Which Private High Schools Have Really Strong Math Programs?
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Anonymous
| My son is at a K-8 and is really excelling in math. We have chosen a high school we think would be a good fit, but I want to explore some others first, just in case. Which high schools do you feel have great math programs? TIA. |
Anonymous
| What school did you pick so it won't be repeated here? Off hand I would say Sidwell, St. Anselms and any school that would allow your son to take a college course should he surpass what the school itself can offer. Look for a school with flexibility. |
Anonymous
| Generally, publics around here - particularly Moco and Fairfax - are known to be better for strong math students. |
Anonymous
|
Would agree that a magnet in FFX or Moco is likely tops after TJ.
GDS is known for math for that select tiny handful of students who can take on college-level instruction. |
Anonymous
| NCS, St Albans, Sidwell, GDS |
Anonymous
| None of them. Why would they need them? |
Anonymous
|
Only GDS. The head of the department is first rate and they have been known to recruit math geniuses from different parts of the world.
The other schools (Sidwell, Landon, St. Alban's, Holton) don't really have this kind of elite level math. |
Anonymous
|
Look at the AMC data from the FAQ spreadsheet. Many private schools seem to send lots of students to those competitions year after year, and those students seem to do very well. Some schools do better than others.
As one might expect, larger percentages of students from the two local math & science magnets excel at math contests like this. So if your son really excels at math, he might consider one of the magnets, although obviously top level math students can thrive at many different private schools as well. |
Anonymous
| Sidwell or GDS, then St. Albans, Landon, and Gonzaga |
Anonymous
| Google "math Olympiad". The Washington post had an article about Montgomery county's team this summer. Any of the schools in that article caters to elite math, public magnets in this area and Philips Exeter whose team ranked fourth in the world. |
Anonymous
|
There is some misinformation above. GDS doesn't recruit math genius kids from around the world ... that is ridiculous. Sidwell has had kids strong in math come from China, as part of their longstanding exchange program.
GDS has a structure to teach higher level math courses, and those courses are increasingly filled. It does more than any other private in the area in this regard - at the HS level (not MS). Sidwell's math program is pretty conservative and not very flexible. St. A's is more serious about math and does a good job with the very strong kids in math, but - as told by head of dept directly - can't do a lot for really elite kids, though. GDS does do a much better job with elite math kids. St.Anselms has really smart boys, but the numbers are too small to sustain a really elite math program. As for Exeter, there is no ranking that would suggest they are "#4 in the world." The teacher there is the US coach to the int'l math competing team, and he does train and recruit good students. TJ students do extremely well, and Blair also very good in the national math contests. For these three schools, though, it is less what the schools are doing than the kids that end up there anyway. |
Anonymous
| I assumed that by "recruiting math genius kids" the poster was talking about the teachers. Not the students. |
Anonymous
Why would they recruit genius teachers? |
Anonymous
| Sidwell US math faculty is excellent, but agree with PP that the school has taken a conservative and inflexible currciular approach, often to the detriment of top math students, particularly those who enter before 9th grade. In contrast, kids who enter in 9th as advanced math students are usually accommodated. |
Anonymous
|
Here's a link to Exeter coming in fourth in the International Math Olympiad:
http://www.exeter.edu/news_and_events/news_events_12058.aspx |