Best HS for girls, athletics and academic, good mix?

[Anonymous]

College matriculation is in the eye of the beholder. It is not hatred of GDS, it is just an observation that it is largely irrelevant to this conversation. And I say this as a Maret/NCS dad. Don't see how that gives my opinion any more weight. I'm a Libra if you think that helps, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ledecky money is flowing all over the Ridge. Has anyone been there lately? There facilities are incredible. Holton should be ashamed how shabby everything is. NCS has room contraints. Potomac is coed.

What part of Holton is shabby? Speaking of swimming, Holton has won the ISLs 2 years in a row and has 2 girls this year committed to swim for Columbia next year. Also, I'm sure the girls coming out of Holton know when to use there/their/they're, something your school didn't teach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:OP was asking for good academics too. STJ is just mediocre.
Holton or Potomac are the best academic schools that also have good sports teams.

As well as GDS and NCS

GDS is not as strong academically as Holton, NCS, or Potomac. And to say it's athletic is hilarious. Really. It's a great school, with very very liberal kids--but not strong athletes. I even know of several girls who left there for another school because of how bad the athletics are.

Seriously?!? GDS is much stronger academically than Potomac or Holton. It is as rigorous as Sidwell and NCS/STA.

GDS is not the equal of Sidwell, STA or NCS. It is equal to Potomac and Holton however. And the later three are only a little bit less intense than the first three.

Well, you are wrong. Based not just on college placement, but on things like NMSF numbers. Sidwell has 14 this year. GDS is second in DC with 11. STA has 7. NCS has 4. Potomac has 2. Holton has ? Well, I cannot find anything beyond Holton bragging about 10 commended students. Someone did an analysis on tis very board this fall showing percentages:

Sidwell 10.4%
St. Albans 7.7%
GDS 5.7%
NCS 4.4%
Holton 3.6%
Heights 3.2%
St. Anselm's 3.2%
Potomac 2.5%
Maret 2.5%
Walls 2.4%
McLean (VA) 2.4%
Visitation 1.9%
WIS 1.5%
GtownPrep 1.2%
Gonzaga 1.1%
Wash-Lee 1.1%
Yorktown 0.8%
Stone Ridge 0.7%
St. John's 0.6%

In the big picture, all of these schools are good, and we are splitting hairs. However, the NMSFs are not distributed evenly between boys and girls at Sidwell and GDS. The boys at those two schools skew the NMSF numbers higher. I would like to see this list adjusted for girls only, although that data is probably not available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ledecky money is flowing all over the Ridge. Has anyone been there lately? There facilities are incredible. Holton should be ashamed how shabby everything is. NCS has room contraints. Potomac is coed.

What part of Holton is shabby? Speaking of swimming, Holton has won the ISLs 2 years in a row and has 2 girls this year committed to swim for Columbia next year. Also, I'm sure the girls coming out of Holton know when to use there/their/they're, something your school didn't teach.

Nonsense, there facilities over their are they’re pride and joy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t be fooled looking at records. There is a world of difference between the AA division and the A division. There are not many schools, if any, that has all their teams in AA.

Visi has all its teams in ISL AA. Perennial Lewis Cup winner.

Omg - WHO CARES?? You’re going to ruin a great girls school with the new found focus on sports. SR would not be improved by recruiting athletes for the school to keep winning some dumb Lewis Cup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ledecky money is flowing all over the Ridge. Has anyone been there lately? There facilities are incredible. Holton should be ashamed how shabby everything is. NCS has room contraints. Potomac is coed.

All of the schools would have been thrilled to have Ledecky there. But SR had nothing to do with her being an Olympic swimmer. Her experience is a good example showing that for elite athletes, their particular school makes no difference...it is the travel and elite teams that do regardless of where the kids go to school. Exception...football and basketball...boys do get recruited straight off their h.s. teams; most other athletes have to do outside teams as well as school teams. My dd was recruited for DI field hockey and DI crew for being on teams outside of her school.

SR thoroughly prepared Katie Ledecky for a challenging college. They have excellent teachers there and great classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ledecky money is flowing all over the Ridge. Has anyone been there lately? There facilities are incredible. Holton should be ashamed how shabby everything is. NCS has room contraints. Potomac is coed.

What part of Holton is shabby? Speaking of swimming, Holton has won the ISLs 2 years in a row and has 2 girls this year committed to swim for Columbia next year. Also, I'm sure the girls coming out of Holton know when to use there/their/they're, something your school didn't teach.

You have to be kidding? Holton needs to up their game in their sports facilities-rest of school also needs some upgrading. They have a huge endowment so there is no need to have bad fields etc. They should find a way or make one to fix this. Say what you want about Stone Ridge but their campus is incredible. No school comes close to what they have. Ledecky gave that school an infusion and the head of school was smart to leverage this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ledecky money is flowing all over the Ridge. Has anyone been there lately? There facilities are incredible. Holton should be ashamed how shabby everything is. NCS has room contraints. Potomac is coed.

What part of Holton is shabby? Speaking of swimming, Holton has won the ISLs 2 years in a row and has 2 girls this year committed to swim for Columbia next year. Also, I'm sure the girls coming out of Holton know when to use there/their/they're, something your school didn't teach.

You have to be kidding? Holton needs to up their game in their sports facilities-rest of school also needs some upgrading. They have a huge endowment so there is no need to have bad fields etc. They should find a way or make one to fix this. Say what you want about Stone Ridge but their campus is incredible. No school comes close to what they have. Ledecky gave that school an infusion and the head of school was smart to leverage this.

You people are ridiculous, all of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ledecky money is flowing all over the Ridge. Has anyone been there lately? There facilities are incredible. Holton should be ashamed how shabby everything is. NCS has room contraints. Potomac is coed.

What part of Holton is shabby? Speaking of swimming, Holton has won the ISLs 2 years in a row and has 2 girls this year committed to swim for Columbia next year. Also, I'm sure the girls coming out of Holton know when to use there/their/they're, something your school didn't teach.

You have to be kidding? Holton needs to up their game in their sports facilities-rest of school also needs some upgrading. They have a huge endowment so there is no need to have bad fields etc. They should find a way or make one to fix this. Say what you want about Stone Ridge but their campus is incredible. No school comes close to what they have. Ledecky gave that school an infusion and the head of school was smart to leverage this.

You people are ridiculous, all of you.

Living in the DC area should prepare you for this sort of stuff

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College matriculation is in the eye of the beholder. It is not hatred of GDS, it is just an observation that it is largely irrelevant to this conversation. And I say this as a Maret/NCS dad. Don't see how that gives my opinion any more weight. I'm a Libra if you think that helps, though.

My point was that even parents from other schools can recognize and respect academic excellence. Well, those of us who aren’t total jackasses, anyway. Total jackasses have to make themselves feel superior by denigrating other schools. Like, say, Maret/NCS parents who feel the need to claim that GDS doesn’t have stellar academics.

Though I agree that their athletics are nothing to write home about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ledecky money is flowing all over the Ridge. Has anyone been there lately? There facilities are incredible. Holton should be ashamed how shabby everything is. NCS has room contraints. Potomac is coed.

All of the schools would have been thrilled to have Ledecky there. But SR had nothing to do with her being an Olympic swimmer. Her experience is a good example showing that for elite athletes, their particular school makes no difference...it is the travel and elite teams that do regardless of where the kids go to school. Exception...football and basketball...boys do get recruited straight off their h.s. teams; most other athletes have to do outside teams as well as school teams. My dd was recruited for DI field hockey and DI crew for being on teams outside of her school.

Congratulations to your DD--not to derail, but what FH team did she play for? My 8th grader is proving to be quite strong and is very interested in seeing how far she can go. Not sure her current club team is the best place for her. She loves it, but just not sure. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College matriculation is in the eye of the beholder. It is not hatred of GDS, it is just an observation that it is largely irrelevant to this conversation. And I say this as a Maret/NCS dad. Don't see how that gives my opinion any more weight. I'm a Libra if you think that helps, though.

My point was that even parents from other schools can recognize and respect academic excellence. Well, those of us who aren’t total jackasses, anyway. Total jackasses have to make themselves feel superior by denigrating other schools. Like, say, Maret/NCS parents who feel the need to claim that GDS doesn’t have stellar academics.

Though I agree that their athletics are nothing to write home about.

DP here. I think people dislike GDS parents so much because of their superiority. You jump all over those who denigrate it, but not those GDS posters who claim superiority over all others. Just take a look at that student body and really tell me these kids are superior to Potomac/Sidwell/Holton kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College matriculation is in the eye of the beholder. It is not hatred of GDS, it is just an observation that it is largely irrelevant to this conversation. And I say this as a Maret/NCS dad. Don't see how that gives my opinion any more weight. I'm a Libra if you think that helps, though.

My point was that even parents from other schools can recognize and respect academic excellence. Well, those of us who aren’t total jackasses, anyway. Total jackasses have to make themselves feel superior by denigrating other schools. Like, say, Maret/NCS parents who feel the need to claim that GDS doesn’t have stellar academics.

Though I agree that their athletics are nothing to write home about.

DP here. I think people dislike GDS parents so much because of their superiority. You jump all over those who denigrate it, but not those GDS posters who claim superiority over all others. Just take a look at that student body and really tell me these kids are superior to Potomac/Sidwell/Holton kids.

You? You mean me? You think I only call out GDS bashers? Really? How does one justify such an unsubstantiated accusation on an anonymous board? I’ll call out anyone bashing schools based on their own ignorance. I also call out people overly praising NCS, since I actually hope to share realistic perspectives. Do I call out GDS people praising their school is superior to all others? No. I would, but I have never seen an actual GDS parent do that, and I know some IRL, so it doesn’t strike me as a GDS thing. The infamous GDS troll likes to do that, you know - the one who posts on every thread that GDS has s a Harvard feeder?

[Anonymous]

Libra here; you continue to miss the point. No one said GDS didn't have excellent academics. The point was they are not clearly superior to the other schools in the discussion. You're the one making the superiority claims and the one who feels the need to attack other schools, even on a scale where GDS can't win. Which scale, by the way, was the point of the thread - academics and athletics. So jackass away, but you still miss the point.

[Anonymous]

Flint Hill girls soccer won the N. Virginia Independent School Tournament this year