Reply to Maret/GDS US - pressure cooker or more laid back but still academically rigorous?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]  OP, while I agree completely that pretty much every serious student these days is working very hard junior year and feels pressure, I have a different take on the public/private and private "pressure cooker" question you posed.

The key difference among schools in terms of pressure is this:  what are the expectations of most students in the school (and their families)?  The reason certain schools have a pressure cooker reputation is not that they teach more than everyone else does or give more homework in high school classes, it is because schools skewed with a disproportionately large percentage of a very high achievers result in kids feeling that what is "normal" is exceedingly high performance.  Some kids in those schools do it and enjoy it, and for others it is tough.  If you want to be in the top quarter or third of your class (or higher), you may not be able to do it unless you are both academically talented and very committed.  This is what happens at so called "top" or "Big X" schools in the DC area.  I think this is also what happens within the BCC full IB program which seems like a private school within BCC junior and senior year but with a lot more kids around.

Why do people often talk about some other privates as nurturing and less of an academic pressure cooker?  Is it because they are not rigorous?  Not necessarily at all.  At St. Andrews, for example, I suspect the "regular classes" may be less demanding than the "regular" classes at "pressure cooker" school X.  But the strongest students do not take most of those classes and instead will be in honors, APs or higher level language/math classes that I believe are quite comparable to the most rigorous classes at a "pressure cooker" school. Yes, those kids get a lot of homework probably more like a Big X school, and yes, at times everyone feels some stress especially junior and the first half of senior year (until college apps are sent out).  But, here's the thing.  At a school like Field, Burke, St. Andrew's, Bullis and others, fewer kids are aiming for ivy league/top LAC type schools.  So if you are not one of those kids, you feel normal -- not like you are laggard.  And if you are one of the kids loading up on AP or equivalent courses, peer pressure is likely to play a smaller role in your decision to take them.  You are more like the kids that some posters say thrive on the intensity at a Big X school much of the time.  I will say that in our experience while the homework can get heavy especially in 11th and 12th grade,  earlier for the kids in more advanced classes, the "nurturing" side of the school comes through in teachers appreciating the entire student's life and in most cases showing flexibility on deadlines where events -- whether school sanctioned extra curricula activities, important family commitments, illness (of course) etc.  -- conflict with a deadline. All work must get done and bogus excuses are not long tolerated, but the school does respect effort as well as outcomes, and that can somewhat reduce stress.

As for block schedules, St. Andrew's is a bit of a hybrid.  Usually, three days per week you have all of your classes, but Wed and Thursday are block days so you get that benefit on those days of only needing to focus on half of your classes (the others meet on the other block day). So it is not like a school where you have class every day, but it is not like GDS where the alternating day class schedule is more like what we had in college.

Didn't mean to write such a long post, but hope this information is useful as you mull over the options OP. 
      
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SAES parent of US student here.  ITA agree with this post.  My US DD loves her peer group, and has chosen a good mix of AP/Honors and accelerated courses and has time to pursue her outside interests.  Yes, she has a heavy workload, but she's bright and would be bored if she wasn't challenged, which she has said to me.  She's not Ivy bound, but will probably get into a decent SLAC.  For her, and me, it's about the fit, and setting her up to succeed.  SAES does a great job at that.  [/quote]

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