new to DC area independent school

[Anonymous]

It is pretty difficult to get unbiased information about any schools from DCUM. Some will be promoting their own school. Some will be denigrating other schools. Some of the dissonance is simply because different children are different. A school which is a great fit for kid A might not be a great fit for kid B.

The forum is pseudo-anonymous, so it is even hard to tell which posts are from different people. So add salt to whatever you read here, and trust your first-hand information from school tours/visits and other direct interactions with the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

Huh. When I was at NCS, Dr. Clevenger was the only PhD in the science department, and all but one of my teachers was excellent (the exception was a woman hired last minute in summer who didn’t go through the regular process; turned out she was an absolute dud and was fired a few weeks into the fall). I guess they’ve started caring more about racking up the credentials than simply finding excellent teachers, regardless of the honorifics in front of their names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to find my unicorn school coming from New England. We applied to a few schools, but we were unable to understand school rigor from one tour, especially online ones. We are interested in independent schools for small class sizes, academic rigor, social-emotional growth, and eventually down the line good college matriculation (top 50 US schools is fine with us). There is a lot of talk about the well-known schools. We understand that Sidwell, GDS, Potomac, and Cathedral schools are in a league. How are SAES, Bullis, and SSFS? I do not understand why Bullis is disliked. We liked the HoS and his vision. Any thoughts would be useful.

What age/gender? Single-sex or co-ed? Religious (if so which) or not? You really need to narrow down a bit to get advice beyond the usual (and false/dated) "Bullis is the public school you pay for", "NCS is a meat grinder filled with mean girls", etc.

[Anonymous]

we are looking at a rising 4th grader. we are looking at co-ed, not religious in practice. we want our child to thrive, we are comfortable but do not like wealth in your face. We are looking for a challenging school, without being a pressure cooker. We have (and would like) a supportive parent community. Our belief is each child will find his/her way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to find my unicorn school coming from New England. We applied to a few schools, but we were unable to understand school rigor from one tour, especially online ones. We are interested in independent schools for small class sizes, academic rigor, social-emotional growth, and eventually down the line good college matriculation (top 50 US schools is fine with us). There is a lot of talk about the well-known schools. We understand that Sidwell, GDS, Potomac, and Cathedral schools are in a league. How are SAES, Bullis, and SSFS? I do not understand why Bullis is disliked. We liked the HoS and his vision. Any thoughts would be useful.

What age/gender? Single-sex or co-ed? Religious (if so which) or not? You really need to narrow down a bit to get advice beyond the usual (and false/dated) "Bullis is the public school you pay for", "NCS is a meat grinder filled with mean girls", etc.

[Anonymous]

thank you. we have made a few trips to the area. I agree that not all schools will be a great fit. The admissions office here is more like a college one. In New England, the schools are more open about what they are looking for in a child and parent body. Here, I feel they just want you to apply and then figure it out.

Our child is cerebral, good at music, and not into sports. We would like exposure to all without pressure to be part of a varsity team, and eventually support his overall development.

Anonymous wrote:It is pretty difficult to get unbiased information about any schools from DCUM. Some will be promoting their own school. Some will be denigrating other schools. Some of the dissonance is simply because different children are different. A school which is a great fit for kid A might not be a great fit for kid B.

The forum is pseudo-anonymous, so it is even hard to tell which posts are from different people. So add salt to whatever you read here, and trust your first-hand information from school tours/visits and other direct interactions with the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

Huh. When I was at NCS, Dr. Clevenger was the only PhD in the science department, and all but one of my teachers was excellent (the exception was a woman hired last minute in summer who didn’t go through the regular process; turned out she was an absolute dud and was fired a few weeks into the fall). I guess they’ve started caring more about racking up the credentials than simply finding excellent teachers, regardless of the honorifics in front of their names.

Where are you getting the idea that schools who hire PhDs aren't interested in hiring excellent teachers?

[Anonymous]

thank you.

Anonymous wrote:Arlington VA has the fittest people in the nation. The DMV military has a strong presence in overall culture of fitness—not California looking good but strong.

I do think that fine art and performing arts are weak here, it’s a culture of conformity and blandness in military and government. There are little sparks but nothing like NYC or Boston. And business culture and entrepreneurship are lousy. But lots of policy wonks!

Both of these local cultural biases affect the school culture.

[Anonymous]

Our child is in a feeder school to Commonwealth and Concord Academy.
We don't want a show of wealth etc at all. We want a mix of traditional and progressive, with a warm and supportive student and parent body.

Anonymous wrote:What schools do you like in New England? That might help people familiar with schools in both areas give you advice and point you to comparable schools. Do you like a school with good arts? Coed? Looking for a boy? girl? How warm and supportive of students? Diverse? Some schools have more progressive teaching style. Others are more traditional. At some schools families are more showy about their wealth. If you know where you will be living the commute is a big factor too.

I think Bullis is more sporty than SAES or SSFS at least in certain sports. All 3 seem like nice schools. You didn't mention Maret but sounds like it would fit on your list. It’s small and in DC. GDS and Potomac are academically rigorous and sound like they could work too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

Why would you need a PhD in a subject to teach it to high school students? These people would seem significantly over-qualified to teach high school students.

Are these people who weren’t able to get jobs at the university level and had to settle for what they could get?

I can’t imagine anything worse than being a kid in a class listening to a disgruntled academic who believes they should be doing something better with their education.

There are many reasons why someone with a PhD would want to teach at an independent school and not a college or university. Some people didn't want to pursue the research track, but were drawn to the profession because of teaching/the interaction with students. The demands of publishing to achieve tenure in higher education, particularly in humanities fields, means for many professors that teaching/pedagogy became secondary or even tertiary to completing their own research. Also, there is a glut of PhDs in many disciplines who either didn't want to enter the highly competitive university job market or move to a remote location simply because they received a job offer at a university or college. DC is an area with a high percentage of people with advanced degrees and many universities, so it makes sense there are many independent schools in the area that count PhDs among their faculty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

Huh. When I was at NCS, Dr. Clevenger was the only PhD in the science department, and all but one of my teachers was excellent (the exception was a woman hired last minute in summer who didn’t go through the regular process; turned out she was an absolute dud and was fired a few weeks into the fall). I guess they’ve started caring more about racking up the credentials than simply finding excellent teachers, regardless of the honorifics in front of their names.

Former NCS student. Ms. Clevenger doesn't have a PhD, or at least she didn't when I had her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our child is in a feeder school to Commonwealth and Concord Academy.
We don't want a show of wealth etc at all. We want a mix of traditional and progressive, with a warm and supportive student and parent body.


I'm curious to know what school you are currently attending if you don't mind sharing. We are thinking of moving to MA and the Concord area specifically and are looking for similar things to what you describe. We are at a PK-3rd grade school here we love (so too young and not helpful for you) but I feel pretty ambivalent about the choices after that.

[Anonymous]

Potomac sounds like a great fit for your child. Unlike most of the schools, they have four divisions - 7th and 8th graders are given their own "school" which makes for wonderful social-emotional development for that tricky age.

The traditions are integral to the school and yet they also give the students a lot of voice for change. The parent body, in our expereince is lovely. The grounds and buildings are stunning and they make great use of the natural setting.

The lower grades are joyful, upper school is rigorous but with a lot of support. The arts are as valued as athletics, if not more so.

No school is perfect. But we could not be happier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Potomac sounds like a great fit for your child. Unlike most of the schools, they have four divisions - 7th and 8th graders are given their own "school" which makes for wonderful social-emotional development for that tricky age.

The traditions are integral to the school and yet they also give the students a lot of voice for change. The parent body, in our expereince is lovely. The grounds and buildings are stunning and they make great use of the natural setting.

The lower grades are joyful, upper school is rigorous but with a lot of support. The arts are as valued as athletics, if not more so.

No school is perfect. But we could not be happier.

Getting a strong sense that this thread is courtesy of a Potomac booster. Perhaps applications are down?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our child is in a feeder school to Commonwealth and Concord Academy.
We don't want a show of wealth etc at all. We want a mix of traditional and progressive, with a warm and supportive student and parent body.

Anonymous wrote:

I think I may have gone there

That said, I'd look at GDS, Maret, Potomac (if VA works), Sandy Spring Friends (if further into MD works). I would also put a couple K-8s in the mix in case, maybe Lowell and Norwood, which would open up the 9-12 and 6-12 schools for you later on. Edmund Burke fits your criteria really well, for example, but starts in 6th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to find my unicorn school coming from New England. We applied to a few schools, but we were unable to understand school rigor from one tour, especially online ones. We are interested in independent schools for small class sizes, academic rigor, social-emotional growth, and eventually down the line good college matriculation (top 50 US schools is fine with us). There is a lot of talk about the well-known schools. We understand that Sidwell, GDS, Potomac, and Cathedral schools are in a league. How are SAES, Bullis, and SSFS? I do not understand why Bullis is disliked. We liked the HoS and his vision. Any thoughts would be useful.

You may want to follow the college forum on this site at some point, but as things have evolved, the high school matriculation lists for college have more to do with hooks than the high schools themselves. Please pick a school that is good for your kid and family and not because of the college matriculation list.