Baltimore Privates

[Anonymous]

We applied to both Wilkes and St. Francis of Assisi as safety schools because our zoned elementary school was a non-starter, and I wasn't leaving anything to chance. Reports are good for both of them, and both seem to have a lot of happy families. SFA particularly seems to have a strong community. Wilkes supposedly has not great facilities, but I personally consider that secondary to other concerns (teaching, community, philosophy).

Both of them offered my son acceptance without ever having met him, and with zero testing, which I found startling. It does make me wonder how successful they are at dealing with disruptive children, since their admissions process is nonselective. Sorry if that sounds mean, but one of the things that I value about private school is that there are stricter boundaries around students who are disruptive to others.

[Anonymous]

Private schools routinely “counsel” students out. That’s how they get rid of behavior issues.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The PP saying Park is too permissive, too liberal, too etc. posts very frequently. Frankly I find that person's posts to be very overgeneralized with no specifics about the school apart from that and the Jewish stereotype. Historically, Park was the "Jewish" schools because other elite private schools in Baltimore would not accept Jewish students due to anti-Semitism. I wouldn't exactly call it "#1 school for elite Jews" -- that doesn't really explain why Jewish people went there.

You must be confusing me with someone else. I have only posted about Baltimore schools a handful of times as the topic doesn't come up very often and I don't recall talking about Park.

I think Park is a fabulous school. It's not for everyone or for every family. By Baltimore standards it's on the liberal side. The most common feedback I get from parents comparing Friends and Park is that while Friends is also liberal it is also a bit more structured and many families like that balance better for their kids. But every Friends family also thinks highly of Park too.

If I brought up the comment about Park's historic affiliation with the Baltimore Jewish community it was to highlight Park's reputation as a progressive and liberal private school, just as Baltimore's vibrant Jewish community has a history of progressive liberalism. Beyond that I'm sorry for mentioning it as it is probably not relevant at all, so you have my apologies.

I’m really confused by this post. “Progressive” in Park’s sense means inheriting the educational philosophy of John Dewey et al. As far as I know, Baltimore’s Jewish community has nothing to do with Dewey.

Nor is the Jewish community particularly liberal in a political or social sense. Not that this maps onto political affiliation, but Baltimore has the largest growing Orthodox community outside of Israel and Brooklyn.

In any case, saying Park is the “Jewish” school as many old Baltimoreans is a totally ignorant way of describing the deep anti-semitism that is part of the history of all the other elite private schools. Park admitted Jews when other schools wouldn’t. I think calling it the Jewish school and suggesting that the manners of the kids are lax is a total mischaracterization of the school’s culture and philosophy. The only time I’ve seen kids lying on the floor there is when they were measuring velocity of vehicles they built in physics class. I would be fine with that as a parent. I visited many other “progressive” schools in Baltimore — Waldorf, Montessori, and Greenmount — and they were much more unstructured, if you like that. In contrast Park is much more conventional and incorporates a lot more teacher-led classroom learning. I was told it is one of the most rigorous from an academic point of view.

You know what, give it a break won’t you? Park has historically carried a lot of cachet in Baltimore’s Jewish community. If you want to somehow turn this into an axe to grind it’s not going to make you good. You are coming across as judgmental and intolerant and unforgiving.

By the way, Friends was the other school that admitted Jews going back to the early 20th century. Jewish students have been attending Gilman since the 1950s.

Dp, but Park has definitely historically been the “Jewish” school, which has nothing to do with its educational philosophy and everything to do with Baltimore’s long history of racial and religious segregation. The school is located adjacent to Pikesville, which is the heart of Jewish Baltimore. Currently, the school is about two-thirds Jewish, and they have been working on increasing diversity for the last decade. Baltimore also had two Jewish religious schools located near Park, Beth Tfiloh, and Krieger Schechter.

Where do you get this number? Literally every family I know at Park is not Jewish so I'm pretty sure that can't be true. One third Hopkins faculty, I could believe.

BT and KSDS are not really near Park. They are about as close as Boys Latin or St Paul's from Park.

I know two people who were board members during the past 10 years. They told me about the effort to diversify the student body., both are Jewish, for what it is worth.

Not sure what your issue is with Jewish people and why you find the need to argue about this. There is a geographic part of Baltimore that is heavily Jewish because of redlining. People have stayed in the area because it is where most of the big synagogues are located, and it is a great community. This is the same part of Baltimore County where Park, Beth Tfiloh, and Krieger Schechter are located.

I’ll end this here because it is really not worth fighting over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Wilkes School is a less pricey alternative to the Roland Park private schools and also very convenient for people living/working downtown.

NP. Do you have recent experience with Wilkes? If so, do you mind sharing? I am curious about it, but have not heard much about the school.

Our child attends Wilkes and we love it. The teachers really care about the kids and have a lot of flexibility in tailoring the lessons and projects to the individual kid. The specialization of the teachers in second grade also help to make the academics rigorous while still being enjoyable. Additionally, the student body and families are very diverse with many international parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP saying Park is too permissive, too liberal, too etc. posts very frequently. Frankly I find that person's posts to be very overgeneralized with no specifics about the school apart from that and the Jewish stereotype. Historically, Park was the "Jewish" schools because other elite private schools in Baltimore would not accept Jewish students due to anti-Semitism. I wouldn't exactly call it "#1 school for elite Jews" -- that doesn't really explain why Jewish people went there.

You must be confusing me with someone else. I have only posted about Baltimore schools a handful of times as the topic doesn't come up very often and I don't recall talking about Park.

I think Park is a fabulous school. It's not for everyone or for every family. By Baltimore standards it's on the liberal side. The most common feedback I get from parents comparing Friends and Park is that while Friends is also liberal it is also a bit more structured and many families like that balance better for their kids. But every Friends family also thinks highly of Park too.

If I brought up the comment about Park's historic affiliation with the Baltimore Jewish community it was to highlight Park's reputation as a progressive and liberal private school, just as Baltimore's vibrant Jewish community has a history of progressive liberalism. Beyond that I'm sorry for mentioning it as it is probably not relevant at all, so you have my apologies.

I’m really confused by this post. “Progressive” in Park’s sense means inheriting the educational philosophy of John Dewey et al. As far as I know, Baltimore’s Jewish community has nothing to do with Dewey.

Nor is the Jewish community particularly liberal in a political or social sense. Not that this maps onto political affiliation, but Baltimore has the largest growing Orthodox community outside of Israel and Brooklyn.

In any case, saying Park is the “Jewish” school as many old Baltimoreans is a totally ignorant way of describing the deep anti-semitism that is part of the history of all the other elite private schools. Park admitted Jews when other schools wouldn’t. I think calling it the Jewish school and suggesting that the manners of the kids are lax is a total mischaracterization of the school’s culture and philosophy. The only time I’ve seen kids lying on the floor there is when they were measuring velocity of vehicles they built in physics class. I would be fine with that as a parent. I visited many other “progressive” schools in Baltimore — Waldorf, Montessori, and Greenmount — and they were much more unstructured, if you like that. In contrast Park is much more conventional and incorporates a lot more teacher-led classroom learning. I was told it is one of the most rigorous from an academic point of view.

You know what, give it a break won’t you? Park has historically carried a lot of cachet in Baltimore’s Jewish community. If you want to somehow turn this into an axe to grind it’s not going to make you good. You are coming across as judgmental and intolerant and unforgiving.

By the way, Friends was the other school that admitted Jews going back to the early 20th century. Jewish students have been attending Gilman since the 1950s.

Dp, but Park has definitely historically been the “Jewish” school, which has nothing to do with its educational philosophy and everything to do with Baltimore’s long history of racial and religious segregation. The school is located adjacent to Pikesville, which is the heart of Jewish Baltimore. Currently, the school is about two-thirds Jewish, and they have been working on increasing diversity for the last decade. Baltimore also had two Jewish religious schools located near Park, Beth Tfiloh, and Krieger Schechter.

Where do you get this number? Literally every family I know at Park is not Jewish so I'm pretty sure that can't be true. One third Hopkins faculty, I could believe.

BT and KSDS are not really near Park. They are about as close as Boys Latin or St Paul's from Park.

I know two people who were board members during the past 10 years. They told me about the effort to diversify the student body., both are Jewish, for what it is worth.

Not sure what your issue is with Jewish people and why you find the need to argue about this. There is a geographic part of Baltimore that is heavily Jewish because of redlining. People have stayed in the area because it is where most of the big synagogues are located, and it is a great community. This is the same part of Baltimore County where Park, Beth Tfiloh, and Krieger Schechter are located.

I’ll end this here because it is really not worth fighting over.

My guess is that the Park poster is not Jewish, but loves the school, so is miffed that people think of Park as Jewish instead of progressive, or academic or whatever other adjective they want to use. This is the main problem with independents in Balto, the clichés and stereotypes never really die. Even when a school HAS changed, there is always going to be a contingent that refuses to change the way that it's categorized in their mind. You aren't going to change the way Baltimore thinks, just do the right thing for your kid and chose the school that is the best fit, ignore the stereotypes.

[Anonymous]

Anybody know when Calvert Hall sends out the notifications for incoming transfer students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP saying Park is too permissive, too liberal, too etc. posts very frequently. Frankly I find that person's posts to be very overgeneralized with no specifics about the school apart from that and the Jewish stereotype. Historically, Park was the "Jewish" schools because other elite private schools in Baltimore would not accept Jewish students due to anti-Semitism. I wouldn't exactly call it "#1 school for elite Jews" -- that doesn't really explain why Jewish people went there.

You must be confusing me with someone else. I have only posted about Baltimore schools a handful of times as the topic doesn't come up very often and I don't recall talking about Park.

I think Park is a fabulous school. It's not for everyone or for every family. By Baltimore standards it's on the liberal side. The most common feedback I get from parents comparing Friends and Park is that while Friends is also liberal it is also a bit more structured and many families like that balance better for their kids. But every Friends family also thinks highly of Park too.

If I brought up the comment about Park's historic affiliation with the Baltimore Jewish community it was to highlight Park's reputation as a progressive and liberal private school, just as Baltimore's vibrant Jewish community has a history of progressive liberalism. Beyond that I'm sorry for mentioning it as it is probably not relevant at all, so you have my apologies.

I’m really confused by this post. “Progressive” in Park’s sense means inheriting the educational philosophy of John Dewey et al. As far as I know, Baltimore’s Jewish community has nothing to do with Dewey.

Nor is the Jewish community particularly liberal in a political or social sense. Not that this maps onto political affiliation, but Baltimore has the largest growing Orthodox community outside of Israel and Brooklyn.

In any case, saying Park is the “Jewish” school as many old Baltimoreans is a totally ignorant way of describing the deep anti-semitism that is part of the history of all the other elite private schools. Park admitted Jews when other schools wouldn’t. I think calling it the Jewish school and suggesting that the manners of the kids are lax is a total mischaracterization of the school’s culture and philosophy. The only time I’ve seen kids lying on the floor there is when they were measuring velocity of vehicles they built in physics class. I would be fine with that as a parent. I visited many other “progressive” schools in Baltimore — Waldorf, Montessori, and Greenmount — and they were much more unstructured, if you like that. In contrast Park is much more conventional and incorporates a lot more teacher-led classroom learning. I was told it is one of the most rigorous from an academic point of view.

You know what, give it a break won’t you? Park has historically carried a lot of cachet in Baltimore’s Jewish community. If you want to somehow turn this into an axe to grind it’s not going to make you good. You are coming across as judgmental and intolerant and unforgiving.

By the way, Friends was the other school that admitted Jews going back to the early 20th century. Jewish students have been attending Gilman since the 1950s.

Dp, but Park has definitely historically been the “Jewish” school, which has nothing to do with its educational philosophy and everything to do with Baltimore’s long history of racial and religious segregation. The school is located adjacent to Pikesville, which is the heart of Jewish Baltimore. Currently, the school is about two-thirds Jewish, and they have been working on increasing diversity for the last decade. Baltimore also had two Jewish religious schools located near Park, Beth Tfiloh, and Krieger Schechter.

Where do you get this number? Literally every family I know at Park is not Jewish so I'm pretty sure that can't be true. One third Hopkins faculty, I could believe.

BT and KSDS are not really near Park. They are about as close as Boys Latin or St Paul's from Park.

I know two people who were board members during the past 10 years. They told me about the effort to diversify the student body., both are Jewish, for what it is worth.

Not sure what your issue is with Jewish people and why you find the need to argue about this. There is a geographic part of Baltimore that is heavily Jewish because of redlining. People have stayed in the area because it is where most of the big synagogues are located, and it is a great community. This is the same part of Baltimore County where Park, Beth Tfiloh, and Krieger Schechter are located.

I’ll end this here because it is really not worth fighting over.

My guess is that the Park poster is not Jewish, but loves the school, so is miffed that people think of Park as Jewish instead of progressive, or academic or whatever other adjective they want to use. This is the main problem with independents in Balto, the clichés and stereotypes never really die. Even when a school HAS changed, there is always going to be a contingent that refuses to change the way that it's categorized in their mind. You aren't going to change the way Baltimore thinks, just do the right thing for your kid and chose the school that is the best fit, ignore the stereotypes.

And the point was that this person is so strongly opposed to the fact that the school had a large majority of Jewish students that he/she appears anti-Semitic.

This poster also should be aware that Hopkins doctor and Jewish are not mutually exclusive categories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP saying Park is too permissive, too liberal, too etc. posts very frequently. Frankly I find that person's posts to be very overgeneralized with no specifics about the school apart from that and the Jewish stereotype. Historically, Park was the "Jewish" schools because other elite private schools in Baltimore would not accept Jewish students due to anti-Semitism. I wouldn't exactly call it "#1 school for elite Jews" -- that doesn't really explain why Jewish people went there.

You must be confusing me with someone else. I have only posted about Baltimore schools a handful of times as the topic doesn't come up very often and I don't recall talking about Park.

I think Park is a fabulous school. It's not for everyone or for every family. By Baltimore standards it's on the liberal side. The most common feedback I get from parents comparing Friends and Park is that while Friends is also liberal it is also a bit more structured and many families like that balance better for their kids. But every Friends family also thinks highly of Park too.

If I brought up the comment about Park's historic affiliation with the Baltimore Jewish community it was to highlight Park's reputation as a progressive and liberal private school, just as Baltimore's vibrant Jewish community has a history of progressive liberalism. Beyond that I'm sorry for mentioning it as it is probably not relevant at all, so you have my apologies.

I’m really confused by this post. “Progressive” in Park’s sense means inheriting the educational philosophy of John Dewey et al. As far as I know, Baltimore’s Jewish community has nothing to do with Dewey.

Nor is the Jewish community particularly liberal in a political or social sense. Not that this maps onto political affiliation, but Baltimore has the largest growing Orthodox community outside of Israel and Brooklyn.

In any case, saying Park is the “Jewish” school as many old Baltimoreans is a totally ignorant way of describing the deep anti-semitism that is part of the history of all the other elite private schools. Park admitted Jews when other schools wouldn’t. I think calling it the Jewish school and suggesting that the manners of the kids are lax is a total mischaracterization of the school’s culture and philosophy. The only time I’ve seen kids lying on the floor there is when they were measuring velocity of vehicles they built in physics class. I would be fine with that as a parent. I visited many other “progressive” schools in Baltimore — Waldorf, Montessori, and Greenmount — and they were much more unstructured, if you like that. In contrast Park is much more conventional and incorporates a lot more teacher-led classroom learning. I was told it is one of the most rigorous from an academic point of view.

You know what, give it a break won’t you? Park has historically carried a lot of cachet in Baltimore’s Jewish community. If you want to somehow turn this into an axe to grind it’s not going to make you good. You are coming across as judgmental and intolerant and unforgiving.

By the way, Friends was the other school that admitted Jews going back to the early 20th century. Jewish students have been attending Gilman since the 1950s.

Dp, but Park has definitely historically been the “Jewish” school, which has nothing to do with its educational philosophy and everything to do with Baltimore’s long history of racial and religious segregation. The school is located adjacent to Pikesville, which is the heart of Jewish Baltimore. Currently, the school is about two-thirds Jewish, and they have been working on increasing diversity for the last decade. Baltimore also had two Jewish religious schools located near Park, Beth Tfiloh, and Krieger Schechter.

Where do you get this number? Literally every family I know at Park is not Jewish so I'm pretty sure that can't be true. One third Hopkins faculty, I could believe.

BT and KSDS are not really near Park. They are about as close as Boys Latin or St Paul's from Park.

I know two people who were board members during the past 10 years. They told me about the effort to diversify the student body., both are Jewish, for what it is worth.

Not sure what your issue is with Jewish people and why you find the need to argue about this. There is a geographic part of Baltimore that is heavily Jewish because of redlining. People have stayed in the area because it is where most of the big synagogues are located, and it is a great community. This is the same part of Baltimore County where Park, Beth Tfiloh, and Krieger Schechter are located.

I’ll end this here because it is really not worth fighting over.

My guess is that the Park poster is not Jewish, but loves the school, so is miffed that people think of Park as Jewish instead of progressive, or academic or whatever other adjective they want to use. This is the main problem with independents in Balto, the clichés and stereotypes never really die. Even when a school HAS changed, there is always going to be a contingent that refuses to change the way that it's categorized in their mind. You aren't going to change the way Baltimore thinks, just do the right thing for your kid and chose the school that is the best fit, ignore the stereotypes.

And the point was that this person is so strongly opposed to the fact that the school had a large majority of Jewish students that he/she appears anti-Semitic.

This poster also should be aware that Hopkins doctor and Jewish are not mutually exclusive categories.

Honestly I have always heard about this Jewish majority, but of the 10-15 families I know who go to Park (random sample) not one is Jewish and not one lives in Pikesville. My Jewish friends who live in Pikesville send their kids to Beth Tfiloh and Krieger Schecter. I haven’t seen any numbers of actual students at the school so I’d love to see where you get this data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We live in Baltimore and are considering privates for our girls. It would be nice if the many knowledgable posters here could go over the options. Thank you!

What grades? Religious or secular? Co-ed or single sex? Any particular extra curricular needs or wants? Any concerns with learning or behavior issues or support? Any geographical constraints?

Nothing is going to beat visiting the schools though. Also consider approaching it with an open mind. I wasn't going to consider single-sex to begin with, but that would have been a mistake for one of my children.

To be honest, we were looking at Bryn Mawr as a top choice but this is based on online research only. This is for HS - we are not there yet. Religious is ok, I guess, we really haven't thought about it (we are atheists but not aggressively so). Co-ed and single-sex are both fine. No behavioral issues so far.

Bryn Mawr is an excellent school. It has a reputation as being competitive, and my observation would back that up. I do not have a child there. I have friends who have children there or have had children there. A Bryn Mawr girl is going to get an excellent education. I'd recommend visiting, and have her do the visiting day - and do it more than once if she needs to to get a feel for it. Bryn Mawr is part of the tri-school consortium, so your daughter will have the opportunity to take classes at Gilman (boys) or RPCS (girls) as well. Bridges connect the schools so it's safe and easy for the kids to go to the different campuses. The tri-school consortium means that while your daughter will have her home school as her school, she'll have access to a much broader array of classes and experiences if she should want them. Something that's a concern for many when they consider private schools and the necessarily more limited courses or opportunities when compared to what the huge public schools can offer. Bryn Mawr has great academics and arts. Kids who are more focused on athletics seem to be ending up at McDonogh these days.

RPCS is also an excellent school, and has a reputation for being a bit more nurturing than Bryn Mawr. One of the concerns I've encountered is how a child entering in high school will do at these K-12 schools, and my observation is that the kids welcome the new kids. The classes expand quite a bit for upper school, and the lifers are eager to meet new kids. And upper school brings a lot more freedoms and responsibilities, and the new kids fit right in. The schools do a good job of working to integrate everyone into a cohesive class. RPCS tends to be ranked slightly below Bryn Mawr when it comes to test scores, so if you have a highly competitive academically focused kid Bryn Mawr might be a better fit. On the other hand, with the ability to take classes at all 3 schools, your child will be challenged. I love the Latin program at Gilman, although Bryn Mawr girls tend to stay on their own campus for latin.

Friends is also right near Gilman, Bryn Mawr, and RPCS. It does not share classes with the other 3, but the kids can all be found after school on each other's campuses or at the Starbucks. My observation is that Friends is an open, welcoming school. They are focused on the whole-child, and have great opportunities for the arts. It seems like Friends might be slightly easier for a child to get into lately, but I'm basing that entirely on anecdotes. I wouldn't assume admission is guaranteed at any of these schools, even with excellent scores, recommendations, visits, etc.

St. Pauls School for Girls I'm not very familiar with. I understand that the Boys and Girls schools are merging under one umbrella. The St. Pauls kids I know are nice kids, but all boys.

McDonogh is a lovely school, but it feels big to me. They have amazing athletics programs, good arts and good academics. It's in the county so it's somewhat apart. Like Park, they have transportation through the school, rather than through the Kangaroo Coach, if you're looking at transportation. McDonogh has in the past had a reputation of being the school where you went if you didn't get into Gilman/Bryn Mawr, but that is not my experience. The children I know there are top notch; some say there's been too much focus on athletics in recent years.

Park is different. If Friends is a more casual version of the traditional privates, Park wrote its own rules. You've seen the back and forth here already, but if you have a child who needs the ability to go deep and far in math, Park is your school. If you have a kid who wouldn't just rebel against uniforms, but argue they're a tool for caging the mind, body, and spirit, check out Park. If you have a kid who might need some encouragement, or might have a tendency to fly under the radar, Park might not be the best fit, depending. But I think you should visit, even if you're mostly considering more traditional schools like Bryn Mawr.

IND and NDP, both catholic, are excellent schools as well. I have the impression that IND is the more academic, and NDP the more athletic, of the two. But I know great girls at both.

None of these schools are a shoe-in for getting in. I know kids who get shut out every year, even applying to 3 or 4 schools. I know kids who took a few application cycles to get into the school they really wanted. If you visit Bryn Mawr, and walk away knowing Bryn Mawr is the right school for your daughter, you may not want to wait to apply for 9th grade. If there are openings, kids start in 7th and 8th, when they know what they want for HS. Sometimes going through the application process in 8th and not getting in can light a fire under a child for the 9th grade admissions cycle.

If you're in the city, there are also some great public schools. The kids at City and Poly also interact with the Friends/Gilman/Bryn Mawr/RPCS/Boys Latin kids. My observation is they're getting a solid education and there are some really great opportunities available to them - check out the JHU Baltimore Scholars program. BSA is also a one of a kind opportunity. I know children who have left all of the above schools over the years for the experience they could get at BSA.

This is vastly overselling the Baltimore publics. The city school system is broken, and while there smart kids at City and Poly, the facilities are decrepit. There is little interaction between the city publics and the private schools, different athletic conferences, amd social scenes. Baltimore school of the arts is excellent if your child wants a career in the arts (Tupac and Jada Pickett Smith are alums) but is not known for academics.

Saint Paul’s has always operated under the same organization, not sure what pp is referencing. Co-Ed lower school, single sex thereafter but share a cafeteria.

Park is very progressive in education philosophy— tends to be strong in the arts, and weak in athletics.

I frequently pass the Roland Park Starbucks after school hours when the high school kids come down to hang out and flirt. Most are private school kids but there's a cohort of kids from Poly and City and I can tell from their sweatshits. They do talk and flirt with the private school kids. I imagine they also live in RP and know the other private school kids from the neighborhood. There are Roland Park kids going to the top programs at Poly and City so the divide is perhaps not as severe as it was 10 or 20 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in Baltimore and are considering privates for our girls. It would be nice if the many knowledgable posters here could go over the options. Thank you!

What grades? Religious or secular? Co-ed or single sex? Any particular extra curricular needs or wants? Any concerns with learning or behavior issues or support? Any geographical constraints?

Nothing is going to beat visiting the schools though. Also consider approaching it with an open mind. I wasn't going to consider single-sex to begin with, but that would have been a mistake for one of my children.

To be honest, we were looking at Bryn Mawr as a top choice but this is based on online research only. This is for HS - we are not there yet. Religious is ok, I guess, we really haven't thought about it (we are atheists but not aggressively so). Co-ed and single-sex are both fine. No behavioral issues so far.

Bryn Mawr is an excellent school. It has a reputation as being competitive, and my observation would back that up. I do not have a child there. I have friends who have children there or have had children there. A Bryn Mawr girl is going to get an excellent education. I'd recommend visiting, and have her do the visiting day - and do it more than once if she needs to to get a feel for it. Bryn Mawr is part of the tri-school consortium, so your daughter will have the opportunity to take classes at Gilman (boys) or RPCS (girls) as well. Bridges connect the schools so it's safe and easy for the kids to go to the different campuses. The tri-school consortium means that while your daughter will have her home school as her school, she'll have access to a much broader array of classes and experiences if she should want them. Something that's a concern for many when they consider private schools and the necessarily more limited courses or opportunities when compared to what the huge public schools can offer. Bryn Mawr has great academics and arts. Kids who are more focused on athletics seem to be ending up at McDonogh these days.

RPCS is also an excellent school, and has a reputation for being a bit more nurturing than Bryn Mawr. One of the concerns I've encountered is how a child entering in high school will do at these K-12 schools, and my observation is that the kids welcome the new kids. The classes expand quite a bit for upper school, and the lifers are eager to meet new kids. And upper school brings a lot more freedoms and responsibilities, and the new kids fit right in. The schools do a good job of working to integrate everyone into a cohesive class. RPCS tends to be ranked slightly below Bryn Mawr when it comes to test scores, so if you have a highly competitive academically focused kid Bryn Mawr might be a better fit. On the other hand, with the ability to take classes at all 3 schools, your child will be challenged. I love the Latin program at Gilman, although Bryn Mawr girls tend to stay on their own campus for latin.

Friends is also right near Gilman, Bryn Mawr, and RPCS. It does not share classes with the other 3, but the kids can all be found after school on each other's campuses or at the Starbucks. My observation is that Friends is an open, welcoming school. They are focused on the whole-child, and have great opportunities for the arts. It seems like Friends might be slightly easier for a child to get into lately, but I'm basing that entirely on anecdotes. I wouldn't assume admission is guaranteed at any of these schools, even with excellent scores, recommendations, visits, etc.

St. Pauls School for Girls I'm not very familiar with. I understand that the Boys and Girls schools are merging under one umbrella. The St. Pauls kids I know are nice kids, but all boys.

McDonogh is a lovely school, but it feels big to me. They have amazing athletics programs, good arts and good academics. It's in the county so it's somewhat apart. Like Park, they have transportation through the school, rather than through the Kangaroo Coach, if you're looking at transportation. McDonogh has in the past had a reputation of being the school where you went if you didn't get into Gilman/Bryn Mawr, but that is not my experience. The children I know there are top notch; some say there's been too much focus on athletics in recent years.

Park is different. If Friends is a more casual version of the traditional privates, Park wrote its own rules. You've seen the back and forth here already, but if you have a child who needs the ability to go deep and far in math, Park is your school. If you have a kid who wouldn't just rebel against uniforms, but argue they're a tool for caging the mind, body, and spirit, check out Park. If you have a kid who might need some encouragement, or might have a tendency to fly under the radar, Park might not be the best fit, depending. But I think you should visit, even if you're mostly considering more traditional schools like Bryn Mawr.

IND and NDP, both catholic, are excellent schools as well. I have the impression that IND is the more academic, and NDP the more athletic, of the two. But I know great girls at both.

None of these schools are a shoe-in for getting in. I know kids who get shut out every year, even applying to 3 or 4 schools. I know kids who took a few application cycles to get into the school they really wanted. If you visit Bryn Mawr, and walk away knowing Bryn Mawr is the right school for your daughter, you may not want to wait to apply for 9th grade. If there are openings, kids start in 7th and 8th, when they know what they want for HS. Sometimes going through the application process in 8th and not getting in can light a fire under a child for the 9th grade admissions cycle.

If you're in the city, there are also some great public schools. The kids at City and Poly also interact with the Friends/Gilman/Bryn Mawr/RPCS/Boys Latin kids. My observation is they're getting a solid education and there are some really great opportunities available to them - check out the JHU Baltimore Scholars program. BSA is also a one of a kind opportunity. I know children who have left all of the above schools over the years for the experience they could get at BSA.

This is vastly overselling the Baltimore publics. The city school system is broken, and while there smart kids at City and Poly, the facilities are decrepit. There is little interaction between the city publics and the private schools, different athletic conferences, amd social scenes. Baltimore school of the arts is excellent if your child wants a career in the arts (Tupac and Jada Pickett Smith are alums) but is not known for academics.

Saint Paul’s has always operated under the same organization, not sure what pp is referencing. Co-Ed lower school, single sex thereafter but share a cafeteria.

Park is very progressive in education philosophy— tends to be strong in the arts, and weak in athletics.

I frequently pass the Roland Park Starbucks after school hours when the high school kids come down to hang out and flirt. Most are private school kids but there's a cohort of kids from Poly and City and I can tell from their sweatshits. They do talk and flirt with the private school kids. I imagine they also live in RP and know the other private school kids from the neighborhood. There are Roland Park kids going to the top programs at Poly and City so the divide is perhaps not as severe as it was 10 or 20 years ago.

I have 2 kids in Baltimore private schools now in the middle/high school years, and disagree that there is much socializing with the Baltimore city publics. The suburban public schools yes, city & poly, no. Not really sure why that is, maybe because they do not play each other in sports and the suburb amd schools do, maybe because the vast majority of kids attending City and Poly live elsewhere in the city, amd most kids attending private’s live in North Baltimore or Baltimore County. There are also a lot of mixers and the like where only other private’s/parochial schools are invited.That is not to say there isn’tsome friendships or dating, but not regularly attending the same parties and games as they do with the other privates, Dulaney and Towson.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The PP saying Park is too permissive, too liberal, too etc. posts very frequently. Frankly I find that person's posts to be very overgeneralized with no specifics about the school apart from that and the Jewish stereotype. Historically, Park was the "Jewish" schools because other elite private schools in Baltimore would not accept Jewish students due to anti-Semitism. I wouldn't exactly call it "#1 school for elite Jews" -- that doesn't really explain why Jewish people went there.

You must be confusing me with someone else. I have only posted about Baltimore schools a handful of times as the topic doesn't come up very often and I don't recall talking about Park.

I think Park is a fabulous school. It's not for everyone or for every family. By Baltimore standards it's on the liberal side. The most common feedback I get from parents comparing Friends and Park is that while Friends is also liberal it is also a bit more structured and many families like that balance better for their kids. But every Friends family also thinks highly of Park too.

If I brought up the comment about Park's historic affiliation with the Baltimore Jewish community it was to highlight Park's reputation as a progressive and liberal private school, just as Baltimore's vibrant Jewish community has a history of progressive liberalism. Beyond that I'm sorry for mentioning it as it is probably not relevant at all, so you have my apologies.

I’m really confused by this post. “Progressive” in Park’s sense means inheriting the educational philosophy of John Dewey et al. As far as I know, Baltimore’s Jewish community has nothing to do with Dewey.

Nor is the Jewish community particularly liberal in a political or social sense. Not that this maps onto political affiliation, but Baltimore has the largest growing Orthodox community outside of Israel and Brooklyn.

In any case, saying Park is the “Jewish” school as many old Baltimoreans is a totally ignorant way of describing the deep anti-semitism that is part of the history of all the other elite private schools. Park admitted Jews when other schools wouldn’t. I think calling it the Jewish school and suggesting that the manners of the kids are lax is a total mischaracterization of the school’s culture and philosophy. The only time I’ve seen kids lying on the floor there is when they were measuring velocity of vehicles they built in physics class. I would be fine with that as a parent. I visited many other “progressive” schools in Baltimore — Waldorf, Montessori, and Greenmount — and they were much more unstructured, if you like that. In contrast Park is much more conventional and incorporates a lot more teacher-led classroom learning. I was told it is one of the most rigorous from an academic point of view.

You know what, give it a break won’t you? Park has historically carried a lot of cachet in Baltimore’s Jewish community. If you want to somehow turn this into an axe to grind it’s not going to make you good. You are coming across as judgmental and intolerant and unforgiving.

By the way, Friends was the other school that admitted Jews going back to the early 20th century. Jewish students have been attending Gilman since the 1950s.

Dp, but Park has definitely historically been the “Jewish” school, which has nothing to do with its educational philosophy and everything to do with Baltimore’s long history of racial and religious segregation. The school is located adjacent to Pikesville, which is the heart of Jewish Baltimore. Currently, the school is about two-thirds Jewish, and they have been working on increasing diversity for the last decade. Baltimore also had two Jewish religious schools located near Park, Beth Tfiloh, and Krieger Schechter.

Where do you get this number? Literally every family I know at Park is not Jewish so I'm pretty sure that can't be true. One third Hopkins faculty, I could believe.

BT and KSDS are not really near Park. They are about as close as Boys Latin or St Paul's from Park.

I know two people who were board members during the past 10 years. They told me about the effort to diversify the student body., both are Jewish, for what it is worth.

Not sure what your issue is with Jewish people and why you find the need to argue about this. There is a geographic part of Baltimore that is heavily Jewish because of redlining. People have stayed in the area because it is where most of the big synagogues are located, and it is a great community. This is the same part of Baltimore County where Park, Beth Tfiloh, and Krieger Schechter are located.

I’ll end this here because it is really not worth fighting over.

My guess is that the Park poster is not Jewish, but loves the school, so is miffed that people think of Park as Jewish instead of progressive, or academic or whatever other adjective they want to use. This is the main problem with independents in Balto, the clichés and stereotypes never really die. Even when a school HAS changed, there is always going to be a contingent that refuses to change the way that it's categorized in their mind. You aren't going to change the way Baltimore thinks, just do the right thing for your kid and chose the school that is the best fit, ignore the stereotypes.

And the point was that this person is so strongly opposed to the fact that the school had a large majority of Jewish students that he/she appears anti-Semitic.

This poster also should be aware that Hopkins doctor and Jewish are not mutually exclusive categories.

Honestly I have always heard about this Jewish majority, but of the 10-15 families I know who go to Park (random sample) not one is Jewish and not one lives in Pikesville. My Jewish friends who live in Pikesville send their kids to Beth Tfiloh and Krieger Schecter. I haven’t seen any numbers of actual students at the school so I’d love to see where you get this data.

I already answered this, members of the school’s board. There was an active effort to create more diversity, and they were doing outreach.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We live in Baltimore and are considering privates for our girls. It would be nice if the many knowledgable posters here could go over the options. Thank you!

What grades? Religious or secular? Co-ed or single sex? Any particular extra curricular needs or wants? Any concerns with learning or behavior issues or support? Any geographical constraints?

Nothing is going to beat visiting the schools though. Also consider approaching it with an open mind. I wasn't going to consider single-sex to begin with, but that would have been a mistake for one of my children.

To be honest, we were looking at Bryn Mawr as a top choice but this is based on online research only. This is for HS - we are not there yet. Religious is ok, I guess, we really haven't thought about it (we are atheists but not aggressively so). Co-ed and single-sex are both fine. No behavioral issues so far.

Bryn Mawr is an excellent school. It has a reputation as being competitive, and my observation would back that up. I do not have a child there. I have friends who have children there or have had children there. A Bryn Mawr girl is going to get an excellent education. I'd recommend visiting, and have her do the visiting day - and do it more than once if she needs to to get a feel for it. Bryn Mawr is part of the tri-school consortium, so your daughter will have the opportunity to take classes at Gilman (boys) or RPCS (girls) as well. Bridges connect the schools so it's safe and easy for the kids to go to the different campuses. The tri-school consortium means that while your daughter will have her home school as her school, she'll have access to a much broader array of classes and experiences if she should want them. Something that's a concern for many when they consider private schools and the necessarily more limited courses or opportunities when compared to what the huge public schools can offer. Bryn Mawr has great academics and arts. Kids who are more focused on athletics seem to be ending up at McDonogh these days.

RPCS is also an excellent school, and has a reputation for being a bit more nurturing than Bryn Mawr. One of the concerns I've encountered is how a child entering in high school will do at these K-12 schools, and my observation is that the kids welcome the new kids. The classes expand quite a bit for upper school, and the lifers are eager to meet new kids. And upper school brings a lot more freedoms and responsibilities, and the new kids fit right in. The schools do a good job of working to integrate everyone into a cohesive class. RPCS tends to be ranked slightly below Bryn Mawr when it comes to test scores, so if you have a highly competitive academically focused kid Bryn Mawr might be a better fit. On the other hand, with the ability to take classes at all 3 schools, your child will be challenged. I love the Latin program at Gilman, although Bryn Mawr girls tend to stay on their own campus for latin.

Friends is also right near Gilman, Bryn Mawr, and RPCS. It does not share classes with the other 3, but the kids can all be found after school on each other's campuses or at the Starbucks. My observation is that Friends is an open, welcoming school. They are focused on the whole-child, and have great opportunities for the arts. It seems like Friends might be slightly easier for a child to get into lately, but I'm basing that entirely on anecdotes. I wouldn't assume admission is guaranteed at any of these schools, even with excellent scores, recommendations, visits, etc.

St. Pauls School for Girls I'm not very familiar with. I understand that the Boys and Girls schools are merging under one umbrella. The St. Pauls kids I know are nice kids, but all boys.

McDonogh is a lovely school, but it feels big to me. They have amazing athletics programs, good arts and good academics. It's in the county so it's somewhat apart. Like Park, they have transportation through the school, rather than through the Kangaroo Coach, if you're looking at transportation. McDonogh has in the past had a reputation of being the school where you went if you didn't get into Gilman/Bryn Mawr, but that is not my experience. The children I know there are top notch; some say there's been too much focus on athletics in recent years.

Park is different. If Friends is a more casual version of the traditional privates, Park wrote its own rules. You've seen the back and forth here already, but if you have a child who needs the ability to go deep and far in math, Park is your school. If you have a kid who wouldn't just rebel against uniforms, but argue they're a tool for caging the mind, body, and spirit, check out Park. If you have a kid who might need some encouragement, or might have a tendency to fly under the radar, Park might not be the best fit, depending. But I think you should visit, even if you're mostly considering more traditional schools like Bryn Mawr.

IND and NDP, both catholic, are excellent schools as well. I have the impression that IND is the more academic, and NDP the more athletic, of the two. But I know great girls at both.

None of these schools are a shoe-in for getting in. I know kids who get shut out every year, even applying to 3 or 4 schools. I know kids who took a few application cycles to get into the school they really wanted. If you visit Bryn Mawr, and walk away knowing Bryn Mawr is the right school for your daughter, you may not want to wait to apply for 9th grade. If there are openings, kids start in 7th and 8th, when they know what they want for HS. Sometimes going through the application process in 8th and not getting in can light a fire under a child for the 9th grade admissions cycle.

If you're in the city, there are also some great public schools. The kids at City and Poly also interact with the Friends/Gilman/Bryn Mawr/RPCS/Boys Latin kids. My observation is they're getting a solid education and there are some really great opportunities available to them - check out the JHU Baltimore Scholars program. BSA is also a one of a kind opportunity. I know children who have left all of the above schools over the years for the experience they could get at BSA.

This is vastly overselling the Baltimore publics. The city school system is broken, and while there smart kids at City and Poly, the facilities are decrepit. There is little interaction between the city publics and the private schools, different athletic conferences, amd social scenes. Baltimore school of the arts is excellent if your child wants a career in the arts (Tupac and Jada Pickett Smith are alums) but is not known for academics.

Saint Paul’s has always operated under the same organization, not sure what pp is referencing. Co-Ed lower school, single sex thereafter but share a cafeteria.

Park is very progressive in education philosophy— tends to be strong in the arts, and weak in athletics.

I frequently pass the Roland Park Starbucks after school hours when the high school kids come down to hang out and flirt. Most are private school kids but there's a cohort of kids from Poly and City and I can tell from their sweatshits. They do talk and flirt with the private school kids. I imagine they also live in RP and know the other private school kids from the neighborhood. There are Roland Park kids going to the top programs at Poly and City so the divide is perhaps not as severe as it was 10 or 20 years ago.

I have 2 kids in Baltimore private schools now in the middle/high school years, and disagree that there is much socializing with the Baltimore city publics. The suburban public schools yes, city & poly, no. Not really sure why that is, maybe because they do not play each other in sports and the suburb amd schools do, maybe because the vast majority of kids attending City and Poly live elsewhere in the city, amd most kids attending private’s live in North Baltimore or Baltimore County. There are also a lot of mixers and the like where only other private’s/parochial schools are invited.That is not to say there isn’tsome friendships or dating, but not regularly attending the same parties and games as they do with the other privates, Dulaney and Towson.

I get the impression there are some posters who are very fixed in their views of what the private schools and the private school world should be that they have difficulty seeing that the reality may be a bit different. Like the defensive Park poster who threw a hissy fit when someone claimed Friends gets a lot of Hopkins parents and insisted that all the Hopkins parents were at Park. Reality is there's a lot of Hopkins parents at all the schools, including Friends.

I grew up in the Baltimore prep world and in the 1990s we never hung out with Towson or Dulaney kids beyond a few that had close connections, siblings especially, and came to the parties. Today, even though my kids aren't in the high schools yet, I see more private/public school mixing among the Roland Park kids. Because a lot of Roland Park kids are now going to RPEMS when practically none did when I was growing up. The private and public school kids are playing together on the RPBL, they're going to Meadowbrook together, they're growing up on the same streets. And many RPEMS kids will move on to the privates at some point but they still have friends from the public school. There's no question that as kids age their social life becomes mostly their school friends but that doesn't preclude friendships across the school divide either. I'll agree that the typical Poly or City kid doesn't hang out with Gilman or Friends students, but the Roland Park students attending Poly / City aren't typical of those schools either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in Baltimore and are considering privates for our girls. It would be nice if the many knowledgable posters here could go over the options. Thank you!

What grades? Religious or secular? Co-ed or single sex? Any particular extra curricular needs or wants? Any concerns with learning or behavior issues or support? Any geographical constraints?

Nothing is going to beat visiting the schools though. Also consider approaching it with an open mind. I wasn't going to consider single-sex to begin with, but that would have been a mistake for one of my children.

To be honest, we were looking at Bryn Mawr as a top choice but this is based on online research only. This is for HS - we are not there yet. Religious is ok, I guess, we really haven't thought about it (we are atheists but not aggressively so). Co-ed and single-sex are both fine. No behavioral issues so far.

Bryn Mawr is an excellent school. It has a reputation as being competitive, and my observation would back that up. I do not have a child there. I have friends who have children there or have had children there. A Bryn Mawr girl is going to get an excellent education. I'd recommend visiting, and have her do the visiting day - and do it more than once if she needs to to get a feel for it. Bryn Mawr is part of the tri-school consortium, so your daughter will have the opportunity to take classes at Gilman (boys) or RPCS (girls) as well. Bridges connect the schools so it's safe and easy for the kids to go to the different campuses. The tri-school consortium means that while your daughter will have her home school as her school, she'll have access to a much broader array of classes and experiences if she should want them. Something that's a concern for many when they consider private schools and the necessarily more limited courses or opportunities when compared to what the huge public schools can offer. Bryn Mawr has great academics and arts. Kids who are more focused on athletics seem to be ending up at McDonogh these days.

RPCS is also an excellent school, and has a reputation for being a bit more nurturing than Bryn Mawr. One of the concerns I've encountered is how a child entering in high school will do at these K-12 schools, and my observation is that the kids welcome the new kids. The classes expand quite a bit for upper school, and the lifers are eager to meet new kids. And upper school brings a lot more freedoms and responsibilities, and the new kids fit right in. The schools do a good job of working to integrate everyone into a cohesive class. RPCS tends to be ranked slightly below Bryn Mawr when it comes to test scores, so if you have a highly competitive academically focused kid Bryn Mawr might be a better fit. On the other hand, with the ability to take classes at all 3 schools, your child will be challenged. I love the Latin program at Gilman, although Bryn Mawr girls tend to stay on their own campus for latin.

Friends is also right near Gilman, Bryn Mawr, and RPCS. It does not share classes with the other 3, but the kids can all be found after school on each other's campuses or at the Starbucks. My observation is that Friends is an open, welcoming school. They are focused on the whole-child, and have great opportunities for the arts. It seems like Friends might be slightly easier for a child to get into lately, but I'm basing that entirely on anecdotes. I wouldn't assume admission is guaranteed at any of these schools, even with excellent scores, recommendations, visits, etc.

St. Pauls School for Girls I'm not very familiar with. I understand that the Boys and Girls schools are merging under one umbrella. The St. Pauls kids I know are nice kids, but all boys.

McDonogh is a lovely school, but it feels big to me. They have amazing athletics programs, good arts and good academics. It's in the county so it's somewhat apart. Like Park, they have transportation through the school, rather than through the Kangaroo Coach, if you're looking at transportation. McDonogh has in the past had a reputation of being the school where you went if you didn't get into Gilman/Bryn Mawr, but that is not my experience. The children I know there are top notch; some say there's been too much focus on athletics in recent years.

Park is different. If Friends is a more casual version of the traditional privates, Park wrote its own rules. You've seen the back and forth here already, but if you have a child who needs the ability to go deep and far in math, Park is your school. If you have a kid who wouldn't just rebel against uniforms, but argue they're a tool for caging the mind, body, and spirit, check out Park. If you have a kid who might need some encouragement, or might have a tendency to fly under the radar, Park might not be the best fit, depending. But I think you should visit, even if you're mostly considering more traditional schools like Bryn Mawr.

IND and NDP, both catholic, are excellent schools as well. I have the impression that IND is the more academic, and NDP the more athletic, of the two. But I know great girls at both.

None of these schools are a shoe-in for getting in. I know kids who get shut out every year, even applying to 3 or 4 schools. I know kids who took a few application cycles to get into the school they really wanted. If you visit Bryn Mawr, and walk away knowing Bryn Mawr is the right school for your daughter, you may not want to wait to apply for 9th grade. If there are openings, kids start in 7th and 8th, when they know what they want for HS. Sometimes going through the application process in 8th and not getting in can light a fire under a child for the 9th grade admissions cycle.

If you're in the city, there are also some great public schools. The kids at City and Poly also interact with the Friends/Gilman/Bryn Mawr/RPCS/Boys Latin kids. My observation is they're getting a solid education and there are some really great opportunities available to them - check out the JHU Baltimore Scholars program. BSA is also a one of a kind opportunity. I know children who have left all of the above schools over the years for the experience they could get at BSA.

This is vastly overselling the Baltimore publics. The city school system is broken, and while there smart kids at City and Poly, the facilities are decrepit. There is little interaction between the city publics and the private schools, different athletic conferences, amd social scenes. Baltimore school of the arts is excellent if your child wants a career in the arts (Tupac and Jada Pickett Smith are alums) but is not known for academics.

Saint Paul’s has always operated under the same organization, not sure what pp is referencing. Co-Ed lower school, single sex thereafter but share a cafeteria.

Park is very progressive in education philosophy— tends to be strong in the arts, and weak in athletics.

I frequently pass the Roland Park Starbucks after school hours when the high school kids come down to hang out and flirt. Most are private school kids but there's a cohort of kids from Poly and City and I can tell from their sweatshits. They do talk and flirt with the private school kids. I imagine they also live in RP and know the other private school kids from the neighborhood. There are Roland Park kids going to the top programs at Poly and City so the divide is perhaps not as severe as it was 10 or 20 years ago.

I have 2 kids in Baltimore private schools now in the middle/high school years, and disagree that there is much socializing with the Baltimore city publics. The suburban public schools yes, city & poly, no. Not really sure why that is, maybe because they do not play each other in sports and the suburb amd schools do, maybe because the vast majority of kids attending City and Poly live elsewhere in the city, amd most kids attending private’s live in North Baltimore or Baltimore County. There are also a lot of mixers and the like where only other private’s/parochial schools are invited.That is not to say there isn’tsome friendships or dating, but not regularly attending the same parties and games as they do with the other privates, Dulaney and Towson.

I get the impression there are some posters who are very fixed in their views of what the private schools and the private school world should be that they have difficulty seeing that the reality may be a bit different. Like the defensive Park poster who threw a hissy fit when someone claimed Friends gets a lot of Hopkins parents and insisted that all the Hopkins parents were at Park. Reality is there's a lot of Hopkins parents at all the schools, including Friends.

I grew up in the Baltimore prep world and in the 1990s we never hung out with Towson or Dulaney kids beyond a few that had close connections, siblings especially, and came to the parties. Today, even though my kids aren't in the high schools yet, I see more private/public school mixing among the Roland Park kids. Because a lot of Roland Park kids are now going to RPEMS when practically none did when I was growing up. The private and public school kids are playing together on the RPBL, they're going to Meadowbrook together, they're growing up on the same streets. And many RPEMS kids will move on to the privates at some point but they still have friends from the public school. There's no question that as kids age their social life becomes mostly their school friends but that doesn't preclude friendships across the school divide either. I'll agree that the typical Poly or City kid doesn't hang out with Gilman or Friends students, but the Roland Park students attending Poly / City aren't typical of those schools either.

Sure kids have neighborhood friends, but I think you will generally find that the prep school social scene hasn’t changed all that much from the 90s. At least at the middle or high school level, which is where my kids are. Of course, the private schools themselves are much more diverse then they were thirty years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in Baltimore and are considering privates for our girls. It would be nice if the many knowledgable posters here could go over the options. Thank you!

What grades? Religious or secular? Co-ed or single sex? Any particular extra curricular needs or wants? Any concerns with learning or behavior issues or support? Any geographical constraints?

Nothing is going to beat visiting the schools though. Also consider approaching it with an open mind. I wasn't going to consider single-sex to begin with, but that would have been a mistake for one of my children.

To be honest, we were looking at Bryn Mawr as a top choice but this is based on online research only. This is for HS - we are not there yet. Religious is ok, I guess, we really haven't thought about it (we are atheists but not aggressively so). Co-ed and single-sex are both fine. No behavioral issues so far.

Bryn Mawr is an excellent school. It has a reputation as being competitive, and my observation would back that up. I do not have a child there. I have friends who have children there or have had children there. A Bryn Mawr girl is going to get an excellent education. I'd recommend visiting, and have her do the visiting day - and do it more than once if she needs to to get a feel for it. Bryn Mawr is part of the tri-school consortium, so your daughter will have the opportunity to take classes at Gilman (boys) or RPCS (girls) as well. Bridges connect the schools so it's safe and easy for the kids to go to the different campuses. The tri-school consortium means that while your daughter will have her home school as her school, she'll have access to a much broader array of classes and experiences if she should want them. Something that's a concern for many when they consider private schools and the necessarily more limited courses or opportunities when compared to what the huge public schools can offer. Bryn Mawr has great academics and arts. Kids who are more focused on athletics seem to be ending up at McDonogh these days.

RPCS is also an excellent school, and has a reputation for being a bit more nurturing than Bryn Mawr. One of the concerns I've encountered is how a child entering in high school will do at these K-12 schools, and my observation is that the kids welcome the new kids. The classes expand quite a bit for upper school, and the lifers are eager to meet new kids. And upper school brings a lot more freedoms and responsibilities, and the new kids fit right in. The schools do a good job of working to integrate everyone into a cohesive class. RPCS tends to be ranked slightly below Bryn Mawr when it comes to test scores, so if you have a highly competitive academically focused kid Bryn Mawr might be a better fit. On the other hand, with the ability to take classes at all 3 schools, your child will be challenged. I love the Latin program at Gilman, although Bryn Mawr girls tend to stay on their own campus for latin.

Friends is also right near Gilman, Bryn Mawr, and RPCS. It does not share classes with the other 3, but the kids can all be found after school on each other's campuses or at the Starbucks. My observation is that Friends is an open, welcoming school. They are focused on the whole-child, and have great opportunities for the arts. It seems like Friends might be slightly easier for a child to get into lately, but I'm basing that entirely on anecdotes. I wouldn't assume admission is guaranteed at any of these schools, even with excellent scores, recommendations, visits, etc.

St. Pauls School for Girls I'm not very familiar with. I understand that the Boys and Girls schools are merging under one umbrella. The St. Pauls kids I know are nice kids, but all boys.

McDonogh is a lovely school, but it feels big to me. They have amazing athletics programs, good arts and good academics. It's in the county so it's somewhat apart. Like Park, they have transportation through the school, rather than through the Kangaroo Coach, if you're looking at transportation. McDonogh has in the past had a reputation of being the school where you went if you didn't get into Gilman/Bryn Mawr, but that is not my experience. The children I know there are top notch; some say there's been too much focus on athletics in recent years.

Park is different. If Friends is a more casual version of the traditional privates, Park wrote its own rules. You've seen the back and forth here already, but if you have a child who needs the ability to go deep and far in math, Park is your school. If you have a kid who wouldn't just rebel against uniforms, but argue they're a tool for caging the mind, body, and spirit, check out Park. If you have a kid who might need some encouragement, or might have a tendency to fly under the radar, Park might not be the best fit, depending. But I think you should visit, even if you're mostly considering more traditional schools like Bryn Mawr.

IND and NDP, both catholic, are excellent schools as well. I have the impression that IND is the more academic, and NDP the more athletic, of the two. But I know great girls at both.

None of these schools are a shoe-in for getting in. I know kids who get shut out every year, even applying to 3 or 4 schools. I know kids who took a few application cycles to get into the school they really wanted. If you visit Bryn Mawr, and walk away knowing Bryn Mawr is the right school for your daughter, you may not want to wait to apply for 9th grade. If there are openings, kids start in 7th and 8th, when they know what they want for HS. Sometimes going through the application process in 8th and not getting in can light a fire under a child for the 9th grade admissions cycle.

If you're in the city, there are also some great public schools. The kids at City and Poly also interact with the Friends/Gilman/Bryn Mawr/RPCS/Boys Latin kids. My observation is they're getting a solid education and there are some really great opportunities available to them - check out the JHU Baltimore Scholars program. BSA is also a one of a kind opportunity. I know children who have left all of the above schools over the years for the experience they could get at BSA.

This is vastly overselling the Baltimore publics. The city school system is broken, and while there smart kids at City and Poly, the facilities are decrepit. There is little interaction between the city publics and the private schools, different athletic conferences, amd social scenes. Baltimore school of the arts is excellent if your child wants a career in the arts (Tupac and Jada Pickett Smith are alums) but is not known for academics.

Saint Paul’s has always operated under the same organization, not sure what pp is referencing. Co-Ed lower school, single sex thereafter but share a cafeteria.

Park is very progressive in education philosophy— tends to be strong in the arts, and weak in athletics.

I frequently pass the Roland Park Starbucks after school hours when the high school kids come down to hang out and flirt. Most are private school kids but there's a cohort of kids from Poly and City and I can tell from their sweatshits. They do talk and flirt with the private school kids. I imagine they also live in RP and know the other private school kids from the neighborhood. There are Roland Park kids going to the top programs at Poly and City so the divide is perhaps not as severe as it was 10 or 20 years ago.

I have 2 kids in Baltimore private schools now in the middle/high school years, and disagree that there is much socializing with the Baltimore city publics. The suburban public schools yes, city & poly, no. Not really sure why that is, maybe because they do not play each other in sports and the suburb amd schools do, maybe because the vast majority of kids attending City and Poly live elsewhere in the city, amd most kids attending private’s live in North Baltimore or Baltimore County. There are also a lot of mixers and the like where only other private’s/parochial schools are invited.That is not to say there isn’tsome friendships or dating, but not regularly attending the same parties and games as they do with the other privates, Dulaney and Towson.

My kids are in upper school at a couple of the Roland Park Private Schools now, and they have good friends who go to City and Poly. They also know kids at Dulaney and Towson, and of course the other private schools. They do tend to hang out more with the other private school kids just because they mix more. But meeting friends at one of the other private schools or Starbucks or Eddies after school isn't any harder than meeting up with Poly or City kids. In middle school, it's true that it's harder for the private school kids to meet public school kids through school functions, but most of the upper school social activities allow friends as long as they have a school ID. So it's not just a group of kids from a limited list of schools who can attend a mixer, it's any kid with a valid HS ID who can come to the dance with you.

It's possible that our kids are just in different social circles, and an anecdote is worth what you paid for it, but at least some RP private school kids hang out with public school kids, and the City/Poly kids I know are smart, funny, kind, and I'm glad my kids have them as friends.

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Anonymous wrote:We live in Baltimore and are considering privates for our girls. It would be nice if the many knowledgable posters here could go over the options. Thank you!

What grades? Religious or secular? Co-ed or single sex? Any particular extra curricular needs or wants? Any concerns with learning or behavior issues or support? Any geographical constraints?

Nothing is going to beat visiting the schools though. Also consider approaching it with an open mind. I wasn't going to consider single-sex to begin with, but that would have been a mistake for one of my children.

To be honest, we were looking at Bryn Mawr as a top choice but this is based on online research only. This is for HS - we are not there yet. Religious is ok, I guess, we really haven't thought about it (we are atheists but not aggressively so). Co-ed and single-sex are both fine. No behavioral issues so far.

Bryn Mawr is an excellent school. It has a reputation as being competitive, and my observation would back that up. I do not have a child there. I have friends who have children there or have had children there. A Bryn Mawr girl is going to get an excellent education. I'd recommend visiting, and have her do the visiting day - and do it more than once if she needs to to get a feel for it. Bryn Mawr is part of the tri-school consortium, so your daughter will have the opportunity to take classes at Gilman (boys) or RPCS (girls) as well. Bridges connect the schools so it's safe and easy for the kids to go to the different campuses. The tri-school consortium means that while your daughter will have her home school as her school, she'll have access to a much broader array of classes and experiences if she should want them. Something that's a concern for many when they consider private schools and the necessarily more limited courses or opportunities when compared to what the huge public schools can offer. Bryn Mawr has great academics and arts. Kids who are more focused on athletics seem to be ending up at McDonogh these days.

RPCS is also an excellent school, and has a reputation for being a bit more nurturing than Bryn Mawr. One of the concerns I've encountered is how a child entering in high school will do at these K-12 schools, and my observation is that the kids welcome the new kids. The classes expand quite a bit for upper school, and the lifers are eager to meet new kids. And upper school brings a lot more freedoms and responsibilities, and the new kids fit right in. The schools do a good job of working to integrate everyone into a cohesive class. RPCS tends to be ranked slightly below Bryn Mawr when it comes to test scores, so if you have a highly competitive academically focused kid Bryn Mawr might be a better fit. On the other hand, with the ability to take classes at all 3 schools, your child will be challenged. I love the Latin program at Gilman, although Bryn Mawr girls tend to stay on their own campus for latin.

Friends is also right near Gilman, Bryn Mawr, and RPCS. It does not share classes with the other 3, but the kids can all be found after school on each other's campuses or at the Starbucks. My observation is that Friends is an open, welcoming school. They are focused on the whole-child, and have great opportunities for the arts. It seems like Friends might be slightly easier for a child to get into lately, but I'm basing that entirely on anecdotes. I wouldn't assume admission is guaranteed at any of these schools, even with excellent scores, recommendations, visits, etc.

St. Pauls School for Girls I'm not very familiar with. I understand that the Boys and Girls schools are merging under one umbrella. The St. Pauls kids I know are nice kids, but all boys.

McDonogh is a lovely school, but it feels big to me. They have amazing athletics programs, good arts and good academics. It's in the county so it's somewhat apart. Like Park, they have transportation through the school, rather than through the Kangaroo Coach, if you're looking at transportation. McDonogh has in the past had a reputation of being the school where you went if you didn't get into Gilman/Bryn Mawr, but that is not my experience. The children I know there are top notch; some say there's been too much focus on athletics in recent years.

Park is different. If Friends is a more casual version of the traditional privates, Park wrote its own rules. You've seen the back and forth here already, but if you have a child who needs the ability to go deep and far in math, Park is your school. If you have a kid who wouldn't just rebel against uniforms, but argue they're a tool for caging the mind, body, and spirit, check out Park. If you have a kid who might need some encouragement, or might have a tendency to fly under the radar, Park might not be the best fit, depending. But I think you should visit, even if you're mostly considering more traditional schools like Bryn Mawr.

IND and NDP, both catholic, are excellent schools as well. I have the impression that IND is the more academic, and NDP the more athletic, of the two. But I know great girls at both.

None of these schools are a shoe-in for getting in. I know kids who get shut out every year, even applying to 3 or 4 schools. I know kids who took a few application cycles to get into the school they really wanted. If you visit Bryn Mawr, and walk away knowing Bryn Mawr is the right school for your daughter, you may not want to wait to apply for 9th grade. If there are openings, kids start in 7th and 8th, when they know what they want for HS. Sometimes going through the application process in 8th and not getting in can light a fire under a child for the 9th grade admissions cycle.

If you're in the city, there are also some great public schools. The kids at City and Poly also interact with the Friends/Gilman/Bryn Mawr/RPCS/Boys Latin kids. My observation is they're getting a solid education and there are some really great opportunities available to them - check out the JHU Baltimore Scholars program. BSA is also a one of a kind opportunity. I know children who have left all of the above schools over the years for the experience they could get at BSA.

This is vastly overselling the Baltimore publics. The city school system is broken, and while there smart kids at City and Poly, the facilities are decrepit. There is little interaction between the city publics and the private schools, different athletic conferences, amd social scenes. Baltimore school of the arts is excellent if your child wants a career in the arts (Tupac and Jada Pickett Smith are alums) but is not known for academics.

Saint Paul’s has always operated under the same organization, not sure what pp is referencing. Co-Ed lower school, single sex thereafter but share a cafeteria.

Park is very progressive in education philosophy— tends to be strong in the arts, and weak in athletics.

I frequently pass the Roland Park Starbucks after school hours when the high school kids come down to hang out and flirt. Most are private school kids but there's a cohort of kids from Poly and City and I can tell from their sweatshits. They do talk and flirt with the private school kids. I imagine they also live in RP and know the other private school kids from the neighborhood. There are Roland Park kids going to the top programs at Poly and City so the divide is perhaps not as severe as it was 10 or 20 years ago.

I have 2 kids in Baltimore private schools now in the middle/high school years, and disagree that there is much socializing with the Baltimore city publics. The suburban public schools yes, city & poly, no. Not really sure why that is, maybe because they do not play each other in sports and the suburb amd schools do, maybe because the vast majority of kids attending City and Poly live elsewhere in the city, amd most kids attending private’s live in North Baltimore or Baltimore County. There are also a lot of mixers and the like where only other private’s/parochial schools are invited.That is not to say there isn’tsome friendships or dating, but not regularly attending the same parties and games as they do with the other privates, Dulaney and Towson.

My kids are in upper school at a couple of the Roland Park Private Schools now, and they have good friends who go to City and Poly. They also know kids at Dulaney and Towson, and of course the other private schools. They do tend to hang out more with the other private school kids just because they mix more. But meeting friends at one of the other private schools or Starbucks or Eddies after school isn't any harder than meeting up with Poly or City kids. In middle school, it's true that it's harder for the private school kids to meet public school kids through school functions, but most of the upper school social activities allow friends as long as they have a school ID. So it's not just a group of kids from a limited list of schools who can attend a mixer, it's any kid with a valid HS ID who can come to the dance with you.

It's possible that our kids are just in different social circles, and an anecdote is worth what you paid for it, but at least some RP private school kids hang out with public school kids, and the City/Poly kids I know are smart, funny, kind, and I'm glad my kids have them as friends.

I’m pp and my kids are also at RP private schools. Since there are ony a dozen or so kids from RP at City or Poly for any particular grade, sure, it’s possible that your kids have friends in this cohort and mine don’t, and of course, most kids have neighborhood friends that differ from school friends. mever have I ever heard my kids say, however, that they are going to a City or Poly party, school social event, or sports game. They go to these events at other privates all the time. And I expect that the city and poly kids tend to hang out with one another for similar reasons. They aren’t really on the same event circuit although I’m sure there are crossover friendships.