What do you get for tuition

[Anonymous]

It’s more of a cost of living adjustment than anything else. But I can say the private schools in my former state don’t have native Mandarin speakers on staff either…

The head of the Chinese Department at my former school is a white woman with a MA from Harvard but nowhere near native fluency.

Couldn’t be more different from the higher standards held by Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a good question, OP.

It never occurred to us to send our kids to private here in the DMV even though we easily could have afforded it and probably had good enough connections to get the kids into top schools. Parents here will say they don't send their kids to these schools for college admissions -- "we're here for the education!" -- but come college admissions time they're all over this board talking about their edge.

That's why they do it. It's all about (a) keeping their kids away from poor kids and POC and (b) college admissions.

Sidwell’s student body is 57% POC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at a $50k school, and what my child gets is in person school, small class size (8-15 v 30+ in public), and teachers who care about tham and actually know and ask about their extra curricular activities. Uniforms, activity fees, annual gala, etc all cost extra. Don't care - it is worth it

My kid has 18 students in his 2nd grade class (FCPS).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell's bumper sticker alone is worth 50k.

For that kind of money, I want a magnet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at a $50k school, and what my child gets is in person school, small class size (8-15 v 30+ in public), and teachers who care about tham and actually know and ask about their extra curricular activities. Uniforms, activity fees, annual gala, etc all cost extra. Don't care - it is worth it

My kid has 18 students in his 2nd grade class (FCPS).

My kid's teacher has been out to their rec soccer games (also FCPS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a good question, OP.

It never occurred to us to send our kids to private here in the DMV even though we easily could have afforded it and probably had good enough connections to get the kids into top schools. Parents here will say they don't send their kids to these schools for college admissions -- "we're here for the education!" -- but come college admissions time they're all over this board talking about their edge.

That's why they do it. It's all about (a) keeping their kids away from poor kids and POC and (b) college admissions.

Sidwell’s student body is 57% POC.

I think PP meant the wrong kind of POC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The less prestigious schools around here are meant for kids who have not great public schools. I doubt that the $50k/year schools are that much better than your $15-$20k school in your other city. People just make more here so they can afford it.

A lot of it is supply and demand, as well as input costs.

As you point out, there is significant demand and limited supply, which combined with a market with the ability to pay drives up tuition costs. But there are also very different cost factors associated with operating an independent school in a high cost area like DC versus a low cost area. Salary and wages would be the most prominent and the biggest input cost for any school. After that, there is possibly other cost factors that drive different expectations that are also associated. Budget needs related to FA to improve diversity are more important for all schools in DC over schools in low cost areas. Programs, such as a broad mix of foreign languages, STEM labs, etc will all be expected and cost more. Item by item, a school in DC is just going to run at a much higher cost factor than a school in Des Moines, IA.

Despite what people imagine, I can guarantee that the schools are very cost conscious and don’t raise tuition without careful consideration of budget and financial needs. The Boards of these schools, where it’s Sidwell, GDS or St Albans, are filled with professionals who care about the schools and their long-term sustainability. They work very hard for no compensation and lend their professional expertise in real estate, law and finance to ensure that these schools stay “elite”.

You have got to be kidding me. You really think that diversity is not of importance in low cost areas? I just perused the site of the largest independent school in my "low cost" hometown as well as one of the private K-8s and the photos/missions are very similar to Big 3s, etc. here. Your observation is just not accurate.

I can't speak for everywhere, but I'm pretty familiar with the private school type of families in two cities not on the east or west coast, and none of them care about diversity beyond some lip service. Do you really think the rich white people in Trump country care about the diversity of their private schools? Well, they actually do care because they're sending their kids to private schools in part to avoid diverse people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lurker here due to our impending move to the DC area, where we plan to enroll our children in private middle and high school. We are coming from a smaller city, and our children have always attending strong independent schools with tuition being about $15-20K/year. I just read the previous post about Sidwell's tuition and would like to hear from parents what they are expecting from a school where tuition is $50K/year? How is that different from some of the less prestigious independents that are more like $30K/year?

The only privates you will find here in the 30k range are catholic schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We are at a $50k school, and what my child gets is in person school, small class size (8-15 v 30+ in public), and teachers who care about tham and actually know and ask about their extra curricular activities. Uniforms, activity fees, annual gala, etc all cost extra. Don't care - it is worth it

That's alot to pay for that. You could train Alexa to ask them about this.

NP…it is clear your child has never attended public school. Our DC attended a charter that had 15-18 kids per class. The teachers from that school still call to check in, have even visited our home, and tutored the kid during distance learning. Now in DCPS, the social studies teacher came to DC’s soccer game on a Sunday morning. Your view of public school is really dated. Sorry you are paying 50k for what our kid gets for free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We are at a $50k school, and what my child gets is in person school, small class size (8-15 v 30+ in public), and teachers who care about tham and actually know and ask about their extra curricular activities. Uniforms, activity fees, annual gala, etc all cost extra. Don't care - it is worth it

That's alot to pay for that. You could train Alexa to ask them about this.

NP…it is clear your child has never attended public school. Our DC attended a charter that had 15-18 kids per class. The teachers from that school still call to check in, have even visited our home, and tutored the kid during distance learning. Now in DCPS, the social studies teacher came to DC’s soccer game on a Sunday morning. Your view of public school is really dated. Sorry you are paying 50k for what our kid gets for free.

Your kid was locked out of in-person learning for 1.5 years. Please sit down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We are at a $50k school, and what my child gets is in person school, small class size (8-15 v 30+ in public), and teachers who care about tham and actually know and ask about their extra curricular activities. Uniforms, activity fees, annual gala, etc all cost extra. Don't care - it is worth it

That's alot to pay for that. You could train Alexa to ask them about this.

NP…it is clear your child has never attended public school. Our DC attended a charter that had 15-18 kids per class. The teachers from that school still call to check in, have even visited our home, and tutored the kid during distance learning. Now in DCPS, the social studies teacher came to DC’s soccer game on a Sunday morning. Your view of public school is really dated. Sorry you are paying 50k for what our kid gets for free.

Your kid was locked out of in-person learning for 1.5 years. Please sit down.

Mic drop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell's bumper sticker alone is worth 50k.

I’ll give you a deal and sell you one for 20k.

[Anonymous]

Privates in DC have the most amazingly bloated admin staff you’ve ever seen. If these were trimmed down a lot of money could be saved. But cost of living here is still very high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a good question, OP.

It never occurred to us to send our kids to private here in the DMV even though we easily could have afforded it and probably had good enough connections to get the kids into top schools. Parents here will say they don't send their kids to these schools for college admissions -- "we're here for the education!" -- but come college admissions time they're all over this board talking about their edge.

That's why they do it. It's all about (a) keeping their kids away from poor kids and POC and (b) college admissions.

Sidwell’s student body is 57% POC.

Umm, no. It’s majority white. I think you mean 40% POC. Most of those are biracial/mixed race followed by African American. Very small contingents of Asians and Hispanics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at a $50k school, and what my child gets is in person school, small class size (8-15 v 30+ in public), and teachers who care about tham and actually know and ask about their extra curricular activities. Uniforms, activity fees, annual gala, etc all cost extra. Don't care - it is worth it

My kid has 18 students in his 2nd grade class (FCPS).

With one teacher or two? At Sidwell, that 40 person class has 4 teachers, plus the art/science/language/music teachers.