Sidwell vs. Georgetown Day School -- pros and cons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

BIM was #1 for several years and was just edged out by Sidwell last year. BIM will reclaim its rightful place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

No. I grew to like the description grades they do give in middle school: several topics in each class, with information about whether the child is above, at, or below expectations for each. This gave much more information than an A or a B in English, for example.

It did mean that my child had to learn what "A" work looks like, but that wasn't hard.

[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.

The above is true for gds in all four years, 9th-12th grade.

Sidwell had parent teacher conferences only for 9th grade. They are for 10 (maybe 15?) minutes and only with 3 teachers. You get to rank your preferences but you are not guaranteed top 3.

We 100% preferred gds on this dimension. (Maybe new leadership can change this) The vast majority of teachers also knew our gds student better (give or take a couple) than the 3 teachers knew our Sidwell student. We couldn’t pick the majority of our DCs Sidwell teachers out of a lineup to be honest. HS is always (appropriately) arms length for parents, but Sidwell is even more so.

[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.

The above is true for gds in all four years, 9th-12th grade.

Sidwell had parent teacher conferences only for 9th grade. They are for 10 (maybe 15?) minutes and only with 3 teachers. You get to rank your preferences but you are not guaranteed top 3.

We 100% preferred gds on this dimension. (Maybe new leadership can change this) The vast majority of teachers also knew our gds student better (give or take a couple) than the 3 teachers knew our Sidwell student. We couldn’t pick the majority of our DCs Sidwell teachers out of a lineup to be honest. HS is always (appropriately) arms length for parents, but Sidwell is even more so.

At gds, I also like the student update process. Several times each term, at the teacher's discretion, teachers send emails home about what the student is doing (good or bad). I really appreciate the real time, specific feedback and think it's more useful than the overall comments on report cards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The PP is a joke. Basis is not a real option. PS Last year GDS had the best college admits of all the privates. 6 kids were admitted to Harvard etc, etc. This year was a college admittance blood bath at Sidwell. Parents are irate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The PP is a joke. Basis is not a real option. PS Last year GDS had the best college admits of all the privates. 6 kids were admitted to Harvard etc, etc. This year was a college admittance blood bath at Sidwell. Parents are irate.

How so? Sidwell is sending at least one student to EVERY Ivy+ school this year (as usual). There are at least 2 students heading to Stanford and 2 going to MIT this fall (there’s usually no more than 1 MIT student per class). The majority of Sidwell’s 125 seniors are attending T50 schools or better.

Btw, GDS is not doing nearly as well as Sidwell this year. And they did about the same as Sidwell last year. Last year, GDS sent 6 to Harvard and Sidwell sent 6 to Penn (3 of whom are at Wharton). They sent about the same percentage of students to Ivies last year.

If you want to see a blood bath, look at GDS’ 2023 college matriculations. 😱

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The PP is a joke. Basis is not a real option. PS Last year GDS had the best college admits of all the privates. 6 kids were admitted to Harvard etc, etc. This year was a college admittance blood bath at Sidwell. Parents are irate.

You may want to take a peak at Sidwell’s IG page, and then come back here and retract your nonsensical statement.

P.S. The results are fantastic and none of the Harvard, and a couple of other T10 admits, have posted yet (if ever).

[Anonymous]

Please know that the bloodbath post was a troll and I doubt from a GDS parent. Sidwell is doing very well. GDS parent of two!

[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.

The above is true for gds in all four years, 9th-12th grade.

Sidwell had parent teacher conferences only for 9th grade. They are for 10 (maybe 15?) minutes and only with 3 teachers. You get to rank your preferences but you are not guaranteed top 3.

We 100% preferred gds on this dimension. (Maybe new leadership can change this) The vast majority of teachers also knew our gds student better (give or take a couple) than the 3 teachers knew our Sidwell student. We couldn’t pick the majority of our DCs Sidwell teachers out of a lineup to be honest. HS is always (appropriately) arms length for parents, but Sidwell is even more so.

Teachers at Sidwell are happy to have a call with parents any time, particularly if a student is struggling with something.

[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.

The above is true for gds in all four years, 9th-12th grade.

Sidwell had parent teacher conferences only for 9th grade. They are for 10 (maybe 15?) minutes and only with 3 teachers. You get to rank your preferences but you are not guaranteed top 3.

We 100% preferred gds on this dimension. (Maybe new leadership can change this) The vast majority of teachers also knew our gds student better (give or take a couple) than the 3 teachers knew our Sidwell student. We couldn’t pick the majority of our DCs Sidwell teachers out of a lineup to be honest. HS is always (appropriately) arms length for parents, but Sidwell is even more so.

Teachers at Sidwell are happy to have a call with parents any time, particularly if a student is struggling with something.

+1. Parents of 10th through 12th graders don’t have to rely on parent-teacher conferences. Teachers are accessible and available to meet at anytime during the school year.

Sidwell teachers also provide feedback throughout the year about how your student is doing (good or bad), via Interim’s.

[Anonymous]

So many good comments in the strength of both schools. All I will add is that the arts are superior at GDS. It is what my child wanted and received.

[Anonymous]

I can't speak about the music department, but fine arts and theater are very strong at Sidwell. I will say that Sidwell has not offered darkroom classes in the past several years, but everything else is top notch. The theater program is amazing as are the resources/facilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The above is true for gds in all four years, 9th-12th grade.

Sidwell had parent teacher conferences only for 9th grade. They are for 10 (maybe 15?) minutes and only with 3 teachers. You get to rank your preferences but you are not guaranteed top 3.

We 100% preferred gds on this dimension. (Maybe new leadership can change this) The vast majority of teachers also knew our gds student better (give or take a couple) than the 3 teachers knew our Sidwell student. We couldn’t pick the majority of our DCs Sidwell teachers out of a lineup to be honest. HS is always (appropriately) arms length for parents, but Sidwell is even more so.

Teachers at Sidwell are happy to have a call with parents any time, particularly if a student is struggling with something.

+1. Parents of 10th through 12th graders don’t have to rely on parent-teacher conferences. Teachers are accessible and available to meet at anytime during the school year.

Sidwell teachers also provide feedback throughout the year about how your student is doing (good or bad), via Interim’s.

+1 we've always been able to interact with a SFS teacher as needed. But here's the thing: by design, they want the kids to manage issues themselves well before getting parents involved. It's something we had to get used to (we were new to SFS for HS), but we have come to appreciate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The PP is a joke. Basis is not a real option. PS Last year GDS had the best college admits of all the privates. 6 kids were admitted to Harvard etc, etc. This year was a college admittance blood bath at Sidwell. Parents are irate.

How so? Sidwell is sending at least one student to EVERY Ivy+ school this year (as usual). There are at least 2 students heading to Stanford and 2 going to MIT this fall (there’s usually no more than 1 MIT student per class). The majority of Sidwell’s 125 seniors are attending T50 schools or better.

Btw, GDS is not doing nearly as well as Sidwell this year. And they did about the same as Sidwell last year. Last year, GDS sent 6 to Harvard and Sidwell sent 6 to Penn (3 of whom are at Wharton). They sent about the same percentage of students to Ivies last year.

If you want to see a blood bath, look at GDS’ 2023 college matriculations. 😱

Ok -I'll bite. Sidwell '23 was VERY HIGHLY skewed to hooked students - only a couple of unhooked broke through (if you don't count the Chicago ED shortcut crew). '23 was a bloodbath at both schools for unhooked students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The PP is a joke. Basis is not a real option. PS Last year GDS had the best college admits of all the privates. 6 kids were admitted to Harvard etc, etc. This year was a college admittance blood bath at Sidwell. Parents are irate.

How so? Sidwell is sending at least one student to EVERY Ivy+ school this year (as usual). There are at least 2 students heading to Stanford and 2 going to MIT this fall (there’s usually no more than 1 MIT student per class). The majority of Sidwell’s 125 seniors are attending T50 schools or better.

Btw, GDS is not doing nearly as well as Sidwell this year. And they did about the same as Sidwell last year. Last year, GDS sent 6 to Harvard and Sidwell sent 6 to Penn (3 of whom are at Wharton). They sent about the same percentage of students to Ivies last year.

If you want to see a blood bath, look at GDS’ 2023 college matriculations. 😱

Ok -I'll bite. Sidwell '23 was VERY HIGHLY skewed to hooked students - only a couple of unhooked broke through (if you don't count the Chicago ED shortcut crew). '23 was a bloodbath at both schools for unhooked students.

PS - this is not meant to put down the Chicago kids - they were all great students - just an outlier from other unhooked