All are fine schools, but not really comparable. St Albans is great academically, is located in a safe and convenient neighborhood, and has good sports program. St Anselm's is good academically, but is located in a tougher neighborhood not close to where the majority of the student body lives. Prep is the largest of the three, a decent school academically with great athletic facilities. Your son will know after shadowing which school is best for him, you can't go wrong with any of these three.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He likes all three schools but the parents have taken sides.

Is he too young to formulate a choice for himself? What are the most important factors? Academics? Personal fit? Cost? Location? I concur with posters that recommend letting DC guide this.

The OP said the boy can't decide and the parents can't agree.

I think the dad wants St. Albans for name recognition, the mom want St. Anselms becaues it is the best fit and the boy wants GP because the campus is awesome and the extra's are amazing but he will do whatever.

I also think for DC residents - commuting out (to GP) goes against the natural order of things and it bothers them that they purposely did not move the burbs for schools and now they are going to pay for a school in the burbs.

Anonymous wrote:He likes all three schools but the parents have taken sides.

Is he too young to formulate a choice for himself? What are the most important factors? Academics? Personal fit? Cost? Location? I concur with posters that recommend letting DC guide this.

More personal attention, more care, more diversity at SAAS. Boys have a live model of the monks for overcoming all sort of challenges. SAAS is not an in vitro school, not an institution, it is truly a community of people who care for each other. The role of the school is individual, cultural, economic, but also social. Effective school sit at the heart of strong communities, in an ethos of empathy and tolerance. Each school is different and every child is unique. Ask your child, he knows where to go next year.

All are great schools. We are an Abbey family and what strikes me about SAAS is the level of acsdemic freedom they give the faculty. We love it but it does make for an interesting environment. The boys are anything but quiet and nerdy. They are smart, funny and very motivated. It comes down to how it fits your kid. I will tell you that it's harder for those who start Abbey in 9th grade. There will be some catching up buts its very doable if your sons wants it.

Stalbins.

Is this even a question? St. Anslem's? Really?

Anonymous wrote:Middle class family here( HHI below 100K) , son is loving Saint Albans. Plenty of nice familes there.

Isn't St Albans full of the sons of politicians, lobbyists and K Street lawyers? Who would want to hang out with that crowd? That's the DC the rest of America despises.

Anonymous wrote:I've been an alumni interviewer for my undergraduate college (an Ivy) for a while. We take a ton of kids from ST Albans every year - the kids at the top of the class have great grades and scores and good extracurricular involvement. We also like St Anselm's kids, since they not only have good grades, but there is quite a bit of good character education and community service going on there. It's also okay to be quirky there. Georgetown Prep isn't considered to be in the same league academically, and there are a lot of public schools in Montgomery County that have a much better track record with us than GP.

Relative to a Prep "track record, there's a strong preference among Prep people for schools like Notre Dame, Georgetown and BC which they prefer to many of the Ivies. Many Prep parents are reluctant to consider Ivies because of the Liberal bias there. I have heard many times, "Why would we want to send our son or daughter somewhere that our values are going to be under constant assault".

I've been an alumni interviewer for my undergraduate college (an Ivy) for a while. We take a ton of kids from ST Albans every year - the kids at the top of the class have great grades and scores and good extracurricular involvement. We also like St Anselm's kids, since they not only have good grades, but there is quite a bit of good character education and community service going on there. It's also okay to be quirky there. Georgetown Prep isn't considered to be in the same league academically, and there are a lot of public schools in Montgomery County that have a much better track record with us than GP.

Middle class family here( HHI below 100K) , son is loving Saint Albans. Plenty of nice familes there.

For my kid, St Anselm's would be a better all around fit: Brilliant at math, fine artist and musician with no interest in sports. Ivy legacy so don't much care about a school's overall college admissions.

St Anselm's would be my vote. Great academics, small class sizes, caring teachers, nice solid kids who enjoy learning. Not a posh school and not filled with upper middle class/rich people. Definitely more middel class than most privates. College admissions really varies from year to year. Some years are particularly strong (a few years ago they had a Gates Millenium Scholar who is at Stanford) and other years the kids follow the money -- honors programs at state schools, large scholarships, military academies. I think this reflects the lower HHI of many of the families. They value
education, But cant afford huge debt for college.

FWIW, St Anselm's is also significantly less expensive than the other 2 for smaller class sizes and a more intimate school. There are usually between 30-40 kids per grade.

Sports are important but the end-all. The boys like to stay active, but not being into sports is ok too. Some kids are 3 sport stars and others couldnt care less. All of the kids have PE and Intramurals and plenty of time to run around at lunch.

The neighborhood is a typical Washington working to middle class neighborhood. The campus is safe and lovely and there is a shuttle to and from the subway station.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of current Prep student, I'm curious why so many think the academics are inferior? Admitably the instruction in Math is a concern but the science and humanities are in my opinion fantastic, and sets up well for College.

Go visit the other two schools and you will see why. No one said prep is bad, it is just not at the same level as the other two, It is the atmosphere of learning that is going on that is just not felt at prep.

So silly. The "atmosphere of learning". I seriously doubt you have been to all 3 schools.

Prep parent, don't worry, Prep is a great school with serious academics - 26 AP classes, etc.

The thread was dropped by somebody I doubt even has a kid looking at all 3. The OP hasn't even been back to comment.

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of current Prep student, I'm curious why so many think the academics are inferior? Admitably the instruction in Math is a concern but the science and humanities are in my opinion fantastic, and sets up well for College.

Go visit the other two schools and you will see why. No one said prep is bad, it is just not at the same level as the other two, It is the atmosphere of learning that is going on that is just not felt at prep.

NP - You are really out of touch and you obviously have not been in a "really bad neighborhood." The neighborhood is not considered bad and definitely has never been considered "really bad" except maybe by you and your ilk. The neighborhood is considered a working to solid (not lower) middle class neighborhood. Currently, quite a few of the nicer houses appear to be inhabited by aspiring high SESers. There are a few nice coffee shops and I've eaten at a couple of nice restaurants in the area when I am driving through being nosy checking out the renovated houses. To give you the benefit of the doubt if you actually have driven through the neighborhood, you may be confused by the lack of repair by the mostly elderly resident base. I probably have just exposed a secret that young middle class residents trying to buy their first house did not exposed yet.

Anonymous wrote:

You sound really defensive. Is it that your child already goes to St. Anselms and you just want some VBA time? To me, it's in a really bad neighborhood and no, that has nothing to do with the boys being nerdy. It's just a fact. Here is the link to directions to St. Anselms posted on their website: http://www.stanselms.org/directions.php
And, as I wrote, I saw the college placement list for St. Anselms in the Catholic Standard. I thought it was surprisingly bad. You can google the Catholic Standard. You can find St. Albans college placement list by googling as well.

St. Anselms and Prep are Catholic boys schools -- nothing wrong with that. STA is an elite private school.

Anonymous wrote:What's the college placement for for St. Albans? Do you know and are you saying because St. Anselm's is in a bad neighborhood (depending on what you consider a bad neighborhood) the boys are nerdy?? All I care about is getting my son the Best education possible and a school able to challenge him!