new to DC area independent school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Rising 4th, we would love to connect with you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are looking for solid academic rigor. We looked at faculty profiles and liked Potomac. However, coming from academia good school does not equate good teacher.

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

OP What grade are you looking at now? Current Potomac LS parent here.

Trying to figure out how to get you contact info without it being blasted to DCUM.....

Perhaps contact Bullis admissions and let them know that you’re willing to be in touch with out-of-state elementary applicants?

They don't seem interested in Bullis. OP, if you don't want snobby and showy, select a school other than Bullis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

Huh. When I was at NCS, Dr. Clevenger was the only PhD in the science department, and all but one of my teachers was excellent (the exception was a woman hired last minute in summer who didn’t go through the regular process; turned out she was an absolute dud and was fired a few weeks into the fall). I guess they’ve started caring more about racking up the credentials than simply finding excellent teachers, regardless of the honorifics in front of their names.

Where are you getting the idea that schools who hire PhDs aren't interested in hiring excellent teachers?

When you put weight on the educational credentials it suggests that a PhD who is just a bit less excellent as a teacher is going to outrank someone with a masters who is a slightly better teacher, and who in turn is going to outrank someone with a bachelor's who is ecellenter than the master's degree teacher.

But a lot of these schools are selling an image along with an education, and a PhD is something that sounds good to their clientele and can be more easily pointed to in a marketing brochure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

Huh. When I was at NCS, Dr. Clevenger was the only PhD in the science department, and all but one of my teachers was excellent (the exception was a woman hired last minute in summer who didn’t go through the regular process; turned out she was an absolute dud and was fired a few weeks into the fall). I guess they’ve started caring more about racking up the credentials than simply finding excellent teachers, regardless of the honorifics in front of their names.

Where are you getting the idea that schools who hire PhDs aren't interested in hiring excellent teachers?

When you put weight on the educational credentials it suggests that a PhD who is just a bit less excellent as a teacher is going to outrank someone with a masters who is a slightly better teacher, and who in turn is going to outrank someone with a bachelor's who is ecellenter than the master's degree teacher.

But a lot of these schools are selling an image along with an education, and a PhD is something that sounds good to their clientele and can be more easily pointed to in a marketing brochure.

Your reasoning makes no sense. Some people with PhDs might be bad teachers, but some may be excellent. One is not indicative of the other.

[Anonymous]

You do not need a PhD to educate high school aged students in anything. Some teachers with PhDs are excellent and some are horrible. No doubt it is an impressive credential to possess, and hard earned. Still some parents/students think they’re getting cheated when the AP Chemistry or Calculus teacher is not a PhD. They know virtually nothing about the subject matter but higher degree means better teacher, so they want a PhD. Nope, not how it works, sometimes, but not most of the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We would love to connect. Do you think the school has good academic rigor? We are not a sporty family, and we got the impression that sports is a big part of the ethos.

Since we are outsiders to the DC area, why do folks dislike Bullis?




quote=Anonymous]Actual Bullis families are very happy. The dislike is from this forum.

People disparage Bullis because is is very, very wealthly, recruits athletes and is less academically rigorous than other places. Everyone has campus-envy when it comes to Bullis. Their campus and facilities are hard to beat.

[Anonymous]

If you have a daughter and want academic rigor, look at Holton Arms

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at Norwood. We liked HoS, but not so much the others we interacted with at the school.

I'd appreciate if you can expand on your impressions of/interactions with the others at Norwood. We are planning a move and can't visit in advance, so it's really helpful to hear specifics. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I'd appreciate if you can expand on your impressions of/interactions with the others at Norwood. We are planning a move and can't visit in advance, so it's really helpful to hear specifics. Thanks.

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at Norwood. We liked HoS, but not so much the others we interacted with at the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would also look at K-8s. There are a lot of those around here, and then you can figure out the DC private scene and decide where you want to apply for high school. Norwood expands in 4th and sends kids to all the high schools you are considering. There is also WES, Langley, Lowell, Sheridan, Woods, and a couple others. K-8 is a popular model around here, not sure about in New England. There are also some K-6 schools here I think.

I think this is good advice. DC is not New England. It’s showier in some ways, and in some ways more insecure. It’s a city of lawyers.

[Anonymous]

we asked a few questions about science and math and the answers were lukewarm. They only differentiate math ability in middle school. All other classes are with your grade. They asked us why we liked the school, and when we turned the table back to them, the person was not prepared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We would love to connect. Do you think the school has good academic rigor? We are not a sporty family, and we got the impression that sports is a big part of the ethos.

Since we are outsiders to the DC area, why do folks dislike Bullis?




quote=Anonymous]Actual Bullis families are very happy. The dislike is from this forum.

People disparage Bullis because is is very, very wealthly, recruits athletes and is less academically rigorous than other places. Everyone has campus-envy when it comes to Bullis. Their campus and facilities are hard to beat.

I don't get why people say that. There are lots of campuses as nice or nicer than Bullis. The Lower and Upper School main buildings are just brick buildings.

Potomac has a gorgeous campus, Episcopal and Landon are beautiful. We've been to others for sports - lots of nice campuses in the DMV.

[Anonymous]

can you comment on whether there is any bullying/mean girl culture here? I know it's random and depends upon the cohort, how does the school handle such situations?

Anonymous wrote:If you have a daughter and want academic rigor, look at Holton Arms

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Rising 4th, we would love to connect with you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are looking for solid academic rigor. We looked at faculty profiles and liked Potomac. However, coming from academia good school does not equate good teacher.

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for?

NCS is the most rigorous all girls.
STA is the most rigorous all boys.
Sidwell is the most rigorous coed.

In the next tier you have GDS
Then Potomac
Then Maret

Bullis isn't that rigorous. If it's near your house and you want a less intense experience for your kid, it could be a good fit. Their teachers are not as credentialed. At NCS Upper School, most of the Social Science and English teachers have PhDs. You won't find that at Bullis, at least now widespread. Compare the faculty profiles.

OP What grade are you looking at now? Current Potomac LS parent here.

Trying to figure out how to get you contact info without it being blasted to DCUM.....

Perhaps contact Bullis admissions and let them know that you’re willing to be in touch with out-of-state elementary applicants?

Thanks for the great suggestion. I'm the Potomac parent, but could contact them if OP is interested in Potomac.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We would love to connect. Do you think the school has good academic rigor? We are not a sporty family, and we got the impression that sports is a big part of the ethos.

Since we are outsiders to the DC area, why do folks dislike Bullis?




quote=Anonymous]Actual Bullis families are very happy. The dislike is from this forum.

People disparage Bullis because is is very, very wealthly, recruits athletes and is less academically rigorous than other places. Everyone has campus-envy when it comes to Bullis. Their campus and facilities are hard to beat.

I don't get why people say that. There are lots of campuses as nice or nicer than Bullis. The Lower and Upper School main buildings are just brick buildings.

Potomac has a gorgeous campus, Episcopal and Landon are beautiful. We've been to others for sports - lots of nice campuses in the DMV.

Bullis has great facilities, even if North and South Halls are a bit long in the tooth. There is no campus in the area that is even close to that of Madeira.

[Anonymous]

For those worried about PhDs, it looks like Bullis actually has more PhDs in their English department than NCS does—and from more prestigious schools. So, I’m confused…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You do not need a PhD to educate high school aged students in anything. Some teachers with PhDs are excellent and some are horrible. No doubt it is an impressive credential to possess, and hard earned. Still some parents/students think they’re getting cheated when the AP Chemistry or Calculus teacher is not a PhD. They know virtually nothing about the subject matter but higher degree means better teacher, so they want a PhD. Nope, not how it works, sometimes, but not most of the time.

+1. If you care about this, just ask which school has the best reputation/gets the most impressive reactions when you say your kid goes there, because image is really what you’re looking for.