The Potomac School v. Maret/GDS?

[Anonymous]

How does the Potomac School compare to Maret/GDS. I know this is a broad question, so answer as you see fit.

We are DC residents, but partially because we have heard good things about the Potomac School, and partially because we want to expand our search given the difficulty of getting in, we are seriously considering applying there for our DC (who would be entering K in 2009-2010).

[Anonymous]

Potomac is just as competitive for admissions as the top Washington schools. Its an excellent school but much more suburban in feel and attitude. More Virginia people than any Washington school. Exmissions for college are impressive but not quite as impressive (IMHO) as the top Washington schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Potomac is just as competitive for admissions as the top Washington schools. Its an excellent school but much more suburban in feel and attitude. More Virginia people than any Washington school. Exmissions for college are impressive but not quite as impressive (IMHO) as the top Washington schools.

Do you say this about exmissions because they tilt heavy towards the VA state schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Potomac is just as competitive for admissions as the top Washington schools. Its an excellent school but much more suburban in feel and attitude. More Virginia people than any Washington school. Exmissions for college are impressive but not quite as impressive (IMHO) as the top Washington schools.

Is the part about exmissions true? I read the stats from St Albans and Landon and was underwhelmed. Potomac seems just as competitive in its college placement to me. But I'm only going off the published lists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Potomac is just as competitive for admissions as the top Washington schools. Its an excellent school but much more suburban in feel and attitude. More Virginia people than any Washington school. Exmissions for college are impressive but not quite as impressive (IMHO) as the top Washington schools.

Is the part about exmissions true? I read the stats from St Albans and Landon and was underwhelmed. Potomac seems just as competitive in its college placement to me. But I'm only going off the published lists.

Landon has never really been in the same "exmissions league" as the best DC privates. But I am surprised to say this about STA. Have they posted stats broken down by year of graduation?

[Anonymous]

I agree that the STA list wasn't as impressive as I'd have thought. Half the colleges on that list are places that my child could attend if he were enrolled in a (good) public school and did fairly well.

I hate to say it but when watching Luke Russert read his written eulogy at Kennedy Center, I kept thinking "why is he making the same grammatical error over and over?" (Don't flame me. It was sad, and I'm very sorry about his dad). And it's nice that he stuck with the Catholic tradition like his dad in going to BC. But he didn't need to attend STA to make it into BC.

Anyway, to the OP, I think that there's a strong peference at Potomac for UVA-Charlottesville, but I think it's because of the culture. There are a large number of Potomac alum at Harvard, Brown, etc also. I'm considering Potomac because it seems to be as academically rigorous without quite as much of the social climbing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the STA list wasn't as impressive as I'd have thought. Half the colleges on that list are places that my child could attend if he were enrolled in a (good) public school and did fairly well.

I hate to say it but when watching Luke Russert read his written eulogy at Kennedy Center, I kept thinking "why is he making the same grammatical error over and over?" (Don't flame me. It was sad, and I'm very sorry about his dad). And it's nice that he stuck with the Catholic tradition like his dad in going to BC. But he didn't need to attend STA to make it into BC.

Anyway, to the OP, I think that there's a strong peference at Potomac for UVA-Charlottesville, but I think it's because of the culture. There are a large number of Potomac alum at Harvard, Brown, etc also. I'm considering Potomac because it seems to be as academically rigorous without quite as much of the social climbing.


Helpful response.

But as for your last sentence, do you mean to suggest that Maret/GDS are full of social climbers? I thought that was found in the Other NW School (of which we do not speak).

[Anonymous]

I hate to tell you this but Potomac has no fewer social climbers than Washington Private schools (and probably way more than GDS for instance). In fact, it may be worse if you do not know how to play the game and do not fit it. In some parts it is a more southern-style, there is the "international" crowd and then there are more of the truly nouveau riche. If that is your reason for looking at Potomac (to avoid social issues), its not any better.

[Anonymous]

I found Potomac WAY snobbier than we wanted for our child. Our kids go to Country Day School in McLean, which many consider a feeder school for Potomac. Social climbers abound, imo, although there are also many nice families. What sticks out to me is how conservative McLean is, and how so many McLean families have Potomac as their first choice. It is a terrific facility, but we decided it made a statement we didn't agree with - i.e., that we wanted a monied lifestyle.

That said, as someone who lives in DC, you are one-up on the Virginia families as they seek geographic diversity. And bonus - all the kids MUST take the bus to school (they have an agreement about the number of vehicles traversing the adjacent neighborhood).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I found Potomac WAY snobbier than we wanted for our child. Our kids go to Country Day School in McLean, which many consider a feeder school for Potomac. Social climbers abound, imo, although there are also many nice families. What sticks out to me is how conservative McLean is, and how so many McLean families have Potomac as their first choice. It is a terrific facility, but we decided it made a statement we didn't agree with - i.e., that we wanted a monied lifestyle.

That said, as someone who lives in DC, you are one-up on the Virginia families as they seek geographic diversity. And bonus - all the kids MUST take the bus to school (they have an agreement about the number of vehicles traversing the adjacent neighborhood).

Geographic diversity? Are you kidding?

[Anonymous]

Actually its true at Potomac. Its one of the only games in town for that part of NOVA so applicants from DC have a small advantage, but not much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually its true at Potomac. Its one of the only games in town for that part of NOVA so applicants from DC have a small advantage, but not much.

Are MD residents considered under "minority admissions"?

[Anonymous]

Seriously - they try for geographic diversity, so MD students also have a slight advantage.

They look for other kinds of diversity as well, allegedly.

[Anonymous]

The real problem at Potomac, if you live in DC, is that their students come for the most part from VA, and often way out in VA. That translates into a lot of playdates and birthday parties in places like Herndon and Alexandria. The school is very nice, from what I've seen, but plan on alot of driving if you live in the District. That was enough to put us off applying.

[Anonymous]

re elementary/secondary school selection and college admissions.

Remember that elite colleges favor the children of their own alumns and typically have informal quotas for each high school. So if your primary objective in selecting an elementary or secondary school for your child is to increase the odds of the child's admission to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton (and I'm not trying to suggest it is or should be), then you'd be better off sending the child to DCPS where (a) you'll have fewer alumn-spawn to compete with and (b) your child may be more likely to be one of the top students in the class. And your child will probably look less generic coming from DCPS than from an elite private school where Ivy-aspiring students are the rule rather than the exception.