what is the biggest diffenerence between sidwell and gds?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if it’s more funny that someone revived this thread from 2017 in 2021 or that it jus picked up right where it left off.

While I am not going to weigh in on the merits of the Sidwell v GDS debate, there are some tangential issues raised that I would like to clear up.

First, and from my DD’s personal experience, the quality of education at the MCPS MS humanities magnet at Eastern does surpass that of Sidwell/GDS. Even though it’s humanities, the math is harder and even though the school has less resources, the teachers are 100% committed and every single student there is performing at a high level. There are no stragglers, which you do get a few of at both Sidwell and GDS for various reasons.

Second, STA/NCS are very conservative/Republican and it’s actually increasing, not decreasing as people are self sorting.

In order of % conservatives/Republicans, I would rank the schools: STA/NCS > Sidwell > Maret > GDS. Maret and Sidwell were a close call and I’m not sure the difference is moreso politics but instead moreso what feels like new money vs old money. Although Sidwell has a massive endowment, Maret oddly has more of an old money feel about it while I personally know at lot of new money at Sidwell and it really does have more of a new money feel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if it’s more funny that someone revived this thread from 2017 in 2021 or that it jus picked up right where it left off.

While I am not going to weigh in on the merits of the Sidwell v GDS debate, there are some tangential issues raised that I would like to clear up.

First, and from my DD’s personal experience, the quality of education at the MCPS MS humanities magnet at Eastern does surpass that of Sidwell/GDS. Even though it’s humanities, the math is harder and even though the school has less resources, the teachers are 100% committed and every single student there is performing at a high level. There are no stragglers, which you do get a few of at both Sidwell and GDS for various reasons.

Second, STA/NCS are very conservative/Republican and it’s actually increasing, not decreasing as people are self sorting.

In order of % conservatives/Republicans, I would rank the schools: STA/NCS > Sidwell > Maret > GDS. Maret and Sidwell were a close call and I’m not sure the difference is moreso politics but instead moreso what feels like new money vs old money. Although Sidwell has a massive endowment, Maret oddly has more of an old money feel about it while I personally know at lot of new money at Sidwell and it really does have more of a new money feel.

Agree with your post. Except would place NCS in line with Sidwell. NCS's parent body is far more liberal than STA's. I'm not sure why. We're NCS parents. STA is conservative in general and Trumpian in some grades/cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if it’s more funny that someone revived this thread from 2017 in 2021 or that it jus picked up right where it left off.

While I am not going to weigh in on the merits of the Sidwell v GDS debate, there are some tangential issues raised that I would like to clear up.

First, and from my DD’s personal experience, the quality of education at the MCPS MS humanities magnet at Eastern does surpass that of Sidwell/GDS. Even though it’s humanities, the math is harder and even though the school has less resources, the teachers are 100% committed and every single student there is performing at a high level. There are no stragglers, which you do get a few of at both Sidwell and GDS for various reasons.

Second, STA/NCS are very conservative/Republican and it’s actually increasing, not decreasing as people are self sorting.

In order of % conservatives/Republicans, I would rank the schools: STA/NCS > Sidwell > Maret > GDS. Maret and Sidwell were a close call and I’m not sure the difference is moreso politics but instead moreso what feels like new money vs old money. Although Sidwell has a massive endowment, Maret oddly has more of an old money feel about it while I personally know at lot of new money at Sidwell and it really does have more of a new money feel.

And how is it that you’re so intimately familiar with the academic abilities of all the students and the other aspects of all these different schools? Sounds like a bunch of bullshit based on stereotypes to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if it’s more funny that someone revived this thread from 2017 in 2021 or that it jus picked up right where it left off.

While I am not going to weigh in on the merits of the Sidwell v GDS debate, there are some tangential issues raised that I would like to clear up.

First, and from my DD’s personal experience, the quality of education at the MCPS MS humanities magnet at Eastern does surpass that of Sidwell/GDS. Even though it’s humanities, the math is harder and even though the school has less resources, the teachers are 100% committed and every single student there is performing at a high level. There are no stragglers, which you do get a few of at both Sidwell and GDS for various reasons.

Second, STA/NCS are very conservative/Republican and it’s actually increasing, not decreasing as people are self sorting.

In order of % conservatives/Republicans, I would rank the schools: STA/NCS > Sidwell > Maret > GDS. Maret and Sidwell were a close call and I’m not sure the difference is moreso politics but instead moreso what feels like new money vs old money. Although Sidwell has a massive endowment, Maret oddly has more of an old money feel about it while I personally know at lot of new money at Sidwell and it really does have more of a new money feel.

Agree with your post. Except would place NCS in line with Sidwell. NCS's parent body is far more liberal than STA's. I'm not sure why. We're NCS parents. STA is conservative in general and Trumpian in some grades/cases.

Which grades are Trumpian in STA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if it’s more funny that someone revived this thread from 2017 in 2021 or that it jus picked up right where it left off.

While I am not going to weigh in on the merits of the Sidwell v GDS debate, there are some tangential issues raised that I would like to clear up.

First, and from my DD’s personal experience, the quality of education at the MCPS MS humanities magnet at Eastern does surpass that of Sidwell/GDS. Even though it’s humanities, the math is harder and even though the school has less resources, the teachers are 100% committed and every single student there is performing at a high level. There are no stragglers, which you do get a few of at both Sidwell and GDS for various reasons.

Second, STA/NCS are very conservative/Republican and it’s actually increasing, not decreasing as people are self sorting.

In order of % conservatives/Republicans, I would rank the schools: STA/NCS > Sidwell > Maret > GDS. Maret and Sidwell were a close call and I’m not sure the difference is moreso politics but instead moreso what feels like new money vs old money. Although Sidwell has a massive endowment, Maret oddly has more of an old money feel about it while I personally know at lot of new money at Sidwell and it really does have more of a new money feel.

And how is it that you’re so intimately familiar with the academic abilities of all the students and the other aspects of all these different schools? Sounds like a bunch of bullshit based on stereotypes to me.

Not PP but not sure what you mean here. The PP says that there are no stragglers at the MCPS magnet, which is unambiguously true by virtue of the way that kids are selected. In terms of stragglers at SFS/GDS, I think there are a lot of threads on here talking about kids who started in K or kids that are children of school staff that may not be performing at the same academic level as others who were admitted based on their academic records. There is nothing wrong with that. But it also means that you end up with less diversity and less well rounded kids (e.g. sports), which I know to be true of the MCPS magnets. Private schools are selecting for different qualities for different reasons.

[Anonymous]

STA and NCS differ on the Trumpiness?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:STA and NCS differ on the Trumpiness?

Yes, drastically at the moment. NCS is far more moderate to liberal. No Trumpiness. STA ---very conservative these days, some open Trump supporters at the school.

[Anonymous]

Does this filter down to Beauvoir?

[Anonymous]

Do both gods and sfs have only half days for lower school this year and 4 days a week virtual /teachers optional for MS and US?

[Anonymous]

Gds

[Anonymous]

I don’t even understand the debate about international recognition. There are any high schools that people the world over care about. I can think of maybe like 4 - Harvard-Westlake in LA, Trinity and Dalton in NYC, and maybe Sidwell because of the presidential connection. There are hundreds, if not thousands of amazing high schools in America that will provide a wonderful education to its students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t even understand the debate about international recognition. There are any high schools that people the world over care about. I can think of maybe like 4 - Harvard-Westlake in LA, Trinity and Dalton in NYC, and maybe Sidwell because of the presidential connection. There are hundreds, if not thousands of amazing high schools in America that will provide a wonderful education to its students.

That debate is probably among internationals who may not live here after high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if it’s more funny that someone revived this thread from 2017 in 2021 or that it jus picked up right where it left off.

While I am not going to weigh in on the merits of the Sidwell v GDS debate, there are some tangential issues raised that I would like to clear up.

First, and from my DD’s personal experience, the quality of education at the MCPS MS humanities magnet at Eastern does surpass that of Sidwell/GDS. Even though it’s humanities, the math is harder and even though the school has less resources, the teachers are 100% committed and every single student there is performing at a high level. There are no stragglers, which you do get a few of at both Sidwell and GDS for various reasons.

Second, STA/NCS are very conservative/Republican and it’s actually increasing, not decreasing as people are self sorting.

In order of % conservatives/Republicans, I would rank the schools: STA/NCS > Sidwell > Maret > GDS. Maret and Sidwell were a close call and I’m not sure the difference is moreso politics but instead moreso what feels like new money vs old money. Although Sidwell has a massive endowment, Maret oddly has more of an old money feel about it while I personally know at lot of new money at Sidwell and it really does have more of a new money feel.

Agree with your post. Except would place NCS in line with Sidwell. NCS's parent body is far more liberal than STA's. I'm not sure why. We're NCS parents. STA is conservative in general and Trumpian in some grades/cases.

As NCS parents, you have more limited knowledge of STA.

I would not describe STA as more conservative than NCS. It does have some Trump supporter families,but they are in the minority. They group together, many are CCC members. There are many, many more liberal to moderate families. Teachers and administrators skew left. I’ve heard several conservative families complain about the liberal bias of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t even understand the debate about international recognition. There are any high schools that people the world over care about. I can think of maybe like 4 - Harvard-Westlake in LA, Trinity and Dalton in NYC, and maybe Sidwell because of the presidential connection. There are hundreds, if not thousands of amazing high schools in America that will provide a wonderful education to its students.

That debate is probably among internationals who may not live here after high school.

Yes bet international universities are much more objective in their admissions standards. So even there it becomes a moot point.