Having been part of that Washington Catholic community my whole life and my family going back to the 1800s I understand. But 100% of catholic families do not send their kids to Catholic schools and we understand everybody has their own needs and desires. There are thousands and thousands of Catholics that don’t send their kids to Catholic schools and that is okay. Every child in CCD does not go to a Catholic school. The Catholic school or be an outcast mantra is literally the opposite of Catholic teachings. Thanks to club sports kids in this generation are not as insular as the Catholic students of the past. They are friends with kids at Landon, Saint Albans, Bullis, public school, etc. |
And the assumption among many of the boys that everyone there is Catholic as they are. The social scene revolves around girls from Visitation and Stone Ridge. Non-Catholics are in the minority. Some boys are bothered by that, while others hardly notice |
Thousands and thousands? You must be talking about those Catholics that send their kids to public schools. Of those Catholic families that send their kids to non-public schools, 98% of them go to Catholic schools. A couple of kids at St Albans or Landon hardly moves the meter. |
Did you get your answer? Probably not. I'd send your son back to the drawing boards on this one and see if he can come up with some more comparable alternatives. Or at least decide between these two very different alternatives. Getting into either of these schools is not a slam dunk. Landon is quite small and has a lower school that feeds into 9th grade. Gonzaga will bring in 250 boys but lots more than that apply drawn by the location of the school, its reputation and its relatively low sticker price. When the school expanded from 800 to 1,000 boys, many more kids from Virginia started to attend because of the Metro. Legacies (of which there are many), athletes, graduates of Catholic parish schools, Catholics and some minority groups are advantaged in the Admissions process. This leaves lots of good candidates on the outside looking in at the end of the Admissions process. You'll need some back-ups in either case. |
| Wow... The competition between Gonzaga and Landon is so toxic. They are not that different they are boys schools I think some of you are crazy. You’re not going to get your answer from this forum the people on this forum are absolutely insane. |
Yes they go to Public, they go to magnet schools, they got a non-secular schools and they go to Other Christian schools. What you’re missing is the most non-Catholics would never go to a Catholic school which is why most people in Catholic schools are Christian. It doesn’t work the other way around the other schools are more diverse of all religions including. Catholics . |
You are missing the point. The gist of most of the responses to this thread is they don't compete and there is no competition. They don't compete for students, except very rarely. They serve almost entirely different groups of people. They don't compete athletically except rarely. They are in different athletic conferences. No one has said one school or the other is bad and the other good. But they are very different by almost every measure. City vs. Suburbs. Large vs. Small. Religious vs. secular. WCAC vs. IAC. One is much more expensive than the other. About the only similarity is they are all boys schools. There may two more different schools in the area, but I can't think of any. |
and a Gonzaga alum is the current headmaster of Landon who grew up in this area.
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So? |
GZ and Prep are very different but have the same students applying. For many Prep has been a non choice with all their issues. Kids who don’t want to commute downtown are now looking at Landon. Of all the all boys schools in this area GZ and Landon are most alike. GZ is nothing like STA, St. anselms, the Heights ... it is way more similar to Landon. |
WZ beat Landon and many sports every year. Rugby,crew,lacrosse just to name a few |
Since we had boys go to Prep and GZA, I can tell you the schools are much more similar than they are different. And you are right, the same boys do apply to both. And that's what made the schools similar. That and the leadership of the Jesuits and the Jesuit model of education they both share. That's also why when the boys graduate from GZA or Prep, they are much more likely to become friends with one another than with those from other schools because they have so much in common. I'm not sure what "issues" at Prep you are talking about. A decades old sexual assault case or a Prep student or the unsubstantiated claim of assault by a girl in the 1980's. Landon's rap sheet is far from blemish-free. I cannot think of a single way in which Gonzaga is similar to Landon. They serve different communities. Maybe there is a small group 0f Catholics who mysteriouslywouldn't consider Prep and don't want to go downtown. But that's very few people. It sounds like an express ticket out of the Catholic community to me with long lasting ramifications. |
Eh, seems antiquated and oddly clannish but you do you. |
| Academics at Landon are far better than what you would experience at GZ |
It is not toxic. The people chiming in on this thread are. Landon and Gonzaga are different in some ways and similar in others. The only big difference is size of overall class and the fact that one is Catholic. There is overlap of friends and families in both of these schools. I went to a lacrosse game between the two of them and the parents of boys from Landon and Gonzaga were sitting together chatting away. Many are friends, family. |