Big GDS news

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS may not yet have endowment of a St Albans or a Sidwell, and may not yet have the household name that Sidwell got because of the Obama (and Clinton) factor. But among those who matter, including discerning parents who value The best education and Ivy/SLAC admission officers, GDS has rocketed to the top echelon of selective Washington independent schools.

I'm a GDS parent and posts like this make me wish I weren't.

[Anonymous]

I think there is demand at the high school level. At the lower and to a lesser extent middle school level, the demand is decreasing for private as public schools improve. Deal is good now. Five years, GDS, Maret and to a lesser degree Sidwell didn't have to worry. Now the elementaries are strong, there is no reason to look at privates. The younger families are very pro-public or immersion charters.

I think there will be people who want GDS, but at the lower and middle levels, the demand there once was is not there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there is demand at the high school level. At the lower and to a lesser extent middle school level, the demand is decreasing for private as public schools improve. Deal is good now. Five years, GDS, Maret and to a lesser degree Sidwell didn't have to worry. Now the elementaries are strong, there is no reason to look at privates. The younger families are very pro-public or immersion charters.

I think there will be people who want GDS, but at the lower and middle levels, the demand there once was is not there.

GDS' students don't just come from DC. Many come from Montgomery County and having the lower and middle schools near Wisconsin and River makes them much more convenient for MoCo families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS may not yet have endowment of a St Albans or a Sidwell, and may not yet have the household name that Sidwell got because of the Obama (and Clinton) factor. But among those who matter, including discerning parents who value The best education and Ivy/SLAC admission officers, GDS has rocketed to the top echelon of selective Washington independent schools.

I'm a GDS parent and posts like this make me wish I weren't.

I think it's a fake, by the same person who trolls on college admissions re: GDS. Either not affiliated with GDS or a GDS high school kid who thinks it's funny. (But it reads like an adult's prose.)

[Anonymous]

A lot do and will come from MoCo, but DC folks make up a lot of the students at the NWDC prep schools. With tuition approaching $40K, a lot of people are going to go public or charter routes. GDS has large class sizes they need to fill. There has been a dip in birth rates as well. This was a risky move for GDS. As DC's first integrated school, I hope it works out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I honestly don't understand the GDS obsession with Sidwell and the idea that this campus changes its competitive position. Even after the construction, several other schools will rommier, greener campuses. STA, NCS, Beauvoir, Sidwell, Field, St. pat's, Maret. Each of these schools has more room per student than GDS

Please cite examples of the obsession

You scan through this thread yourself but the two major themes are, possibly I guess from one poster, is that GDS will have a competitive advantage over Sidwell with a consolidated campus and, oddly, if it weren't for the campus the First family would be attending GDS now.

I should've used facts. Posts in a thread are not facts. Who knows who've made them.

fact: GDS has a high percentage of families in every grade that applied to Sidwell but didn't get in. Hence the rivalry

I'm not Sidwell sees the same 'rivalry'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS may not yet have endowment of a St Albans or a Sidwell, and may not yet have the household name that Sidwell got because of the Obama (and Clinton) factor. But among those who matter, including discerning parents who value The best education and Ivy/SLAC admission officers, GDS has rocketed to the top echelon of selective Washington independent schools.

I'm a GDS parent and posts like this make me wish I weren't.

I think it's a fake, by the same person who trolls on college admissions re: GDS. Either not affiliated with GDS or a GDS high school kid who thinks it's funny. (But it reads like an adult's prose.)

I hope you're right. There's just so much hubris on this thread that it gets harder and harder to explain it away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS may not yet have endowment of a St Albans or a Sidwell, and may not yet have the household name that Sidwell got because of the Obama (and Clinton) factor. But among those who matter, including discerning parents who value The best education and Ivy/SLAC admission officers, GDS has rocketed to the top echelon of selective Washington independent schools.

I'm a GDS parent and posts like this make me wish I weren't.

I think it's a fake, by the same person who trolls on college admissions re: GDS. Either not affiliated with GDS or a GDS high school kid who thinks it's funny. (But it reads like an adult's prose.)

I hope you're right. There's just so much hubris on this thread that it gets harder and harder to explain it away.

it could be a student troll, but unfortunately I've heard a handful of parents who talk like that.

[Anonymous]

Are they on the Board?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

GDS' students don't just come from DC. Many come from Montgomery County and having the lower and middle schools near Wisconsin and River makes them much more convenient for MoCo families.

That is a selling point for the neighbors who get to breath their car exhaust fumes and deal with the additional street traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

fact: GDS has a high percentage of families in every grade that applied to Sidwell but didn't get in. Hence the rivalry

I am quite sure that most people at other schools, including Sidwell, don't give the kind of thought to GDS that GDS boosters seem to ascribe. There really seems to be an inferiority complex and it is totally unnecessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

GDS' students don't just come from DC. Many come from Montgomery County and having the lower and middle schools near Wisconsin and River makes them much more convenient for MoCo families.

That is a selling point for the neighbors who get to breath their car exhaust fumes and deal with the additional street traffic.

Why not move the school out to he burbs if it's catering to The Potomac crowd. In my day GDS was filled with dc-based kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

GDS' students don't just come from DC. Many come from Montgomery County and having the lower and middle schools near Wisconsin and River makes them much more convenient for MoCo families.

That is a selling point for the neighbors who get to breath their car exhaust fumes and deal with the additional street traffic.

Why not move the school out to he burbs if it's catering to The Potomac crowd. In my day GDS was filled with dc-based kids

Don't forget that the consolidated campus plan will put all divisions of the school within 2 blocks of a red line Metro station.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

GDS' students don't just come from DC. Many come from Montgomery County and having the lower and middle schools near Wisconsin and River makes them much more convenient for MoCo families.

That is a selling point for the neighbors who get to breath their car exhaust fumes and deal with the additional street traffic.

I doubt that the traffic is much more. In fact, Bethesda parents probably drive on Wisconsin or River anyway, and can drop their GDS student(s) on the way to their law firms and think tanks downtown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

GDS' students don't just come from DC. Many come from Montgomery County and having the lower and middle schools near Wisconsin and River makes them much more convenient for MoCo families.

That is a selling point for the neighbors who get to breath their car exhaust fumes and deal with the additional street traffic.

Why not move the school out to he burbs if it's catering to The Potomac crowd. In my day GDS was filled with dc-based kids

Don't forget that the consolidated campus plan will put all divisions of the school within 2 blocks of a red line Metro station.

Don't forget that what you're adding at that site is younger kids who are much more likely to be driven; HS kids already have Metro access. And 2 blocks isn't accurate, but it is an easy walk.