What schools were not what you expected when you visited them in person?

[Anonymous]

Sidwell. Culture was completely not what I expected. Declined admission.

[Anonymous]

GDS. I was sure I’d love it. We wanted a progressive education for our son but what I observed in the middle school didn’t appear progressive. When I talked to parents of current HS schools they talked up the rigor and made it sound stressful. It just wasn’t what we were looking for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS. I was sure I’d love it. We wanted a progressive education for our son but what I observed in the middle school didn’t appear progressive. When I talked to parents of current HS schools they talked up the rigor and made it sound stressful. It just wasn’t what we were looking for.

Should say students not schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell. Culture was completely not what I expected. Declined admission.

+1! I totally agree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell. Culture was completely not what I expected. Declined admission.

+1! I totally agree

Would love to hear elaboration on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell. Culture was completely not what I expected. Declined admission.

+1! I totally agree

+1 also. Just not our vibe at all. Neither was Maret.

[Anonymous]

Among the schools we visited, only potomac has impressive facilities

[Anonymous]

Maret. I was just shocked at what the school looked like. I went to the bathroom and it smelled so bad, and it was the kind of smell like the place had not been taken care of. There was rust all over the stalls. There was even something hanging from the ceiling looking like it was going to fall at any second. I also agree with the earlier poster, there was stuff everywhere. Nothing seemed to have a place to be put.

I have to admit, when I heard the head there made over 500 thousand a year I assumed the place would be amazing. In my experience, I’m from New England originally, when a head makes that much, the school is an amazing looking and feeling place. Not Maret. I guess all of the money is going to the head and not the school.

[Anonymous]

Yea Maret is raggedy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell. Culture was completely not what I expected. Declined admission.

+1! I totally agree

+1 also. Just not our vibe at all. Neither was Maret.

+2 My child did not like the vibe at Sidwell and Maret either. This was for 9th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yea Maret is raggedy!

I have to agree on Maret. I've driven by it for a decade, and especially with that lawn, it's always looked beautiful. But inside seems to be falling apart, and not in a charming way.

[Anonymous]

St. Andrews was not what we expected. Great vibe and gorgeous facilities.

[Anonymous]

+100

[Anonymous]

Madeira was really dated and run down. We didn’t apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Montessori - forget which one but one on Old Georgetown Road. They told us to sit in a chair and observe and not interact with the kids. Teachers were cold, uncaring and not attentive to the kids. They walked around the classroom strangely and some of the kids were walking around wild, not engaged.

St Jane (or what ever it is called) - very formal and cold. None fo the kids seemed happy. The woman we met with was cold, not friendly and got angry when I asked the demographics of the kids.

Avalon School - only a few kids in the grade, very disorganized, waiting for a tour and the front desk woman handed out ibprohpen to several kids like it was candy, kids seemed academically behind (very nice kids), headmaster was very much into his views and only his views and was clear it he'd take any child but would make the child justify their views and turn everything into a debate (i.e. bullying child into his views).

Holy Cross (K-8) - Surprised how much we liked it but after the other experiences very turned off by a religious school. Staff were very warm and welcoming, had no issue with different viewpoints, kids friendly and seemed happy.

(I'm surprised at the posts on the facilities being old. These schools have been around for years so its not surprising but for the price they charge they should be well maintained).

Funny on both.
Avalon is a good school for the boys on the whole but the men that run it do seem to be weird. It can trickle down to the Brookewood school some as the men don’t take as much input there into running the girls’ school (and they somehow don’t realize how inappropriate that is) but overall Brookewood was good (before high school).