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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Bullis has a strong academic program. In fact it is the only school in history to have 2 Jefferson Scholars from the same high school. Bullis is not the same school it was in the 1970's. 
Bullis has started an international program for students and has around 30 international students, Bullis does not have boarding so Bullis families take in students and are paid a stipend to offset costs. This is not a cash cow. Collecting 40K per student is the cash cow and Bullis has had a significant increase in enrollment over the past 10 years. This has aided in a upgrade of numerous facilities on campus and with the addition of the new building Bullis may increase enrollment even more over the next 5 years.[/quote]

School reputations are not static -- they definitely change/evolve.  Bullis once upon a time was a specialized PG school to get applicants ready to apply to the U.S. Naval Academy.  It is much stronger than it once was.  However, it is not yet seen as particularly academically strong for the private schools in this area (which are very good, as are the Montgomery Country Public Schools with which Bullis has to compete).  The fact that Bullis had zero National Merit Semifinalists in 2014, 2015, and 2016 bears out the fact that it is not (yet) seen as a significant academic powerhouse.

On the international program, there are closer to 50 students if not more by now.  None get financial aid.  All pay something like $70 - 80,000, of which the school nets the lion's share (local families get something like $10 - 15,000 off their tuition to host a student).  This isn't new -- full-paying international students are a huge cash cow to American boarding schools and colleges/universities.  It doesn't mean it's not worthwhile to have international kids, but to ignore the financial implications is to ignore the full-paying elephant in the room.  Fifty kids paying tuition plus -- let's say Bullis nets $50,000 per student, which is reasonable and may be on the low side -- is $2.5 million in tuition per year.  (And no, nobody in the international group is getting financial aid.). Bullis has a fairly small endowment and fairly low annual fund intake so the foreign student program is a big part of how they are financing the facilities upgrades.  It's actually a pretty clever thing to do.  As the prior poster said, increasing enrollment -- particularly full-paying students in the younger grades, in which less infrastructure/support is needed, is another way to help the bottom line.  Just increasing average class sizes by about 3 makes a huge difference.

This is just an honest take on where Bullis is in 2016.  Maybe in 2021 or 2026 they'll be piling up National Merit Semifinalists along with Division I lacrosse commits, but that day has not yet come.  It doesn't mean there aren't smart kids and dedicated teachers there -- because there are.

The sports program has been a way to build buzz and excitement -- who doesn't love the atmosphere at a football or basketball game?  Sports like ice hockey and lacrosse also generally pull in a full-paying clientele, and Bullis has the international student money to balance out giving a lot of financial aid to support programs like football.[/quote]

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