new to DC area independent school

[Anonymous]

I am trying to find my unicorn school coming from New England. We applied to a few schools, but we were unable to understand school rigor from one tour, especially online ones. We are interested in independent schools for small class sizes, academic rigor, social-emotional growth, and eventually down the line good college matriculation (top 50 US schools is fine with us). There is a lot of talk about the well-known schools. We understand that Sidwell, GDS, Potomac, and Cathedral schools are in a league. How are SAES, Bullis, and SSFS? I do not understand why Bullis is disliked. We liked the HoS and his vision. Any thoughts would be useful.

[Anonymous]

Bullis is a fantastic school. You should visit the campus, it looks like a college. The resources are vast. no religious roots.

Saint Andrews is also a great school with Episcopal roots.

Sandy Springs has quaker roots.

These are suburban schools, whereas the other schools you mentioned, except Potomac, are in the city.

They’re all great schools. Tour them. Get your information from the admissions teams not from anonymous commentary from here.

[Anonymous]

Actual Bullis families are very happy. The dislike is from this forum.

[Anonymous]

What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. Some schools have links to current families, which was helpful.

Anonymous wrote:Bullis is a fantastic school. You should visit the campus, it looks like a college. The resources are vast. no religious roots.

Saint Andrews is also a great school with Episcopal roots.

Sandy Springs has quaker roots.

These are suburban schools, whereas the other schools you mentioned, except Potomac, are in the city.

They’re all great schools. Tour them. Get your information from the admissions teams not from anonymous commentary from here.

[Anonymous]

we are looking for solid academic rigor. We looked at faculty profiles and liked Potomac. However, coming from academia good school does not equate good teacher.

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

[Anonymous]

We would love to connect. Do you think the school has good academic rigor? We are not a sporty family, and we got the impression that sports is a big part of the ethos.

Since we are outsiders to the DC area, why do folks dislike Bullis?




quote=Anonymous]Actual Bullis families are very happy. The dislike is from this forum.

[Anonymous]

OP- You have to define academic rigor on your own terms because this board can be crazy and will have you believing a school isn’t rigorous just because every kid isn’t destined for or trying to go to an Ivy.

All of the schools you named are good schools. They have different profiles (single sex vs Coed, Religious vs somewhat religious vs secular, varying class size, etc). If you can’t view the school in person, call up the school and ask for a meeting to speak more with someone in admissions or even an ambassador family. Explain your moving from out of state and trying to help determine the best fit.

Also, if your at boric are in New England, speak with that school. They may be able to provide additional insight or at least get you more details.

[Anonymous]

Arlington VA has the fittest people in the nation. The DMV military has a strong presence in overall culture of fitness—not California looking good but strong.

I do think that fine art and performing arts are weak here, it’s a culture of conformity and blandness in military and government. There are little sparks but nothing like NYC or Boston. And business culture and entrepreneurship are lousy. But lots of policy wonks!

Both of these local cultural biases affect the school culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we are looking for solid academic rigor. We looked at faculty profiles and liked Potomac. However, coming from academia good school does not equate good teacher.

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

It does at the high school level. It's almost like a college education. And no one goes straight from a PhD program to NCS. They go to less prestigious private schools first, build up a good reputation, and then get hired by NCS if they have excellent references.

But if you'd rather your kid be taught by someone from a not very high ranked college or with an education BA from a state school, ncs is not your place.

[Anonymous]

What schools do you like in New England? That might help people familiar with schools in both areas give you advice and point you to comparable schools. Do you like a school with good arts? Coed? Looking for a boy? girl? How warm and supportive of students? Diverse? Some schools have more progressive teaching style. Others are more traditional. At some schools families are more showy about their wealth. If you know where you will be living the commute is a big factor too.

I think Bullis is more sporty than SAES or SSFS at least in certain sports. All 3 seem like nice schools. You didn't mention Maret but sounds like it would fit on your list. It’s small and in DC. GDS and Potomac are academically rigorous and sound like they could work too.

[Anonymous]

They’re all fine and oversubscribed so just circle all the ones that work for your commute, apply, and deal with choosing once you know where you’re admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are looking for solid academic rigor. We looked at faculty profiles and liked Potomac. However, coming from academia good school does not equate good teacher.

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

It does at the high school level. It's almost like a college education. And no one goes straight from a PhD program to NCS. They go to less prestigious private schools first, build up a good reputation, and then get hired by NCS if they have excellent references.

But if you'd rather your kid be taught by someone from a not very high ranked college or with an education BA from a state school, ncs is not your place.

Fwiw when I was at GDS some of my best teachers were the young ones sort of kicking around before eventually going to get grad degrees. They always had a nice mix in each department.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

Why would you need a PhD in a subject to teach it to high school students? These people would seem significantly over-qualified to teach high school students.

Are these people who weren’t able to get jobs at the university level and had to settle for what they could get?

I can’t imagine anything worse than being a kid in a class listening to a disgruntled academic who believes they should be doing something better with their education.

[Anonymous]

Bullis gets a lot of criticism on here for at least two reasons.

The first is history. The school has never been thought of as being academically selective. That may be different now. I don’t know. But this reputation is decades old and widely believed.

The second is the academic and social snobbery of a huge swath of DCUM posters who are connected to or who support other schools.