GDS and Sidwell comparison?

[Anonymous]

Call or email the schools you applied to and ask for the daily and hourly class schedule by grade, and ask the class size of homeroom and each subject and how many teachers and how many aides there are for it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We were going to apply for 9th to GDS and the admission officer pretty much told us there are 7 spots for new 9th grade boys. We crossed it off our list...

Are you serious? How is this possible? Don't they accept roughly 35 new students for 9th grade?

The only explanation is that 20 of those admits were athletic recruits or something, which is possible. I don’t think GDS has strong sibling preference though.

GDS has crazy strong sibling preference. They have a separate application for siblings. It's due in December.
Last year something like all but five 9th grade boy spots went to siblings. You can ask admissions about it--they were quite forthcoming.
I'm not sure if the poster above (the one saying there are 7 spots) is talking about this year or not.
If it's this year, it's a repeat of last year.

Aha. Well that explains it. Thanks!

Don’t most siblings enter well before 9th grade? Seems unbelievable they took 20 sibling boys last year for 9th. I mean, come on.

30% of the graduating class starts in 9th so it’s believable that a lot of siblings would start 9th too. Once you take out the siblings and any athletic recruits, how many open spots do they really have?

No it’s not. Families who want to have a strong chance of sibling attendance know good and well to apply earlier. Sibling preferences are for full-pay families who send their kids from the early years on. If you have a kid who gets in at 9th and think there will be a huge sibling preference for your next kid, you are delusional. Ninth is very competitive, and it’s for the kids who will do well in college admissions *regardless* of whether they go to a fancy private or not (these schools pick winners; they don’t make winners). It isn’t a sibling slush year.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I do not at this moment have a favorite, but one thing that I liked about GDS is the small class size and teacher ratio. Doesn’t that mean more individual attention? Sidwell has up to 20 kids in a class in elementary with one teacher (this was said twice during admissions process). I don’t know how many kids are in the GDS classrooms, but the website says the teacher student ratio is 6:1.

Did something change? When my child was in lower school at Sidwell, there were 2 teachers per class.

Yes. It has changed. It might revert after covid, but it's been like this for awhile

22 kids in a class is the same as public school. One of the reasons we want to make the switch (and I'd wager a lot of parents want to) is so DC has a smaller class size with more teacher engagement. 22 kids, really??

Again…yes, really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I do not at this moment have a favorite, but one thing that I liked about GDS is the small class size and teacher ratio. Doesn’t that mean more individual attention? Sidwell has up to 20 kids in a class in elementary with one teacher (this was said twice during admissions process). I don’t know how many kids are in the GDS classrooms, but the website says the teacher student ratio is 6:1.

Did something change? When my child was in lower school at Sidwell, there were 2 teachers per class.

Yes. It has changed. It might revert after covid, but it's been like this for awhile

So you're saying they're outright lying on their website?

Not pp, but here’s what I’m saying: you clearly have no children at this school. Those who do know what’s going on. You, sir, do not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The number of responses to this, in such a short amount of time, shows how many parents from these schools are posters. I would shy away from schools like that.

Please tell us what school your kids go to so we can all avoid it. TIA.

[Anonymous]

NP. They’re far more similar than different. Go with whichever feels more comfortable to you. Use commute distance as a tie breaker. Don’t let your search for perfect blind you to what’s good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We were going to apply for 9th to GDS and the admission officer pretty much told us there are 7 spots for new 9th grade boys. We crossed it off our list...

Are you serious? How is this possible? Don't they accept roughly 35 new students for 9th grade?

The only explanation is that 20 of those admits were athletic recruits or something, which is possible. I don’t think GDS has strong sibling preference though.

GDS has crazy strong sibling preference. They have a separate application for siblings. It's due in December.
Last year something like all but five 9th grade boy spots went to siblings. You can ask admissions about it--they were quite forthcoming.
I'm not sure if the poster above (the one saying there are 7 spots) is talking about this year or not.
If it's this year, it's a repeat of last year.

Aha. Well that explains it. Thanks!

Don’t most siblings enter well before 9th grade? Seems unbelievable they took 20 sibling boys last year for 9th. I mean, come on.

30% of the graduating class starts in 9th so it’s believable that a lot of siblings would start 9th too. Once you take out the siblings and any athletic recruits, how many open spots do they really have?

I'm the PP who originally said GDS has seven 9th grade boy spots. The admissions person told us that this year they will have about 30 9th grade openings. Half will go to siblings and they will split the remaining half evenly between boys and girls. Oh, and last year they had about 400 applications for 9th grade and she was expecting similar this year.

This is super depressing. I guess it is safe to say that all of the other top schools are in a similar situation for 9th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I do not at this moment have a favorite, but one thing that I liked about GDS is the small class size and teacher ratio. Doesn’t that mean more individual attention? Sidwell has up to 20 kids in a class in elementary with one teacher (this was said twice during admissions process). I don’t know how many kids are in the GDS classrooms, but the website says the teacher student ratio is 6:1.

Did something change? When my child was in lower school at Sidwell, there were 2 teachers per class.

Yes. It has changed. It might revert after covid, but it's been like this for awhile

22 kids in a class is the same as public school. One of the reasons we want to make the switch (and I'd wager a lot of parents want to) is so DC has a smaller class size with more teacher engagement. 22 kids, really??

Again…yes, really.

The way the schedules work, and the kids are split up, there are almost never 22 kids in a classroom with a single teacher.

In the lower school, there are two teachers in every room.
In the middle school, they split up, so half the room goes to language, art or science, while the other half does english or history or math, and then they all flip.
In the upper school, the classes are all small either labs, or discussion for the humanities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were going to apply for 9th to GDS and the admission officer pretty much told us there are 7 spots for new 9th grade boys. We crossed it off our list...

Are you serious? How is this possible? Don't they accept roughly 35 new students for 9th grade?

The only explanation is that 20 of those admits were athletic recruits or something, which is possible. I don’t think GDS has strong sibling preference though.

GDS has crazy strong sibling preference. They have a separate application for siblings. It's due in December.
Last year something like all but five 9th grade boy spots went to siblings. You can ask admissions about it--they were quite forthcoming.
I'm not sure if the poster above (the one saying there are 7 spots) is talking about this year or not.
If it's this year, it's a repeat of last year.

Aha. Well that explains it. Thanks!

Don’t most siblings enter well before 9th grade? Seems unbelievable they took 20 sibling boys last year for 9th. I mean, come on.

30% of the graduating class starts in 9th so it’s believable that a lot of siblings would start 9th too. Once you take out the siblings and any athletic recruits, how many open spots do they really have?

No it’s not. Families who want to have a strong chance of sibling attendance know good and well to apply earlier. Sibling preferences are for full-pay families who send their kids from the early years on. If you have a kid who gets in at 9th and think there will be a huge sibling preference for your next kid, you are delusional. Ninth is very competitive, and it’s for the kids who will do well in college admissions *regardless* of whether they go to a fancy private or not (these schools pick winners; they don’t make winners). It isn’t a sibling slush year.

Siblings who graduate from our K-8 regularly get admitted to GDS for 9th grade. The general view is they are not always the strongest applicants in the group and there is a strong sibling preference even at 9th. PP I think your understanding here is off.

[Anonymous]

My kid needs time with the math specialist and NEVER get its, furthermore math specialist does not visit the classroom even on a weekly basis. And I sincerely hope something like math is a 5 day a week class. Not twice a week like during virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid needs time with the math specialist and NEVER get its, furthermore math specialist does not visit the classroom even on a weekly basis. And I sincerely hope something like math is a 5 day a week class. Not twice a week like during virtual.

Which school?

[Anonymous]

After visiting, I preferred GDS and my spouse preferred Sidwell. Kid got into Sidwell and waitlisted at GDS. Kid went to Sidwell and didn't like it very much.

Sidwell seemed more connected to DC power circles and, although Sidwell's culture seemed nice on the surface, the community felt very restrained. GDS seemed to have more individualistic kids and feels a little warmer.

Sidwell seems to be slightly more prestigious in the view of may DC people. I think this is based mostly on the parents, not the kids. College admissions are comparable (GDS may actually do slightly better).

I actually think kids are happier, on the whole, at somewhat less intense schools like Maret, Burke, Field, SAES, Bullis, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After visiting, I preferred GDS and my spouse preferred Sidwell. Kid got into Sidwell and waitlisted at GDS. Kid went to Sidwell and didn't like it very much.

Sidwell seemed more connected to DC power circles and, although Sidwell's culture seemed nice on the surface, the community felt very restrained. GDS seemed to have more individualistic kids and feels a little warmer.

Sidwell seems to be slightly more prestigious in the view of may DC people. I think this is based mostly on the parents, not the kids. College admissions are comparable (GDS may actually do slightly better).

I actually think kids are happier, on the whole, at somewhat less intense schools like Maret, Burke, Field, SAES, Bullis, etc.

+2 This was our impression as well.

[Anonymous]

Well I “keep it real” wherever I go so…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Twiddle dum and twiddle dee. Both good schools with great teachers but not necessarily geared for the STEM kid. Sidwell more mainstream in educational philosophy, more diverse students and better athletics while GDS is a little more innovative in terms of educational experience, more “woke”’ and more flexible curriculum than Sidwell. College admissions to the top schools is either legacy or $$$ or sports or some special hook. The regular smart but not super unique kid better set their sights on strong liberal arts colleges if they apply early decision. Both have super wealthy families and the middle class families in the donut hole feel squeezed with unabated tuition rises.

This might the most succinct and accurate post about these schools ever.

totally agree. Sidwell parent here