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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+100. It definitely had a cattle call feel. I felt the same way when I went an open house with Sidwell a few years ago. I walked out halfway through the open house. They lost me after seeing those fancy cookies decorated with the Sidwell logo yet dark and depressing looking lower school classrooms.

I also didn't like aspects of the Sidwell LS open house. I mean, seriously... how many times in a row do you want us to pause and have 15 seconds of silent reflection? I'm all into that type of stuff, but in that setting it felt very contrived to keep doing it over and over. Coming off of all of that "reflection", the Sidwell logo cookies seemed to convey a contrasting message of privilege and elitism.

I agree!

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It was almost condescending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised how rude the AD at NCS was and then shadow day was not much better. I thought the campus was pretty though and very updated. Sidwell was beautiful and their whole process was much better than we had imagined. Potomac was a wild card. Beautiful campus but sort of cold during admission and basically assumed our child would not get in. Maret needs some updating but they are so warm there it makes up for a lot. The lacking playing fields make it a hard choice if your child loves athletics so something to consider. Stone Ridge was 100 percent better than we had thought. That school moved up many places after our tour. GDS is not a place for an athletic child but many impressive kids and teachers.

This is so strange to me. We are public school nobodies and the NCS director was incredibly warm and friendly. We thought it was the most down-to-earth admissions experience we had.

I agree! I went in to the process thinking I favored Holton, but the AD at NCS blew me away. And I don't want to overstate...but I think she is changing the culture of the school dramatically. My daughter loved the Holton campus, it is beautiful. But it's pretty hard to beat the feeling that comes from being at the Cathedral (we are Episcopalian fyi).

We felt the same way--surprised at how down to earth the place was. My daughter was coming from DCPS and they admitted quite a large number of kids from DCPS this year. In contrast, STA is still admitting mostly the country club set from the feeder K-8's, new-to-the-area VIPs plus a few kids from outside the city (PG county etc) for diversity. NCS felt far more welcoming and "normal" than STA and it was reflected in the kids we found out were admitted (and not admitted).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised how rude the AD at NCS was and then shadow day was not much better. I thought the campus was pretty though and very updated. Sidwell was beautiful and their whole process was much better than we had imagined. Potomac was a wild card. Beautiful campus but sort of cold during admission and basically assumed our child would not get in. Maret needs some updating but they are so warm there it makes up for a lot. The lacking playing fields make it a hard choice if your child loves athletics so something to consider. Stone Ridge was 100 percent better than we had thought. That school moved up many places after our tour. GDS is not a place for an athletic child but many impressive kids and teachers.

This is so strange to me. We are public school nobodies and the NCS director was incredibly warm and friendly. We thought it was the most down-to-earth admissions experience we had.

I agree! I went in to the process thinking I favored Holton, but the AD at NCS blew me away. And I don't want to overstate...but I think she is changing the culture of the school dramatically. My daughter loved the Holton campus, it is beautiful. But it's pretty hard to beat the feeling that comes from being at the Cathedral (we are Episcopalian fyi).

We felt the same way--surprised at how down to earth the place was. My daughter was coming from DCPS and they admitted quite a large number of kids from DCPS this year. In contrast, STA is still admitting mostly the country club set from the feeder K-8's, new-to-the-area VIPs plus a few kids from outside the city (PG county etc) for diversity. NCS felt far more welcoming and "normal" than STA and it was reflected in the kids we found out were admitted (and not admitted).

Didn't sta just change up its ad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Why does Sidwell seem like it’s on a downhill trajectory? Concerning.

They definitely lost track.

-signed a parent whose child chose Potomac over Sidwell.

Can you please explain what that means? Lovely that your child chose P over S; mine chose S over P so I guess not everyone agrees with you. I can see how suburban minded people would like the country club campus at Potomac, but that doesn't mean that Sidwell has "lost track."

Your thinly veiled snarkiness is a great example of a culture losing track....

+1 Suburban minded people? Is this really a Sidwell parent spouting this nonsense?

There are snarky, smug, entitled parents at all of the Big 3 schools, sadly. For that matter, I've met snarky, smug, entitled parents from many different DC private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SLEMAN SCHOOL FOR THE WIN!


When we toured the Sleman School located off Tacoma Park, we were in awe with the buildings. It looked like a college campus. It was so gorgeous and not what we thought an unknown school would look like.

100% Recomend--better than NCS and Visi combined. Faculty and teachers at the Sleman School are very caring and do the best.

Plus their college placement last year was all at Harvard.

new to this forum and to the overall process of considering independent schools. Where/what is Sleman School? Tried googling and got results in Jakarta so I'm stumped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this, my friends, is why tuition is circling $50k.

It doesn’t add up. Why are many schools able to maintain a lovely physical plant, and have great factulty and all the programming, extracurriculars, etc while others are charging the SAME price for dilapidated facilities.

Hearing that Maret’s head makes $500k could be one reason why that school looks shabby. In 5 years the school could pay him half of what he makes and put a million into needed facility upgrades. I don’t want to pay that kind of tuition for that!

First, Maret's head is a woman. Second, its facilities are not shabby. They're not super fancy, but not shabby by any means. It renovated its athletic facilities just last year.

...and almost immediately brand new things got ruined because the roof leaks when it rains. Whoops!

This pretty much perfectly describes Maret. Talks about how they have these great new facilities and how much they are investing in their students. Except, the roof leaks (because of a previous job that wasn’t monitored well), ruining the new dance studio’s floor, making the contractor put down a new one, except, because the head had to have it installed in time for the grand opening event, the new floor never had a chance to adjust to the space, so it now is warped and there are gaps in it.

Everything there is just done so half-assed. Particularly when it comes to the facilities. It all looks good at first glance, but if you look deeper you find all kinds of issues. This goes for everything from the facilities to the administration.

[Anonymous]

To be fair, the teaching is pretty bad too.

[Anonymous]

There is a lot of Maret hate on this thread. Not saying it’s the bee’s knees, but one would think it is the worst school out there reading all these comments. And no boosters. Odd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NCS’ campus is absolutely gorgeous, and we really did like Maret’s campus. GDS’ campus was alright, for us the curb appeal wasn’t there.

Curb appeal is definitely what I'm looking for when choosing schools for my children.

[Anonymous]

Maret admissions person was really bad, this was several years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We felt the same way--surprised at how down to earth the place was. My daughter was coming from DCPS and they admitted quite a large number of kids from DCPS this year. In contrast, STA is still admitting mostly the country club set from the feeder K-8's, new-to-the-area VIPs plus a few kids from outside the city (PG county etc) for diversity. NCS felt far more welcoming and "normal" than STA and it was reflected in the kids we found out were admitted (and not admitted).

This PP oozes envy and resentment of the country club class. Th differences in admissions between NCS and STA is more complex than PP’s simplistic and ill-informed assumptions.

We are a Cathedral family who’s been on the Close for many years. There are no feeder schools for STA.

STA’s AD has done a fabulous job bringing in highly accomplished boys who are also kind, good kids. Admissions are highly competitive, because it has the reputation for being an amazing school that boys love.

A few years ago children of Beauvoir board members were rejected from STA because they disrespected STA teachers during their school visit. If STA were the kind of school that admitted kids solely because of prestige and connections those boys would have been admitted.

It is true that private schools boys have an advantage in applying to STA but that’s because private schools prepare them better. High-level writing and critical analysis skills are crucial for STA admissions. These are areas where DCPS is weak.

NCS has had a poor reputation for the past 10 years, which it has struggled to turn around: high pressured academic environment with a number of mean girls souring social dynamics for some classes. They seem to be doing a better job managing the bullying and creating a less pressured academic approach.

However, many private school parents including from Beauvoir still shy away from NCS. Our Beauvoir daughter chose Sidwell over NCS for these reasons. Girls also do better in verbal skills and critical analysis, are better organized, and more independent learners.

Bottom line: NCS has fewer applicants than STA. Girls from DCPS are probably better prepared for NCS than boys from DCPS are for STA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We felt the same way--surprised at how down to earth the place was. My daughter was coming from DCPS and they admitted quite a large number of kids from DCPS this year. In contrast, STA is still admitting mostly the country club set from the feeder K-8's, new-to-the-area VIPs plus a few kids from outside the city (PG county etc) for diversity. NCS felt far more welcoming and "normal" than STA and it was reflected in the kids we found out were admitted (and not admitted).

This PP oozes envy and resentment of the country club class. Th differences in admissions between NCS and STA is more complex than PP’s simplistic and ill-informed assumptions.

We are a Cathedral family who’s been on the Close for many years. There are no feeder schools for STA.

STA’s AD has done a fabulous job bringing in highly accomplished boys who are also kind, good kids. Admissions are highly competitive, because it has the reputation for being an amazing school that boys love.

A few years ago children of Beauvoir board members were rejected from STA because they disrespected STA teachers during their school visit. If STA were the kind of school that admitted kids solely because of prestige and connections those boys would have been admitted.

It is true that private schools boys have an advantage in applying to STA but that’s because private schools prepare them better. High-level writing and critical analysis skills are crucial for STA admissions. These are areas where DCPS is weak.

NCS has had a poor reputation for the past 10 years, which it has struggled to turn around: high pressured academic environment with a number of mean girls souring social dynamics for some classes. They seem to be doing a better job managing the bullying and creating a less pressured academic approach.

However, many private school parents including from Beauvoir still shy away from NCS. Our Beauvoir daughter chose Sidwell over NCS for these reasons. Girls also do better in verbal skills and critical analysis, are better organized, and more independent learners.

Bottom line: NCS has fewer applicants than STA. Girls from DCPS are probably better prepared for NCS than boys from DCPS are for STA.

Ha! The biggest bully at my kid's school is off to STA next year. Rich family. What a joke--this kid has a long track record. Good riddance at our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ha! The biggest bully at my kid's school is off to STA next year. Rich family. What a joke--this kid has a long track record. Good riddance at our school.

The bully may have had something else going for him than just wealth.

Don’t worry. If he is a bully, he won’t get away with it for long at STA. The other boys will whip him into shape, especially the Beauvoir boys.

[Anonymous]

I find it telling that the STA booster parent neglected to mention the culture of sexism and misogyny endemic to the school for so many years. I know the new head is trying to change this, but it's a tall order. A simple search on DCUM will reveal past posts about this, including the yearbook scandal five or so years ago. It's far from the paradigm some of these parents claim it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it telling that the STA booster parent neglected to mention the culture of sexism and misogyny endemic to the school for so many years. I know the new head is trying to change this, but it's a tall order. A simple search on DCUM will reveal past posts about this, including the yearbook scandal five or so years ago. It's far from the paradigm some of these parents claim it is.

Only someone who knows nothing about the school would describe an incident that involved a few boys as a “culture” and as “endemic.” Other students informed, resulting in the yearbooks being pulled. Who do you think was angriest about the incident? The other STA boys who didn’t appreciate being tainted by the few idiots who thought misogyny was funny.

No matter how great a school is, it can’t counter parental influence or lack thereof. There are badly behaved kids in every school. It’s just not news when the kids are at public schools.