FAQ: What is the "Big 3"? (or "Big 5", or "Big 10", etc)

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03/31/2010 10:48

Subject: FAQ: What is the "Big 3"? (or "Big 5", or "Big 10", etc)

quote

Anonymous

When someone posts about the "Big X," he/she is usually referring to schools which are considered the "top tier". People will debate at length about how many schools are "Big X" schools (the "Big 3", the "Big 5," or the "Big 10.") There really is no way to rank any of the schools definitively. Some posters only consider the schools based in the District of Columbia in their definition, others include schools in Maryland and Virginia. Some only include schools that are K-12, while others include the schools that only go from K-8.

Some posters on this board believe that others try to promulgate a narrow "Big X" definition... like saying the "Big 3"... as a way to set apart their particular school from others in the area. The problem with this, on an anonymous board, is that there is no way to know whether there is true consensus about who the "Big 3" really is (or whether there are just a few vocal boosters who are advocating for their particular school. Is it the Cathedral Schools, Sidwell Friends, and GDS? Or perhaps Sidwell, Maret, and Holton. Or perhaps Potomac, Sidwell, and Cathedral. Or maybe for lower school it's Norwood, Langley, and Beauvoir? Or maybe for athletic inclined families it's Landon, Georgetown Prep, and SSSAS. You can see where this can lead.

In defining the "top tier", posters often point to outside publications that have tried to rank schools. These include:

The Washington Examiner - http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/40314672.html
Worth Magazine http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/43718.page#295235 and
The Wall St Journal http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-COLLEGE0711-sort.html

These 3rd party rankings are good evidence that it's hard to limit the number of schools that should be considered top tier. Each of these "rankings" would lead to a different interpretation of which schools really should be considered the "Big 3".

In addition, many posters will argue that certain public schools belong in the Big X discussion, particularly given that a school like Thomas Jefferson in Virginia has been ranked by US News and World Report as the #1 public high school in the nation http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-scho...ool-is-best-in-the-nation.html

The point that many posters usually end up making in these discussions/arguments is that the "best" school is really a subjective matter - and the best fit for one family might not be the best fit for another.

It's probably a good idea to avoid all of these "Big X" terms whenever you can, because they really gets some people upset and can quickly lead a discussion thread off-topic with debates about terminology and rankings. It's often best just to refer to specific schools by name, or to refer generically to "top tier schools" or something similar. If you search the DCUM archive, you can easily find a dozen threads with people fighting about these terms and their implications.