Thoughts on Madeira?

[Anonymous]

Any comments on academics, rigor, all-girls atmosphere, what's unique, special, etc.??

[Anonymous]

There was a very recent thread on this exact topic. Search the archives.

[Anonymous]

Is there a rule that one is supposed to search the archives? I am not the OP, but read this board when I am bored or to relax with coffee, perhaps like many. I find these "search the archives" emails to be unhelpful unless they include responsive information and then, "for more, search the archives."

I have read about every school two or three times over, but I still enjoy it when someone starts a new thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a rule that one is supposed to search the archives? I am not the OP, but read this board when I am bored or to relax with coffee, perhaps like many. I find these "search the archives" emails to be unhelpful unless they include responsive information and then, "for more, search the archives."

I have read about every school two or three times over, but I still enjoy it when someone starts a new thread.

I posted that suggestion because there are very few Madeira alums/parents on this site. I am one and just posted a couple of posts in response to the thread that was started a couple of weeks ago. If the OP wants to find out more there was good info on that thread. It is unlikely that a rush of people familiar with Madeira will be posting now who didn't already post on that thread. But I could be wrong about that.

We loved the school.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes the thread you are referring to only has recent comments from 2010. I want to hear comments from the here and now. So, I think it's nice to start new threads.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

Graduated 10+ years ago.

Since then I've become rabidly pro-public school. But it's a great school with unique opportunities. Co curriculum is great, though some of the "service" opportunities are in private schools, but whatever. Great teachers.

[Anonymous]

Mady daddy sucks

[Anonymous]

DD goes there currently, another looking at the school. I wrote a really long post near the end of the most recent thread about the school if you want to check it out. Basically DD never thought she would go to boarding school, but she was looking for something different after middle school and we've all absolutely loved it. I've been satisfied as a parent, even if it's difficult to feel as connected when your daughter is a boarder. DD loves her friends and classes (as much as teenagers love classes) and the school has a strong support system. Her favorite part (and the thing I think is the coolest!) has been the cocurriculum program. One of the previous posters said there are service opportunities in private schools, but that's not really true. The one private school option is a school/program for severely developmentally disabled children. Anyway, the program got 3 new staff members her freshman year who have worked hard to overhaul the program and make it more global with trips and various learnerships in different places/environments. Freshmen do bonding/outdoor skills/classes in financial literacy and public speaking, sophomores do community service, juniors work on the Hill and seniors do whatever they want. DD is on her 3rd placement and while Congress wasn't her thing, I think she still learned a lot about gov't.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is a freshman at Madeira and she is over the moon. She is a day student, and she did not know anyone in her class when she started. She attended an independent school in Alexandria K-8, and while she has found the work to be challenging, it's not a pressure cooker environment. The school is all about positioning girls to succeed, not cut-throat competition. Teachers push the girls, but only to pull the best out of them.

Socially, she is thriving. She has fallen in with a wonderful group of girls that are a mix of out of state boarders, local boarders and day students. The girls have a lot of indepent time, which has led to very strong relationships in a short period of time.

It's also clear that there's room for all types -- the girls naturally divide into clusters, but there's no real hierarchy that I can detect, unlike other private schools around here.

We are extremely satisfied with this choice, and we feel very good about the future at Madeira.

[Anonymous]

It's a snob school for climbers. I find nothing interesting about it whatsoever. The Madeira girls have made ZERO impact on the community in the 25 years I have lived here which tells you a lot. It's almost as if they live on an island off G'town Pike that no one knows about. Are they in parades? no. Local service projects, no. Have i ever seen them do ANY community service in McLean. NEVER.

For the most part it is a boarding school where mommy and daddy on their second marriage dump their daughters for boarding (read the history of the schools, esp. the Atkins diet scandal). For locals, you are only a fill-in because the school needs the money from the boarder for boarding and meal fees. The only way to get in (if you are white and boring and have xlnt test scores) is to apply as a boarder even though your family lives in Mclean, MD or DC. Madeira got wise to that ruse a few years back and now exacts a promise that you will stay as a boarder for X years if you apply as a boarder but live in Mclean, Md or D.C. Nice facilities but really only if you are a SERIOUS rider. Not a dilettante.

Not impressed. Would never even consider it for DD.

[Anonymous]

Not true, PP. Not at Madeira and Niece didn't want to attend because there are too few non-international boarders. She wants a boarding school where there is a larger true boarding population. That said, Madeira has a good rep for strong academics and we know girls there now who applied as day students and were accepted as 100% day students without being ultra wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a snob school for climbers. I find nothing interesting about it whatsoever. The Madeira girls have made ZERO impact on the community in the 25 years I have lived here which tells you a lot. It's almost as if they live on an island off G'town Pike that no one knows about. Are they in parades? no. Local service projects, no. Have i ever seen them do ANY community service in McLean. NEVER.

For the most part it is a boarding school where mommy and daddy on their second marriage dump their daughters for boarding (read the history of the schools, esp. the Atkins diet scandal). For locals, you are only a fill-in because the school needs the money from the boarder for boarding and meal fees. The only way to get in (if you are white and boring and have xlnt test scores) is to apply as a boarder even though your family lives in Mclean, MD or DC. Madeira got wise to that ruse a few years back and now exacts a promise that you will stay as a boarder for X years if you apply as a boarder but live in Mclean, Md or D.C. Nice facilities but really only if you are a SERIOUS rider. Not a dilettante.

Not impressed. Would never even consider it for DD.

Wow! Very bitter.

[Anonymous]

When I worked at the Smithsonian, my assistant was a boarding student at Madeira doing her off campus class. She was a wonderful girl and I am sure she is a leader and benefit to her community, where ever she is now.

[Anonymous]

Not true 19:07 I host an event every spring for my college for all students in the tri-state area who had been accepted to my college, but had not yet made a decision. Met lots of interest kids. The one girl from Madeira was a dull dull, not engaged on any level person. Parents (McLean) had enrolled her as a boarder in order to get in (I asked) and then moved her out and back home after first year.

And what do you think of the condom dispensers in the girl's hall and the easy availability of birth control for the girl? I had parents who removed their girls from the school just for that reason.