Thoughts on St. Andrew's in Potomac or Sheridan? For "average" upper middle class athletic AA boy?

[Anonymous]

We have been at St Andrews for 2 yaers and have liked it very much. Great faculty and a nice unpretentious atmosphere. I think the academics are strong and they are capable of pushing the kids hard. I like the fact that the faculty are amonst the best educated and trained in the area. I think its because--comparably speaking--St Andrews is quite wealthy. Their Potomac location attracts a well-heeled crowd. Which transaltes into one of the highest paid faculties around. I believe that only NCS pays--on average--their faculty more. The location, on the other hand, is also a weakness. It makes it too inconvenient for most DC residents. So vast majority of kids are from Potomac and Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Which thread?

[Anonymous]

"Really smart" kids were definitely not like "fish out of water" in the St. Andrew's Class of 2010. I don't know as much about the Lower School.

[Anonymous]

I am the prior poster -- you probably already guessed that I have a child who graduated a year ago from St. Andrew's! I decided to add a bit more.

The ethnic, racial, and socio-economic diversity has increased significantly at St. Andrew's in the past 5 or 6 years. That increase has partly been due to a major focus on that issue by the Head of the school. Of course, there are also plenty of wealthy parents, and there are some who are extremely wealthy (including some African-American) who are big supporters of the school.

There most definitely were African-American boys in the Class of 2010 well prepared for success (responding to a prior post). I don't have the personal experience with the Lower School, but the new Head (appointed 1 year ago), Dresden Koons, is extremely smart and dynamic, and was an influential teacher for my child (in 2009-2010 AP English Literature).

I would suggest that the OP pick up the Spring 2011 St. Andrew's Quarterly. On pages 8/9 there is an article called: "Portrait of the Whole Child". It describes the development of the Student Learning Profile of a kindergartener -- and chose a "very active" student as an example in creating the SLP portrait.

And again, re: comment on "really smart" kids feeling out of place -- students from St. Andrew's go everywhere to college -- Class of 2010 grads headed off to: Dartmouth, Columbia, U of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon (2 engineering, 1 music), Carleton (2), Oberlin, Vassar, William & Mary, Baylor (TX), Goucher (3), U of Md, Eckerd (Fl), Wash. U St. Lous, Washington College (Md), and many others. Within the past couple of years they've gone on to every college from Harvard and Stanford to York College of Pa (and I am not knocking the latter, it's just that it's a school with more of a regional than a national reputation).

Finally, St. Andrew's has an amazing History department, and the students do wonderful projects leading up to the huge Oral History project in 11th grade. They do on average take fewer AP classes, etc., than at the most prestigious independent schools in the area. However, the "whole child" approach seems to work well, and from what I've seen the college placement is excellent -- by which I mean students almost always go to a school that is a good fit for them and they are very well prepared for college. And, the school hasn't been around as long as some others, but Pierre Omidyar hasn't done so bad!