Reply to Georgetown Day School, Sidwell Friends, or St. Alban's?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Farmer][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, welcome to DC and sorry about the tone here. The problem is the schools you mention are very competitive and some people are probably surprised and/or jealous. They are getting hung up on that and can’t seem to understand that you are relocating and didn’t apply during the normal cycle. Just ignore it and I promise that life will be better in person.

Now, on to your question. As others have noted, each of the schools has an entirely different culture. Is it more traditional? Is it more progressive? What is your son’s current school like? What does he enjoy doing? Interests? Can your son visit them? I know it’s hard to get a sense during the summer, but it might also be useful to get a sense of the physical spaces.

Best of luck to you.[/quote]

This might be the only useful answer for you, OP. Does your son thrive in a traditional or progressive pedagogy? As others note, STA is very sporty, so if that is a concern, then between Sidwell and GDS, the learning style is an important distinguishing point. My child is at GDS HS, and I think it is a welcoming environment. I'm sure the same is true at Sidwell.[/quote]

I think he would prefer a progressive pedagogy. How do SFS and GDS differ from one another?[/quote]

Sidwell has a reputation for being a pressure cooker. It is indeed Quaker, but some people put that in quotation marks.  It is famous because several children of presidents attended. The most recent frenzy was when the Obama girls attended but it's lost some of the bloom since then. It's very competitive and the problem with that is that the most of the class wants or expects to go to a handful of top universities, but only the top 20 percent or so do. In some ways it can be a disadvantage as it's not great to be in the middle of the pack at Sidwell because a lot of people enter thinking it's their kids' meal ticket to Harvard or Yale, whereas Michigan or Bates is probably a lot more likely.

I would also suggest that you look beyond the Big 3 because there is truly no perfect school, so you should try to look for the perfect fit.  You will need to think of the social aspect as well for your son's final too years.  DC-based progressive schools: GDS, Maret, Burke, Field

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