private or Whitman schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, IMHO, the only privates worth leaving Whitman for are Holton, NCS, and Sidwell.

Op here. Thanks for all the comments. I have a pretty independent mature social and smart kid (first kid--so overachiever thing is there), so I know that she will be fine wherever she goes. I just want to make sure that I am giving the best decision for her.

What about GDS, Maret or Norwood, are they not good?

20:38 here again. Norwood goes only to grade 8 so it can not be compared to Whitman. My children are at Norwood, and it is a superb school. Better than the public schools in the area, but not by great leaps, simply because those local publics are good. You do however get much better exposure to the arts and phys ed. Norwood also does a better job at getting the kids engaged, they have fun while they learn.
Maret and GDS are very good too, but I would have trouble saying that they are better than Whitman. BTW, I can only recommend Sidwell's upper school. I am not overly impressed with the lower school.
The reason I mentioned Holton, Sidwell, and NCS as high schools is that you get great academics with the extra enforced discipline. Whitman can not make any child do anything above attend and pass.

[Anonymous]

Holton/NCS/Sidwell recommender clearly likes same-sex education for girls and is fairly traditional.

GDS, Maret, and Norwood are all excellent schools -- PP's exclusion of them speaks more to her tastes than to their comparative merits vis a vis the three she listed.

OP -- sounds like your child isn't in school at all yet -- is that right? If so, why are you focusing on HS rather than elementary? Private school isn't a now or never decision for a PreK/K'er. And what makes sense in elementary and what makes sense in middle school or high school may be different.

Not to mention that you might live elsewhere and the quality/character of the various schools might well be different 10 years from now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holton/NCS/Sidwell recommender clearly likes same-sex education for girls and is fairly traditional.

GDS, Maret, and Norwood are all excellent schools -- PP's exclusion of them speaks more to her tastes than to their comparative merits vis a vis the three she listed.

OP -- sounds like your child isn't in school at all yet -- is that right? If so, why are you focusing on HS rather than elementary? Private school isn't a now or never decision for a PreK/K'er. And what makes sense in elementary and what makes sense in middle school or high school may be different.

Not to mention that you might live elsewhere and the quality/character of the various schools might well be different 10 years from now.

I really dislike same sex schools. I will not send my dd to Holton because it is same sex, even though it is an excellent school. We plan to use public for high school.
OP has a good question since Whitman is one of the best schools in the nation. I ignore the published reports listing other MC schools as top. Whitman gets great test scores after the county restricts its resources and the school can not cherry pick students like the privates or magnets do.
The OP is asking to compare an excellent public school with private schools. When looking at academics only, there is little difference between many of the schools mentioned on this thread. That said, when I look at SAT scores, Whitman probably does better. Why? If you removed the scores of kids at Whitman who would never have made it into Sidwell, the average would be very high. To date, there are no studies that put private schools above public schools from an academic standpoint. The schools that I favored (Sidwell, NCS, Holton) in my mind have a very slight edge over Whitman when you look at the big picture, and include extracurriculars and supervision.
There are subtle differences that can make a difference in a child's life at school. It is the responsibility of the parents to try to figure out what would be the best fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am one of four children who grew up in the Whitman district. This was close to 20 years ago, but I don't think its really changed that much. My older sister and I both went to Whitman. She was the typical oldest child/overachiever. She loved Whitman, and did very well, and got an excellent education. She was also mature enough/motivated enough to handle the relative lack of supervision.

I was less mature, but very smart. I loved Whitman, and despite myself, I still think I got a great education there. My parents might beg to differ. I know my mother was horrified when I went an entire semester and didn't turn in a single math homework assignment, and she NEVER knew a thing about it until I came home with the D on my report card. That really just floored my mom, and it was one example (of many) where I'd say the oversight in public schools (including Whitman) is lacking. Skipping class was easy, etc. I really think the place functions more like a college than a high school. Its great, in that when I went to college (even a good college despite my hiccups), I was pleasantly surprised that I was not in over my head. But I think Whitman also assumes that most of its students are mature and highly motivated (which most are). If you can handle that level of independence/non-supervision, its a great school.

Interestingly, my mother sent both of my younger siblings to private school. In the case of my brother, he had pretty severe learning disabilities, and was clearly not managing in his public elementary school. My sister also has some more minor LD, but my mom felt that she would benefit from a much smaller class size, and more supervision. I wonder how much of that decision was based on her frustration with the lack of communication from school officials at Whitman about my own struggles.

So, at the end of the day, here's my advice. You are in one of the top school systems in the country. Take advantage of it. There are no more/less drugs/violence/alcohol/sex at Whitman than there is at any of the other top private schools. The education is just as good. What isn't as good is the supervision. I think this can be great for mature kids, as they get to start handling their own schedule, make their own decisions. But its not good for a kid who doesn't have the maturity/self-confidence or self discipline to navigate the waters.

What a helpful post! We're in the BCC district and I wonder if these observations hold true for BCC as well.

I went to Whitman, my only concern about BCC is that there are somewhat more unmotivated students there, than Whitman. My nephew goes to BCC, and I am very much involved with the school. Whitman had very few of these students. The pressure to succeed at Whitman is intense.

For what it's worth, some of us count that as a point in BCC's favor (although my second-hand impression is that the IB program at BCC is somewhat intense).

Also note that colleges are only going to give so many slots to kids from the same school, so in some circumstances it actually may be easier for a kid to get in from a public school than a private, although I expect Whitman is high powered enough that it doesn't really make a difference.

[Anonymous]

Then several points in favor of BCC. It has diversity, although maybe not so much in the IB program (?). Plus fewer kids competing for the same sprinkling of Ivy slots than at Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:.

I went to Whitman, my only concern about BCC is that there are somewhat more unmotivated students there, than Whitman. My nephew goes to BCC, and I am very much involved with the school. Whitman had very few of these students. The pressure to succeed at Whitman is intense.

I went to BCC and I view the "pressure to succeed" difference the poster references between BCC and Whitman to be quite different. BCC is a much more diverse school in terms of socioeconomic status and ethnic/racial background. That means that there is a higher proportion of kids who either 1) can't afford to go to college or go to big league/expensive Ivy schools and 2) the importance of money as a measure of success is much less intense at BCC among both parents and children (at least when I went there). At BCC, "success" is much more about being devoted to your own thing. I know a number of successful musicians, artists, authors, and playwrights who graduated in the years around me. Many of them went thru a decade or more of being dedicated to their own views of art and society before becoming "successful" in any mainstream way.

My impression of Whitman, as an outsider, was that there was much less diversity in terms of SES and ethnicity, and so much less diversity in terms of what students were striving for. Money, the best colleges and material possessions in terms of cars, clothes and bags were of much greater importance than at BCC, and students felt a much greater pressure to conform in that way.

That said, of course, both of these schools are in wealthy areas and are less diverse than other high schools in MCPS.

I know many of my peers from BCC were accepted at Ivy League schools. I wouldn't hesitate to send my child to BCC over a private school; in my view the main thing that the best privates in DC have to offer over schools like Whitman and BCC is access to a certain social network. Beyond that, the balance in cost, values, education, etc., is debatable.

As for those who have mentioned the size of schools like BCC and Whitman as negatives, I think that can be a problem for some kids who are shy, anxious, or unable to keep themselves on track and need a teacher or mentor to supervise them. For many students, however, the size of these schools is a huge benefit. There are many athletic teams, music and theater opportunities, etc. I remember BCC as so huge that there was a place for every student to fit in and a group of people could always be found who seemed interested in the same things you were, no matter how off the beaten track. I also remember that although classes at BCC never topped 30, the size of the school as a whole was large enough that college seemed unintimidating from a social aspect, and certainly college was no greater an academic challenge than high school for most of my peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:.

I went to Whitman, my only concern about BCC is that there are somewhat more unmotivated students there, than Whitman. My nephew goes to BCC, and I am very much involved with the school. Whitman had very few of these students. The pressure to succeed at Whitman is intense.

I went to BCC and I view the "pressure to succeed" difference the poster references between BCC and Whitman to be quite different. BCC is a much more diverse school in terms of socioeconomic status and ethnic/racial background. That means that there is a higher proportion of kids who either 1) can't afford to go to college or go to big league/expensive Ivy schools and 2) the importance of money as a measure of success is much less intense at BCC among both parents and children (at least when I went there). At BCC, "success" is much more about being devoted to your own thing. I know a number of successful musicians, artists, authors, and playwrights who graduated in the years around me. Many of them went thru a decade or more of being dedicated to their own views of art and society before becoming "successful" in any mainstream way.

My impression of Whitman, as an outsider, was that there was much less diversity in terms of SES and ethnicity, and so much less diversity in terms of what students were striving for. Money, the best colleges and material possessions in terms of cars, clothes and bags were of much greater importance than at BCC, and students felt a much greater pressure to conform in that way.

That said, of course, both of these schools are in wealthy areas and are less diverse than other high schools in MCPS.

I know many of my peers from BCC were accepted at Ivy League schools. I wouldn't hesitate to send my child to BCC over a private school; in my view the main thing that the best privates in DC have to offer over schools like Whitman and BCC is access to a certain social network. Beyond that, the balance in cost, values, education, etc., is debatable.

As for those who have mentioned the size of schools like BCC and Whitman as negatives, I think that can be a problem for some kids who are shy, anxious, or unable to keep themselves on track and need a teacher or mentor to supervise them. For many students, however, the size of these schools is a huge benefit. There are many athletic teams, music and theater opportunities, etc. I remember BCC as so huge that there was a place for every student to fit in and a group of people could always be found who seemed interested in the same things you were, no matter how off the beaten track. I also remember that although classes at BCC never topped 30, the size of the school as a whole was large enough that college seemed unintimidating from a social aspect, and certainly college was no greater an academic challenge than high school for most of my peers.

Whitman grad here. I agree with most of what you wrote. Whitman does have ethnic diversity. There are many kids of diplomatic families and World Bank types, just from the same economic class, as you mentioned. But it is hum drum, "how do I get an education and job that will put me in a certain income bracket?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holton/NCS/Sidwell recommender clearly likes same-sex education for girls and is fairly traditional.

GDS, Maret, and Norwood are all excellent schools -- PP's exclusion of them speaks more to her tastes than to their comparative merits vis a vis the three she listed.

OP -- sounds like your child isn't in school at all yet -- is that right? If so, why are you focusing on HS rather than elementary? Private school isn't a now or never decision for a PreK/K'er. And what makes sense in elementary and what makes sense in middle school or high school may be different.

Not to mention that you might live elsewhere and the quality/character of the various schools might well be different 10 years from now.

OP here. Very insightful discussions. Thanks. Some of these private schools take at preK/K and then go all the way, so I want to make a decision now.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, I have a friend who is a writing consultant. Her son went to GDS when his best friend (equally smart if not smarter) went to Whitman. The thing that struck her (as well as both boys) was how much more/better feedback her son got on his writing (and not just in lit courses). Basically, since the friend was getting top grades, the logic seemed to be that nothing more need be said (or maybe it was just a matter of triage). Conversely, the son was routinely getting "how to take this to the next level" advice even on "A" papers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, I have a friend who is a writing consultant. Her son went to GDS when his best friend (equally smart if not smarter) went to Whitman. The thing that struck her (as well as both boys) was how much more/better feedback her son got on his writing (and not just in lit courses). Basically, since the friend was getting top grades, the logic seemed to be that nothing more need be said (or maybe it was just a matter of triage). Conversely, the son was routinely getting "how to take this to the next level" advice even on "A" papers.

Talk to me about class size first and then come to the defense of GDS. Grading 15 compositions (in depth with detailed notes) instead of 30 is a hell of a lot easier.

[Anonymous]

Wasn't that point implicit in her comment?

[Anonymous]

Yes.