Are we crazy to turn down a "Big Three" for Potomac?

[Anonymous]

Okay, Potomac boosters, while you jumped on the NMSF and other academic awards part, you ignored the charge that


"Potomac is in a suburban neighborhood...., it is nothing particularly special. It has a mostly white and preppy student body and is frankly, rather bland. It is more akin to a high performing, wealthy suburban public school than a modern, elite NWDC private school."

So, anything to say to this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Potomac has always felt like a public school that charges 35k to attend. There is nothing they do that differentiates them as unique or special.

You have never been there, that is clear.

Why are your knickers in a twist over this?? Yes, I have been there and that is why I have the opinion I do.

It is completely clear that you have never been to the school, you probably do not even live in the Dc area. it is nothing like any public school anywhere -- so obvious. Your lack of any connection to the school is showing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people who are fixated on the reputation of the big three are out of step -- a couple of decades ago you could say there were just a couple of tippy-top schools, but given objective criteria -- college placement, rigor of curriculum, quality of students -- you have to say there are more top schools today. Ignoring this would be like saying the only top colleges are in the Ivy League. Potomac is one of the top area schools, it is up to you if you want to be obsessed about the name. Colleges know it is good, isn't that enough?

Potomac is NOT as good a school as STA, NCS, Sidwell, Maret or arguably some others. Potomac does not have the same level of academic rigor, as high a number of NMSF/NMF, or as good a record of getting its graduates into the most competitive colleges. Potomac is in a suburban neighborhood and while it has an attractive campus, it is nothing particularly special. It has a mostly white and preppy student body and is frankly, rather bland. It is more akin to a high performing, wealthy suburban public school than a modern, elite NWDC private school.

Oh Hahaha. Potomac school is famous for its snobs!

[Anonymous]

Are there kids pretending to be their parents posting here? I see some immature exchanges.....

BOTTOM LINE: Do what you want and what you think it's right for your family! There are no perfect schools. You're sending your kids to a "private" school that costs $35+K per year per child! Most of the families are fully funding that education out of pocket without additional aids. Every school will have some snobs and just as likely, some very nice people.

Some schools will have more competitive student, while others not. It's what your kids can get out of each institution that matters. And THAT, will depend on what your teach your kids at home!

Some schools will have mostly Type A parents; if that's what your family can thrive on, go for it!

[Anonymous]

Students....sorry for the typo!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re NMSF -- if "commended" is a nationally normed designation (and I think it is), that would enable you to make a better comparison across schools. In any event, it's a better measure of what you're trying to capture (i.e. cohort)

Not sure why people are getting hung up on the cut-off point about NMSF -- MD, DC, and Virginia are ALL THREE in the top six for cut-offs, along with California, Massachusetts, and New York. It is really hard to get in any of these states. But if you really want to be hyper-technical you can look at the mark for "commended," which is the same everywhere (201), which is still a very good score. To pick two schools at random, last year Potomac had 28 "commended" students and NCS had 32.

I'm not certain why people are so hung up on this, all the top area schools do well. Here is a table compiled over the last five years of all NMSF winners. It shows that GDS, Maret, and Georgetown Prep are average or lower among the top schools in terms of percentage of NMSF. Are we all going to conclude these schools are suddenly not good schools? Of course not, this is just one piece of information.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnukIDABt_JKdDdZYXlQbnFUQ0VfMHRpTFp1SUIxS2c&hl=en_US#gid=0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, Potomac boosters, while you jumped on the NMSF and other academic awards part, you ignored the charge that


"Potomac is in a suburban neighborhood...., it is nothing particularly special. It has a mostly white and preppy student body and is frankly, rather bland. It is more akin to a high performing, wealthy suburban public school than a modern, elite NWDC private school."

So, anything to say to this?

All you have done is change the adjectives, what the hell is the difference between being "high performing" and being "elite"? And let's face it, all of these schools are "modern" and "wealthy," as even a quick visit to the campuses would show you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re NMSF -- if "commended" is a nationally normed designation (and I think it is), that would enable you to make a better comparison across schools. In any event, it's a better measure of what you're trying to capture (i.e. cohort)

Not sure why people are getting hung up on the cut-off point about NMSF -- MD, DC, and Virginia are ALL THREE in the top six for cut-offs, along with California, Massachusetts, and New York. It is really hard to get in any of these states. But if you really want to be hyper-technical you can look at the mark for "commended," which is the same everywhere (201), which is still a very good score. To pick two schools at random, last year Potomac had 28 "commended" students and NCS had 32.

I'm not certain why people are so hung up on this, all the top area schools do well. Here is a table compiled over the last five years of all NMSF winners. It shows that GDS, Maret, and Georgetown Prep are average or lower among the top schools in terms of percentage of NMSF. Are we all going to conclude these schools are suddenly not good schools? Of course not, this is just one piece of information.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnukIDABt_JKdDdZYXlQbnFUQ0VfMHRpTFp1SUIxS2c&hl=en_US#gid=0

OMG, this table contains incredible data! Did you compiled these yourself? Just want to know the source of these numbers.

They do look as expected in terms of how each school performs.

GO TJ!

[Anonymous]

We are choosing between several schools and talking with everyone we know and doing research. For people who haven't seen it, here are some research items.

This is a ranking of the best schools in the country. It has NCS 15th in the country, Potomac 32d, Maret 35th, and Sidwell 44th. http://www.thebestschools.org/blog/2013/04/30/50-private-day-schools-united-states/.

Here is the Washingtonian rankings, it has Sidwell, NCS, STA, GDS, and Potomac as the five top academic all-stars. http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/work-education/a-private-school-for-every-student/#academicallstars

Hard to tell how rigorous these rankings are as they don't disclose their methodology, but pass them on for what it is worth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re NMSF -- if "commended" is a nationally normed designation (and I think it is), that would enable you to make a better comparison across schools. In any event, it's a better measure of what you're trying to capture (i.e. cohort)

Not sure why people are getting hung up on the cut-off point about NMSF -- MD, DC, and Virginia are ALL THREE in the top six for cut-offs, along with California, Massachusetts, and New York. It is really hard to get in any of these states. But if you really want to be hyper-technical you can look at the mark for "commended," which is the same everywhere (201), which is still a very good score. To pick two schools at random, last year Potomac had 28 "commended" students and NCS had 32.

I'm not certain why people are so hung up on this, all the top area schools do well. Here is a table compiled over the last five years of all NMSF winners. It shows that GDS, Maret, and Georgetown Prep are average or lower among the top schools in terms of percentage of NMSF. Are we all going to conclude these schools are suddenly not good schools? Of course not, this is just one piece of information.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnukIDABt_JKdDdZYXlQbnFUQ0VfMHRpTFp1SUIxS2c&hl=en_US#gid=0

OMG, this table contains incredible data! Did you compiled these yourself? Just want to know the source of these numbers.

They do look as expected in terms of how each school performs.

GO TJ!

It was previously posted. http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/331543.page. And yes, all the people are talking about how elite their schools are entirely overlooking the rankings of Blair and TJ, they are off the charts.

[Anonymous]

PP: That's it! If my DC gets into TJ, that's where DC is going. I'm going to use the $ I would have spent on private school to buy myself a nice car and take a nice vacation (or two!)

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting chart. I'm not certain how much faith I would put in the average SAT scores, however; if you look at the methodology, it says that it is reporting the scores that the schools themselves post (because this information is not publicly available). Does anyone believe that Sidwell just happens to have "exactly" a 1400 score, and in multiple years as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP: That's it! If my DC gets into TJ, that's where DC is going. I'm going to use the $ I would have spent on private school to buy myself a nice car and take a nice vacation (or two!)

Actually, you could take a nice vacation every month or two, it is crazy how much these schools cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, Potomac boosters, while you jumped on the NMSF and other academic awards part, you ignored the charge that


"Potomac is in a suburban neighborhood...., it is nothing particularly special. It has a mostly white and preppy student body and is frankly, rather bland. It is more akin to a high performing, wealthy suburban public school than a modern, elite NWDC private school."

So, anything to say to this?

All the elite schools push diversity, including Potomac. Its diversity numbers are similar to the NWDC schools. As to whether the children are "bland," I have no idea how you would even know this, I suspect they are obsessed with the same kinds of pre-teen and teenager thoughts as any other children who live in an upscale area and too busy texting their friends to give it much thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people who are fixated on the reputation of the big three are out of step -- a couple of decades ago you could say there were just a couple of tippy-top schools, but given objective criteria -- college placement, rigor of curriculum, quality of students -- you have to say there are more top schools today. Ignoring this would be like saying the only top colleges are in the Ivy League. Potomac is one of the top area schools, it is up to you if you want to be obsessed about the name. Colleges know it is good, isn't that enough?

Potomac is NOT as good a school as STA, NCS, Sidwell, Maret or arguably some others. Potomac does not have the same level of academic rigor, as high a number of NMSF/NMF, or as good a record of getting its graduates into the most competitive colleges. Potomac is in a suburban neighborhood and while it has an attractive campus, it is nothing particularly special. It has a mostly white and preppy student body and is frankly, rather bland. It is more akin to a high performing, wealthy suburban public school than a modern, elite NWDC private school.

Um, no. In 2014, NCS had four NMSF and Maret had 1. http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1310966/d-c-semifinalists-in-2015-national-merit.pdf. Potomac had seven. http://www.potomacschool.org/news/index.aspx.

Also, when the Washingtonian surveyed educational consultants, it came up with a list of six Academic All-Stars: Sidwell, NCS, St. Albans, GDS, Potomac. http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/work-education/a-private-school-for-every-student/


It's fine to have an opinion, but if you are going to assert facts you shouldn't just make them up.

And Potomac had a great number of Presidential Scholars this year:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/443889.page

Quick review and counting looks like, with each school's multi-year average in (parentheses):

STA 10 (average 5)
NCS 6 (7)
Potomac 6 (2)
Maret 6 (6)
SFS 7 (11)
GDS 11 (6)
Holton 1 (2)
Landon 1 (1)

Not sure where this data is coming from, but Holton had 6 National Merit finalists this year. (And that is typical; I am certain the average is not two.) One way that data gets skewed on this is that the students appear on a list based on their state of residence, not the state that the school is in. So a school that draws from DC, MD and VA will have students on three different lists, fwiw.