Sidwell vs. Georgetown Day School -- pros and cons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chose GDS. Was a tough call.

Sorry we won’t see you at Sidwell but you can’t go wrong. What was the deciding factor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chose GDS. Was a tough call.

We chose GDS as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
That said - whether a student can get into the courses they "want" at GDS in 11th depends on space and demand. And at Sidwell there are several math and computer science courses (typically ones taken by seniors) that the school will end up not running if not enough students want it that year....which can be a bummer if you had looked forward to taking that class since you arrived in 9th grade.

But these both can happen at any school - so be wary - a school catalog (anywhere)typically includes a large list of courses - but being in the catalog doesn't always mean your kid will get into the class (space limited) or that the class will be offered (not enough demand).

Thank you very much for your post carefully comparing the courses. One downside of small private schools is indeed the 9-12 grades not having economies of scale and not able to offer all the classes or not multiple sections and students have conflicts. Don't usually see that in the large public high schools.

[Anonymous]

Would love to hear more about the Upper School experience. What are parent teacher conferences like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would love to hear more about the Upper School experience. What are parent teacher conferences like?

At gds, there are parent teacher conferences in the fall. You can sign up for meetings with all teachers/whichever teachers you want. I think they were 10 minutes per teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would love to hear more about the Upper School experience. What are parent teacher conferences like?

At gds, there are parent teacher conferences in the fall. You can sign up for meetings with all teachers/whichever teachers you want. I think they were 10 minutes per teacher.[/quote

How do the incoming 9th graders typically perform? I could see an argument for them doing well as they had to jump through more hoops/had to have a track record to be admitted. I could also see an argument for them struggling to adjust to a different culture and workload demands that may have differed from the previous school. Any advice/observations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would love to hear more about the Upper School experience. What are parent teacher conferences like?

At gds, there are parent teacher conferences in the fall. You can sign up for meetings with all teachers/whichever teachers you want. I think they were 10 minutes per teacher.

How do the incoming 9th graders typically perform? I could see an argument for them doing well as they had to jump through more hoops/had to have a track record to be admitted. I could also see an argument for them struggling to adjust to a different culture and workload demands that may have differed from the previous school. Any advice/observations?

I only know how my student is doing. He was at gds for MS. I was worried about the transition because the MS has far lower expectations and less work, but he's risen to the occasion wonderfully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would love to hear more about the Upper School experience. What are parent teacher conferences like?

At gds, there are parent teacher conferences in the fall. You can sign up for meetings with all teachers/whichever teachers you want. I think they were 10 minutes per teacher.

How do the incoming 9th graders typically perform? I could see an argument for them doing well as they had to jump through more hoops/had to have a track record to be admitted. I could also see an argument for them struggling to adjust to a different culture and workload demands that may have differed from the previous school. Any advice/observations?

I only know how my student is doing. He was at gds for MS. I was worried about the transition because the MS has far lower expectations and less work, but he's risen to the occasion wonderfully.

Do kids receive letter grades in MS?

[Anonymous]

I didn't see this anywhere in this thread but GDS has a high school teacher: student ratio of 8:1 and Sidwell 16:1, according to their websites. Isn't this a big difference between the schools?

[Anonymous]

*student: teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC was accepted to both for 9th grade a few years ago. After doing a shadow day at each, they chose GDS - and it wasn't a hard choice for them, they just felt more comfortable there. And it ended up being a great choice.

.

Same. My kid chose GDS last year after shadow days. Has been a great year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't see this anywhere in this thread but GDS has a high school teacher: student ratio of 8:1 and Sidwell 16:1, according to their websites. Isn't this a big difference between the schools?

The published ratios can be a little misleading depending on how a school calculates. Some add up all possible teachers (including part time, coaches, and admin who teach a single class), which can skew the ratio somewhat unrealistically. The better questions for each school is what is the average class size, and what is the largest class size (and maybe, which classes tend to hit that cap, if that’s important to you).

[Anonymous]

We had the same options last year and chose Sidwell. My daughter wanted a more structured and organized learning environment. Zero regrets.

[Anonymous]

Choose BIM.

https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-private-high-schools/m/washington-dc-metro-area/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Choose BIM.

https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-private-high-schools/m/washington-dc-metro-area/

According to that, Basis isn’t better than Sidwell. It’s better than GDS, but not Sidwell.