Good Counsel high
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Anonymous
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Where can I find information on this school? Is it difficult to get admitted?
Does anyone know about this, or is this just a forum for the elementary privates? |
Anonymous
Most of the people on here seem to be interested in "The Big Three", whatever that is. So I wouldn't be looking for a lot of help here. Schools like Sidwell Friends and Our Lady of Good Counsel are at opposite ends of the private school spectrum in a number of ways. Neither are public and that's about all they have in common. I'd say you are going to have trouble getting good input. I suggest you might start with a visit. The impressions many of us have of OLGC stem from the previous location of the school on Georgia Avenue in Wheaton. With the move from Wheaton to Olney and the new facility, OLGC is a much different school. The school is now able to serve those wanting a Catholic school in the northern part of Montgomery County. The previous location was in a area "in negative transition". So opinions formed when the school was in Wheaton are now probably way out-of-date. It's still big, Catholic and it serves a broad range of students. OLGC competes athletically with DeMatha and St Johns and Gonzaga. Academically it probably faces off with St Johns and DeMatha. It's not Georgetown Prep and its not Gonzaga. It's more similar to the large Diocesan schools in the suburbs surrounding other large Northeastern cities. The move up-county was a masterful stroke. It didn't just save the school, it made it into something significantly different. |
Anonymous
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Good Counsel is a great school - we will be looking at it for our son - but we have 2 years before we really have to worry about it so my information is what I know so far.
Big Beautiful Campus Coed They are in Olney but have transportation from many places. They have a IB and AP program. They have a Ryken program for kids with mild learning disabilities. They have a great sports program (9 girls lacrosse players signed letters of intent this year for college) Affordable I have three brothers who graduated from the original Good Counsel - 2 were accepted to Ivy schools but chose more affordable options - both are lawyers, the other is in finance. All of them keep in touch with their friends from HS. |
Anonymous
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DD just graduated from there and DS is a rising sophmore there.
Admittedly, GC does not have the "word of mouth" reputation that some of the other schools touted on this forum have. But we visited it and talked to parents of students. My kids shadowed there and they felt comfortable. But we feel we made the right choice by sending our kids there. They have gotten a good education in a safe, state of the art environment. Like any school, the experience is what you make of it. My DD was an athlete who was active in a couple of academic clubs. She was accepted into a top rated SLAC and got an academic scholarship. My DS is in the Ryken program there, he absolutely loves it and he is doing well. Academcially, athletically and socially, it has been a very good fit for my kids. They were able to get what they needed at GC. Top it off, the new campus (well...4YO campus) is great. The building is spacious and there is a lot of open sapce inside the building. All the classrooms are "smart" and the athletic facilities are top notch also. I would recommend that you look at it further to see if it fits for your family. |
Anonymous
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My DD is a junior and my nephew just graduated. Our experience has been a mixed bag. My DD went to a small Christian school and the change in the size dynamics was our biggest issue. She went from being a big fish to a minnow. That was the biggest challenge. As a freshman, she felt more like a number. Once she got involved and had a set of friends, it was easier. One thing that we did like was a diversity….racially and socio-economically.
Some info we got from the junior meeting….In looking at the class of 2011, here is a sample of the colleges where some of the graduates will be going – Princeton, Stanford, Duke, UVA, UNC Chapel Hill, West Point, Annapolis, the Air Force Academy, Michigan and Emory. Pretty good selection. Plus, a lot of kids this year are going to the liberal arts schools that you see mentioned in DCUM. St Mary’s, St. Vincent, McDaniel, Middlebury, Washington and Lee, Holy Cross, Bucknell, Oberlin. One of the college counselors said that this is a new phenomena that they are pushing pretty heavy. Also, if your child is an athlete, over 65 kids in the class of 2011 will be playing sports in college at all levels. So…there is a lot of food for thought. |
Anonymous
Can you tell more about the Ryken program. Did your child have to have a diagnosed learning disability, or was a success in the intelligence test and the HSPT enough? my dc did badly in 7th. Is there any chance that doing well in 8th will help? |
Anonymous
PP here. Sure. In the Ryken program, the students take the same classes as everyone else. What you do have is smaller class sizes for intense subjects like Math and Science. Some subjects are co-taught, meaning there is another teacher in the classroom. Overall, they try to get a feel how each child learns and try to compensate for the learning differences in presenting the material. It is not an IEP or special ed prgram and the teachers are not IEP or special ed teachers. Depending on the subject, there are some IEP-like accomodations (i.e., extra time on tests, can keyboard instead of write, a classroom set of books so DC with physical limits does not have to lug books back and forth) etc.) My DC was able to connect with each teacher and that has always been a huge part of his success. Well, I cannot totally answer your question, it is case-by case in a lot of ways. I can tell you about my DS's situation. My son has a diagnosed LD (developmental delay) and some fine motor issues that require weekly OT. He had IEP support in middle school, but was in a regualr classroom. His grades in 7th grade were pretty good - a couple of A's, mostly B's and a D in math but he worked harder than any 7th grader should to get those grades (and so did we). His most recent PET (in 7th grade) indicated that he was on the Executive Function Disorder spectrum but that has not been a major issue. With time and writing accomodations, he did reasonably well on the HSPT. The advice that I will give you is that you should be prepared to make the case for him. The best thing about the Ryken admissions process is that it is case-by case. There will be a lot of interaction with the admissions folks and the counselors and they will try to understand your unique situation. We already had a kid in the school so we got "points" for that. But we laid it on thick about how we felt that GC would help him reach his full potential because of A, B, and C. We showed all of his testing, got more than the required recommendation letters and even had his OT write something up. The common themes were he was a bright kid, who learns differently, behaves incredibly well, can function in a regular classroom, would be best served in a closer community at GC and had tremendous support at home. |
Anonymous
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By the sounds of it the Ryken program is for 'avarage' studens who would not otherwise be admitted.
To be willing to pay the tuition you would want something more than what is available in the public school. So you have to meet with them, prep yourself and your kid for the 'job interview'. Pay the tuition and hope you have not made a mistake |
Anonymous
| How is the Good Counsel experience for non-Catholics? We may look at it down the line for DS. |
Anonymous
PP here: No that is not it at all. Our son has minor documented learning diabilities. My kid may have gotten into GC anyways - he was accepted into two other private schools with no special resource programs. And a lot of his classmates were honor roll students coming out of middle school but they were IEP or have LD's. It is not a remedial environment....it is for smart kids who would benefit from a different approach. I am not sure we were expecting MORE than the public school by applying to the Ryken program. My son was in elementary school and middle school in MOCO. The IEP program was top rate and gave him everything he needed. What we were willing to pay for was the private school environment/structure/discipline that GC offered and that our older DD benefitted from. As far as your job interview and hope it is not a mistake comment, I think that can be said at ANY private school! You never know going in whether it is a fit. You are writing a check and hoping for the best. No difference here. |
Anonymous
We are not Catholic and it was fine for us. There is a religious component - weekly mass and 4 years of religion class. But 11th and 12 grade religion was more of a survey/comparative religion class where they looked at different faiths. And the Campus Ministry has more of a community service focus and not as much on theology. But I never felt that religion was forced upon the kids. I expected a religous component and I was fine with it, but I was acutally surprised that the school was so secular in a lot of respects. |
Anonymous
| My son shadowed at GC and he loved it. He applied at two other schools because we made him do it but he ignored the responses from the other two. He actually prayed that GC would accept him. He has signed up for speech and debate, male chorus, marching band and basketball. He has all honors classes and he is ready to go! He is expecting the best to happen there. It is a good school. The kids are wonderful. |
Anonymous
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My DD shadowed there and love it! She's interested in the anime, speech and longboarding club - and boy, do they have a lot of clubs. She will be applying for 9th grade 2012.
PP. Do you know why the principal was recently fired? From speaking with some of the kids that go there, he was great guy, attended all their games, etc, which the previous principal never did. So this has come as shock to them. |
Anonymous
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I know there is a bus from the Rockville area. Do they have transportation options closer to DC/Chevy Chase?
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Anonymous
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GC graduate here-I loved it, it was definitely a great college prep school as opposed to what you would consider a catholic school.
I definitely plan on sending both my kids there eventually, and most grads I meet or still am friends with agree |