If you are wealthy would you send your kids to a W school over private?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:In our W neighborhood probably about 1/3 of the kids go to private. A large percentage were struggling in public for one reason or another. Many are quirky and could not deal socially with the big competitive environment of public schools and others were having trouble being motivated academically. I can think of only a handful of popular well adjusted kids who are A students who decided to go to private even for 9th.

Where I live in Bethesda 20817, everyone--or nearly everyone--with money is doing private. Liberal or Conservative. They have the resources and want out of MCPS.

I grew up in Bethesda, specifically the Whitman catchment, and graduated from there in 2009. Back then, most people I knew who lived in gigantic $2M+ homes were going to private schools instead of Whitman, though there were still a handful of kids in those homes who attended Whitman. Most kids actually attending Whitman back then lived in $600k-$1.5M homes. Fast forward to today, and homes zoned for Whitman and Churchill that are less than $1M are nearly non-existent, and even tear-downs are going for $900k. Homes that sold for just $1.3M as recently as 2019 could sell for $2.2M today. I find it extremely difficult to imagine that people living in an area that is as prohibitively expensive as Bethesda are abandoning MCPS for privates when the school enrollment trends in Bethesda show otherwise. In fact, I worry that Whitman and other schools in Bethesda/Potomac areas (and even RM at this point) are increasingly becoming "private public schools." Whitman was really affluent when I attended in the 2000s, but we still had an actual cohort of real middle-class students. Not DCUM "middle-class," but actual middle-class. I'm talking about dual fed families, households where one parent was a teacher for MCPS, and even a handful of students with a parent or parents who worked in high-paying blue-collar jobs. You won't find any families like that in Whitman anymore. In the next decade, there will be almost no kids at Whitman whose parents didn't buy their house (at least partially) with family money unless MoCo strives to bring more desperately needed affordable housing in the Whitman catchment.

I can just tell you that most people at my country club do private school, and most of the people I know in the 2+ million homes in 20817 do private school.

Some are family money. Many are entrepreneurs and other high earning professionals.

I think this pretty much sums it up. I've lived in Bethesda and Chevy Chase for a number of years now. Much of this school discussion can be reduced to basic human nature. For the very wealthy and privileged - the country club demographic - they will never send their children to a W school. Projecting status and exclusivity is very important to them. Nothing anyone says is going to convince them that sending a kid to Whitman is more valuable than sending a kid to Landon or Holton Arms. Because in their world it isn't. There's no status there.

For professionals with smart well-adjusted kids in the W clusters - families earning say 500, 600 thousand a year - nothing is going to convince them that spending $100,000 a year on two kids to attend private is worth it, particularly when you can get a very high level, very rigorous education at a W school. Those kids loading up on AP classes work their asses off. But they also have the benefit of being in a large school where there are all types of kids and everybody can find a place. Plus the wide variety of extracurriculars available at these schools. It's a no-brainer for these families.

So what you see - at least in the neighborhoods I'm familiar with - is that the private school kids tend to be very wealthy or they are special needs. Families decide that publics aren't going to work for their particular child. Could be behavioral issues, ADHD, lots of things. But to succeed in public schools does require a certain amount of self-motivation and an ability to read social situations.And everyone wants the best environment for their child. For many special needs kids who need more attention, privates probably are better.

Nothing anyone says here is going to change anyone's opinion. People live in their realities.

To the poster who said you can't take multivariable calculus in a public school here, yes you can. Whitman certainly offers it.

Spoken as someone who clearly has no direct experience with top private schools.

We have kids in private and some of this is true. The wealthiest in our zip code choose private more often than not and their kids are mostly lifers. For those who UMC but not uber-wealthy it's mostly the kids who have some kind of learning or social issue who chose private and many start in MS or HS.

We're not uber wealthy, but we have sent both kids through private school not because of any learning issues. Mainly wanting a way to get away from the woke culture at mcps which has destroyed education as we knew it. It is not a burden for us financially at all, but we don't have private jets or vacation homes.

Well, arguably, you haven’t accomplished much yet given that the alleged “woke” culture did not start until 2020. So you “sent them through” for a whole two years? (*insert exaggerated Nancy Pelosi clap*). And probably a tiny cheap catholic school, nonetheless. 🙄 Stop embarrassing yourself.

LOL, it has always been woke...just never used the word to define it until 2020. Nice try though!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:In our W neighborhood probably about 1/3 of the kids go to private. A large percentage were struggling in public for one reason or another. Many are quirky and could not deal socially with the big competitive environment of public schools and others were having trouble being motivated academically. I can think of only a handful of popular well adjusted kids who are A students who decided to go to private even for 9th.

Where I live in Bethesda 20817, everyone--or nearly everyone--with money is doing private. Liberal or Conservative. They have the resources and want out of MCPS.

I grew up in Bethesda, specifically the Whitman catchment, and graduated from there in 2009. Back then, most people I knew who lived in gigantic $2M+ homes were going to private schools instead of Whitman, though there were still a handful of kids in those homes who attended Whitman. Most kids actually attending Whitman back then lived in $600k-$1.5M homes. Fast forward to today, and homes zoned for Whitman and Churchill that are less than $1M are nearly non-existent, and even tear-downs are going for $900k. Homes that sold for just $1.3M as recently as 2019 could sell for $2.2M today. I find it extremely difficult to imagine that people living in an area that is as prohibitively expensive as Bethesda are abandoning MCPS for privates when the school enrollment trends in Bethesda show otherwise. In fact, I worry that Whitman and other schools in Bethesda/Potomac areas (and even RM at this point) are increasingly becoming "private public schools." Whitman was really affluent when I attended in the 2000s, but we still had an actual cohort of real middle-class students. Not DCUM "middle-class," but actual middle-class. I'm talking about dual fed families, households where one parent was a teacher for MCPS, and even a handful of students with a parent or parents who worked in high-paying blue-collar jobs. You won't find any families like that in Whitman anymore. In the next decade, there will be almost no kids at Whitman whose parents didn't buy their house (at least partially) with family money unless MoCo strives to bring more desperately needed affordable housing in the Whitman catchment.

I can just tell you that most people at my country club do private school, and most of the people I know in the 2+ million homes in 20817 do private school.

Some are family money. Many are entrepreneurs and other high earning professionals.

I think this pretty much sums it up. I've lived in Bethesda and Chevy Chase for a number of years now. Much of this school discussion can be reduced to basic human nature. For the very wealthy and privileged - the country club demographic - they will never send their children to a W school. Projecting status and exclusivity is very important to them. Nothing anyone says is going to convince them that sending a kid to Whitman is more valuable than sending a kid to Landon or Holton Arms. Because in their world it isn't. There's no status there.

For professionals with smart well-adjusted kids in the W clusters - families earning say 500, 600 thousand a year - nothing is going to convince them that spending $100,000 a year on two kids to attend private is worth it, particularly when you can get a very high level, very rigorous education at a W school. Those kids loading up on AP classes work their asses off. But they also have the benefit of being in a large school where there are all types of kids and everybody can find a place. Plus the wide variety of extracurriculars available at these schools. It's a no-brainer for these families.

So what you see - at least in the neighborhoods I'm familiar with - is that the private school kids tend to be very wealthy or they are special needs. Families decide that publics aren't going to work for their particular child. Could be behavioral issues, ADHD, lots of things. But to succeed in public schools does require a certain amount of self-motivation and an ability to read social situations.And everyone wants the best environment for their child. For many special needs kids who need more attention, privates probably are better.

Nothing anyone says here is going to change anyone's opinion. People live in their realities.

To the poster who said you can't take multivariable calculus in a public school here, yes you can. Whitman certainly offers it.

Spoken as someone who clearly has no direct experience with top private schools.

We have kids in private and some of this is true. The wealthiest in our zip code choose private more often than not and their kids are mostly lifers. For those who UMC but not uber-wealthy it's mostly the kids who have some kind of learning or social issue who chose private and many start in MS or HS.

We're not uber wealthy, but we have sent both kids through private school not because of any learning issues. Mainly wanting a way to get away from the woke culture at mcps which has destroyed education as we knew it. It is not a burden for us financially at all, but we don't have private jets or vacation homes.

Well, arguably, you haven’t accomplished much yet given that the alleged “woke” culture did not start until 2020. So you “sent them through” for a whole two years? (*insert exaggerated Nancy Pelosi clap*). And probably a tiny cheap catholic school, nonetheless. 🙄 Stop embarrassing yourself.

Started well before 2020 at MCPS. There has been a creep for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whitman, Niche diversity: B+

Holton, Niche diversity: A

Oh no not Niche. They will find a reason to claim it's false...just like they claim that there is no overall HS ranking that combines public schools and private schools.

Oh wait look! I just checked, and here is the high school ranking on Niche. A google search brings you to these links and the title of the lists are clear: Best High Schools in Maryland, Best Public High Schools in Maryland, and Best Private Schools in Maryland.

Bottom line, the three top W schools are in 8th, 13th, and 18th place for Best HS in Maryland. I know someone doesn't believe that this list is legit, but there you have it in black and white:

Overall Best High Schools in Maryland:

https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-high-schools/s/maryland/



And here is public schools alone:

https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-public-high-schools/s/maryland/



And finally private schools alone:

https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-private-high-schools/s/maryland/

I'm sooo shocked that a school that can determine who goes there has higher test scores, and they don't have to serve kids with SN if they don't want to. Quick, call WaPo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whitman, Niche diversity: B+

Holton, Niche diversity: A

Oh no not Niche. They will find a reason to claim it's false...just like they claim that there is no overall HS ranking that combines public schools and private schools.

Oh wait look! I just checked, and here is the high school ranking on Niche. A google search brings you to these links and the title of the lists are clear: Best High Schools in Maryland, Best Public High Schools in Maryland, and Best Private Schools in Maryland.

Bottom line, the three top W schools are in 8th, 13th, and 18th place for Best HS in Maryland. I know someone doesn't believe that this list is legit, but there you have it in black and white:

Overall Best High Schools in Maryland:

https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-high-schools/s/maryland/



And here is public schools alone:

https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-public-high-schools/s/maryland/



And finally private schools alone:

https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-private-high-schools/s/maryland/

I'm sooo shocked that a school that can determine who goes there has higher test scores, and they don't have to serve kids with SN if they don't want to. Quick, call WaPo.

But wait — I thought private schools are mediocre and rich people send their kids there due to status. Now it’s obvious they have higher test scores?

Pick your argument.

[Anonymous]

All I know is we were in MCPS pre-pandemic. My kid was all As; top standardized scores but never participated in class. Moved her to private and she is a new person and for the first time, loves learning and she now always participates.

She said in MCPS, there were too many poorly behaved and disruptive kids and no consequences and we were zoned for a 'W' school. Anyhow, she's staying put!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All I know is we were in MCPS pre-pandemic. My kid was all As; top standardized scores but never participated in class. Moved her to private and she is a new person and for the first time, loves learning and she now always participates.

She said in MCPS, there were too many poorly behaved and disruptive kids and no consequences and we were zoned for a 'W' school. Anyhow, she's staying put!

It’s that love of learning that matters to us.

It’s not all about test scores.

[Anonymous]

Would you rather your kids go to school with the proletariat or the bourgeois ? I rest my case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would you rather your kids go to school with the proletariat or the bourgeois ? I rest my case.

It’s “bourgeoisie” when you’re using it as a noun.

“Bourgeois” is an adjective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In our W neighborhood probably about 1/3 of the kids go to private. A large percentage were struggling in public for one reason or another. Many are quirky and could not deal socially with the big competitive environment of public schools and others were having trouble being motivated academically. I can think of only a handful of popular well adjusted kids who are A students who decided to go to private even for 9th.

Well in my Churchill zoned neighborhood, most go to public. The only ones who are in private are because of religious choice (that's us) or those going to privates like McLean School or Lab School for significant learning differences. However, with my daughter being in private, we find that her classmates live in much more affluent neighborhoods like Avenel and areas Chevy Chase and Bethesda. So I am guessing that people in our neighborhood stayed in mcps because they just couldn't swing the tuition or wanted to use that extra money for cars and vacations.

You sound dumb and whiny. I’m a private school parent and I hate when people private school parents in the private school forum say this. The public school parents just made a different choice than you - by choice or by no choice. You sound like an unemployed mom with absolutely nothing to do and who is resentful that your neighbors live a much nicer life than you because they aren’t paying for private school.

That poster was not "whiny" at all. You sound very defensive.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:IF both W schools and privates were free, what would you choose?

I am a new poster and have not been able to read all 46 pages of this thread but I did skim through a it and approached our choice much like you posed this question. We are in a W cluster but had considered private. Particularly Bullis. We decided to stick with our W cluster for many reasons but mostly because the diversity that you speak of at Bullis turned us off. We went to a football game and all the kids they bussed in were playing and the remaining student section was not diverse at all. I also truly believe that the math curriculm in our W cluster is leaps and bounds ahead of Bullis. Other factors lead to our decision as well but in the end even if it was free we decided to pass on private. In my opinion Private is worth it if you go for name recognition which is therefore only worth it when looking for single sex schools and that was not appealing for us.

Students who play sports are also students who are in the classroom. The Bulls football program is one of the best high school football program in the US. It has phenomenal athletes that earn the attention of D1 schools for college scholarship opportunities. Same for other athletic programs at the school.

A better measurement of the academic atmosphere is a tour of the school during the school day. Unlike public schools, athletes wear the same uniform as all other students. There’s nothing on them that represents themselves as a football player.

For math, child left Churchill for Bullis specifically for their STEM program. There were more advanced classes at Bullis for math and electives not offered at Churchill. The peer group for advanced math was around 12 students to Churchill’s 2 (hence why my son, if he stayed at Churchill, wouldn’t have a math class past 11th grade). The top math, science, and AP economics classes were taught by university professors. The quality of instruction and availability for help during office hours was also a huge benefit at Bullis.

Finally, help with the college search process was another benefit of private. Counselors at Bullis have a small fraction of students compared to their MCPS counterparts. Bullis counselors actually have several meetings with students to help them come up with a list of colleges, read essays, and provide feedback. They also help students chunk out the deadlines. At Churchill there was zero help with navigating the college process.

dp.. I call BS. It's a simple numbers game. Public schools like the Ws have way more students than Bullis, and many are also UMC. There are way more high achieving students in public schools than there are at Bullis simply because there are more public school students than private schools.

if your DS was that advanced in math he could've gone to Blair STEM, but it seems to me that he is probably not intuitively advanced as much as he is coached to be advanced. And yes, a lot of public school students are also tutored and coached to be advanced in math, as well, but they don't send their kids to private because they think private is much more advanced in STEM than Blair, for example.

BS meter is showing all the way to the right.

PP - this thread is asking if money wasn’t a factor, would you send your child to a W school or private. Blair is not a W school nor do most people in Potomac wish to put their child on a 45 minute bus ride to Silver Spring for access to a challenging math class and a segregated school within a school.

You may not agree with our choice, however, Bullis was a wonderful experience for my son. Bullis met his needs and provided a more challenging curriculum than Churchill. Bullis was also only 10 minutes from our house.

How did Bullis provide a more challenging math curriculum than your W school?

I’m not the person you’re responding to, but we’ve posted course catalogs for private schools repeatedly and compared them to W schools. The course offerings at private schools on the high school level are just as advanced if not more than the W schools.

Course offerings in catalogs are marketing brochures. It doesn't mean that the courses are taught every year. It will depend on if there are enough students who want or have the ability to take those classes. Works the same way in public schools and colleges. There are course offerings in catalogues that aren't always offered every year at that particular school.

That’s your excuse? Ok, so post proof that private schools don’t actually offer the advanced courses as much as public schools do. Otherwise it’s just obvious you’re grasping at straws to crap on private schools.

? not an excuse. Just stating the way it is. Colleges do the same.

But to use it as a way to argue private schools are weaker in math, you’d have to prove that the advanced courses are offered less often than at public schools.

ok, then maybe the Bullis parent could tell which advanced math course their kid took at Bullis that a W school didn't have, and also how many kids were in that advanced math class?

The kids in the advanced math classes in public are getting outside enrichment for math. It’s not from the teachings of public.

Nonsense. My kid at a W took multivariable calculus and I can assure that neither he nor his peers used tutors or outside help. We moved our kids from private to public for lots of reasons, and more advanced math and science classes was very much one of those reasons. The schools may be larger, but within each of those W schools there is a very significant cohort of smart, disciplined, and motivated students who do not need the coddling that so many private school kids do. No regrets.

Not sure which private school you came from or what anonymous W school your children attended. However, not all W high schools offer math beyond Calculus BC. We were in this situation and either my child had to transfer to a public school other than our neighborhood W school or not have an opportunity to participate in after school athletics so he could travel to Montgomery College for math. Transportation to the other school or to Montgomery College had to be supplied by our family. MCPS said that because there were not enough students in our school to take multi variable so it wasn’t being offered.

How recently?

Wootton, Whitman, and WJ all advertise it in their catalog currently.

And virtual academy is being deployed more since COVID, avoiding commute.

The school was Wootton and it was Pre-COVID. The catalog doesn’t guarantee that the class will be available for your child. They need a minimum number of students and a qualified teacher for the class to exist. It’s easier for MCPS to require students to go to other locations or simply say anything above Calculus BC is an elective. They also suggested that my child not take math his Junior and Senior year of high school.

You must be a troll. Maryland requires 4 years of math. No school would ever suggest that. They would instead encourage your child to take AP Stats or other math elective or slow down the Calc sequence by taking Calc AB first and then Calc BC.

Thank you for the name calling. Real classy.

I received that response from a Director at Central Office. The regulation doesn’t apply to math electives. When a child has exceeded Calculus BC, they are not required to take a math class all four years of high school and a school is not required to provide options for math.

Call Central Office and ask. Also ask if all W schools teach Multivariable or any other math beyond Calculus BC every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would you rather your kids go to school with the proletariat or the bourgeois ? I rest my case.

m

This can’t be real. You’re not supposed to say that out loud, surely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you rather your kids go to school with the proletariat or the bourgeois ? I rest my case.

m

This can’t be real. You’re not supposed to say that out loud, surely.

Sounds real.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:IF both W schools and privates were free, what would you choose?

I am a new poster and have not been able to read all 46 pages of this thread but I did skim through a it and approached our choice much like you posed this question. We are in a W cluster but had considered private. Particularly Bullis. We decided to stick with our W cluster for many reasons but mostly because the diversity that you speak of at Bullis turned us off. We went to a football game and all the kids they bussed in were playing and the remaining student section was not diverse at all. I also truly believe that the math curriculm in our W cluster is leaps and bounds ahead of Bullis. Other factors lead to our decision as well but in the end even if it was free we decided to pass on private. In my opinion Private is worth it if you go for name recognition which is therefore only worth it when looking for single sex schools and that was not appealing for us.

Students who play sports are also students who are in the classroom. The Bulls football program is one of the best high school football program in the US. It has phenomenal athletes that earn the attention of D1 schools for college scholarship opportunities. Same for other athletic programs at the school.

A better measurement of the academic atmosphere is a tour of the school during the school day. Unlike public schools, athletes wear the same uniform as all other students. There’s nothing on them that represents themselves as a football player.

For math, child left Churchill for Bullis specifically for their STEM program. There were more advanced classes at Bullis for math and electives not offered at Churchill. The peer group for advanced math was around 12 students to Churchill’s 2 (hence why my son, if he stayed at Churchill, wouldn’t have a math class past 11th grade). The top math, science, and AP economics classes were taught by university professors. The quality of instruction and availability for help during office hours was also a huge benefit at Bullis.

Finally, help with the college search process was another benefit of private. Counselors at Bullis have a small fraction of students compared to their MCPS counterparts. Bullis counselors actually have several meetings with students to help them come up with a list of colleges, read essays, and provide feedback. They also help students chunk out the deadlines. At Churchill there was zero help with navigating the college process.

dp.. I call BS. It's a simple numbers game. Public schools like the Ws have way more students than Bullis, and many are also UMC. There are way more high achieving students in public schools than there are at Bullis simply because there are more public school students than private schools.

if your DS was that advanced in math he could've gone to Blair STEM, but it seems to me that he is probably not intuitively advanced as much as he is coached to be advanced. And yes, a lot of public school students are also tutored and coached to be advanced in math, as well, but they don't send their kids to private because they think private is much more advanced in STEM than Blair, for example.

BS meter is showing all the way to the right.

PP - this thread is asking if money wasn’t a factor, would you send your child to a W school or private. Blair is not a W school nor do most people in Potomac wish to put their child on a 45 minute bus ride to Silver Spring for access to a challenging math class and a segregated school within a school.

You may not agree with our choice, however, Bullis was a wonderful experience for my son. Bullis met his needs and provided a more challenging curriculum than Churchill. Bullis was also only 10 minutes from our house.

How did Bullis provide a more challenging math curriculum than your W school?

I’m not the person you’re responding to, but we’ve posted course catalogs for private schools repeatedly and compared them to W schools. The course offerings at private schools on the high school level are just as advanced if not more than the W schools.

Course offerings in catalogs are marketing brochures. It doesn't mean that the courses are taught every year. It will depend on if there are enough students who want or have the ability to take those classes. Works the same way in public schools and colleges. There are course offerings in catalogues that aren't always offered every year at that particular school.

That’s your excuse? Ok, so post proof that private schools don’t actually offer the advanced courses as much as public schools do. Otherwise it’s just obvious you’re grasping at straws to crap on private schools.

? not an excuse. Just stating the way it is. Colleges do the same.

But to use it as a way to argue private schools are weaker in math, you’d have to prove that the advanced courses are offered less often than at public schools.

ok, then maybe the Bullis parent could tell which advanced math course their kid took at Bullis that a W school didn't have, and also how many kids were in that advanced math class?

The kids in the advanced math classes in public are getting outside enrichment for math. It’s not from the teachings of public.

Nonsense. My kid at a W took multivariable calculus and I can assure that neither he nor his peers used tutors or outside help. We moved our kids from private to public for lots of reasons, and more advanced math and science classes was very much one of those reasons. The schools may be larger, but within each of those W schools there is a very significant cohort of smart, disciplined, and motivated students who do not need the coddling that so many private school kids do. No regrets.

Not sure which private school you came from or what anonymous W school your children attended. However, not all W high schools offer math beyond Calculus BC. We were in this situation and either my child had to transfer to a public school other than our neighborhood W school or not have an opportunity to participate in after school athletics so he could travel to Montgomery College for math. Transportation to the other school or to Montgomery College had to be supplied by our family. MCPS said that because there were not enough students in our school to take multi variable so it wasn’t being offered.

How recently?

Wootton, Whitman, and WJ all advertise it in their catalog currently.

And virtual academy is being deployed more since COVID, avoiding commute.

The school was Wootton and it was Pre-COVID. The catalog doesn’t guarantee that the class will be available for your child. They need a minimum number of students and a qualified teacher for the class to exist. It’s easier for MCPS to require students to go to other locations or simply say anything above Calculus BC is an elective. They also suggested that my child not take math his Junior and Senior year of high school.

You must be a troll. Maryland requires 4 years of math. No school would ever suggest that. They would instead encourage your child to take AP Stats or other math elective or slow down the Calc sequence by taking Calc AB first and then Calc BC.

Thank you for the name calling. Real classy.

I received that response from a Director at Central Office. The regulation doesn’t apply to math electives. When a child has exceeded Calculus BC, they are not required to take a math class all four years of high school and a school is not required to provide options for math.

Call Central Office and ask. Also ask if all W schools teach Multivariable or any other math beyond Calculus BC every year.

While asking at Central Office, ask why do some high schools teach beyond Calculus BC and some don’t. It seems unfair that a student’s educational opportunities in a public school system is limited to the high school a student is assigned. Shouldn’t all high schools offer the same opportunities?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:IF both W schools and privates were free, what would you choose?

I am a new poster and have not been able to read all 46 pages of this thread but I did skim through a it and approached our choice much like you posed this question. We are in a W cluster but had considered private. Particularly Bullis. We decided to stick with our W cluster for many reasons but mostly because the diversity that you speak of at Bullis turned us off. We went to a football game and all the kids they bussed in were playing and the remaining student section was not diverse at all. I also truly believe that the math curriculm in our W cluster is leaps and bounds ahead of Bullis. Other factors lead to our decision as well but in the end even if it was free we decided to pass on private. In my opinion Private is worth it if you go for name recognition which is therefore only worth it when looking for single sex schools and that was not appealing for us.

Students who play sports are also students who are in the classroom. The Bulls football program is one of the best high school football program in the US. It has phenomenal athletes that earn the attention of D1 schools for college scholarship opportunities. Same for other athletic programs at the school.

A better measurement of the academic atmosphere is a tour of the school during the school day. Unlike public schools, athletes wear the same uniform as all other students. There’s nothing on them that represents themselves as a football player.

For math, child left Churchill for Bullis specifically for their STEM program. There were more advanced classes at Bullis for math and electives not offered at Churchill. The peer group for advanced math was around 12 students to Churchill’s 2 (hence why my son, if he stayed at Churchill, wouldn’t have a math class past 11th grade). The top math, science, and AP economics classes were taught by university professors. The quality of instruction and availability for help during office hours was also a huge benefit at Bullis.

Finally, help with the college search process was another benefit of private. Counselors at Bullis have a small fraction of students compared to their MCPS counterparts. Bullis counselors actually have several meetings with students to help them come up with a list of colleges, read essays, and provide feedback. They also help students chunk out the deadlines. At Churchill there was zero help with navigating the college process.

dp.. I call BS. It's a simple numbers game. Public schools like the Ws have way more students than Bullis, and many are also UMC. There are way more high achieving students in public schools than there are at Bullis simply because there are more public school students than private schools.

if your DS was that advanced in math he could've gone to Blair STEM, but it seems to me that he is probably not intuitively advanced as much as he is coached to be advanced. And yes, a lot of public school students are also tutored and coached to be advanced in math, as well, but they don't send their kids to private because they think private is much more advanced in STEM than Blair, for example.

BS meter is showing all the way to the right.

PP - this thread is asking if money wasn’t a factor, would you send your child to a W school or private. Blair is not a W school nor do most people in Potomac wish to put their child on a 45 minute bus ride to Silver Spring for access to a challenging math class and a segregated school within a school.

You may not agree with our choice, however, Bullis was a wonderful experience for my son. Bullis met his needs and provided a more challenging curriculum than Churchill. Bullis was also only 10 minutes from our house.

How did Bullis provide a more challenging math curriculum than your W school?

I’m not the person you’re responding to, but we’ve posted course catalogs for private schools repeatedly and compared them to W schools. The course offerings at private schools on the high school level are just as advanced if not more than the W schools.

Course offerings in catalogs are marketing brochures. It doesn't mean that the courses are taught every year. It will depend on if there are enough students who want or have the ability to take those classes. Works the same way in public schools and colleges. There are course offerings in catalogues that aren't always offered every year at that particular school.

That’s your excuse? Ok, so post proof that private schools don’t actually offer the advanced courses as much as public schools do. Otherwise it’s just obvious you’re grasping at straws to crap on private schools.

? not an excuse. Just stating the way it is. Colleges do the same.

But to use it as a way to argue private schools are weaker in math, you’d have to prove that the advanced courses are offered less often than at public schools.

ok, then maybe the Bullis parent could tell which advanced math course their kid took at Bullis that a W school didn't have, and also how many kids were in that advanced math class?

The kids in the advanced math classes in public are getting outside enrichment for math. It’s not from the teachings of public.

Nonsense. My kid at a W took multivariable calculus and I can assure that neither he nor his peers used tutors or outside help. We moved our kids from private to public for lots of reasons, and more advanced math and science classes was very much one of those reasons. The schools may be larger, but within each of those W schools there is a very significant cohort of smart, disciplined, and motivated students who do not need the coddling that so many private school kids do. No regrets.

Not sure which private school you came from or what anonymous W school your children attended. However, not all W high schools offer math beyond Calculus BC. We were in this situation and either my child had to transfer to a public school other than our neighborhood W school or not have an opportunity to participate in after school athletics so he could travel to Montgomery College for math. Transportation to the other school or to Montgomery College had to be supplied by our family. MCPS said that because there were not enough students in our school to take multi variable so it wasn’t being offered.

How recently?

Wootton, Whitman, and WJ all advertise it in their catalog currently.

And virtual academy is being deployed more since COVID, avoiding commute.

The school was Wootton and it was Pre-COVID. The catalog doesn’t guarantee that the class will be available for your child. They need a minimum number of students and a qualified teacher for the class to exist. It’s easier for MCPS to require students to go to other locations or simply say anything above Calculus BC is an elective. They also suggested that my child not take math his Junior and Senior year of high school.

You must be a troll. Maryland requires 4 years of math. No school would ever suggest that. They would instead encourage your child to take AP Stats or other math elective or slow down the Calc sequence by taking Calc AB first and then Calc BC.

Thank you for the name calling. Real classy.

I received that response from a Director at Central Office. The regulation doesn’t apply to math electives. When a child has exceeded Calculus BC, they are not required to take a math class all four years of high school and a school is not required to provide options for math.

Call Central Office and ask. Also ask if all W schools teach Multivariable or any other math beyond Calculus BC every year.

DP but you're wrong. They are required to take 4 years of HS math.

[Anonymous]

I am not wealthy and I still chose to send my DC to private school. Zero regrets.