St Albans vs Sidwell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is at National Cathedral and I wouldn't recommend St. Albans after hearing what she and her friends have seen. Favoratism runs rampart, the English department is horrible, they're harder on the girls (they must do better in the classroom and better behaved), they have a drinking in school problem, and girls in the area can tell STA guys from miles away. They're pretentious, elitest, and get away with everything.

Most parents just refer to it as NCS - are you sure you are at the school?

Yeah, I call bs. No one ever calls it National Cathedral. Ever.

ACTUALLY, people now are calling it Nat Cat. Do you even go there, pp???

Who?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is at National Cathedral and I wouldn't recommend St. Albans after hearing what she and her friends have seen. Favoratism runs rampart, the English department is horrible, they're harder on the girls (they must do better in the classroom and better behaved), they have a drinking in school problem, and girls in the area can tell STA guys from miles away. They're pretentious, elitest, and get away with everything.

Most parents just refer to it as NCS - are you sure you are at the school?

Yeah, I call bs. No one ever calls it National Cathedral. Ever.

ACTUALLY, people now are calling it Nat Cat. Do you even go there, pp???

Who?

Indeed. Wannabes throwing junk with our first hand knowledge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you care about diversity, Sidwell is the only one of those two to consider.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you care about diversity, Sidwell is the only one of those two to consider.

This

What are the demographics of each school, including socioeconomic and political?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YES! Been waiting for this thread - but was going to hopefully post it on Friday - fingers crossed!

But IF we have a choice, both DS and parents are torn on the pros and cons. DS would thrive at either. But I feel like, according to this website, STA might be less drama......any thoughts on academics, college outcomes, grading, teachers, sports, food, etc would be welcome. This is for HS!

If your DS is really all in for the STA-experience (all boys and sports requirements etc.) and you as parents are ok with the community - I'd say STA is a better run school and a more cohesive and supportive experience (for those that fit in). Their college counseling is 100% better run. My sons weren't up for STA so they didn't apply - but we know many happy STA families. Ours ended up at Sidwell.

Only fair to note that Sidwell has a new CCO director starting in July and has built a new team over the last year. Interim CCO director this year has been fantastic and endorsed the new head. So optimism there!

And how did the (many) changes in CCO over the past 4 years work? I hope for future families this "change" actually makes a difference (and TBH maybe the bigger difference will be due to the new principal, not new CCO leadership).

[Anonymous]

St. Alban's

[Anonymous]

Bump. Considering these two schools for a boy who cares about being among classmates who care about their learning. But he is also a typical boy who doesn’t love doing endless hours of homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bump. Considering these two schools for a boy who cares about being among classmates who care about their learning. But he is also a typical boy who doesn’t love doing endless hours of homework.

That’s a joke, right?

Both schools involve endless hours of homework in Upper School. Sidwell is more intensely competitive. STA does a better job of trying to create some balance and encourages camaraderie among all the boys, the famed “brotherhood.”

Sidwell has a greater density of cutthroat parents.STA has more MAGAs..

STA is more informed by Episcopalianism than Sidwell is by Quakerism.

STA is better run.

Choose your poison.

[Anonymous]

This is a pure coed or not choice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bump. Considering these two schools for a boy who cares about being among classmates who care about their learning. But he is also a typical boy who doesn’t love doing endless hours of homework.

That’s a joke, right?

Both schools involve endless hours of homework in Upper School. Sidwell is more intensely competitive. STA does a better job of trying to create some balance and encourages camaraderie among all the boys, the famed “brotherhood.”

Sidwell has a greater density of cutthroat parents.STA has more MAGAs..

STA is more informed by Episcopalianism than Sidwell is by Quakerism.

STA is better run.

Choose your poison.

This has not been my son's experience with upper school at STA. He works hard but it's not an endless amount--generally 1-2 hours of homework nightly and he does very well and is taking the top rigor courses.
I had a daughter graduate from NCS and she had endless homework. That was an entirely different situation.

[Anonymous]

There are 500 kids in Sidwell’s high school. I find it hard to believe they are all as miserable as this board makes them out to be.

[Anonymous]

Two things about my son’s experience at STA upper school that I think are worth mentioning.

First, there is a lot of humor/silliness through my son’s day. At dinner, he frequently shares the humorous announcements made during lunch and why they are insider funny. He is also constantly joking and being joked with his peers. Look, I get this could veer into the land of meanness but it has not. It’s been joyful. At least for my son, this has been a benefit of an all boys experience for high school. He is not mortified of being embarrassed in front of a girl. I didn’t expect or think about this going in.

Second, I think STA does everything it can to bring out the “best” in every boy. I believe they think this makes for a happier community as well as the side benefit of extraordinary college results. These boys are smart and they are driven, so there is a natural competitiveness on the academic side of things. But my son would not describe his classmates as competitive with him; he shares grade info freely with his peers and they routinely are helping each other/sharing study guides/what not. I think the reason for this is there is a respect for all different kinds of achievement. A kid may be in the bottom third, but yet everyone knows he’s the best language kid so no one thinks he’s dumb. Or, a kid is being recruited by some fancy sports school or league, so my son brags about how amazing kid is at X sport. Or the kid is on the fancy robotics team that made is very far in some competition somewhere. My son is incredibly proud of all different kinds do achievements of his classmates. Therefore while being smart and getting good grades is very respected, it’s more nuanced than just everyone wants to be Top 10 or something.

Good luck with your choice and I hope this was helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two things about my son’s experience at STA upper school that I think are worth mentioning.

First, there is a lot of humor/silliness through my son’s day. At dinner, he frequently shares the humorous announcements made during lunch and why they are insider funny. He is also constantly joking and being joked with his peers. Look, I get this could veer into the land of meanness but it has not. It’s been joyful. At least for my son, this has been a benefit of an all boys experience for high school. He is not mortified of being embarrassed in front of a girl. I didn’t expect or think about this going in.

Second, I think STA does everything it can to bring out the “best” in every boy. I believe they think this makes for a happier community as well as the side benefit of extraordinary college results. These boys are smart and they are driven, so there is a natural competitiveness on the academic side of things. But my son would not describe his classmates as competitive with him; he shares grade info freely with his peers and they routinely are helping each other/sharing study guides/what not. I think the reason for this is there is a respect for all different kinds of achievement. A kid may be in the bottom third, but yet everyone knows he’s the best language kid so no one thinks he’s dumb. Or, a kid is being recruited by some fancy sports school or league, so my son brags about how amazing kid is at X sport. Or the kid is on the fancy robotics team that made is very far in some competition somewhere. My son is incredibly proud of all different kinds do achievements of his classmates. Therefore while being smart and getting good grades is very respected, it’s more nuanced than just everyone wants to be Top 10 or something.

Good luck with your choice and I hope this was helpful.

And you think these things are unique to STA? I could have written this same post about my kids at Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two things about my son’s experience at STA upper school that I think are worth mentioning.

First, there is a lot of humor/silliness through my son’s day. At dinner, he frequently shares the humorous announcements made during lunch and why they are insider funny. He is also constantly joking and being joked with his peers. Look, I get this could veer into the land of meanness but it has not. It’s been joyful. At least for my son, this has been a benefit of an all boys experience for high school. He is not mortified of being embarrassed in front of a girl. I didn’t expect or think about this going in.

Second, I think STA does everything it can to bring out the “best” in every boy. I believe they think this makes for a happier community as well as the side benefit of extraordinary college results. These boys are smart and they are driven, so there is a natural competitiveness on the academic side of things. But my son would not describe his classmates as competitive with him; he shares grade info freely with his peers and they routinely are helping each other/sharing study guides/what not. I think the reason for this is there is a respect for all different kinds of achievement. A kid may be in the bottom third, but yet everyone knows he’s the best language kid so no one thinks he’s dumb. Or, a kid is being recruited by some fancy sports school or league, so my son brags about how amazing kid is at X sport. Or the kid is on the fancy robotics team that made is very far in some competition somewhere. My son is incredibly proud of all different kinds do achievements of his classmates. Therefore while being smart and getting good grades is very respected, it’s more nuanced than just everyone wants to be Top 10 or something.

Good luck with your choice and I hope this was helpful.

And you think these things are unique to STA? I could have written this same post about my kids at Sidwell.

I think when you post like this about your school it makes you seem competitive and not very nice. Im sure there are loads of welcoming and very nice people at Sidwell, and I hope PP you get the chance to talk to them and not people like this on the Board. I’m an STA mom and I wrote the above post and I can only speak to our families’ experience — and we’ve been very happy. (Not perfect!! Just on balance surprisingly happy).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bump. Considering these two schools for a boy who cares about being among classmates who care about their learning. But he is also a typical boy who doesn’t love doing endless hours of homework.

That’s a joke, right?

Both schools involve endless hours of homework in Upper School. Sidwell is more intensely competitive. STA does a better job of trying to create some balance and encourages camaraderie among all the boys, the famed “brotherhood.”

Unfortunately, STA's famed brotherhood is partly predicated on sexism and misogyny.