Reply to Private School for Ordinary Middle Class Family

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "Private School for Ordinary Middle Class Family"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am looking for advice on which private schools might be the best fit for my son and our family.

My son is 3 y.o. and we are just starting to look.  We had thought we would send him to our neighborhood public school which is in the Walter Johnson/North Bethesda cluster but are concerned that he would not do well in such a huge overcrowded elementary school.  My gut tells me he needs a smaller more nurturing environment to succeed - somewhere where they can really work with each child as an individual.  Of course I am bias but I think he’s quite smart - not a genius but smart.  I also think he gets easily frustrated and that he’s going to need more attention and flexibility in teaching method then is possible in a large class.

I have been doing a lot of preliminary research on these forums and looking at the schools websites.  It is a bit disheartening to see how crazy and ultra-competitive this area has become regarding private schools - much more so than when I was growing up in the 70s & 80s.  My concern is finding a private school that my son can get into for pre-K or K and that has a community we will feel comfortable in - don’t want to get into a situation where we will fill like outsiders for not being able to keep up with the Joneses.  We are just an ordinary middle class family.  Our annual HHI is about $120K, I work full time downtown and DH works PT in Bethesda.  We have a small to medium size SF home in a nice neighborhood.  We drive Toyotas.  We go on a beach vacation once a year and every few years a bigger vacation.  We live a nice life and stay within our means.  Education is very important to us and with a little help from grandparents and careful planning we will be able to afford tuition so won’t need financial aid.

I would appreciate input on which schools where we would feel most comfortable.  We prefer a coed school in lower Mont. Cnty or NW DC that includes at least K-5th.  We are not interested in Catholic parochial schools as although we are Catholic we find them too conservative for our values and most seem to have class sizes as large as public schools but without the resources and many just don’t seem to have as strong academics as we would like.

I have already ruled out the following schools as just too competitive to bother with:
-Beauvoir
-GDS
-Maret
-Sidwell

I am particularly interested in hearing more about the following schools:
-Grace Episcopal Day School
-Green Acres School
-Lowell School
-National Presbyterian School
-Sheridan School
-Washington Episcopal School
-Woods Academy

Thanks.
[/quote]Looks like posters, excluding a couple, are only interested in your income.  I recommend that you contact the schools for more info and see if they have any opportunities for summer visits.  And don't forget to inquire about financial aid.  It won't hurt.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics