Reply to Will Negative Press Impact Applications/Admissions?

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[quote=Anonymous]I am a graduate of one of the three schools I will discuss below, and my son graduated from the same school about 10 years ago.  (I leave it to you to guess which school.)
In alphabetical order:
Georgetown Prep.  They are most recently in the news with the Kavanaugh situation.  They used to benefit greatly from an elite athlete image especially in lacrosse and, to a lesser extent, football. That has dimmed in recent years with the fortunes of their lacrosse and football teams and their lack of success in competing well with their Baltimore prep opponents and local Catholic school opponents, some of them among the best teams in the country.  Kavanaugh has hurt them but will dim in time.  But what other high school can claim two Supreme Court Justices and the head of the Fed as alumni?  They also benefit from having Mater Dei as a feeder school and very loyal alumni.  In recent years, it has been pretty difficult to gain admission here for non-legacy applicants.
Landon.  they were hurt some years ago by an SAT cheating scandal limited to one year/one group of boys, then the Duke lacrosse eruption, and more recently by the Huguely murder at UVA.  (As to the Duke lacrosse mess, note that it ended up being a frame up with the boys exonerated and the one Landon boy charged doing a masterful job of addressing the situation in his public commentary: super brave, intelligent, and showing great leadership ability).  Landon benefits from having a new headmaster who is a rapidly rising star in local school leadership).
St. Albans has long been the traditional #1 school in local boys private education - and sometimes takes that role a bit too self-importantly - but it's a great school.  They too have had some scandals over the years including most recently a Washington Post article about their own yearbook problems (ala Georgetown Prep).
All three of these schools have histories and momentum that will keep them in the forefront of local private education.  Their biggest challenges right now will come from their high tuition charges: $40,000 plus per year, and the possibility that single sex education will decline even further in popularity.
PS - having my own son at my school was a wonderful experience, and he and most of his classmates were exemplary boys and have become outstanding young men any family would be happy to claim.  And their teachers and coaches during the high school years were all I could have hoped for.
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