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Comparing all boys schools in the area.
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Anonymous
| From what I understand of Landon/Holton, the distance between campuses precludes shared academic classes except that there might be a 7 am limited option before the official start of clases. Maybe a Landon parent has the details. |
Anonymous
| Do they still have dances and other social activities? I heard that they did up until the middle school grades but not as much in the Upper School. Is that true? A Landon or Holton parent would probably know better. |
Anonymous
| Landon and Holton do joint drama productions in the Fall, Winter and Spring. There are also some community service programs that are done together. |
Anonymous
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And you can believe what you want about all the boys schools being close academically based on this anonymous message board or you can look a bit beyond that.
They all send boys to good colleges, and they all have their advantages but STA has the reputation (including among colleges) of having a higher level of academics overall in this area. Same as Sidwell for coed. Interestingly Holton and NCS are viewed similarly. Check out http://matriculationstats.org/day-schools-outside-of-nyc This shows from actual data where kids go on to college. STA is far ahead of the other 3 schools in sending boys to Ivies (plus MIT, Stanford) and the what the author considers "top" colleges as well. In fact NCS and STA are the only DC schools in the top 10 (Sidwell and GDS are not included as they did not have sufficient data for those schools). Maret and St Anselms are in the middle, whereas GP, Landon are near the bottom, with Gonzaga at the very bottom actually, just a bit behind the other two. |
Anonymous
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PP, I have a few comments on your post.
1. It is true that STA is hands down the best academic all boys school in the area in terms of academics and I think all of his have determined that by now. 2. Sure those percentages can show that it is "far ahead" of the others but fact is that all 4-5 schools mentioned by OP are fabulous schools which provide great academics. 3. To the OP: If you are looking a hardcore and more pressure cooker situation(which you don't seem to be) then opt for STA or St. Anslems. I would leave Gonzaga out of the question for a few reasons including its academics and location. I would probably go for either GP or Landon. Those are just my thoughts For answering one of the questions about the Landon+Holton connection. If OP is really interested in Landon. OP might be interested in the social part of Landon. |
Anonymous
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St Albans 11.9 21.2 51.4 166 67.3 234 Landon 6.2 9.9 25.9 73 50.6 147 GP 3.7 6.5 28 69 40.7 127 St Amselms 3.4 7.3 32.8 82 52.5 152 gonzaga 1.4 3.1 18.6 35 33 86 Not sure why you think St Amselms is is in the middle, Landon beats them in the HYP stat and the ivy stat. Given these stats, I would say they are basically the same. The strong schools is virtually the same. By the way, I ranked in the order of the ivys since this is what everyone seems to care about so much. |
Anonymous
Sidwell has the coolest kids - almost too cool for skool. 9:30 club types. Prep and STA have plenty who act entitled and arrogant. Most of which have nothing going for them other than attendance at the school. Landon doesn't have a lock on that contingent. All 3 schools have plenty of trash. St Anselm's is an unknown for most of the other schools. little if any interaction athletically or socially. |
Anonymous
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NP here. Actually, PP, I think you ranked them by HYPMS, not Ivy. Here's the Ivy ranking:
StA 21.1% Landon 9.9% St Anselms 7.3 % GP 6.5% Gonzaga 3.1% I recall reading somewhere on the MatriculationStats website that he personally thinks his MATRIC index is the most accurate comparison tool. Here are the relative MATRIC numbers for "top schools": StA 166 St Anselms 82 Landon 73 GP 69 Gonzaga 35 They're all strong schools, so I hope OP is not making decisions based on small statistical differences like this. It seems like individual student "fit" would be a lot more important than a 3% difference in Ivy matriculations based on only 3-5 years of data (or just 1 year in Landon's case). (I'm not logged in, but I am SAM2. This may mean you want to discount my views.) |
Anonymous
| PP, you are right on the money. Honestly speaking, I have never encountered a St. Anselm's boy or family. It's almost like they are not in the Metropolitan area. Aside from the bad part of all these schools, all of these boy schools have plenty of talented and bright kids who pretty much have the reputation of their schools on their backs. |
Anonymous
| This has been repeated over and over again in this forum, but once again, just because so many folks seem to be focusing on college matriculation stats as a key indicator when deciding on a school: in getting into competitive colleges, most particularly the ivies, three factors overwhelm almost all others: legacies, $$, sports. What's left over goes to the otherwise unconnected kids, and they generally need to be stars, and then it's a lottery. You would have to analyze the stats of these local schools on that basis (i.e., how many were legacies, "development cases," or recruited athletes) to know whether attending the school made any difference for the otherwise unconnected kids. In fact, there is anecdotal evidence that going to such a school actually disadvantages the bright unconnected kid, because the schools are going to meet their "quota" from the school with the kids with a "hook." If you think about it, the fact that an Ivy legacy was admitted (to St. Alban's, for example) tells you that he probably is capable of Ivy-League level work, so he's going to have a good shot at getting in, once his legacy preference is taken into account. I suspect St. Alban's also has a relatively high number of "development cases" (which can be $$ or political connections, as well), even compared to the other competitive boys' schools. It all gets to be a self-fulfilling prophecy after a while. |
Anonymous
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In the case of Landon, the past few years have seen a large number of kids go to Univ of Md (some to the honors program, some regular program) I think the economy has a an impact on the choices of private vs state schools. Univ of Va for VA residents (and non residents) has always been popular.
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MatriculationStats
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And although I'm certainly not disagreeing that there are many factors that play a role in gaining admissions to competitive colleges, I wanted to throw my 2 cents in. As to $$, it takes a lot of $$ to "buy" your child's way into a top school. It certainly can and is done, but it isn't cheap. There are probably fewer cases of this than you might think. Fame and political power counts too. Even if Obama is not in office when Sasha and Malia are applying to college (no political statement of any kind intended here), I'm sure their college entrance prospects are just fine (and their probably bright kids, too). Legacy preference is another funny thing. Everybody who doesn't have it thinks that it's the be all and end all for those that do. I happened to have attended one of the HYPMS schools and like many who did, I feel like it won't really help my kids all that much. Maybe a "thumb on the scale" but nothing that's going to really give them a huge leg up. And other classmates of mine generally feel the same way. They don't think they will get much mileage from their legacy status particularly since we all know so many classmates with kids all applying at the same time. Sure athletics helps. But the kid has to be in the right place at the right time. That is, he/she has to play the right position in the right sport for the right school. And then the coach has to have the clout to make it all work. Otherwise, being an athlete is just another resume item that helps round out your application along with your grades, test scores and other extracurriculars. |
Anonymous
You are a pathetic joke with your comments. |
Anonymous
| PP here -- I didn't mean to imply that the three factors listed made an application a slam dunk. On the other hand, these colleges get so many applications (as you indicated there are *lots* of legacies applying) that they can be fairly choosy, even among those with the "hook" (although there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence that they standard for legacies, et al is lower). However, if your child has none of the "hooks," he is competing against a larger pool for a smaller number of slots. He can be further disadvantaged if, Harvard, for example, is only going to take 2-3 kids from St. Albans, and he is competing against even just 5-6 legacies or off-the charts rich or otherwise connected kids. My point is that these schools, to a varying degree, have more kids with "hooks" than your average public (or even private) school. |
Anonymous
| OP here. No need to argue about these college statistics really. My husband and I weren't really stressing over the college acceptance lists of the schools since each school had its share of excellent schools. At this point, we are basing the schools through reviews, SAT score averages, athletics, location, and lastly the religious factor. I am sure that the minute all the visits and FAQ sessions start for the schools, we will get a better image of which school fits our DS best. As I was reading, I was quite interested in the STA relationship with NCS and Landon+Holton. So STA has shared classes and electives starting junior year with NCS. I have also learned that Holton and Landon have a few shared advanced classes. For both STA+NCS and Landon+Holton, how many times a year(approx) have dances, socials, fundraisers(community service), etc a year? I am just a bit curious on the social side of these all boy schools. Thanks |