Anyone who has chosen Maret over Sidwell, STA/NCS

[Anonymous]

Have you been satisfied with the strength of academics at Maret? Has your DC been challenged and pushed to do his/her best?

[Anonymous]

Yes. But even more importantly for us, my DS loves school, has a great set of friends, has strong self-esteem, and has become very independent. Also, Maret has been a good fit for our younger DC too who is not quite as strong academically, but has other interests and strengths. The school really does treat each student as an individual, which it can do because its size. I think it's the size that truly sets Maret apart from other independents in the area.

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

Yes! We did. And some of the families at Maret have too.

I think Maret, Sidwell, STA/NCS attract the same pool of applicants and often the kids are accepted in to most of them.

But I'm sure you'll find just as many families that have picked the others over Maret.

You've got to see what kind of kid you have. And frankly, when you go to the welcome meet and greet, what kind of families are there and can you see yourself socializing with them!

[Anonymous]

We chose Maret over Sidwell and STA among others. So did many of our friends at Maret. Our kids felt it was a better fit for their interests and have done extremely well academically and otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Yes and they've been both academically challenged and happy.

[Anonymous]

Yes we chose Maret over Sidwell for our DS. We don't regret it. Both are great schools.

[Anonymous]

I will chime in and say that we chose GDS over Sidwell and haven't regretted it for one second. We have very close friends with a kid in the same class at Sidwell and our experience has been better by almost every metric.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will chime in and say that we chose GDS over Sidwell and haven't regretted it for one second. We have very close friends with a kid in the same class at Sidwell and our experience has been better by almost every metric.

Hmm. That was a really unnecessary jab, GDS parent. Do you really think parents should start pointing out each others' flaws? Does GDS really want to expose itself to that criticism?

I hope Sidwell parents will have the good grace to ignore PP's comment.

[Anonymous]

It is just not necessary. A little off-putting at today's GDS Admit breakfast when 2 kids on the student panel made disparaging remarks about Sidwell in an attempt to be funny. It wasn't. A shame the kids weren't better prepped about what is appropriate and what is not.

[Anonymous]

We are considering both Maret and GDS as well.

The Maret meeting this morning seemed to stress the arts and humanities a lot...which is great.

But if your child is more STEM oriented, would they feel at home? I am not wondering about the strength of the Math and Science courses at Maret (they seem great), more about the culture and how well a STEM oriented kid would fit into a seemingly arts and humanities focused school.

Any current Maret parents have guidance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are considering both Maret and GDS as well.

The Maret meeting this morning seemed to stress the arts and humanities a lot...which is great.

But if your child is more STEM oriented, would they feel at home? I am not wondering about the strength of the Math and Science courses at Maret (they seem great), more about the culture and how well a STEM oriented kid would fit into a seemingly arts and humanities focused school.

Any current Maret parents have guidance?

I think your impulse to ask current parents is very good. I would advise you to actually call the admissions department and ask them to give you some parents to talk to rather than this anonymous board. You're going to start getting some very slanted opinions on a question like this and I don't think anything is as good as talking to people who are actually willing to sign their name, so to speak, to their comments.

Signed - a current Maret parent who loves the school but our DC is is LS so are positive experience with math and science may not be as meaningful as that of parents from the US

[Anonymous]

I was one of the Maret parents at the event this morning. I just wanted to mention that I felt like the two student speakers this morning seemed to be more focused on the humanities, but that was the opposite of last year's speakers. No idea how they pick who speaks, but I don't think that's representative of the school's students as a whole. I'm obviously also a LS parent, but I expect my kids to be STEM focused and I expect them to be very comfortable at Maret. The consistent theme I've heard from alums, parents and students alike is that Maret is a great place for students with diverse interests. You'll often hear how well people fell the school has served their very different kids/siblings. Maybe Annie could hook you up with the board member who spoke? Her DC is obviously strongly science focused.

[Anonymous]

US parent here - the science and math departments at Maret are really great. Both of my US kids have been challenged by the science/math curriculum and have been encouraged to continue in college. I would have said they were more 'humanities' kids when they first started high school.

[Anonymous]

Our son was definitely more math and science focused and was very challenged by Maret's curriculum.