reputation of area catholic schools

[Anonymous]

I didn’t grow up in this area so the culture around catholic schools here can be a bit confusing to me. I’m trying to understand the reputation of area Catholics. I tend to group schools together based on prices and coed/single sex.

So visitation, SR, & prep would logically be grouped together imo & it seems they have similarly well regarded reputations.

Next I would group Gonzaga & ahc together but Gonzaga seems to have a much better reputation than ahc but I can’t see why. They are both mid range cost & single sex. Academics seem similar too.

Then I would put sjc & olgc together. They both seem to have similar reputations with sjc seeming slightly higher.

Finally de matha & seton. Both very affordable single sex options but people cringe if they hear your daughter is going to or considering seton but De matha has a much better reputation than seton.

I’m just curious because we will soon be going through the high school process and I don’t want to be missing reasons why certain schools have a much worse reputation compared to (what I consider) the counterpart.

[Anonymous]

What gave you the idea that tuition cost is directly correlated to reputation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What gave you the idea that tuition cost is directly correlated to reputation?

I’m not OP but most people have a “you get what you pay for” mentality in general. But especially about private/catholic schools. Causing the reputations.

[Anonymous]

Are you looking for all girls, all boys or coed schools?

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure the purpose of comparing the reputations of boys schools to girls schools even if they are at the same price point. The same student wouldn’t be looking at both.

[Anonymous]

Seems to me that “Reputations” are the vague impressions of the people that don’t count. They don’t count because their level of understanding of these schools is so thin.

This question demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of Catholic schools in this area. What qualities or attributes would cause one school to be seen better than another? And why would this ranking matter to anyone?

Reputations are vague impressions people have and most of them are clueless about what those reputations are based on.

St. John’s might be seen by some as not as good as Prep. But those who understand the schools and their alumni base might not agree. The DC area is filled with St John’s alumni who have had extremely successful careers and are loyal supporters of the school. Just walk around the SJC Campus and see the names on the new buildings and athletic facilities that have been donated. SJC alums own and run some of the biggest companies in the area especially in the construction and real estate industries.

I’m a Prep alum and I don’t feel the school is better than Gonzaga or DeMatha. It’s just different.

[Anonymous]

+1

I feel they are all good schools. Go where you feel is a better fit and more convenient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What gave you the idea that tuition cost is directly correlated to reputation?

Snobbery based on tuition cost fuels most of the BS about these schools you will see on this board.

[Anonymous]

I agree that reputation is not a basis for choosing a school. For any school, you might want to add the mission of the school and how that plays out (example, greater or lesser emphasis on service) as something to consider along with normal things like cost, size, location, distance, single sex or coed, etc.

[Anonymous]

You can’t matchy match the schools like that. They all have different elements that make them as unique as they are similar. I think you have to do exactly what my kids did and list all the pros and cons for your own situation and choose accordingly. The perfect school for each of my kids was not the choice of their best friends, but all thrived in their own schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t matchy match the schools like that. They all have different elements that make them as unique as they are similar. I think you have to do exactly what my kids did and list all the pros and cons for your own situation and choose accordingly. The perfect school for each of my kids was not the choice of their best friends, but all thrived in their own schools.

I was going to write this same advice! Every school is unique and offers a different “package,” so to speak. My DC was accepted to several fantastic Catholic schools and turned down one that many students are fighting to get into for another one that offered a selection of classes and activities that were more aligned with DC’s interests. Although many of DC’s friends are going to the more “competitive” school, DC feels that they made the right choice.

What does your DC prioritize? Do they want a school where they can play freshman football? A robust music program? A strong theater program? An established robotics club? Equestrian options? A strong classical liberal arts education? Cutting edge engineering and STEM options? Cadet Corp? Homeless outreach? Heritage Spanish? Chinese? Latin? A strong academic help center? Co-ed v single sex? Urban v suburban? Large v small? The list goes on and on. I echo the poster above who suggested making a pros and cons list. Sometimes it is still tough to decide even with a list, but usually after a visit or two, it becomes obvious which school is the best fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t grow up in this area so the culture around catholic schools here can be a bit confusing to me. I’m trying to understand the reputation of area Catholics. I tend to group schools together based on prices and coed/single sex.

So visitation, SR, & prep would logically be grouped together imo & it seems they have similarly well regarded reputations.

Next I would group Gonzaga & ahc together but Gonzaga seems to have a much better reputation than ahc but I can’t see why. They are both mid range cost & single sex. Academics seem similar too.

Then I would put sjc & olgc together. They both seem to have similar reputations with sjc seeming slightly higher.

Finally de matha & seton. Both very affordable single sex options but people cringe if they hear your daughter is going to or considering seton but De matha has a much better reputation than seton.

I’m just curious because we will soon be going through the high school process and I don’t want to be missing reasons why certain schools have a much worse reputation compared to (what I consider) the counterpart.

Reputation on this board is too often a proxy for race, class, or who has the loudest parent network. A school being “cringed at” doesn’t mean it’s bad — it means we should interrogate our biases.

Instead of starting with how schools are “ranked” socially, consider starting with:

What kind of student your child is.

What kind of environment helps them flourish — spiritually, academically, emotionally.

Every school on that list has a couple of things in common: 1) they all serve their students incredibly well; and 2) they all have been misrepresented in someway in DCUM by people that have no clue what these schools are actually like.

[Anonymous]

“Reputation” is based on the vague impression that people have of each of these schools. Frequently it’s based on a single or couple of incidents they have heard about or what someone they know “said”.

Much of the information that floats around the area about these schools comes from people with axes to grind or who want to inflate the school they or their kids have gone to. There’s a lot of willful blindness about the problems at or shortcomings of “their” school.

IT’s also true that the population of this area is highly Balkanized. Many of the groups look at only a subset of schools and wouldn’t send their kids to other ones outside this group if they were free.

[Anonymous]

Prep feels like an outlier…more like a Catholic independent school vs a Catholic school.

The families I know sending their kids there were more likely to consider Landon or STA as alternatives vs Gonzaga or a WCAC school.

[Anonymous]

what's ahc?