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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We live in Baltimore and are considering privates for our girls. It would be nice if the many knowledgable posters here could go over the options. Thank you![/quote]

What grades? Religious or secular? Co-ed or single sex? Any particular extra curricular needs or wants? Any concerns with learning or behavior issues or support? Any geographical constraints?

Nothing is going to beat visiting the schools though. Also consider approaching it with an open mind. I wasn't going to consider single-sex to begin with, but that would have been a mistake for one of my children.[/quote]

To be honest, we were looking at Bryn Mawr as a top choice but this is based on online research only. This is for HS - we are not there yet. Religious is ok, I guess, we really haven't thought about it (we are atheists but not aggressively so). Co-ed and single-sex are both fine. No behavioral issues so far.
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Bryn Mawr is an excellent school. It has a reputation as being competitive, and my observation would back that up. I do not have a child there. I have friends who have children there or have had children there. A Bryn Mawr girl is going to get an excellent education. I'd recommend visiting, and have her do the visiting day - and do it more than once if she needs to to get a feel for it. Bryn Mawr is part of the tri-school consortium, so your daughter will have the opportunity to take classes at Gilman (boys) or RPCS (girls) as well. Bridges connect the schools so it's safe and easy for the kids to go to the different campuses. The tri-school consortium means that while your daughter will have her home school as her school, she'll have access to a much broader array of classes and experiences if she should want them. Something that's a concern for many when they consider private schools and the necessarily more limited courses or opportunities when compared to what the huge public schools can offer. Bryn Mawr has great academics and arts. Kids who are more focused on athletics seem to be ending up at McDonogh these days.

RPCS is also an excellent school, and has a reputation for being a bit more nurturing than Bryn Mawr. One of the concerns I've encountered is how a child entering in high school will do at these K-12 schools, and my observation is that the kids welcome the new kids. The classes expand quite a bit for upper school, and the lifers are eager to meet new kids. And upper school brings a lot more freedoms and responsibilities, and the new kids fit right in. The schools do a good job of working to integrate everyone into a cohesive class. RPCS tends to be ranked slightly below Bryn Mawr when it comes to test scores, so if you have a highly competitive academically focused kid Bryn Mawr might be a better fit. On the other hand, with the ability to take classes at all 3 schools, your child will be challenged. I love the Latin program at Gilman, although Bryn Mawr girls tend to stay on their own campus for latin.

Friends is also right near Gilman, Bryn Mawr, and RPCS. It does not share classes with the other 3, but the kids can all be found after school on each other's campuses or at the Starbucks. My observation is that Friends is an open, welcoming school. They are focused on the whole-child, and have great opportunities for the arts. It seems like Friends might be slightly easier for a child to get into lately, but I'm basing that entirely on anecdotes. I wouldn't assume admission is guaranteed at any of these schools, even with excellent scores, recommendations, visits, etc.

St. Pauls School for Girls I'm not very familiar with. I understand that the Boys and Girls schools are merging under one umbrella. The St. Pauls kids I know are nice kids, but all boys.

McDonogh is a lovely school, but it feels big to me. They have amazing athletics programs, good arts and good academics. It's in the county so it's somewhat apart. Like Park, they have transportation through the school, rather than through the Kangaroo Coach, if you're looking at transportation. McDonogh has in the past had a reputation of being the school where you went if you didn't get into Gilman/Bryn Mawr, but that is not my experience. The children I know there are top notch; some say there's been too much focus on athletics in recent years.

Park is different. If Friends is a more casual version of the traditional privates, Park wrote its own rules. You've seen the back and forth here already, but if you have a child who needs the ability to go deep and far in math, Park is your school. If you have a kid who wouldn't just rebel against uniforms, but argue they're a tool for caging the mind, body, and spirit, check out Park. If you have a kid who might need some encouragement, or might have a tendency to fly under the radar, Park might not be the best fit, depending. But I think you should visit, even if you're mostly considering more traditional schools like Bryn Mawr.

IND and NDP, both catholic, are excellent schools as well. I have the impression that IND is the more academic, and NDP the more athletic, of the two. But I know great girls at both.

None of these schools are a shoe-in for getting in. I know kids who get shut out every year, even applying to 3 or 4 schools. I know kids who took a few application cycles to get into the school they really wanted. If you visit Bryn Mawr, and walk away knowing Bryn Mawr is the right school for your daughter, you may not want to wait to apply for 9th grade. If there are openings, kids start in 7th and 8th, when they know what they want for HS. Sometimes going through the application process in 8th and not getting in can light a fire under a child for the 9th grade admissions cycle.

If you're in the city, there are also some great public schools. The kids at City and Poly also interact with the Friends/Gilman/Bryn Mawr/RPCS/Boys Latin kids. My observation is they're getting a solid education and there are some really great opportunities available to them - check out the JHU Baltimore Scholars program. BSA is also a one of a kind opportunity. I know children who have left all of the above schools over the years for the experience they could get at BSA.[/quote]

This is vastly overselling the Baltimore publics.  The city school system is broken, and while there smart kids at City and Poly, the facilities are decrepit.  There is little interaction between the city publics and the private schools, different athletic conferences, amd social scenes.   Baltimore school of the arts is excellent if your child wants a career in the arts (Tupac and Jada Pickett Smith are alums) but is not known for academics.

Saint Paul’s has always operated under the same organization, not sure what pp is referencing.  Co-Ed lower school, single sex thereafter but share a cafeteria.

Park is very progressive in education philosophy— tends to be strong in the arts, and weak in athletics.[/quote]

I frequently pass the Roland Park Starbucks after school hours when the high school kids come down to hang out and flirt. Most are private school kids but there's a cohort of kids from Poly and City and I can tell from their sweatshits. They do talk and flirt with the private school kids. I imagine they also live in RP and know the other private school kids from the neighborhood. There are Roland Park kids going to the top programs at Poly and City so the divide is perhaps not as severe as it was 10 or 20 years ago.

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