Georgetown Prep vs. Sidwell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:9 pages and nobody has done a comparison of the academics.

Because there is none. Prep is a joke academically, especially compared to Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Prep is not a joke academically, and is not the public school you pay $40K for (that's Bullis) and it is not a half way house for lacrosse meatheads (that's Landon), but it is a decent school. It is unfortunately mispriced for what it is: a decent Jesuit school. If you want a decent Jesuit school for $20K instead of $35K, send your kid to Gonzaga. For a sporty kid it is all Gonzaga now. Prep has a few outstanding athletes in sports like swimming, but in general the administration of the school is trying to trim the athletics largesse in favor of a "more rigorous academic experience" which is a very Catholic kind of way of saying "we really f'ed up to sell our souls for a stupid lacrosse team and a $25mm sports center, and now we are taking W-2s...err...I mean applications from non-Catholics to come make our school more diversified".

Sidwell is just a straight up tight puckered assed serious academic school where your son or daughter will be friends with diplomats and world leaders in addition to getting a great education. Sports wise Sidwell almost prides itself in being terrible, so as not to project any image of being a rock jock shop.

Is that the cut the baloney comparison you wanted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GP made the same mistake on a less grand scale that Yow made at UMD. Spend a bloody fortune on sports facilities and hope that donors with trucks of money come later to make it work. GP has a real problem. No endowment base to speak of, and now it has to sell out one way or the next. Pretty sure all the Chinese pouring in to fill up their dorms aren't old line Jesuits. Having compatibles and substitutes like STJ and Gonzaga at 35% less tuition is also a killer. So far as sports is concerned, Gonzaga seems to be the Goliath locally now.

Gee --having Asian students makes a school second rate. Tell that to UC Berkeley.

[Anonymous]

"The basic question of Sidwell vs. Prep seems to me to suggest a very low level of understanding of private school alternatives here in the DMV."

Wrong. I have had kids in both schools and they are the two I prefer out of the privates in DC/Maryland for this reason: they both emphasize development of the whole student. Sidwell does this and believe it or not Quaker principles make a difference... the kids are very respectful of each other and the economic differences of the students makes very little difference socially. Prep does it through Jesuit philosophy and Catholic principles and kids are very respectful of each other and the economic differences in the status of the students makes very little difference socially. I would never send a kid to STA/NCS or Landon and Bullis would be a stretch for me. When i visited those schools I felt like a FA student would not fit in well, and that there were no set of basic values that underpinned the academic programs. I also visited Gonzaga, which I liked and Burke, which was a little too unstructured for my personal preference. I don't understand why you think Prep and Sidwell have nothing in common, most religions have basic principles in common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Prep is not a joke academically, and is not the public school you pay $40K for (that's Bullis) and it is not a half way house for lacrosse meatheads (that's Landon), but it is a decent school. It is unfortunately mispriced for what it is: a decent Jesuit school. If you want a decent Jesuit school for $20K instead of $35K, send your kid to Gonzaga. For a sporty kid it is all Gonzaga now. Prep has a few outstanding athletes in sports like swimming, but in general the administration of the school is trying to trim the athletics largesse in favor of a "more rigorous academic experience" which is a very Catholic kind of way of saying "we really f'ed up to sell our souls for a stupid lacrosse team and a $25mm sports center, and now we are taking W-2s...err...I mean applications from non-Catholics to come make our school more diversified".

Sidwell is just a straight up tight puckered assed serious academic school where your son or daughter will be friends with diplomats and world leaders in addition to getting a great education. Sports wise Sidwell almost prides itself in being terrible, so as not to project any image of being a rock jock shop.

Is that the cut the baloney comparison you wanted?

Really hard to take you seriously when you regurgitate that tired "public HS you pay for crap". We all know that's code for "Bullis is a lesser school because they have so many people of color".

Nice racist garbage, you idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"The basic question of Sidwell vs. Prep seems to me to suggest a very low level of understanding of private school alternatives here in the DMV."

Wrong. I have had kids in both schools and they are the two I prefer out of the privates in DC/Maryland for this reason: they both emphasize development of the whole student. Sidwell does this and believe it or not Quaker principles make a difference... the kids are very respectful of each other and the economic differences of the students makes very little difference socially. Prep does it through Jesuit philosophy and Catholic principles and kids are very respectful of each other and the economic differences in the status of the students makes very little difference socially. I would never send a kid to STA/NCS or Landon and Bullis would be a stretch for me. When i visited those schools I felt like a FA student would not fit in well, and that there were no set of basic values that underpinned the academic programs. I also visited Gonzaga, which I liked and Burke, which was a little too unstructured for my personal preference. I don't understand why you think Prep and Sidwell have nothing in common, most religions have basic principles in common.

So your son is a non-Catholic athlete who is at Prep on FA and no one there seems to care about economic differences. Your point is that both schools are similar because they treat all students respectfully and share a religious underpinning.

Well, that certainly is a comparison of the two based on criteria that not many on DCUM are going to have at the top of their lists. But I can see why you feel they are so important.

[Anonymous]

Having Chinese students raises the academic profile for Prep, and also raises their financial situation. The point is after all this Jesuit culture that we couldn't understand drivel, hauling in well capitalized internationals is just reaching away from that. By the academics side Prep is a good school, well above the strata of public schools people pay $30K-$40K range for because of sports. That's hardly a racial comment either. For every person of color playing football at Bullis there are three white lax bros there for another sport. Prep also has the problem of being priced out of the range of other comparible Jesuit day schools in this area. Prep is a good school priced $15K too high for a good Jesuit focused school.

Sidwell is an excellent academic school that has no sports angles going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:9 pages and nobody has done a comparison of the academics.

Because there is none. Prep is a joke academically, especially compared to Sidwell.

Again... Nothing intelligent to say. You don't know how to compare and contrast? I have the name of a good tutor that can teach you that skill.

[Anonymous]

Put out one metric that favors GP: college matriculation, test scores, number of merit scholars, number of kids who won academic prizes or contests in math/debate/science/robotics. Count of musicians and artists acclaimed.

The only metric to point to is a few sports.

[Anonymous]

We had a son apply to several schools a couple years ago including Georgetown Prep. Our son wound up at another prep. Our experience at Prep was horrible. Our son plays lacrosse, but was not their recruited kid. Our son did meet with Kevin Giblin and he referred our son to speak some more to other coaches on his lacrosse staff, and at a summer camp our son also met Dan Paro who was the Athletic Director. We didn't think much of that but for gaining some knowledge about the school and our son didn't need any favoritism to get in.

What happened next was really disturbing. When we submitted the application, the admissions director immediately suggested that we not schedule an interview and also said he would refund the application fee. We were stunned and my husband wrote to Brian Gilbert. His response railed all over the place about how inappropriate it was to work outside of the admissions office for an applicant. I went straight to Georgetown Prep to ask to speak to him about it, and he would not meet me. I met with Dan Paro in the building across the way to ask what we had done wrong and he seemed pretty stunned too.

Since then Giblin soon left Georgetown Prep, and we have heard plenty of inside stories about his clashes with administrators and the admissions director. It is quite possible my son or a few kids like my son got caught in the cross fire of this internal dysfunction. Hopefully for Georgetown Prep this was a short term blip in the way they handled our son's application interest and with Giblin gone that does not repeat itself. That said, I have never come across anyone in business or other adult life less professional than Brian Gilbert. Our son was treated as a lacrosse kid and they just didn't want any more of those. Considering he is not a star player, part of me used to wish he never played that card with Georgetown Prep but the better part of me is thankful he did so we learned how seriously dysfunctional the culture of this school is.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell is in NW DC. Prep is on Rockeville Pike
Sidwell has a few Quakers. Prep has lots of Catholic families
Sidwell pride is focused on academics. GP pride focused on sports.
Sidwell is co-ed. GP is single sex/male
Sidwell is pk-12. GP 9-12

They seem to be really different schools to me. But not the most polar opposite in the area. Sidwell in its own way is traditional and very buttoned down, as I'm sure GP is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a son apply to several schools a couple years ago including Georgetown Prep. Our son wound up at another prep. Our experience at Prep was horrible. Our son plays lacrosse, but was not their recruited kid. Our son did meet with Kevin Giblin and he referred our son to speak some more to other coaches on his lacrosse staff, and at a summer camp our son also met Dan Paro who was the Athletic Director. We didn't think much of that but for gaining some knowledge about the school and our son didn't need any favoritism to get in.

What happened next was really disturbing. When we submitted the application, the admissions director immediately suggested that we not schedule an interview and also said he would refund the application fee. We were stunned and my husband wrote to Brian Gilbert. His response railed all over the place about how inappropriate it was to work outside of the admissions office for an applicant. I went straight to Georgetown Prep to ask to speak to him about it, and he would not meet me. I met with Dan Paro in the building across the way to ask what we had done wrong and he seemed pretty stunned too.

Since then Giblin soon left Georgetown Prep, and we have heard plenty of inside stories about his clashes with administrators and the admissions director. It is quite possible my son or a few kids like my son got caught in the cross fire of this internal dysfunction. Hopefully for Georgetown Prep this was a short term blip in the way they handled our son's application interest and with Giblin gone that does not repeat itself. That said, I have never come across anyone in business or other adult life less professional than Brian Gilbert. Our son was treated as a lacrosse kid and they just didn't want any more of those. Considering he is not a star player, part of me used to wish he never played that card with Georgetown Prep but the better part of me is thankful he did so we learned how seriously dysfunctional the culture of this school is.

Interesting post. And knowing the cast of characters like I do, I think your son was, in fact, caught in a crossfire between two warring factions at the school.

Although most parents never see it clearly, all schools have their internal feuds, disagreements, jealousies, turf battles and struggles for power, prestige and resources. Without a strong, involved leader --- or with a leadership vacuum -- - the tensions and disagreements. between these group grows. There's a famous quote about the behavior of people and groups on all campuses. William Sayre said: "Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low."

Kevin Giblin grew the Prep lacrosse program from a very low-level into a nationally-recognized program and had to fight for resources and attention every year. Because he was never on the full-time staff at GP and because he was such a strong personality, he ruffled quite a few feathers and he had strong detractors and strong supporters. Several times --- in these pitched battles over Admissions or use of fields or Financial Aid or coaches salaries --- he threatened to quit or actually did resign. Because the lacrosse program was so valuable to the school as a source of highly-qualified, full-paying students, he was coaxed back. This last time it played out differently. Giblin resigned. The new president scheduled a meeting with him to change his mind. But then that meeting was cancelled.

The new lacrosse coach is not going to have the same approach or the same support as Giblin had. You can expect to see Prep lacrosse come back to the middle of the IAC pack in a few years as support from Admissions and the athletic department dwindles. Giblin as a force of nature is irreplaceable. And football will return to being king at Prep as it was previously. The Athletic Director is the head football coach also and it'll be football players or multi-sport athletes that get support from the Athletic Department..

The root problem in all of this is that the pie at Prep is smaller and the Admissions Office ends up being at the friction point of all the requests from the various factions. Fr, George's generosity with faculty salaries and the outrageous and out-of-scale facilities expansion effort has left Prep with significant financial problems that affect day-to-day operations and policies. That's why the school expanded from 400-435 boys to 500. They need the tuition revenue. That's why you see more than a few non-Catholics there. That's why tuition has moved up into the stratosphere forcing some to look at lower cost alternatives like Gonzaga and St John's.

It's a great place to go to high school. For some its even idyllic. But its not for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for your son, and glad it worked out for him. That is just one of many stories we heard toward the end of the Giblin and Fr George eras. I find it just revolting that the admissions director would be that juvenile and take it out on a kid's application, but it doesn't shock me at all. That was one messy place starting a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having Chinese students raises the academic profile for Prep

Please explain how having Chinese students raises Prep's academic profile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having Chinese students raises the academic profile for Prep

Please explain how having Chinese students raises Prep's academic profile.

Chinese nationals applying their kids to US schools are families that drive kids hard on schooling. Many kids board for primary and middle school in the UK, then board in US for high school. Same nationals are often very wealthy.