| I would look at other back-up options besides Congressional. |
| Congressional is a joke. Potomac and flint hill are both on another level as schools. |
+1 on sibling boost. About 2/3 of the incoming K class has a sibling, so agree that you’re realistically only looking at 10-20 available spots (out of 48 total). |
Honestly, Potomac and Flint Hill are not on the same level. |
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Flint Hill, SSSAS, and Congressional are fairly similar, and Congressional sends a handful of kids to each of FH and SSSAS each year (the two schools together accounted for about 1/4-1/3 of DC’s 8th grade class), and often one or two kids to Potomac. Potomac is a far more competitive admit than the others.
DC’s path was Congressional to SSSAS, and loved/loves the experience at both schools. |
Why is congressional a joke? can we get some color here or information? |
Anyone who puts Flint Hill on the same level as Potomac is deeply confused and should be disregarded. I like FH, a lot. It was a very close second choice for DC for HS. But the only reason Potomac doesn’t make “big 3” or “big 5” status is the fact that it’s in Virginia. Flint Hill is not on the same level. Congressional is a great school. DC loved it. |
I am not sure why people put flint hill so far ahead of congressional. Flint hill is wealthier, I guess |
This is why. |
It’s the DC area. All of these schools have extremely wealthy families. It’s a matter of degrees. As a 200k HHI family, some of the wealth we saw at Congressional was eye opening for us. |
Well since Potomac isn’t "big 3” or "big 5”, which schools are on Potomac’s level? |
The primary knock on congressional is probably the fact they age out at high school so you have to deal with the application process again. |
In Northern Virginia? Probably none but maaaybe Madeira for girls. |
| There are so few HS in northern VA. Potomac is top of the heap. Then you have Flint Hill and SSSAS as your more mainstream, non-Catholics. O’Connell, PVI, etc — the Catholic schools. Madeira is single sex. Episcopal is boarding. New School is small, progressive, kind of niche. Ideaventions is even smaller and more niche. Sycamore School and Commonwealth Academy for learning differences, etc. BIM for the super STEMy who don’t care about a traditional HS experience. TJ as the specialty public gets an honorable mention. |
Can you share your experiences a bit more about Edlin school? We are considering it for Kinder/1st grade and would love to hear your experience overall! |