Potomac parents are SO ANNOYING
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Anonymous
Oh interesting, he may have over pruned by mistake because I thought it connected back (but also I'm remembering of what I read through with a cup of coffee and now just giggling at my comment about how nice and calm the discussion was looks unhinged đ¤Ł). |
Anonymous
| I'm trying to remember, but I think the connecting piece to admissions was that the person who made the pivot into the good convo replied to the naming and said "no there are multiple like it due to a particular somewhat related connection piece in the admissions process" so then all the normal conversations about admissions had that at the root. |
Anonymous
| Sad! It must have been an artful pivot to get to a decent conversation to about admissions... |
Anonymous
| It mentioned how there is a former board president that writes recs - whenever they write a rec the family is guaranteed acceptance to the school. This doesnât help the toxic culture at the school nor does the fact that some families are also accepted simply based on the size of their perceived wallet. Itâs sad that some schools like Potomac do this to appease parents and forget to consider fit for the child. |
Anonymous
According to their college admits for 2026 -take a look. |
Anonymous
My son is at Gonzaga and the parents I meet are constantly talking about Gonzaga, wearing Gonzaga merch, volunteering at Gonzaga, or hosting Gonzaga events. Of course I am meeting the parents at school events so that makes sense; I have no idea how they behave in the wild. Side note: I attended both Potomac and Cathedral in the 80s and I recall the Potomac parents being more down to earth and the Cathedral parents snootier, but I was a kid and it was a loooong time ago, so take it with a grain of salt. |
Anonymous
Fall 1987 was the first year that students could start 9th and go through 12th grade (class of 1991) in the new high school. The class of 1990 was technically the first class to graduate, but they would have completed 9th grade in the old facilities and only 10th-12th grades in the new facilities. Before that time, the school went through 9th grade. Some new facilities were built in time for the classes of 1990/1991 but I donât think the build out was complete and there has been a ton newly built and improved since then. For those who think about Potomac as a neighborhood private school - Potomac actually used to be in Georgetown (1904-1951), and there are lots of Georgetown families that sent their kids to Potomac for generations, even though it moved to McLean in 1951. (It was named Potomac bc it was close to the Potomac River when it was in DC). Since the Tysons Corner build out and resulting traffic on Chain Bridge increased in the early 2000s, the Georgetown to Potomac pipeline has decreased. There used to be nothing past old downtown McLean so a DC to McLean drive across Chain Bridge was a reverse commute; now it takes just as long either way both morning and afternoon and Chain Bridge was not built to accommodate that kind of traffic. Anyone who attended Potomac would know about the pedophile as there was a lot of communication sent out to alumni. I remember him vividly from when he was head of what was known then as the intermediate school (7th/8th grades). I am thankful that I am not a victim, deeply saddened for those who are, horrified at how long the abuse went on, and in disbelief that he went from Potomac to be employed at the school my sibling attended (which is where a victim encountered him and reported him). I do still have wonderful memories of Potomac and I am grateful for my experience there; I can only hope that everything that we have learned about child predators since that time has resulted in more systemic protections across the board at Potomac and other schools. It would not dissuade me from sending my children to Potomac. |
Anonymous
The Potomac School started in DC (1904) and was in Georgetown - after an early re-location from its first site - until 1951 (at which point it moved to McLean). It was named after the Potomac River because the campus was near the river when it was in DC. The purchase of the land in McLean allowed for significant expansion and later (1987) the addition of grades 10-12. As to why the McLean school is in Potomac, that I do not know. I know Potomacâs history because I attended. When I was there (80s), there were quite a few kids that lived in Potomac (the place) and traveled to McLean to attend Potomac (the school) using Georgetown Pike as a short cut from Potomac to McLean. I wonder if that is still the case given the explosion of regional traffic. |
Anonymous
College admits equates to solid reputation? Didnât know that was the sum of a person. |
Anonymous
Nice to see this being talked about. I was a student of his and we did not choose Potomac. The handling of that case being the main reason. I have friends who also attended both schools and have chosen another path for their children now. |
Anonymous
Oh come on. Itâs not and you know it but my response is directed to the posters on this thread who insist they are right on which schools qualify as â big 3â or âbig 5â and anyone using that term is presumably talking about academic rigor which is generally measured ( for better or worse) by a schoolâs ability to send their students to top colleges and universities. By that measure, anyone suggesting that Potomac isnât in that running should look at their college admits for at least the past decade, with this year being particularly impressive. |
Anonymous
Hard to disagree and I think that is why Potomac parents get so upset and bothered. The Big 3 represents a choice set of equal value, but different child personality that DC families decide between. Frankly, Potomac just is not part of that set and statistics don't change that fact. |
Anonymous
The only true âsetâ I can ascertain from years of reading DCUM posts ( yea I shouldnât admit that) anout the big 3 or big 5 is that the school be located in NW DC. That isnât much of a value set imo. And having been in the independent school world with two kids ( one who is about to graduate) for a decade plus, itâs obvious that ALL of these schools are similar and so are the parents. Some are annoying, some flaunt their wealth, some are down to earth and some are not. Anyone targeting Potomac as somehow attracting a different kind of parent likely has some other axe to grind. |
Anonymous
Look you walk on the campus of Sidwell/GDS/the close and try to claim Potomac is Big 3 you are gonna get sideways looks. You claim any of those 3 as a parent of one of the others and claim Big 3 they say "oh yea" because there is a shared understanding. That's what makes them the Big 3. It isn't me claiming, it is self recognizing group. |
Anonymous
Shared understanding of what exactly? I know parents at every single school youâve mentioned, including Potomac. Literally every single one. And I also sent a child to one of these NW schools. The only people Iâve ever heard even use the term big 3 are from this board. Everyone out in the real world, you know those without some weird hang up about Potomac being in VA ( you know the NW DC crowd who donât âdoâ VA) include Potomac in any critical discussion of top schools in the area. |