Are all-girls schools losing their appeal (for high school) ?

[Anonymous]

At my DD's independent PK-8 very few of the girls this year are considering the all girls schools for high school. My DD did not want to even tour the all girls schools. Last year's class from our school had a lot of girls end up at the all girls schools so I'm not sure I would say its a trend. I have a friend with an 8th grader at a K-8th Catholic and she says all the girls want Visitation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short answer is yes. There will always be kids and families drawn to single sex but way more want coed. My daughter was 100 not interested. My son was ambivalent but preferred coed. From our k-8 the majority went coed. But the upside of many single sex schools for high school is that the entire class is new. So less “breaking in” social. But my kids wanted dances and football and homecoming and the normal high school stuff that really comes from coed. And I think most kids want that as well.

Not my experience at all with 4 different single sex high schools. 2 boy, and 2 girl. The girls school cheered for the boys high school football games, they had joint homecoming dances, several mixers, and even some classes overlap like orchestra and theater. If there was a class offered and one but not the other they could take it. Pretty much a normal high school experience except most of the day to day classes are single sex of which there are many advantages.[/quott


This might be possible at NCS and St Albans but when we asked at NCSif they did homecoming with St Albans, they made it very clear it’s a separate event. Not connected. So maybe there is overlap but not connected. I know they do some athletic and performing arts together as well. Madiera doesn’t have an obvious brother school. No idea how Visitation handles it. Holton and Landon do stuff together but it has always felt forced. Not as welcomed as might have once been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is an 8th grader at a K-8 and is applying out for high school. Many of her classmates have legacy status at several top all-girls schools in the area (Madeira, NCS, Holton, Visi, ...) that their mothers have attended but barely any of the girls is remotely interested in all-girls school and are opting for co-ed. The ones who are applying there are doing it begrudgingly because their mothers want them to.
Are you seeing this trend at your school or is it specific to DD's K-8?

No

[Anonymous]

DD attended all girl boarding school. Had a blast. She's very math oriented and truly enjoyed all the math/science activities/competitions without boys. She also loved learning to be who she is without worrying about what a boy would think.

She's now a freshman at a school that's 70/30 male/female. She's dating a bit but doesn't have a serious boyfriend. Mostly she has found a large group of males and females that she hangs out with.

[Anonymous]

Our k-8 sent/sends girls to Madeira, NCS, and/or Foxcroft every year (NoVa school, so while I can’t say no one considers Holton, I don’t recall any attending it during our time at the school). I’d guess more than half the girls at least consider/apply to all-girls HS each year, and a handful attend.

But I’ll add, as a graduate of NCS myself, we didn’t consider a girls school for DD. Madeira’s mod system was not a good fit, NCS would be a terrible commute and I had a bad experience so am not inclined to push it on my kid, Holton too far, we are not Catholic, and not interested in boarding. Which effectively removed all the girls schools from consideration (we did look at Madeira, but realized quickly it would be a bad fit).

[Anonymous]

8th graders can suffer from group-think. At our Catholic k-8, one year they all want Visi, the next year hardly any apply. I don’t think there’s any larger trend going on.

[Anonymous]

No I don’t think so, I also think people like to keep their feelings and intentions private.no one wants to admit not getting in as a legacy.

[Anonymous]

I know multiple girls who said no to all-girls until they toured/shadowed. Then they picked all-girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know multiple girls who said no to all-girls until they toured/shadowed. Then they picked all-girls.

My daughter fits this description as well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:59 here again. Also no one chose NCS.

You mean no one from your K-8 can get in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short answer is yes. There will always be kids and families drawn to single sex but way more want coed. My daughter was 100 not interested. My son was ambivalent but preferred coed. From our k-8 the majority went coed. But the upside of many single sex schools for high school is that the entire class is new. So less “breaking in” social. But my kids wanted dances and football and homecoming and the normal high school stuff that really comes from coed. And I think most kids want that as well.

Not my experience at all with 4 different single sex high schools. 2 boy, and 2 girl. The girls school cheered for the boys high school football games, they had joint homecoming dances, several mixers, and even some classes overlap like orchestra and theater. If there was a class offered and one but not the other they could take it. Pretty much a normal high school experience except most of the day to day classes are single sex of which there are many advantages.[/quott


This might be possible at NCS and St Albans but when we asked at NCSif they did homecoming with St Albans, they made it very clear it’s a separate event. Not connected. So maybe there is overlap but not connected. I know they do some athletic and performing arts together as well. Madiera doesn’t have an obvious brother school. No idea how Visitation handles it. Holton and Landon do stuff together but it has always felt forced. Not as welcomed as might have once been.

I think Madeira's is technically Woodberry Forest. We viewed the lack of Landon/Albans/Prep boys hanging about as a feature not a bug.

[Anonymous]

I think if you get to 8th grade at a co-ed school, it can be hard to envision switching to a single sex school. My current seventh grade DD wants co-ed and I think it’s because she’s been happy with that until now, so she doesn’t want to change. I see the benefit of single sex for girls, though, and think it would help her with confidence in math and science. I don’t have a huge preference, but hope that she will consider some single sex schools by next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think if you get to 8th grade at a co-ed school, it can be hard to envision switching to a single sex school. My current seventh grade DD wants co-ed and I think it’s because she’s been happy with that until now, so she doesn’t want to change. I see the benefit of single sex for girls, though, and think it would help her with confidence in math and science. I don’t have a huge preference, but hope that she will consider some single sex schools by next year.

Most kids who transfer at grade 9 are coming from co-ed schools.

[Anonymous]

This article in Town & Country (The Return of the All-Girls School) just came out in October

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a66014225/all-girls-school-popularity-explained/

[Anonymous]

Two daughters in all girls and they would never want co-ed, but that’s just what they are used to.