Is Landon worth it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is very excited about Landon (admitted for 9th), but as parents we are struggling to see him there. He’s a bright and very sensitive kid who does well academically, likes theater and art. He’s not athletic and really has shown very little interest in sports at all. He has other options on the table but they are coed schools and he seems wedded to the idea of an all boys HS. Are we crazy to allow Landon to stay on the table?

Seems mean to disallow his preferred choice now. Why did you allow him to apply and get his hopes up?

When we were applying, we were torn on the all-boys vs coed school scenarios, so we applied broadly (3 coed/3 all-boys). The more we've explored the options and thought about it, we (parents) are leaning toward coed as a better fit for our son. He still likes the idea of all boys. We are willing to let him make the decision, BUT want to make sure that all of the options on the table are genuinely good fits and Landon is one that we have concerns about--especially since when we applied we didn't understand the athletic requirements. He can be pretty clueless about sports cultures, so I'm not sure he understands how sports oriented Landon is. Or maybe we are wrong in making that assessment???? We will attend the other schools' events so perhaps his perception will change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where else was he admitted?

Bullis, GDS, and Sidwell. He was WL at Prep and STA.

Sidwell and GDS over Landon no doubt. So weird he was accepted to SFS and GDS but WL at STA. What does STA want in a student? Perplexed…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where else was he admitted?

Bullis, GDS, and Sidwell. He was WL at Prep and STA.

Sidwell and GDS over Landon no doubt. So weird he was accepted to SFS and GDS but WL at STA. What does STA want in a student? Perplexed…

It’s a much smaller class. Way fewer spots.

[Anonymous]

Check out where these kids are going to college. But I’m not too impressed with Landon when compared to those mentioned above.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/420/1244745.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check out where these kids are going to college. But I’m not too impressed with Landon when compared to those mentioned above.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/420/1244745.page

Why does that matter to you? Isn’t the journey the important thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this is a very personal decision.

For us, no, Landon would not have been worth paying $45K over public. We thought about this long an hard and filled out the application but never hit send.
We applied to STA, Sidwell and Potomac. We felt like each of them were worth the money over public for our kid who was doing very well in public.
Our son ended up at STA and it's been great. It's $$ but the experience (high academics, unique experience on the close, etc) is worth the money over a decent public
for our kid.
We had different reasons for feeling like Sidwell and to a lesser extent Potomac, would also have been worth spending the money over public school.
We didn't feel any need to leave public school "at any cost".

Everyone's calculation is going to be different.

It’s $56K now. Not even remotely worth it.

[Anonymous]

Not many would select Landon over SFS or GDS based on the description of your kid, but I”m sure you’d not be the first. That said, what does he love about Landon?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not many would select Landon over SFS or GDS based on the description of your kid, but I”m sure you’d not be the first. That said, what does he love about Landon?

He seems to respond to schools that feel more "traditional" and "formal." He wants a place where he will be pushed academically and seems to think that at Bullis he'd have too much room to take an easier path whereas at the other schools he'd be forced to take a more challenging course load. Maybe he's nervous that GDS and SFS would be too challenging? He also has said sports feel like too much of part of the culture at Bullis despite really being impressed with their performing arts program. These are perceptions of a 14 year old so please take that with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

They’re all pretty astute observations. Bullis does indeed place a high focus on sports. GDS and SFS are absolutely more left-leaning and less “traditional” than other schools. So…the kid’s got a point!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Landon has served one purpose for decades in Washington:

It provides reasonably acceptable college placement and adult life business connections to kids who are strong athletes but not smart enough to survive, let alone do well at St Albans

So, yes, it serves a purpose to some families

You have to have the money, of course, and your kid has to really need the help that money can provide

Wrong. Two totally different schools.

[Anonymous]

Neill tried but the entitled lax bro culture runs deep at 6101

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check out where these kids are going to college. But I’m not too impressed with Landon when compared to those mentioned above.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/420/1244745.page

Landon parent here. Honestly, the kids going to GDS look no different in the college admissions prospects than the ones attending Landon. Landon is a smaller school (since it’s single sex) so the range of college acceptances would be larger at Sidwell or GDS.

There are still a few Ivy and top 10 admittances so if it’s worth it? For us, yes and our son has been very happy with the community.

[Anonymous]

I don’t have a horse in the race nor a kid at either of these. That said, Landon’s college acceptances are not in the area code of either GDS or Sidwell. Landon certainly isn’t bad, but it’s a lot of “good but not great” private colleges. GDS and Sidwell are largely top 50.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not many would select Landon over SFS or GDS based on the description of your kid, but I”m sure you’d not be the first. That said, what does he love about Landon?

He seems to respond to schools that feel more "traditional" and "formal." He wants a place where he will be pushed academically and seems to think that at Bullis he'd have too much room to take an easier path whereas at the other schools he'd be forced to take a more challenging course load. Maybe he's nervous that GDS and SFS would be too challenging? He also has said sports feel like too much of part of the culture at Bullis despite really being impressed with their performing arts program. These are perceptions of a 14 year old so please take that with a grain of salt.

Your 14 year old is very astute. Our son has loved Landon for similar reasons.

[Anonymous]

Not really interested in a pissing contest regarding which school has more “impressive” college admissions. Can someone speak to how a non athletic kid does at Landon? How do they manage four years of three seasons worth of athletics? IME kids only tolerate subpar teammates for so long and then things get unpleasant. Curious how that plays out at Landon.