When did GDS become so well regarded?

[Anonymous]

PP no doubt misses the irony of his/her post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up here in the 80s and 90s and I agree. GDS was nbd. It had no reputation at all. It wasn’t on people’s radar.

Disagree! I remember it being the “cool” school where the kids had freedom and could call teachers by their first name. It was seen as progressive/non-traditional, at least this was my POV as a kid who didn’t attend. A school that kids liked but parents not so much!

When did it become a hook to Harvard?

It’s not. Actually, it is. In the mind of a crazy DCUM troll who is trying her darndest to perpetuate that myth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maret was a last resort school, and Bullis wasn't even a laughable options.

I think, as the public schools continued to deteriorate in the 1990's (DCPS and DC in general hit a nadir during the crack epidemic and latter Barry years) and testing and overcrowding overtook the MoCo schools in the late 1990's and early 2000's, there is a huge influx of new demand that made "the top" schools even harder to get into and it trickled "down" to GDS and Maret and as those became more in demand, it tickled "down" to Burke, Field, St Andrews, WIS etc.

Families do choose WIS over “Big 3”, hate to break it to you. But you can stay in your bubble.

Big 3 are great for locals.

WIS is Big 1 for the rest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the 80s and early 90s GDS was the school where liberal, Jewish intellectuals sent their kids. WASPY types never considered it because of that. Slowly I think folks started to realize that the kids were getting a great education there and what had been a mostly Jewish school (albeit very reform/progressive) started to change demographically. Also GDS had a reputation for being integrated early on and DC was a VERY segregated city so that probably held its reputation down in certain circles

Totally agree with this. All of the Jewish lawyers I know sent their kids there back then. Then, once it became known that kids got into Ivies...the more WASPY types thought it was ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS is sort of the Skadden Arps of DC private schools. It was a scrappy upstart with its own philosophy among more “white shoe” private schools. Through outsmarting and outworking the others, and through its progressively recognized reputation for attracting talent and achieving success, GDS is now firmly at the pinnacle of privates.

I can't think of two organizations with less in common than GDS and Skadden.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the 80s and early 90s GDS was the school where liberal, Jewish intellectuals sent their kids. WASPY types never considered it because of that. Slowly I think folks started to realize that the kids were getting a great education there and what had been a mostly Jewish school (albeit very reform/progressive) started to change demographically. Also GDS had a reputation for being integrated early on and DC was a VERY segregated city so that probably held its reputation down in certain circles

Totally agree with this. All of the Jewish lawyers I know sent their kids there back then. Then, once it became known that kids got into Ivies...the more WASPY types thought it was ok.

I agree too. I also recall from colleagues in the early 90s that the perception was that GDS was starting to get non-hooked kids into Ivies and SLACs. I may be wrong because I didn't have kids then. I do have a 9th grader who just started in GDS upper school and I don't think this perception continues now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS is sort of the Skadden Arps of DC private schools. It was a scrappy upstart with its own philosophy among more “white shoe” private schools. Through outsmarting and outworking the others, and through its progressively recognized reputation for attracting talent and achieving success, GDS is now firmly at the pinnacle of privates.

I can't think of two organizations with less in common than GDS and Skadden.

+100. Skadden embodies all the NYC firm burnout and cutthroat reputation. Maybe Arnold & Porter or Hogan, or Fried Frank? Covington is too white-shoe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS is sort of the Skadden Arps of DC private schools. It was a scrappy upstart with its own philosophy among more “white shoe” private schools. Through outsmarting and outworking the others, and through its progressively recognized reputation for attracting talent and achieving success, GDS is now firmly at the pinnacle of privates.

I can't think of two organizations with less in common than GDS and Skadden.

+100. Skadden embodies all the NYC firm burnout and cutthroat reputation. Maybe Arnold & Porter or Hogan, or Fried Frank? Covington is too white-shoe.

I get the scrappy striver analogy, with a big dollop of self-promotion thrown in.

[Anonymous]

You'll have to be more specific about the "self-promotion" part because I've never seen it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y'all sound jealous.

Jealous of what? I don’t have kids in private. This title popped up in recent topics and caught my eye because I grew up here and I agree. What would I be jealous of? Just stating a fact. GDS was a meh school in the 80s and 90s. You sound defensive.

hmmm, I was a mid 80s GDS grad and went to an Ivy, as did about 10 of the 80 kids in my class. Where did this idea that it wasn't a top school then come from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up here in the 80s and it was considered a school where kids went that didn't "get in" - things have changed - what happened and when?

Another negative thread about GDS? My children attend another big three but I don’t understand these negative posts about genius. Is it the same poster or same few posters?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up here in the 80s and it was considered a school where kids went that didn't "get in" - things have changed - what happened and when?

Another negative thread about GDS? My children attend another big three but I don’t understand these negative posts about genius. Is it the same poster or same few posters?

GDS typo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the 80s and early 90s GDS was the school where liberal, Jewish intellectuals sent their kids. WASPY types never considered it because of that. Slowly I think folks started to realize that the kids were getting a great education there and what had been a mostly Jewish school (albeit very reform/progressive) started to change demographically. Also GDS had a reputation for being integrated early on and DC was a VERY segregated city so that probably held its reputation down in certain circles

Totally agree with this. All of the Jewish lawyers I know sent their kids there back then. Then, once it became known that kids got into Ivies...the more WASPY types thought it was ok.

I agree too. I also recall from colleagues in the early 90s that the perception was that GDS was starting to get non-hooked kids into Ivies and SLACs. I may be wrong because I didn't have kids then. I do have a 9th grader who just started in GDS upper school and I don't think this perception continues now.

Well, there is the moderately-sized asterisk that families who 1. seek to avoid any Christian theology-based school, no matter how "lite" and 2. want an excellent education will put GDS at the top of the list. That's still very much the case, based on my anecdata of atheist and observant Jewish good friends with kids at GDS. For some of these friends, even mandatory Quaker meeting for worship or non-denominational & Christian chapel requirements were too much. i.e., NCS, Sidwell, St. Andrews.

For this crew, the pool consists of GDS, Sheridan, Lowell, Burke, and a couple of other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the 80s and early 90s GDS was the school where liberal, Jewish intellectuals sent their kids. WASPY types never considered it because of that. Slowly I think folks started to realize that the kids were getting a great education there and what had been a mostly Jewish school (albeit very reform/progressive) started to change demographically. Also GDS had a reputation for being integrated early on and DC was a VERY segregated city so that probably held its reputation down in certain circles

Totally agree with this. All of the Jewish lawyers I know sent their kids there back then. Then, once it became known that kids got into Ivies...the more WASPY types thought it was ok.

I agree too. I also recall from colleagues in the early 90s that the perception was that GDS was starting to get non-hooked kids into Ivies and SLACs. I may be wrong because I didn't have kids then. I do have a 9th grader who just started in GDS upper school and I don't think this perception continues now.

Well, there is the moderately-sized asterisk that families who 1. seek to avoid any Christian theology-based school, no matter how "lite" and 2. want an excellent education will put GDS at the top of the list. That's still very much the case, based on my anecdata of atheist and observant Jewish good friends with kids at GDS. For some of these friends, even mandatory Quaker meeting for worship or non-denominational & Christian chapel requirements were too much. i.e., NCS, Sidwell, St. Andrews.

For this crew, the pool consists of GDS, Sheridan, Lowell, Burke, and a couple of other schools.

And Bullis. It's not the 1980s, the school is vastly different now. Also quite a lot of Jews sending their kids there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the 80s and early 90s GDS was the school where liberal, Jewish intellectuals sent their kids. WASPY types never considered it because of that. Slowly I think folks started to realize that the kids were getting a great education there and what had been a mostly Jewish school (albeit very reform/progressive) started to change demographically. Also GDS had a reputation for being integrated early on and DC was a VERY segregated city so that probably held its reputation down in certain circles

Totally agree with this. All of the Jewish lawyers I know sent their kids there back then. Then, once it became known that kids got into Ivies...the more WASPY types thought it was ok.

I agree too. I also recall from colleagues in the early 90s that the perception was that GDS was starting to get non-hooked kids into Ivies and SLACs. I may be wrong because I didn't have kids then. I do have a 9th grader who just started in GDS upper school and I don't think this perception continues now.

Well, there is the moderately-sized asterisk that families who 1. seek to avoid any Christian theology-based school, no matter how "lite" and 2. want an excellent education will put GDS at the top of the list. That's still very much the case, based on my anecdata of atheist and observant Jewish good friends with kids at GDS. For some of these friends, even mandatory Quaker meeting for worship or non-denominational & Christian chapel requirements were too much. i.e., NCS, Sidwell, St. Andrews.

For this crew, the pool consists of GDS, Sheridan, Lowell, Burke, and a couple of other schools.

I agree with these thoughts except that for some reason, many people I know seem to exclude Sidwell from category 1. It’s almost as if the “cache” of the school causes them to justify why the Quaker aspects of Sidwell are not religious in nature. I hear many people do this with Norwood, too, which to my understanding still has a weekly chapel requirement.