When parents are only applying to Maret, GDS and Sidwell...
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Anonymous
I did not go to Tulane. But its a very good school. Lots of schools similarly ranked in USNWR are. Like Tufts, BC, W&M. USNWR rankings are a gimmick that feed into our collective scarcity mindset. Schools intentionally manipulate their numbers by doing things that have zero to do with quality of education (such as doing everything under the sun to drive down the acceptance rates) in order to climb the rankings. |
Anonymous
| In our case, it was because our child decided they liked these (high) schools best (and one more) when compared to our local public option. If they didn't get into one of these, they wanted to try the public HS and if they were unhappy would consider moving to another private for 10th. |
Anonymous
| I wish there were more co-educational options for high school in the DC and VA. We don't want a single-sex or religious school, so Sidwell, GDS and Maret automatically come to mind. |
Anonymous
Agree. Also not a Tulane alum but it is a great school and better connections and more successful grads than many other schools that rank higher. I look at the alums and how successful they are and what kind of people. |
Anonymous
I wish there were more options for single sex. All of the boys single sex parent communities are the same - very conservative and clubby. The girls schools have more a variety. |
Anonymous
So which of the notable alumni at the three schools impress you the most? Sidwell "Sidwell Friends School alumni" A • Elizabeth Alexander (poet) • Alida Anderson • Damali ayo B • William Bayer • Jon Bernthal • Tom Bernthal • David G. Bradley C • Setsuko, Princess Chichibu • Sonya Clark • Chelsea Clinton • Tricia Nixon Cox D • John Dickerson (journalist) • Giselle Donnelly E • Margaret Edson • Julie Nixon Eisenhower F • Dan Froomkin G • Doug Gansler • Ana Gasteyer • Olivia Gentile • Charles Gibson • Walter Gilbert • Anand Giridharadas • Daniel S. Goldman • Hanna Holborn Gray H • Michael Heller (law professor) • Tony Horwitz K • John Katzenbach • Philip S. Khoury L • Mark Lesko • Charles Lindbergh M • Ellen McLaughlin • Tracye McQuirter • Nana Meriwether N • Bill Nye O • Malia Obama • Sasha Obama • Eliza Orlins R • Archibald Roosevelt S • Omar Soliman • Steven D. Stark • Lorin Stein T • Katherine Tai • Merle Thorpe Jr. • Walter Nathan Tobriner V • Gore Vidal W • Vanessa Wruble Maret Notable alumni • Peter Matthew Bauer: Musician • Sean Davis: Professional football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers • Luka Garza: Professional basketball player for the Detroit Pistons • Sonja Lyubomirsky: Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside and the author of The How of Happiness • J. Lorand Matory: Anthropology Professor at Duke University • Christof Putzel: Journalist • Theodore Shapiro: American composer best known for film scores, including State and Main, 13 Going on 30, Along Came Polly, The Devil Wears Prada, Fun with Dick and Jane, etc.[4] • Yeardley Smith: Actress best known for voicing Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons • Josh Stamberg: Actor • Rosalind Wiseman: Author of New York Times best-selling book Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence, released in 2002, was the basis of the 2004 film Mean Girls.[11] GDS Notable alumni • Elliot Ackerman, decorated veteran and author • James Alefantis, owner of Comet Ping Pong • Kelly AuCoin, actor • Schuyler Bailar, first openly transgender NCAA Division I swimmer[10] • Jake Blount, musician, scholar and activist. • Sean Fine, documentary filmmaker, best known for the Academy Award-nominated War/Dance • Ruben Fleischer, film director • Franklin Foer, The New Republic editor • Jonathan Safran Foer, novelist and professor of creative writing at New York University • Joshua Foer, freelance journalist and author of Moonwalking with Einstein • Gina Gionfriddo, playwright and television writer. Twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. • Jonathan Glickman, film producer and studio executive.[16] • Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer prize winning American author • Matt Jackson, holder of the 5th longest winning streak on Jeopardy • Judy Kuhn, Tony-nominated theatre actress, known for her originating roles in Les Misérables, Chess, and Fun Home, as well as being the singing voice for Pocahontas in the Disney film Pocahontas • Ben Mankiewicz, host of Turner Classic Movies producer and actor • Thurgood Marshall Jr., partner at Bingham McCutchen, LLP, chairman of the Board of the Governors USPS, Assistant to the President and Secretary to the Cabinet at Clinton Administration • Judith Martin, journalist, author, and etiquette authority • Sam Means, comedy writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,[24] 30 Rock, and Parks and Recreation; producer on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt • Guy Picciotto, singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, and producer most widely known for his role as guitarist and vocalist in Fugazi and Rites of Spring • Members of Gray Matter (band). • Alice Randall, American author and songwriter of African-American descent. She is perhaps best known for her novel The Wind Done Gone, a reinterpretation and parody of the popular 1936 novel Gone with the Wind. • Jamie Raskin, elected to House of Representatives from Maryland • David Reich, geneticist and professor in the department of genetics at Harvard Medical School, and an associate of the Broad Institute, whose research studies compare the human genome with those of chimpanzees, Neanderthals and Denisovans • Noah Robbins, American actor • Paul Shapiro, vice president of farm animal protection for the Humane Society of the United States • Kevin Sheekey, political operative • Ethan Slater, actor, singer, writer, and composer, best known for his Tony nominated role as SpongeBob SquarePants in the musical SpongeBob SquarePants • Sarah Stillman, journalist and winner of the 2012 George Polk Award, the 2012 Hillman Prize, and a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship • Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author and activist • Olivia Wilde, film and television actress, starred in House • Sophia Yilma, journalist and politician |
Anonymous
Thank you, I was thinking what the hell are the 30k schools… |
Anonymous
There is a conservative and clubby subset at sta, but it's a subset. It's a warm place, and it has surprised us in a few ways (good ways). If you are interested in single sex, you should at least visit there. Also, St Anselm's isn't clubby at all. Look there too. |
Anonymous
It may be a small subset but I hear they dominate everything that happens at the school. |
Anonymous
They dominated a thank you list on a development office-produced strategic plan. Don’t give them the inflated sense of importance they do not have. |
Anonymous
DP. Actually take a closer look. Most of the parent events, community activities, and parent class reps this year are chaired by CCC members and/or GOP families. We are a split family political wise but even we noticed. |
Anonymous
| The reason some people apply to only those three schools is all about insurance -- not quality. They can get the same (or better) lower school quality at several other coed independent schools in the area, and common sense would suggest applying to others as well if you want a lower school private. But if they get their kid into one of those three for lower school, they have bought insurance that their child will attend the same high school unless they are counseled out or choose to leave. It's a very, very expensive insurance policy. |
Anonymous
If you were already going to send your kid to private for lower school, it is not much more expensive to go big 3 than to other privates. And if you think you might want to stay, why not? It’s expensive compared to public. Most families going to big 3 lower schools were *never* going to public. They weren’t even considering it. So this isn’t right. |
Anonymous
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I’m not sure about that. Lots of folks live near the best public elementary schools in the district and debate whether to spend on elementary or wait until middle or high school. Invariably, a key factor in those folks applying is concern about middle or high school. And if they really are committed to privates, that’s all the more reason to apply to other schools in addition to the three named unless they are virtually certain of admission (famous parents, etc.). I’m not saying they should apply to these three, just thst it’s foolish to only do so. DCUM is full of threads of folks who can’t believe their darling didn’t get into one of these schools.
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Anonymous
Georgetown Prep 
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