Best private schools in Montgomery county

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I truly appreciate all the responses, thanks a lot to you all. Will call around today. We picked MoCO because both of us will work in ROckville/bethesda area. In Dallas, we had pretty diverse community, that created a kind of richness in our kid's perspective of world, so i'd pick some thing that has diverse population. If we had a choice,we'd never move from our area, but........
thanks again.

Being from Texas, I can tell you that this area and its choices of public and private schools are so very, very different from what you would have experienced in Dallas area. The magnets in the public schools are comparable to the best magnets in the Dallas area. The non-magnets on the west side (the 'W's)are generally comparable to Highland Park area, and the schools "East of the Pike" are generally the quality of the middle class/UMC in Dallas area. There is no UIL in Maryland. There really is no comparison to Landon/Georgetown Prep/Holton etc. in Dallas, but those are $40K a year (I think the Dallas families that afford this type of tuition may just send their children to boarding school). Prep is a Jesuit school and offers a rigorous (boys-only) education. Holton-Arms and Landon are brother/sister schools that also offer outstanding rigorous educations. Georgetown Day may offer the kind of diversity and worldview you are looking for. Green Acres is a more experiential (crunchy) school. St. Andrews and Gonzaga both offer rigorous Catholic school educations. Sidwell (the private school of choice for many a president's child) is, as you would imagine, top-notch.

A few minor points.

St. Andrew's is not a Catholic School. [i]t's Episcopal.

Gonzaga has many similarities to Dallas Jesuit on Inwood Rd. near LBJ. It's also Jesuit and about the same size. Gonzaga has a unique location in the heart of DC.

[Anonymous]

It you are really desperate call Bullis. They have a lot of openings in all grades. I drove by there the other day and the sign is out front. It is pricey and if you are willing to pay it will be easy. It it not ranked highly. Academics appear weak and the sports program is top priority. We looked at it for our DS a few years ago. Very diverse, mostly AA and Asian student body. Give them a call though if nothing else comes through. Atleast get them in for the first year and then apply to more competitive schools. I hear St. Andrews is very good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It you are really desperate call Bullis. They have a lot of openings in all grades. I drove by there the other day and the sign is out front. It is pricey and if you are willing to pay it will be easy. It it not ranked highly. Academics appear weak and the sports program is top priority. We looked at it for our DS a few years ago. Very diverse, mostly AA and Asian student body. Give them a call though if nothing else comes through. Atleast get them in for the first year and then apply to more competitive schools. I hear St. Andrews is very good.

Anything has to be better than MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brookewood in Kensington is all girls 1-12. They would have or make a spot for your DD. Catholic but there are non-Catholic and non-Chritisian girls there. Racially diverse as well. More Latinas and AAs than Asian, but certainly not overwhelmingly white.

Brother school is Avalon in Gaithersburg. Similar “personality”.

The kids are outside a lot in all kinds of weather, which my child loved. Her science class was often held in the woods and stream.

Families ranged from big traditional Catholic ones with a SAHM to several single moms who WOH. Headmaster was political conservative, but there were liberal voices on faculty.

Very generous with FA and they ended up giving us uniforms.

Avalon is heavily Catholic and they will take anyone as they have a lot of space. Curriculum was not comparable to other schools and did not seem academically that strong. They heavily pushed their religious view points and were pretty clear all others were wrong and they would try to convert. They just moved but the school was rundown and pretty shabby given what they charge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It you are really desperate call Bullis. They have a lot of openings in all grades. I drove by there the other day and the sign is out front. It is pricey and if you are willing to pay it will be easy. It it not ranked highly. Academics appear weak and the sports program is top priority. We looked at it for our DS a few years ago. Very diverse, mostly AA and Asian student body. Give them a call though if nothing else comes through. Atleast get them in for the first year and then apply to more competitive schools. I hear St. Andrews is very good.

I am confused. I've seen a lot of posts boasting how strong Bullis is, especially for STEM. Obviously people can simply have different opinions, but is there anything more to the divergence of descriptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[Post New]07/31/2018 22:19 Subject: Best private schools in Montgomery county [Up]
Anonymous

we will be moving to montgomery county in the fall from Texas - want to enroll kids in the private schools here - are there any back to school events that we should be looking at?

OP, do you realize that MoCo has excellent public schools? You might consider them.

Why the heck would you suggest MCPS given all the curriculum problems?

Some of us think that even with those problems, the kids receive one of the best public educations in the country. 2.0 doesn’t control everything. It’s on its way out. And our system continues to be highly ranked nationally and send kids to top colleges.

The "best" is relative. The reputation is form 50 years ago. It does control everything and the curriculum is weak. It may be on its way out but it will be several years. Its very weak in elementary school in terms of spelling, grammar, science, history, vocabulary and math facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It you are really desperate call Bullis. They have a lot of openings in all grades. I drove by there the other day and the sign is out front. It is pricey and if you are willing to pay it will be easy. It it not ranked highly. Academics appear weak and the sports program is top priority. We looked at it for our DS a few years ago. Very diverse, mostly AA and Asian student body. Give them a call though if nothing else comes through. Atleast get them in for the first year and then apply to more competitive schools. I hear St. Andrews is very good.

I am confused. I've seen a lot of posts boasting how strong Bullis is, especially for STEM. Obviously people can simply have different opinions, but is there anything more to the divergence of descriptions.

People seem upset it has strong focus in sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brookewood in Kensington is all girls 1-12. They would have or make a spot for your DD. Catholic but there are non-Catholic and non-Chritisian girls there. Racially diverse as well. More Latinas and AAs than Asian, but certainly not overwhelmingly white.

Brother school is Avalon in Gaithersburg. Similar “personality”.

The kids are outside a lot in all kinds of weather, which my child loved. Her science class was often held in the woods and stream.

Families ranged from big traditional Catholic ones with a SAHM to several single moms who WOH. Headmaster was political conservative, but there were liberal voices on faculty.

Very generous with FA and they ended up giving us uniforms.

Avalon is heavily Catholic and they will take anyone as they have a lot of space. Curriculum was not comparable to other schools and did not seem academically that strong. They heavily pushed their religious view points and were pretty clear all others were wrong and they would try to convert. They just moved but the school was rundown and pretty shabby given what they charge.

That was not our experience at all.

[Anonymous]

I wanted to ask if a certain politican’s son attended St. Andrew’s, but apparently that is not allowed on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It you are really desperate call Bullis. They have a lot of openings in all grades. I drove by there the other day and the sign is out front. It is pricey and if you are willing to pay it will be easy. It it not ranked highly. Academics appear weak and the sports program is top priority. We looked at it for our DS a few years ago. Very diverse, mostly AA and Asian student body. Give them a call though if nothing else comes through. Atleast get them in for the first year and then apply to more competitive schools. I hear St. Andrews is very good.

I am confused. I've seen a lot of posts boasting how strong Bullis is, especially for STEM. Obviously people can simply have different opinions, but is there anything more to the divergence of descriptions.

People seem upset it has strong focus in sports.

I don't know if people are upset sports. I think they are upset that their standards are much lower than even just 10 years ago. It is going downhill fast. I predict it will close within the next 10 years. I know two families who pulled their kids out after the school significantly reduced their financial aid. They give full tuition to certain athletes. The STEM program is not that great. Go spend a day there and you will see how unimpressive it really is on a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It you are really desperate call Bullis. They have a lot of openings in all grades. I drove by there the other day and the sign is out front. It is pricey and if you are willing to pay it will be easy. It it not ranked highly. Academics appear weak and the sports program is top priority. We looked at it for our DS a few years ago. Very diverse, mostly AA and Asian student body. Give them a call though if nothing else comes through. Atleast get them in for the first year and then apply to more competitive schools. I hear St. Andrews is very good.

I am confused. I've seen a lot of posts boasting how strong Bullis is, especially for STEM. Obviously people can simply have different opinions, but is there anything more to the divergence of descriptions.

People seem upset it has strong focus in sports.

Yeah there’s an anti-Bullis contingent on this board. Not really sure why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to ask if a certain politican’s son attended St. Andrew’s, but apparently that is not allowed on DCUM.

The answer is yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It you are really desperate call Bullis. They have a lot of openings in all grades. I drove by there the other day and the sign is out front. It is pricey and if you are willing to pay it will be easy. It it not ranked highly. Academics appear weak and the sports program is top priority. We looked at it for our DS a few years ago. Very diverse, mostly AA and Asian student body. Give them a call though if nothing else comes through. Atleast get them in for the first year and then apply to more competitive schools. I hear St. Andrews is very good.

I am confused. I've seen a lot of posts boasting how strong Bullis is, especially for STEM. Obviously people can simply have different opinions, but is there anything more to the divergence of descriptions.

People seem upset it has strong focus in sports.

Yeah there’s an anti-Bullis contingent on this board. Not really sure why.

Or there is a group of Bullis boosters unrealistically hyping the school as better than other privates and publics.

I truly don't know which is the case-it's probably somewhere in between. That's the downside of relying on dcum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It you are really desperate call Bullis. They have a lot of openings in all grades. I drove by there the other day and the sign is out front. It is pricey and if you are willing to pay it will be easy. It it not ranked highly. Academics appear weak and the sports program is top priority. We looked at it for our DS a few years ago. Very diverse, mostly AA and Asian student body. Give them a call though if nothing else comes through. Atleast get them in for the first year and then apply to more competitive schools. I hear St. Andrews is very good.

I am confused. I've seen a lot of posts boasting how strong Bullis is, especially for STEM. Obviously people can simply have different opinions, but is there anything more to the divergence of descriptions.

People seem upset it has strong focus in sports.

Yeah there’s an anti-Bullis contingent on this board. Not really sure why.

Or there is a group of Bullis boosters unrealistically hyping the school as better than other privates and publics.

I truly don't know which is the case-it's probably somewhere in between. That's the downside of relying on dcum.

Most things are somewhere in between. Boards like this bring out extreme opinions on both sides of every issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to ask if a certain politican’s son attended St. Andrew’s, but apparently that is not allowed on DCUM.

The answer is yes

Thank you. It was so weird. I typed in his name and was redirected to a warning. I did it with the previous president’s remaining minor child and was not redirected.