1826 17 1/2 St NW
Rochester, MN 55901

Our first grader loves to go to school.

All the teachers and staff are so friendly and down to earth. Greet each student every morning and make them feel welcome!

My child enjoys the school and the teachers are very communicative when need to. I would recommend this school.

Excellent experience. My child struggled with the move to this school at first. The counselor was great and helped my child adjust. I find the teachers and counselors really care about the students in this school.

Worst school ever! My daughter attended half of 6th grade because we pulled her out cause of the bullying. She had half of her grade come after her and try to kill her. She is so emotionally damaged she refuses to step into another school so she does home school. The kids forced her to inappropriate words because they knew she has severe anxiety and OCD so she’s vulnerable. The principal wanted her to write an apology note to the whole school and then blamed us for her inappropriate words. Horrible!

I attended Friedell for two years, and although it has prepared me for a career in the 21st century, it is definitely not for everyone.Although the curriculum here is more intensive and "challenging", at least at the Highly Gifted level (which I was at), and the teachers are very passionate about their work, I knew a lot of people here who suffered from mental illnesses or a simple lack of self-esteem, mostly from the intense expectations and workload at this school. Although bullying is not a common issue at Friedell, there are insane expectations pushed on students by teachers and by other students that drive students to stay up late and fill their schedules with excruciatingly time-consuming extracurriculars. There was also a mentality that people who didn't get straight A's were not "worthy" of being at the "smart kids'" school. I did also notice that pretty much half of the Highly Gifted program actually deserved to be in Honors, not HG - there were people there who only entered the HG program due to their test scores, not their work ethic or abilities, although their presence did not dampen my experience any.Though, I did meet a lot of great people at this school and improve my abilities considerably, and I feel that this school has been instrumental in my education. I have made memories I can never replace through Science Olympiad and History Day at this school, too (I really do recommend both activities; they're really fun and well-managed). If your child can withstand insanely high expectations and a lot of homework mid-year, then I highly recommend this school to you. However, if your child does not have a strong enough mind to withstand expectations, homework, and peer pressure, please enroll your child in out of school tutoring and send them to a different school.