GP, St. Anselm's or St. Albans

[Anonymous]

They are all great schools. Either pick the one closest to your house so your son will have more free time or pick SAAS because it is the cheapest and you will have more $ to spend on other things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been an alumni interviewer for my undergraduate college (an Ivy) for a while. We take a ton of kids from ST Albans every year - the kids at the top of the class have great grades and scores and good extracurricular involvement. We also like St Anselm's kids, since they not only have good grades, but there is quite a bit of good character education and community service going on there. It's also okay to be quirky there. Georgetown Prep isn't considered to be in the same league academically, and there are a lot of public schools in Montgomery County that have a much better track record with us than GP.

Relative to a Prep "track record, there's a strong preference among Prep people for schools like Notre Dame, Georgetown and BC which they prefer to many of the Ivies. Many Prep parents are reluctant to consider Ivies because of the Liberal bias there. I have heard many times, "Why would we want to send our son or daughter somewhere that our values are going to be under constant assault".

St. Anselm's is a Catholic school too, and their graduates go on to a lot of liberal-leaning institutions including Ivies, but also SLACs. According to that list from the last 2 years posted by PP

[Anonymous]

Seems to me that no one has mentioned the obvious.

Saint Anselms and Georgetown Prep are Catholic schools. St Albans is not.

If the family is Catholic and consider themselves part of the DC area Catholic community, than St. Albans would seem to be a non-starter.

That would leave SAA and Prep.

If the family is not Catholic, then at least at Prep, he would be part of a tiny minority. And that's not a lot of fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me that no one has mentioned the obvious.

Saint Anselms and Georgetown Prep are Catholic schools. St Albans is not.

If the family is Catholic and consider themselves part of the DC area Catholic community, than St. Albans would seem to be a non-starter.

That would leave SAA and Prep.

If the family is not Catholic, then at least at Prep, he would be part of a tiny minority. And that's not a lot of fun.

There are actually quite a few Catholic students at St. Albans.

[Anonymous]

Can we stop putting people into boxes. Isn't education about broadening our views, not narrowing them ?

[Anonymous]

Just for the fun of it I looked at the St. Anselm's college list.

Are people at St. A so snotty that they would turn their nose up at a kid going to those colleges?

To the, PP, I agree I want my kids to broaden their views, which is why we will probably leave our school for a different HS even though it goes through 12th, only 10 kids will leave. Most of St. A kids are together since they were 4, not since 4th, since they were 4 years old, until they are 18.

[Anonymous]

SAAS is about 60% Catholic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just for the fun of it I looked at the St. Anselm's college list.

Are people at St. A so snotty that they would turn their nose up at a kid going to those colleges?

To the, PP, I agree I want my kids to broaden their views, which is why we will probably leave our school for a different HS even though it goes through 12th, only 10 kids will leave. Most of St. A kids are together since they were 4, not since 4th, since they were 4 years old, until they are 18.

About 30-32 kids out of a graduating class at St. Albans of 75-80 started at Beauvoir. About 13-15 non-Beauvoir kids come in at 4th grade, and then more students join the class in 6th, 7th, and 9th grade. I agree that a lot of the class is together for a significant amount of time but there's good new blood in high school too and they all seem close, not tired of each other, by the end of high school.

St. Anselm's might have the most intellectually oriented atmosphere of the three schools as, to their credit, they have avoided joining the sports arms race.

St. Albans, with its larger size and cross-registration with NCS, does offer a wider selection of academic courses, paired with small class sizes, and the faculty is very impressive. STA has a bright cohort as well -- a higher percentage of National Merit Semifinalists over the years than St. Anselm's, for example (which does very well itself).

Georgetown Prep is also a very good school, as others have noted, with the strongest sports program of the three and a great tradition of Jesuit education in the DC area. In recent years they do appear to be going through a bit more of a soul-searching phase than STA or St. Anselm's, both of which seem comfortable with their identities as institutions.

I agree that the "vibe" may be fairly different from school to school, so perhaps if the son goes on a re-visit and really talks through the results with his parents, a consensus will emerge.

[Anonymous]

At SAAS, I have seen protestants, neoprotestants, judaics, budhists, muslims, catholics (just baptized, but not confirmed), orthodoxes, and atheists. They are all welcome and I have not detected any hidden thoughts of conversion to Catholicism from the faculty as they are as well protestants, neoprotestants, etc.. Every single day of the SAAS' boys is filled with the joy of discovery.

[Anonymous]

Parent of current Prep student who also seriously considered St. Anselm's. We did not even look at St. Alban's as we wanted Catholic. On academics alone, we (parents) were sold on St. Anselm's. We were very impressed with faculty, potential peer group, challenge level & intellectual climate. But Prep was a better match overall and have to say we are very happy at Prep academically as well as on the other fronts that mattered to us and to our son -- facilities, athletics, social vibe, Jesuit tradition, location, etc. Great teachers, challenging courses, high expectations, fantastic teacher-student ratio/personalized attention. We were pleasantly surprised that there are 'nerdy' kids at Prep too and to address another issue raised in the thread, while the faith formation & Jesuit tradition are very strong, there are quite a few non-Catholic students. Parents and boys seem very happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me that no one has mentioned the obvious.

Saint Anselms and Georgetown Prep are Catholic schools. St Albans is not.

If the family is Catholic and consider themselves part of the DC area Catholic community, than St. Albans would seem to be a non-starter.

That would leave SAA and Prep.

If the family is not Catholic, then at least at Prep, he would be part of a tiny minority. And that's not a lot of fun.

There are actually quite a few Catholic students at St. Albans.

Not from our parish there aren't. Never heard of such a thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just for the fun of it I looked at the St. Anselm's college list.

Are people at St. A so snotty that they would turn their nose up at a kid going to those colleges?

To the, PP, I agree I want my kids to broaden their views, which is why we will probably leave our school for a different HS even though it goes through 12th, only 10 kids will leave. Most of St. A kids are together since they were 4, not since 4th, since they were 4 years old, until they are 18.

First of all, its STA, not St. A . Secondly, if anyone would like accurate numbers on the % of boys at STA in HS who "have been together since age of 4" , ask the AD at Saint Albans. He could best provide that data.

What I am comfortable taking on myslef is this insinuation that, if kids are together since age 4, that means they are narrow minded and insular. Beauvoir has possibly the most diverse group of students in the city ( ethnic, country of origin, racial and political) so I think that's a great group to continue on with. STA sets such high academic standards for admission that the kids who join ( 15 or so in 4th/out of 45 total) ? 20 or so in 7th and 20 or so in 9th ? add a lot to the final product.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we stop putting people into boxes. Isn't education about broadening our views, not narrowing them ?

Many, if not most, DC area Catholics are committed to the concept of Catholic education. It's part of their history and their culture and reinforces their values.

There's plenty of opportunity to observe and interact with other groups outside of schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At SAAS, I have seen protestants, neoprotestants, judaics, budhists, muslims, catholics (just baptized, but not confirmed), orthodoxes, and atheists. They are all welcome and I have not detected any hidden thoughts of conversion to Catholicism from the faculty as they are as well protestants, neoprotestants, etc.. Every single day of the SAAS' boys is filled with the joy of discovery.

Sounds like a nice school- saying this as a Saint Albans parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just for the fun of it I looked at the St. Anselm's college list.

Are people at St. A so snotty that they would turn their nose up at a kid going to those colleges?

To the, PP, I agree I want my kids to broaden their views, which is why we will probably leave our school for a different HS even though it goes through 12th, only 10 kids will leave. Most of St. A kids are together since they were 4, not since 4th, since they were 4 years old, until they are 18.

Not true. Less than 30 boys from Beauvoir go to STA for 4th and almost 80 graduate at the end of 12th. STA adds boys at 6th, 7th, and 9th (plus a few in between when spots open). That does not equate to "most are together [from the time they are] 4 years old" now does it?