Bishop Ireton vs. SSSAS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSSAS is second tier private at best. Ireton is better.

NP. Looking at both because we don’t want to drive into DC for school. Why is BI better? Honestly, I thought they are both considered second tier?

What I mean here is that SSSAS has a reputation as one of the least academically rigorous and least prestigious of the independent schools in the DMV. It's for rich families in Arlington/Alexandria who aren't Catholic and whose kids can't get into the "real" private schools in this area but feel the need to escape public schools. Ireton is different; it's a Catholic school for Catholic families interested in Catholic education. It has a mission. SSSAS doesn't, or at least not a good one.

I think you are overlooking a major appeal of SSSAS for many families. There are lots people who live in Alexandria, can afford a $45-50k tuition and don’t want to drive 30+ minutes a day (each way) into DC for school! This is a big factor for many families.

St. Stephen's parent here. I'll add to this that we looked at schools all over the DMV as we lived in the district at the time and picked SSSAS. It's an excellent school and we wanted to provide a more suburban experience for our kids. All the "real" private schools (as the PP so put it <eye roll> are urban (including those in Bethesda). We also considered Potomac but McLean wasn't our scene.

Also the trashing of SSSAS on DCUM is really weird. My kid is in the lower school and half their class has parents with Ivy league degrees (and the other half graduated from schools like William and Mary or UVA), a huge number of parents are equity partners at top law firms, and many others have high-profile jobs. I'm not saying these kids definitely would have been admitted to Sidwell or anything but it's not as if they had no chance of being admitted to DC private schools. Most of them openly talk about a) really liking Alexandria, and b) wanting to raise kids outside the district.

Excuse me while I laugh. You say that many of the parents are rich and well credentialed. Ok. Now, compare the colleges that the SSSAS graduates themselves are accepted to to the DC and Bethesda ones -- and Potomac -- and they're laughable. You'd do just as well going to Alexandria City High, Ireton, O'Connell, or any of the Arlington public high schools.

So all you've done is prove my point that it's a school for rich kids with white flight parents.

Omfg not all of us choose a private school based on college lists…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSSAS is second tier private at best. Ireton is better.

NP. Looking at both because we don’t want to drive into DC for school. Why is BI better? Honestly, I thought they are both considered second tier?

Ireton is third tier at best as far as Catholic high schools. Good choice if in Alexandria. That is all. Not sure they should be throwing stones at others.

SSSAS is 2nd tier. Ireton, 3rd or 4th tier.

It's really hard to compare them though, they're so different with different reasons for existing. My DD and her friends from their Catholic parochial K-8 are really excited to apply to Ireton, PVI and O'Connell for next year. But I know we would never apply to SSSAS and we live close by, and I've never heard of anyone from their school even mentioning it. Visitation and Stone Ridge yes, and we would consider them if we could find a way to make the commute work. But not SSSAS.

OP, did you go to the Ireton Open House this past weekend? My DD is a lot like yours -- very artsy, not so much a sports person -- and she's putting Ireton as her first choice on the HSPT.

You also have a lot of very smart kids from Alexandria as well as the surrounding portions of Fairfax that are zone for terrible public high school applying to Ireton who could never afford SSSAS. The one that get in have to have stats similar to kids coming to the Big3 from public.

Reality check. You do not need the same stats to get into Bishop Ireton as GDS, Sidwell and NCS/STA. BI enrolls 200 kids for 9th grade. It isn’t hard to get into BI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish there were more choices for private high school in Alexandria. Episcopal should start accepting day students!

We moved to Montgomery for the access to unlimited privates…(and I’m not gonna lie.. the country clubs too)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSSAS is second tier private at best. Ireton is better.

NP. Looking at both because we don’t want to drive into DC for school. Why is BI better? Honestly, I thought they are both considered second tier?

Ireton is third tier at best as far as Catholic high schools. Good choice if in Alexandria. That is all. Not sure they should be throwing stones at others.

SSSAS is 2nd tier. Ireton, 3rd or 4th tier.

It's really hard to compare them though, they're so different with different reasons for existing. My DD and her friends from their Catholic parochial K-8 are really excited to apply to Ireton, PVI and O'Connell for next year. But I know we would never apply to SSSAS and we live close by, and I've never heard of anyone from their school even mentioning it. Visitation and Stone Ridge yes, and we would consider them if we could find a way to make the commute work. But not SSSAS.

OP, did you go to the Ireton Open House this past weekend? My DD is a lot like yours -- very artsy, not so much a sports person -- and she's putting Ireton as her first choice on the HSPT.

You also have a lot of very smart kids from Alexandria as well as the surrounding portions of Fairfax that are zone for terrible public high school applying to Ireton who could never afford SSSAS. The one that get in have to have stats similar to kids coming to the Big3 from public.

Reality check. You do not need the same stats to get into Bishop Ireton as GDS, Sidwell and NCS/STA. BI enrolls 200 kids for 9th grade. It isn’t hard to get into BI.

Reality check, there are great elementary schools feeding into terrible high schools very near to Ireton with parents who can afford Ireton and not independents. A non-catholic from those schools needs the same stats to get into Ireton as they would to get into GDS/Sidwell/NNCS/STA. Between all of the parish schools there already aren't many openings and there are a lot of applicants.

[Anonymous]

Lol at PP.

[Anonymous]

SSSA is definitely academically above BI. Basing this off the neighborhood kids who were in public in our south Alexandria neighborhood who left in jr high/high school for Alexandria privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol at PP.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Thanks to those with helpful responses! Someone suggests nobody would be looking any both BI and SSSAS, not sure why. They’re certainly both convenient for Alexandria families and seem like the obvious alternatives to the ginormous and unwieldy ACHS, the only public option in the City. I know a few families looking at both. We went to the BI open house over the weekend and had a positive feeling about it overall.

[Anonymous]

Why LOL? Do you think that there are no high achieving students whose parents can’t afford 30,000+ per year? Or do you think non-Catholics apply to a Catholic school don’t have to have a better ‘application’ than Catholic students?

[Anonymous]

I have a spouse who teaches at BI and the staff there is very dissatisfied. The Catholicism is a huge part of things each day, naturally. They take a big group to the Right to Life March each year and many are Trump supporters. SSSA is equal in terms of academics and more laid back. I would never send my kid to BI.

[Anonymous]

I found both schools send kids to top schools—not sure if it’s academics or sports, but they’re going. BI has a smaller percent of such kids.

We applied to both in prior years. Kid went to a different school in the end but both are good schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I found both schools send kids to top schools—not sure if it’s academics or sports, but they’re going. BI has a smaller percent of such kids.

We applied to both in prior years. Kid went to a different school in the end but both are good schools.

I think a lot of the disparity between college destinations at the two schools also comes down to parental HHI. Most parents spending $50k a year for high school will be able to spend $75k a year on the top ranked private college. Middle class families are more common at BI and their kids might have more financial constraints around college choice (ie, in state public university only or lower ranked private that gives a lot of merit $). Just a thought…

[Anonymous]

My dd was choosing between the two also and chose BI. We could afford both. She liked the bigger size classes and it felt more like a traditional high school, while SSSAS had a snootier feel. The theater program at BI is quite good and likely stronger than SSSAS. They also have walk on sports. It is more conservative than I like but I think that likely is present at all religious schools. Lots of very smart kids there, not sure why people would assume there wouldn’t be. I have heard from parents with kids at both that academically they are the same.

[Anonymous]

Looks like on average 4 graduates a year (out of a typical class of 115) get into an Ivy. Yea, that's worth $45k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why LOL? Do you think that there are no high achieving students whose parents can’t afford 30,000+ per year? Or do you think non-Catholics apply to a Catholic school don’t have to have a better ‘application’ than Catholic students?

not PP but we all know the BI acceptance rate is over 87%.