Advice: DCI vs. Pyle/Whitman for MS and HS

[Anonymous]

for example, BASIS just announced that their graduating class of around 60 earned $12,000,000 in scholarship money. There are I think 2 kids with full scholarships and 3 or 4 with full tuition, and the average scholarship amount was something in the $100,000 range. Everyone was very proud of the group and the college counselor worked hard with each kid.

So DCI for a class maybe 4 times that size getting 300 million? That didn't happen. 30 million I would believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check if there's a difference in tag eligibility depending on which school you pick. $60k for college is not nothing!

Sure but then DCI got over 300 million dollars in scholarships for a class of about 200 kids. That is a hell of a lot of free money.

I never understand this metric when its thrown out (for any school, not just DCI). It says nothing about what my kid might get and I have never heard anyone explain if this is across offers (like one kid got 4 different merit aid packages) or provide context ($25K off Vanderbilt is not particularly helpful).

+1 such a weird flex. Also no way this can be true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check if there's a difference in tag eligibility depending on which school you pick. $60k for college is not nothing!

Sure but then DCI got over 300 million dollars in scholarships for a class of about 200 kids. That is a hell of a lot of free money.

I never understand this metric when its thrown out (for any school, not just DCI). It says nothing about what my kid might get and I have never heard anyone explain if this is across offers (like one kid got 4 different merit aid packages) or provide context ($25K off Vanderbilt is not particularly helpful).

+1 such a weird flex. Also no way this can be true.

Ok I just googled around and found a school social media source that said the DCI class of 2025 secured $33 million in scholarship money. This is plausible and good for them.

But then someone from the school mistyped on the school website that it was $300 million, so off by one order of magnitude. This is completely impossible but people I guess accepted it and now keep repeating it.

[Anonymous]

The metric is so hard to understand that I am sure many people don't question 33 million vs 300 million.

It might be useful to say something like 95% of DCI kids were accepted to at least one college and among those 70% received scholarships/aid for 50% or more of base tuition. That gives me some sense of what to expect if my kid is a senior there. The total value without context for number of kids or how many kids got multiple offers is meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The metric is so hard to understand that I am sure many people don't question 33 million vs 300 million.

It might be useful to say something like 95% of DCI kids were accepted to at least one college and among those 70% received scholarships/aid for 50% or more of base tuition. That gives me some sense of what to expect if my kid is a senior there. The total value without context for number of kids or how many kids got multiple offers is meaningless.

No school is going to say above. All schools report their total scholarship money and that includes if a kid got scholarships from mutiple schools. So just 1 kid could get a total of 3-6 million dollars.

BTW, I heard that Banneker, which is much smaller than DCI, got over 100 million in scholarship money so if that is true, I don’t think 300 million is hard to believe.

I would also believe a school website over social media.

[Anonymous]

FWIW the 300 million number was also on the DC public charter school website

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The metric is so hard to understand that I am sure many people don't question 33 million vs 300 million.

It might be useful to say something like 95% of DCI kids were accepted to at least one college and among those 70% received scholarships/aid for 50% or more of base tuition. That gives me some sense of what to expect if my kid is a senior there. The total value without context for number of kids or how many kids got multiple offers is meaningless.

No school is going to say above. All schools report their total scholarship money and that includes if a kid got scholarships from mutiple schools. So just 1 kid could get a total of 3-6 million dollars.

BTW, I heard that Banneker, which is much smaller than DCI, got over 100 million in scholarship money so if that is true, I don’t think 300 million is hard to believe.

I would also believe a school website over social media.

Ok, this is what the social media said:

"The Class of 2025 brought in $33mil in scholarship money, also a new record— that's an average of $160k per student."

And this is what is repeated actually not on the school website but on the Public Charter Board website:

Last year’s seniors secured more than $300 million in scholarships—yes, million—and celebrated DCI’s very first National Merit Scholarship.

The latter is not true. And they didn't have a 'national merit scholarship," they had their first national merit scholar semifinalist. So I'm inclined to think that whoever wrote this 300 million figure is a little loose with facts.

[Anonymous]

Also lost in this data, among other things, is 1) how many kids got scholarships vs. how many of these scholarships were earned by the same kid, perhaps with the same high need financial situation, 2) how much of the aid is need-based vs merit (major factor for donut hole families), and 3) how much of it represents a discount off sticker price from the school vs third-party funding portable across schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to Pyle and Whitman and have friends who are sending their kids now. It's such a pressure cooker I would avoid it at all costs (and I had the chance to move my family to my childhood home). I also am parent to biracial kids and don't see my friends' kids spending any time with non-white kids; while I had a number of Asian American friends growing up, Black kids were few and far between. YMMV of course, but it was (and seems) pretty segregated, and the over the top pressure to be the best at everything and get into a top school can be hard to navigate, especially if shared custody means you and ex don't always agree on how to help your kid figure out how to navigate. (it's like no one there knows that they are swimming in ultracompetitive waters; they think it's just regular water and that's what it has to be like)

The 2 choices are so so different.

I agree that Pyle and Whitman are pressure cooker large schools. If you have a very self motivated, competitive kid who would thrive in this environment, go for it. Whitman also offers more curriculum choices. These schools are way less diverse and also very much keeping up with the Jones and lots the kids who are very status driven.

DCI is more laid back. It is competitive but not so crazy pressure cooker like the other school. So if you have a high performing kid, they will still have to work and will be among other high performers but it’s more collaborative. It’s also more diverse and teachers and staff know the kids more and smaller class size. I have a high performing kid who does well among similar peers but would be miserable in a cut throat high pressure hunger game each for their own environment. Also surprisingly. most of my kids classes are on the smaller side 15-18 kids. We are fortunate to have done very well financially but are low key and none of our kid’s friends or many if the kids I’ve met when at the school are status driven.

[Anonymous]

NP here. How do college admission results compare between DCI and Whitman?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to Pyle and Whitman and have friends who are sending their kids now. It's such a pressure cooker I would avoid it at all costs (and I had the chance to move my family to my childhood home). I also am parent to biracial kids and don't see my friends' kids spending any time with non-white kids; while I had a number of Asian American friends growing up, Black kids were few and far between. YMMV of course, but it was (and seems) pretty segregated, and the over the top pressure to be the best at everything and get into a top school can be hard to navigate, especially if shared custody means you and ex don't always agree on how to help your kid figure out how to navigate. (it's like no one there knows that they are swimming in ultracompetitive waters; they think it's just regular water and that's what it has to be like)

The 2 choices are so so different.

I agree that Pyle and Whitman are pressure cooker large schools. If you have a very self motivated, competitive kid who would thrive in this environment, go for it. Whitman also offers more curriculum choices. These schools are way less diverse and also very much keeping up with the Jones and lots the kids who are very status driven.

DCI is more laid back. It is competitive but not so crazy pressure cooker like the other school. So if you have a high performing kid, they will still have to work and will be among other high performers but it’s more collaborative. It’s also more diverse and teachers and staff know the kids more and smaller class size. I have a high performing kid who does well among similar peers but would be miserable in a cut throat high pressure hunger game each for their own environment. Also surprisingly. most of my kids classes are on the smaller side 15-18 kids. We are fortunate to have done very well financially but are low key and none of our kid’s friends or many if the kids I’ve met when at the school are status driven.

My daughter is a senior and this is a very accurate statement for her friends and classmates. She has very smart, accomplished, and driven friends, but they are also laid-back and far from status-driven. It is a supportive school environment and not a pressure cooker, although IB is a workload-intensive curriculum. Also strong college acceptances in this class.