Maret School: Is the High School a pressure cooker like Sidwell or GDS?

[Anonymous]

I'd love to hear from current parents of Maret high schoolers.

[Anonymous]

Any of the NW based independent schools are going to be rigorous. (Maret, Sidwell, GDS, St. Albans, NCS, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Do current Maret parents agree that these schools are all the same?

[Anonymous]

Is GDS really a pressure cooker? I've always heard that both Maret and GDS are much less so than STA/NCS and Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

My sister and cousin both went to Maret. It is very liberal and laid back...and allows kids to be creative. Yet at the same time, they give A LOT of work and expect a lot out of their students.

When my Mom and Aunt went there, it was a TOTALLY different school. Much, much more rigorous.

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

My daughter is a student at Maret and she gets a lot of work. She is currently a junior as well as a member of the swim team. As soon as she gets home she gets to work and ends up having to work straight for hours... This might perhaps also be effected by the fact that the swim team is a huge time commitment. Though it is a hard school my daughter loves it and says she will miss it when she goes to college.

[Anonymous]

Maret high school has the amazing ability to honor and accommodate a range of abilities in its students -- it seems to have the gift of challenging all students appropriately, of taking them as far as they can go, and students with the highest potential do indeed encouter some pressure and achieve at the very highest levels. All students end up feeling good about what they have accomplished. I speak as a mom of two very different students there.

[Anonymous]

It is hard to say if a particular school is a pressure cooker. I've heard some Sidwell students say it is one, and others who feel the work is relatively easy to manage. My DC gets a lot of homework in middle school, but he loves the work, so it does not seem difficult at all. I take that to mean that he's a good match for the school. You've got to focus on the kind of work and whether it is appropriate for your child.