Reply to Landon vs. Georgetown Prep Upper School

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "Landon vs. Georgetown Prep Upper School"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]19:07 and 19:20 (Landon parents) - Thank you for your thougthtful comments.  I think your insights will be helpful to many families entering and/or considering Landon for their sons -- in a positive way.  Although, I am the PP interested in hearing from GP families, I have to say your even-handed discussion of the pros and cons of Landon makes me question whether we should give Landon another look.  To be honest, we were interested in Landon because of the positive things you mentioned, but was turned/scared away by the series of negative actions by a few of the students and alumni.  Again, thank you for taking the time to share your experiences and opinions.  Since GP is the school we would like to learn more about, it would be great if GP parents could provide the pros and cons about Prep like the posters here.[/quote]

Not a parent, but I can channel my own parents and experiences.  I have brothers who went to both schools in the mid-to-late 1990s. I went to Holton and dated guys from both schools as well as St. Alban's many with whom I remain close. The prevailing sentiment from most people I know in the small world of the IAC/ISL/MAC private school network is that Prep is a cross between St. Alban's and Landon.

--On the whole, academics at Prep are a little stronger than Landon, but a little weaker than St. Alban's. The workload at Prep is intense and the curriculum is traditional with very few electives -- e.g., mandatory 2 years of Latin as well as 3 years of another foreign language, Euclidean geometry, Macro economics, political science, and a college 400-level US History Class in junior year.  It is a sink or swim academic environment; no leveling; no grade inflation or curves. 10% of my brother's freshman class was counseled out at various points before graduation.
--Prep's athletics are generally stronger than St. Alban's, but and not as strong as Landon. Baseball at St. Alban's is the consistently the exception here.
--Prep has a stronger and better-positioned alumni network than Landon, but St. Alban's has more a-listers who also tend to be more nationally dispersed.  
--Prep's campus, facilities, and physical plant are second to none, but it is located just outside the Beltway, and the student body is mainly from Chevy Chase, Potomac, and Bethesda. If you don't live in those enclaves, you're social life will suffer a little at Prep compared to Landon which has more DC and Virginia-based students.

Both Prep and Landon are excellent schools, and they (and St. Alban's for that matter) are far more similar than different.  It really depends on what you're looking for -- (e.g., where you live, the extent to which you're comfortable with religion being an active part of the environment, high school only vs. elementary and beyond, etc.)

The negative press about Landon is troubling on the surface, but all schools have their bad seeds. It shouldn't be an indictment on the entire institution. It was just a bad year.

Bottom line is that a boy with a 3.35+ GPA and good SAT scores from either school will have no trouble getting into the undergrad of his choice and will be well positioned to succeed when he's there.

For what it's worth, we want to send our DS to a co-ed school, so neither of these schools are in the cards -- at least not at this point.

Hope this helps.

[/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