Based solely on academics, rank the top 5 private high schools in DC/VA/MD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A typical student of a top private would not last a quarter at Basis, particularly if he/she/they entered later in the curriculum after (borderline irresponsible) middle school content acceleration has kicked in.. many of the top privates are already doing away with APs out of fear from having their students perform poorly. In contrast, Basis pushes a lot of APs and integrates the AP grades into the students course grades shown in their transcripts... meaning that if you flunk an AP there are real repercussions to the grade of that subject in the transcript... if you do well, there are good repercussions !

You’re joking right? Our school did away with APs because teachers know it’s a joke and didn’t want to teach to the test.
. 99.9 percent of students in this area take APs. It’s become irrelevant.

This! My kid at a private with limited APs just started her first ones. She said how easy they are and she is on track for an A+.

Great! Let's see how she does when she takes the independently evaluated test the same as other kids across the country. Then you can see if she gets a 5 or if it's grade inflation from a private school whose parents pay for As.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a metric based on students taking the same test

National Merit Semifinalists 2026 at DMV Privates
Holton Arms (12)
Basis McLean (9)
Potomac School McLean (9)
National Cathedral School (5)
Landon (5)
St. Andrew’s Episcopal (5)
Sidwell Friends (4)
Georgetown Day School (4)
Bullis (3)
St Anselm's Abbey (3)
Georgetown Visitation (2)
St Albans (2)
Edmund Burke (1)
Maret (1)
Washington International (1)
Berman Hebrew Academy (1)

The problem with looking at this number for WIS, in particular, is that the school very explicitly teaches to the IB bilingual diploma, not to any of the US college admissions tests like the SAT, ACT, or PSAT.

Doing an IB diploma doesn't mean that you can't excel at the PSAT. Bethesda Chevy Chase HS (public) offers the IB diploma and had 11 NMSF this year. The Richard Montgomery IB magnet program (also public) had more than 35 NMSF this year. (All pale in comparison to Thomas Jefferson HS which had 100+ NMSF.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a metric based on students taking the same test

National Merit Semifinalists 2026 at DMV Privates
Holton Arms (12)
Basis McLean (9)
Potomac School McLean (9)
National Cathedral School (5)
Landon (5)
St. Andrew’s Episcopal (5)
Sidwell Friends (4)
Georgetown Day School (4)
Bullis (3)
St Anselm's Abbey (3)
Georgetown Visitation (2)
St Albans (2)
Edmund Burke (1)
Maret (1)
Washington International (1)
Berman Hebrew Academy (1)

The problem with looking at this number for WIS, in particular, is that the school very explicitly teaches to the IB bilingual diploma, not to any of the US college admissions tests like the SAT, ACT, or PSAT.

Doing an IB diploma doesn't mean that you can't excel at the PSAT. Bethesda Chevy Chase HS (public) offers the IB diploma and had 11 NMSF this year. The Richard Montgomery IB magnet program (also public) had more than 35 NMSF this year. (All pale in comparison to Thomas Jefferson HS which had 100+ NMSF.)

There's a world of difference between prep for a regular IB diploma and for a bilingual IB diploma.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A typical student of a top private would not last a quarter at Basis, particularly if he/she/they entered later in the curriculum after (borderline irresponsible) middle school content acceleration has kicked in.. many of the top privates are already doing away with APs out of fear from having their students perform poorly. In contrast, Basis pushes a lot of APs and integrates the AP grades into the students course grades shown in their transcripts... meaning that if you flunk an AP there are real repercussions to the grade of that subject in the transcript... if you do well, there are good repercussions !

You’re joking right? Our school did away with APs because teachers know it’s a joke and didn’t want to teach to the test.
. 99.9 percent of students in this area take APs. It’s become irrelevant.

This! My kid at a private with limited APs just started her first ones. She said how easy they are and she is on track for an A+.

Great! Let's see how she does when she takes the independently evaluated test the same as other kids across the country. Then you can see if she gets a 5 or if it's grade inflation from a private school whose parents pay for As.

+1 Not sure if you're trolling, but there are plenty of kids with As in AP classes who end up with a 3 or below on the AP exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Basis bots earning their yuans on this thread. Likely a meaningless thread started by them as well to bring Basis in the conversation

This! Came to say the same thing. BIM #1! What an absolute joke.I had a kid there for one year and sadly got to see the inner workings. Yikes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Basis bots earning their yuans on this thread. Likely a meaningless thread started by them as well to bring Basis in the conversation

This! Came to say the same thing. BIM #1! What an absolute joke.I had a kid there for one year and sadly got to see the inner workings. Yikes.

Basis is pretty good I must say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a metric based on students taking the same test

National Merit Semifinalists 2026 at DMV Privates
Holton Arms (12)
Basis McLean (9)
Potomac School McLean (9)
National Cathedral School (5)
Landon (5)
St. Andrew’s Episcopal (5)
Sidwell Friends (4)
Georgetown Day School (4)
Bullis (3)
St Anselm's Abbey (3)
Georgetown Visitation (2)
St Albans (2)
Edmund Burke (1)
Maret (1)
Washington International (1)
Berman Hebrew Academy (1)

If these is accurate the Holton and St. Anselm's numbers are the most impressive based on size of class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a metric based on students taking the same test

National Merit Semifinalists 2026 at DMV Privates
Holton Arms (12)
Basis McLean (9)
Potomac School McLean (9)
National Cathedral School (5)
Landon (5)
St. Andrew’s Episcopal (5)
Sidwell Friends (4)
Georgetown Day School (4)
Bullis (3)
St Anselm's Abbey (3)
Georgetown Visitation (2)
St Albans (2)
Edmund Burke (1)
Maret (1)
Washington International (1)
Berman Hebrew Academy (1)

If these is accurate the Holton and St. Anselm's numbers are the most impressive based on size of class.

Unless there are 48 or less seniors at Holton or 12 or less at St. Ansepm’s, Basis wins at 9 out of around 40 seniors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's BIM?

Basis in McLean

Is this a joke? How is BIM top 5?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a metric based on students taking the same test

National Merit Semifinalists 2026 at DMV Privates
Holton Arms (12)
Basis McLean (9)
Potomac School McLean (9)
National Cathedral School (5)
Landon (5)
St. Andrew’s Episcopal (5)
Sidwell Friends (4)
Georgetown Day School (4)
Bullis (3)
St Anselm's Abbey (3)
Georgetown Visitation (2)
St Albans (2)
Edmund Burke (1)
Maret (1)
Washington International (1)
Berman Hebrew Academy (1)

If these is accurate the Holton and St. Anselm's numbers are the most impressive based on size of class.

Unless there are 48 or less seniors at Holton or 12 or less at St. Ansepm’s, Basis wins at 9 out of around 40 seniors.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's BIM?

Basis in McLean

Is this a joke? How is BIM top 5?

Not if we are basing solely on academics.

[Anonymous]

Based on percentages it looks like the top three would be BASIS, Holton, and St. Anselm's for this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on percentages it looks like the top three would be BASIS, Holton, and St. Anselm's for this year.

If you're basing that on the PSAT NMSF from 2026, again, keep in mind that the threshold to achieve NMSF for Virginia (Basis McLean) and Maryland (Holton-Arms) is slightly lower than DC. Not by much, but the 1 point difference could easily knock out kids from DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a metric based on students taking the same test

National Merit Semifinalists 2026 at DMV Privates
Holton Arms (12)
Basis McLean (9)
Potomac School McLean (9)
National Cathedral School (5)
Landon (5)
St. Andrew’s Episcopal (5)
Sidwell Friends (4)
Georgetown Day School (4)
Georgetown Prep (4)
Bullis (3)
St Anselm's Abbey (3)
Georgetown Visitation (2)
St Albans (2)
Edmund Burke (1)
Maret (1)
Washington International (1)
Berman Hebrew Academy (1)
Heights School (1)

If these is accurate the Holton and St. Anselm's numbers are the most impressive based on size of class.

It seems accurate to me--I just added in Georgetown Prep and Heights which were missing from the list. Source data are below.
Maryland-https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eH4WYg3mc8FIb9IhZGqvbIbcVIjXziJF/view
Virginia-https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xCdjpoXII9oTmu_hWYFqeWl5XWmTblSu/view

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a metric based on students taking the same test

National Merit Semifinalists 2026 at DMV Privates
Holton Arms (12)
Basis McLean (9)
Potomac School McLean (9)
National Cathedral School (5)
Landon (5)
St. Andrew’s Episcopal (5)
Sidwell Friends (4)
Georgetown Day School (4)
Bullis (3)
St Anselm's Abbey (3)
Georgetown Visitation (2)
St Albans (2)
Edmund Burke (1)
Maret (1)
Washington International (1)
Berman Hebrew Academy (1)

The problem with looking at this number for WIS, in particular, is that the school very explicitly teaches to the IB bilingual diploma, not to any of the US college admissions tests like the SAT, ACT, or PSAT.

Doing an IB diploma doesn't mean that you can't excel at the PSAT. Bethesda Chevy Chase HS (public) offers the IB diploma and had 11 NMSF this year. The Richard Montgomery IB magnet program (also public) had more than 35 NMSF this year. (All pale in comparison to Thomas Jefferson HS which had 100+ NMSF.)

There's a world of difference between prep for a regular IB diploma and for a bilingual IB diploma.

+100

Anyone who really “knows” knows the WIS diploma is by far the more rigorous in town. Most PS kids in DC. Couldn’t hack it, even though they attend “the top” schools.

— former WIS parent with children in the “Top” privates..