For girls, Baltimore is the single most saturated private school market in the country - when you compare the number of spaces to the number of school age girls in the area.

Bryn Mawr, RPCS, SPSG, Garrison Forest, Oldfields, St. Timothy's, Friends, McDonogh, Park, Calvert, Cathedral, St. James, NDP, Maryvale, Mercy, IND, and whatever others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

For boys, it's top 3.

Since 2008-09, it's been a bit of a buyers' market - especially for those not counting on financial aid. I think that's very healthy. Instead of sending your kids wherever they can get in, you can send them to the school that's the best fit. And with so many different excellent schools, there really is a school for pretty much every kind of kid.

That's why I'm not crazy about seeing various people running down McDonogh, or Friends, or wherever. Just be thankful that with so many choices, we can all find the place that's right for us, and recognize that what's right for us might be very different from what's right for others.

Even in my own family, what was right for my diligent Type A DS was very different from what was right for free-spirited DD. They are both thriving in two completely different environments - and I feel fortunate that we had such a wide variety of schools to choose from to ensure a great fit for both.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The cream of the crop socially"! Now I'm terrified.

Fortunately, I've found that most of the cream of the crop socially, in Baltimore, are quite sane and reasonable people. (Even if they are a bit attached to where they graduated high school.)

So true! Where you went to high school in Baltimore defines you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are applying to DC independents for PK and waiting for letters now, but are really considering moving to Baltimore for Gilman. Anyone know the K admissions odds at Gilman?

If you can pay full tuition and your child isn't a behavior issue, you're good.

Not true, hard to get into the kindergarten, particularly if you are not alumni yourself.

Anonymous wrote:McDonogh is a college prep school that is nothing special when it comes to college admissions. Tawdry as it may seem, relationships and advocacy are part of the mix, and here, they are lacking. Be clear, this is a simple cost/benefit analysis. Why pay the cost without receiving the benefit? Save your money or go to Gilman/Bryn Mawr. They know what they're doing.

I think your information is outdated. McDonogh has received a huge amount of money in the last decade and is now every bit in the same league as Gilman/Bryn Mawr in college acceptances.

Anonymous wrote:Very little difference socially btw Gilman and Calvert - they really draw from same crowds. We actually know plenty of pp with kids at both. Calvert is the most structured of the schools. Gilman takes a more developmental approach - meeting kids where they are academically but that does make it somewhat less structured. Friends is actually pretty structured as well but I would not put a kid who will be at the top of his class there For lower school(BTDT with bad results). Calvert does have tge K-8 advantage and co Ed, which I think is impt if there aren't sisters in the picture. Most of those boys end up at Gilman. We love Gilman for our boys but couldn't even imagine applying to Calvert for them - much too structured.

I live in Baltimore -- huge difference between the two socially. Calvert is the school for people whose families have been here for decades and think that fact makes them important. Gilman more a mix of old Baltimore and professionals not from the area. Also have heard that Calvert not the equivalent of Gilman or Bryn Mawr (for girls) academically. The curriculum at Calvert is very old fashion with an overemphasis on handwriting, and rule following.

Anonymous wrote:Have you considered Loyola Blakefield?

+1

though I would send a son to Calvert Hal if Loyola was off the table.

McDonogh is a college prep school that is nothing special when it comes to college admissions. Tawdry as it may seem, relationships and advocacy are part of the mix, and here, they are lacking. Be clear, this is a simple cost/benefit analysis. Why pay the cost without receiving the benefit? Save your money or go to Gilman/Bryn Mawr. They know what they're doing.

Anonymous wrote:20:55 Here, thanks for the replies about admissions odds. To answer the PP, Gilman does do testing like the WPPSI (Woodcock-Johnson I think) but the *school* administers the test. Here in DC, you go to an independent tester and have your results sent to the schools that you are applying to. It is just a different arrangement. They also have play dates, teacher recommendations, and other typical admissions activities.

For the edification of future generations: I can confirm that Gilman does administer the brief version of the Woodcock-Johnson, which yields a "Brief Intellectual Ability" score.

Honestly, it's a fantastic amount of testing that they do and was well worth the $50 application charge -- they actually return results to parents! I love this school. Very child-focused, none of this "what are the parent's educational philosophy" questions...

(OP) Hey, welcome to Baltimore! Definitely visit everywhere within your geographic range, and take reputations as data points, not the whole story. We almost didn't apply to Gilman because I had a very inaccurate mental image of what it would be like. Went there, fell in love. Good luck to you and your family. See you in a few years, maybe...

I don't have a lot to contribute to this thread, because we are new to Baltimore and our son isn't old enough for us to be visiting/applying yet. But I just wanted to thank OP for the thread. This, along with a few of the previous threads on Baltimore schools, helps us to get a better sense for our options. We are not near to decision making yet, but we are trying to gain as much information as we can and try to plan financially. (And decide what, if any, pre-K year we should be considering.)

PP, if it makes you feel any better, when/if we apply to Gilman, we'll be very much ordinary folks with no family history in Baltimore or family history of attending privates. We're just to working class kids who educated ourselves into professional jobs (with the loans to prove it) and consequently have a strong commitment to education. Maybe we're outliers, but maybe we're also indicative of a certain subset of parents who come out of the woodwork to submit applications. If we don't apply to Gilman, it will only be because my progressive educational colors show, and I come to prefer the idea of Park, Montessori, or home education for the elementary years.

Cheers and best luck to all!

Anonymous wrote:"The cream of the crop socially"! Now I'm terrified.

Fortunately, I've found that most of the cream of the crop socially, in Baltimore, are quite sane and reasonable people. (Even if they are a bit attached to where they graduated high school.)

"The cream of the crop socially"! Now I'm terrified. We just happily enrolled our son in Gilman for next year, on the grounds that we love the teachers and administration, and were impressed by how content Gilman families seem to be.

I was expecting the whole place to reek of old money, but it actually came off as a lot less country-club than Calvert, and even less so than Friends -- folding chairs rather than carved wood, painted cinderblock in the assembly hall rather than oak rafters. Which doesn't mean that Calvert and Friends aren't fine schools, but the Gilman vibe was (paradoxically?) more down to earth.

And I have to say that the Calvert acceptance package was ridiculous. A tee shirt, a pennant, and a freaking personalized engraved certificate inside a pocket portfolio, like a wedding invitation. Gilman just sent us a laser printed letter, which seemed much saner.

Baltimore native here. If this matters to you, Gilman has always had the rep as the cream of the crop socially. Baltimore old money goes here. Calvert also feeds a good number of students into it in the upper grades. Friends had more of a hippie rep. If you're in Towson, I suggest also looking at St. Paul's. They always seemed a bit more balanced.

Anonymous wrote:Gilman wants kids able to perform at least one grade level ahead. I suspect that means high 120s but I don't know. FWIW, My boys are 98% based on independent testing - NOT the 99.9% pp talk about for DC schools.

I posted before about touring Gilman a few years ago. I remember them telling us that their boys are expected to perform one grade level above their current grade.

All B'more schools do their own testing for lower school.