stay away from Chestnut Hill..sorry typing too fast

Grew up on mainline. Check out Episcopal Academy it is excellent and balanced for boys/Girls. Haverford school is also great but seems so old money that it may be intimidating there. Ditto on Baldwin for girls. I don't know about living in Ardmore..there are some parts there that are not so ideal. I think Haverford is the best with balance. If you are realling rolling in it go to Gladwyn..that is sooooooo beautiful! I would stay about from Chestnut Hill..no way no how!!

OP- are your kids boys/girls? Do you want single sex or co-ed?
I agree with 23:00 that Agnes Irwin and Haverford are without question the top two. They are both single sex. If you prefer co-ed, Episcopal Academy is also very good. Definitely go to the schools and visit though. If you tell us more about your kids, I would be happy to offer more advice.

We moved to Philly area when I was 9 and lived on the Main Line (Rosemont). My parents wanted private but insisted on co-ed. Choice was between Friends Central and Friends Select. Chose Friends Select, which is in Center City and so I commuted on the Paoli Local daily (first with my Mom, then after a few months on my own). Lots of kids used the train in those days to get to Haverford, Baldwin, Agnes Irwin, Episcopal. IMO, the Philly area Quaker schools are a great option. Nowhere near as exclusive as Sidwell makes itself out to be. Closest counterpart in this area is Sandy Spring Friends.

and the neighbors: ( looking at one town on Main Line only)

Notable residents, past and present[edit]
Henry H. Arnold - America's only General of the Air Force.[5]
Richie Ashburn - MLB Hall of Famer, Philadelphia Phillies star, and longtime Phillies broadcaster. The baseball field at Gladwyne Park is named "Richie Ashburn Field" in his memory.[6]
Richard Barrett - former record producer and manager of the 3 Degrees, the Teenagers, ft Frankie Lymon, the Chantays.
Ralph L. Brinster, Ph.D. - American biologist, pioneer in the development of techniques for manipulating the cellular and genetic composition of early mouse embryos and creator of the Brinster cell culture medium[6]
John Thompson Dorrance - American chemist who invented condensed soup; president of the Campbell Soup Company from 1914 to 1930.[6]
J. Presper Eckert - Designer and patentee of the first general purpose computer at the University of Pennsylvania.
Allen Iverson - NBA basketball formerly of the Philadelphia 76ers, and of the Denver Nuggets, and the Detroit Pistons.[6]
Mark Josephson, M.D. - Pioneering American cardiologist and writer, cofounder of cardiac electrophysiology, now professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.[6]
Kyle Korver - NBA basketball player, formerly of the Philadelphia 76ers and now plays on the Atlanta Hawks.[6]
Mitchell Lazar MD/Ph.D world renown scientist and chief of endocrinology/metabolism at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Carter Merbreier - Creator and co-host (Captain Noah) of the children's television series, Captain Noah and His Magical Ark[7]
Billy Cunningham - player and coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. Top 50 players of all time.

Patricia Merbreier - Co-host (Mrs. Noah) and puppeteer of Captain Noah and His Magical Ark[7]
Martin Meyerson, Ph.D. - American city planner and president of the University of Pennsylvania from 1970 to 1981.[7]
Albert Nipon - American fashion designer, clothing manufacturer, and convicted tax fraud [8]
Teddy Pendergrass - late R&B singer.[8]
J. Howard Pew - son of the founder of the Sun Oil Corporation, Joseph Newton Pew, and chairman of its board of directors[4]
Jonathan M. Raines - American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst
M. Night Shyamalan - film director.[4]
Robert Summers, Ph.D., and Anita Summers, Ph.D. - U. S. economists at the University of Pennsylvania and parents of former Harvard president, U. S. Treasury secretary, and Obama chief economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers.[9]
Silas L. Warner, M.D. - American psychiatrist and writer on personality disorders in adults and children.[9]

And the nearby public co-ed competition:

Performance and ratings[edit]
The Harriton Science Olympiad Team has placed among the top 10 at the Science Olympiad National Tournament for 21 consecutive years, winning three national championships and 16 consecutive state championships in that span.[3][4]

Harriton's graduation rate is 99%[5] and college matriculation rate is 96%. Harriton typically has a high Ivy League matriculation rate, with 36 of 196 (20%) seniors from the class of 2011 attending Ivy League universities. Seniors also attend other highly ranked institutions, with 36% of the class of 2011 attending a top-50 U.S. News and World Report-ranked college or university. The most popular universities among members of the class of 2011 include the Pennsylvania State University, Tulane University, Drexel University, Brown University, and Dartmouth College.[6]

Harriton is one of fewer than 3% of US public high schools that offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.[7]

History[edit]
In 1697, William Penn sold a 700 acre (2.8 km²) tract of land to Rowland Ellis. Years later, Ellis sold his home to Richard Harrison, who had married a local woman named Hannah Norris. Some of the land holdings of her family were known as "Norriton". Following their marriage the Harrison couple's holdings were renamed "Harriton".


Facilities[edit]
Harriton High School features a 328,000-square-foot (30,500 m2) building and campus that includes teacher and student parking lots and a synthetic turf football stadium, with features designed to make Harriton environment-friendly and LEED-certified. The building captures and filters rain water for non-potable use in plumbing systems. The roof, painted a light hue, reflects excess sun energy, helping maintain the building's temperature and obviating the need for excessive use of air conditioning. Harriton further conserves energy through its motion-detecting and intensity-detecting lights; hallways and classrooms automatically shut off lights in the absence of movement and dim lights in the presence of adequate sunlight. The three-floor building surrounds a grassy courtyard. Other notable facilities include a greenhouse, a college-style lecture hall with tiered seating, a music technology laboratory, and a black-box theater.[9][10][11][12]

Harriton has pioneered a one-to-one laptop initiative in which each student receives an education version Macbook Air for at-home and in-school use during the academic year. Since the 2008 school year, students have had access to the computers, which are bundled with a plethora of software, including Adobe Creative Suite products, allowing students to become familiar with the industry's newest and most innovative computer programs

Here are some nice stats on Baldwin:

Academics[edit]
Twenty six percent of the Class of 2014 went on to attend Ivy league institutions. Twenty seven percent of the Class of 2015 was recognized by the National Merit® Scholarship Program.[6]

Baldwin has a high percentage of graduates majoring and working in math and science fields, about 1/3, greater than the national average for women.[6][6] In 2014, 28% of the graduates pursued a degree in science and engineering.[6]

Philly has a lot of good private school options. Maybe you can tour some of the schools and see which is a good fit?

grew up on Main Line.

Baldwin or Shipley for Girls ( Baldwin)

Haverford for Boys

Friends Central for Co-Ed

and Notre Dame if you are Catholic

There is no comparison to DC Privates though for the main reason: Montgomery County ( Main Line is Mont Co) has excellent public schools ( regularly send 20-30 % of class to Ivy)
while occasionally fielding a future NBA player or Olympic Athlete. Free laptops for everyone MS on up , sports facilities to rival Sidwell's and all funded, not by tuition, but by property taxes in one of the wealthiest suburbs in the country .

Mostly everyone in the public schools on Main Line will be Jewish ( think GDS, but voting heavily center Republican)

Privates are more WASPY and Friends Central is probably the most diverse politically and racially

What you won't find in Private schools in Phila : a big social scene for parents . Why ? Because Philadelphia is mostly Medicine and Pharma based and not POTUS, Lobbyist based and no one cares or has the time.

Why pay for private ?

Agnes Irwin and Haverfrd School are top notch. Most similar to NCS and STA. I know several people who went to both. Great schools.

Definitely Germantown Academy. It's solid, more conservative. Good for swimmers. Try The George School if you like Sidwell and are more liberal.

Germantown Academy. http://www.germantownacademy.net/

I went there in the eighties.

Nice mix of tradition and progressive teaching. A good number of my teachers are still there !
Strong leadership.
Very competitive in all sports.
Excellent drama department.
Spectacular campus.

Tuition seems like bargain compared to DC privates !

Look into Haverford too.

I'd say Penn Charter and Germantown Friends are Sidwell-esque, or so I gather. They're right next to one another and both really great options. There are several other Friends schools in the area as well, such as Greene Street (which is a small K-8), Miquon, Abington Friends, Friends Central. I'm less familiar w/ the privates on the Main Line. Main Line is very keeping-up-with-the Joneses and that's fine if it's your cup of tea. If not, check out Chestnut Hill. It's in the city - technically speaking - so the only drawback is the Philly school system - but if you're thinking private, you obviously don't have to worry about that. GL!

Contemplating a move to thr Philly suburbs. It is too early in the interview process to talk to our kids' school. But my brain already has us moved there so I am already thinking through where to live (Ardmore is high on the list) and where to try to send our kids (ages 11 and 13) to school. If anyone is familiar with the Philly area (main line) privates, can you give your opinion as to which is most similar to which DC area private? For example, Shipley is most like _____ (Sidwell, Maret, whatever). Thanks.