Sidwell vs GDS upper school
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Anonymous
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I agree with 14:53 on everything but one point. Last year was an unusual one for Sidwell, yet kids still went to Princeton, Harvard, Brown, Penn, etc. This year is better than last but not better than most years.
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Dear All,
I would like to comment a bit on this. I am a graduate of GDS 2003 and have had friends in various schools in the DC area private school circuit. I think perhaps I could shed some light on a student's experience. Both GDS and Sidwell are very competitive schools. By this I mean that there is tremendous pressure within the student body to achieve academically. Until I went to undergraduate, I did not realize that a B was not the passing/fail threshold. However, this was in no way force-feed to us by the teachers (at least at GDS). As teenagers, kids naturally compare themselves with their peers. This includes grades and extracurricular activities. The teachers at GDS are open and friendly, and sometimes overly qualified for their positions. I am sure this is the case with Sidwell teachers as well. The beauty of private school is the access to knowledge. However, the students at GDS consider themselves to be equals to their professors, for better or worse. This allows for an open channel of communication. You are taught to challenge established norms, ask questions, and think for yourself. As for the environment, GDS gives its students freedom and responsibilities. GDS HS has an open campus policy. This may seem frightening to some parents, but it was the best thing I could have imagined. I was so well prepared for undergraduate that it seemed as if there was no adjustment period. The block scheduling and open campus policy allowed me to learn to manage my time better. All in all, it depends on what you want from a Highschool education for you child. Test scores are important, but nothing a Kaplan prep course couldn't improve. What GDS offers is a mini-undergraduate experience. We used to say that freshman year of college was easier than senior year at GDS. Otherwise, if you want hard statistics, rules to keep your child in-line send them to a boarding school. No graduate from GDS nor Sidwell, will end up not being accepted to college... and very rarely end up not in the top 100 schools in the nation. Hope this helps. I know that parents have other concerns, but I truly enjoyed my time at GDS, and believe it is a truly enriching experience. |
Anonymous
| Very similar academically. Both have alot of work, send kids to the same colleges. You cant really say the grading is easier at either school because they dont release their numbers or have a class rank, so anyone who says that one is harder is wrong and is biased because there is no way to find out. |
Anonymous
Much better??? that is not true at all. Interesting that you are able to find that out because I know that GDS doesnt publish where the kids go to school... I know most of the kids who graduated from both schools this year, alot of the same schools and all the schools were almost identical. Clearly you favor Sidwell because you have no way of knowing where GDS kids go to college |
Anonymous
HAHAHAHAH In my 4 years in high school at GDS 2 kids left GDS after junior year to go to MIT, one came in second in the world in the math olympics. Multiple kids take math classes at AU. MIT doesnt know anything about math... |
Anonymous
| The difference between GDS and Sidwell is that Sidwell is a lot more structured than GDS when it comes to academics. There is no ``go at your own pace'' and ``learn to your level'' of interest approach. GDS is great if you are strong, motivated and intellectual student. Sidwell is great for that too, but the kids in the middle of the pack are held to a higher standard than at GDS, where they are sort of left to ``find themselves.'' It's those middle of the pack students at GDS that give the school a reputation for being filled with partiers. |
Anonymous
I have a kid at GDS HS, and I have no idea what you are talking about. What courses are you talking about that let kids "go at your own pace" and/or "learn to your level?" Never heard of this, unless you are talking about the most advanced kids, who are routinely allowed to take very advanced courses if they are ready for them. Good luck with that at Sidwell. |
Anonymous
This couldn't be more incorrect. You need to talk to the college counselors - GDS has more children accepted into Ivy's that Sidwell almost every year. The spectrum of schools is greater at GDS because the students have a greater variety of interests.
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Anonymous
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GDS continues to out-perform Sidwell in National Math Meets - maybe those of you that think Sidwell is better in math because they are more traditional should seek out and attend a math meet!!!
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Anonymous
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. Both schools are way more similar academically than they are different. From year to year the graduating classes vary randomly in terms of the particular class's strength (ie at Sidwell 2011 incredibly strong with college placements that were quite extraordinary and 15 National Merit Scholars, GDS had a weak graduating class with only a handful of NMSFs and many fewer kids at the HYPS and top LAC schools; 2012 somewhat reversed at least in terms of NMSFs and will see about college placements). Both schools do extremely well for college placements, with what seems like 3/4 of the classes ending up at top 50 schools, and 20-25% at Ivys.
So choice is really one of style not substance and most importantly, the social and academic "feel" of a particular class which can vary a lot from year to year in these small schools. There are quite a few families ) who have had high school kids at both schools in the past ten years, and the choices very kid and particular class dependent. There are also kids who have moved from Sidwell to GDS and from GDS to Sidwell, most commonly for 9th grade, but sometimes for 10th. Reasons mostly social and in some cases athletic. |
Anonymous
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Maybe the super smart GDS students can figure out the traffic and parking mess at their Lower School?
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Anonymous
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Love this - great idea!![
quote=Anonymous]Maybe the super smart GDS students can figure out the traffic and parking mess at their Lower School? |
Anonymous
| I love the way the GDS parents are going Landon on Sidwell. Instead of Lacrosse they talk smack about math but they just as weirdly insecure. |
Anonymous
| I'm a Sidwell parent, but my kids have many friends who attend or have graduated from GDS. It's a great school; in fact, I would have loved to send my youngest there, but she wanted to go to the school her sibs attended. Academics at the two schools are certainly on par, but I get the sense that GDS has more kids who are out-of- the-box thinkers and that there's more inclusion and appreciation of kids with non-traditional learning styles. For those trying to stir up some sort of GDS-Sidwell rivalry-to-the-death, I really don't think it's there among the kids except in terms of certain sports, and it's certainly not there among parents. |