Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maret does not try to be Sidwell at all. In any case, who wants to be like Sidwell these days?

Maret has lot of affluence but it is not in your face, and the school community is friendly, academics very solid, and the kids highly supportive of each other.

And college counseling is great.

Maret’s college director once worked at Sidwell. There are many people at Sidwell who would love to hire him back.

And my guess is he won’t touch that place with a ten foot pole.

Anonymous wrote:Maret does not try to be Sidwell at all. In any case, who wants to be like Sidwell these days?

Maret has lot of affluence but it is not in your face, and the school community is friendly, academics very solid, and the kids highly supportive of each other.

And college counseling is great.

Maret’s college director once worked at Sidwell. There are many people at Sidwell who would love to hire him back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I deny its elitism and am the parent of a senior.

You deny whose elitism - Maret? I have one at Maret and another at a big 3 and while both parent communities are pretty “Exclusive” and intense, the Maret community is certainly less racially, ethnically, or economically diverse. I guarantee a significant portion of the homogenous Maret parent community think of themselves as the most selective, elite in the area. My child is thriving, but we are turned off enough by the community that we did not choose Maret for our younger child, even with the Maret sibling benefit.

Huh? I don’t believe you are who you say you are.

Agree. Maret is one of the most racially diverse schools in DC. Even more than GDS is think. I’m also curious what you mean by ‘sibling benefit?’

When considering schools for HS, we found that that the Maret community seemed to be more racially diverse than GDS for sure. Racial diversity was on par with Sidwell, but the diversity at Sidwell was attained more through having wealthy families of color and Maret was less so (both had a mix). In general, we felt the Maret community was generally more down to earth than other privates. In attending various performances, we felt like Maret was more like a local community crowd than GDS or Sidwell.

Anonymous wrote:Maret does not try to be Sidwell at all. In any case, who wants to be like Sidwell these days?

Maret has lot of affluence but it is not in your face, and the school community is friendly, academics very solid, and the kids highly supportive of each other.

And college counseling is great.

Agreed. Not even close. I think a pp nailed it: maret is a small community with a very strong sibling preference, so what maret is depends on whatever that small group is at the time. I don’t disagree with the poster well said it is artsy, but it is more artsy some years than others. Maret is whatever the tiny community it serves is. But it has zero aspirations to be sidwell, and we know many kids at both and have a kid at one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have applied to schools from out of state in anticipation of a late summer move. We really like Maret for DC. I’m not sure that I care about elitism, but to be sure, do you mean that the students are generally thought to be just average? Is the school wanting for academic rigor?

Maret has academic rigor if that's what your kid wants and can keep up. But not every kid at Maret takes the most rigorous classes and some kids are probably a little more low key than you might find at, say, Sidwell. But there are plenty of very smart kids at Maret (many of whom chose Maret over these allegedly "better" schools), so high-achieving kids will have a strong cohort.

This above is exactly how our child described Maret in terms of opportunity for rigor and range of students back when DC was choosing between multiple Big 3's for HS and was attending post-admissions shadow visits. DC definitely felt they would have the opportunity to be academically challenged at Maret but also remarked that there was a mix of students in the classes. They described a range from those who came to class prepared and ready to run, those who had just done the homework, to those who had not done homework. In their limited experience that day, none of the kids were disruptive, but it was mostly the "ready to run" students who contributed in class discussions.

DC ended up choosing Sidwell but for none of the reasons above. We know of others who chose Maret over Sidwell.

Maret does not try to be Sidwell at all. In any case, who wants to be like Sidwell these days?

Maret has lot of affluence but it is not in your face, and the school community is friendly, academics very solid, and the kids highly supportive of each other.

And college counseling is great.

Anonymous wrote:Maret tries so hard to be Sidwell.

Maret is not trying to be anything other than itself. The challenge is it isn’t consistent as to what that is and the schools commitment to academic excellence, athletics, arts, and social responsibility all waiver from period to period. The one constant is the insular nature of the Maret community, perpetuated by the greater representation of significant affluence over top DC privates a sweet but mistaken emphasis on sibling preference. In a community as small as Maret, accepting siblings as aggressively as they do builds loyalty but harms rigor and profile.

Maret is a school folks either love because they are part of the in crowd or eschew because they understand
It’s limitations...

Anonymous wrote:Maret tries so hard to be Sidwell.

No it doesn't. I also don't think Maret is particularly artsy as a PP said. There are some artsy kids, but a lot of sporty kids too.

Maret tries so hard to be Sidwell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I deny its elitism and am the parent of a senior.

You deny whose elitism - Maret? I have one at Maret and another at a big 3 and while both parent communities are pretty “Exclusive” and intense, the Maret community is certainly less racially, ethnically, or economically diverse. I guarantee a significant portion of the homogenous Maret parent community think of themselves as the most selective, elite in the area. My child is thriving, but we are turned off enough by the community that we did not choose Maret for our younger child, even with the Maret sibling benefit.

Huh? I don’t believe you are who you say you are.

Agree. Maret is one of the most racially diverse schools in DC. Even more than GDS is think. I’m also curious what you mean by ‘sibling benefit?’

NP. You really don’t understand sibling benefit? If a sibling already attends a school, that is an advantage for admission of the younger child because there is a desire to keep families at the school. This benefit is greater at some schools than others and it doesn’t mean all siblings get in. But, it helps and if there are two equal kids down to the last spot, for example, a sibling preference could easily tip the balance.

It also dumbs down the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have applied to schools from out of state in anticipation of a late summer move. We really like Maret for DC. I’m not sure that I care about elitism, but to be sure, do you mean that the students are generally thought to be just average? Is the school wanting for academic rigor?

It used to be a school for average kids, and then it got popular, and I don't know what it is now.

This is vague but accurate. It used to be very meh. Then it got hot, almost maybe the “it” school. Now it still has clout, but it doesn’t really know what it is, and neither do others. Currently seems like the place if you want really small, art emphasis, no religion, and less overt social justice than gds. But even that doesn’t quite get at it. I don’t know. Pretty good school for very rich kids that is very small and arty. Best I can do....

Anonymous wrote:We have applied to schools from out of state in anticipation of a late summer move. We really like Maret for DC. I’m not sure that I care about elitism, but to be sure, do you mean that the students are generally thought to be just average? Is the school wanting for academic rigor?

It used to be a school for average kids, and then it got popular, and I don't know what it is now.

Maret is falling out of fashion do to the park-field and similar issues.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I deny its elitism and am the parent of a senior.

You deny whose elitism - Maret? I have one at Maret and another at a big 3 and while both parent communities are pretty “Exclusive” and intense, the Maret community is certainly less racially, ethnically, or economically diverse. I guarantee a significant portion of the homogenous Maret parent community think of themselves as the most selective, elite in the area. My child is thriving, but we are turned off enough by the community that we did not choose Maret for our younger child, even with the Maret sibling benefit.

Huh? I don’t believe you are who you say you are.

Agree. Maret is one of the most racially diverse schools in DC. Even more than GDS is think. I’m also curious what you mean by ‘sibling benefit?’

NP. You really don’t understand sibling benefit? If a sibling already attends a school, that is an advantage for admission of the younger child because there is a desire to keep families at the school. This benefit is greater at some schools than others and it doesn’t mean all siblings get in. But, it helps and if there are two equal kids down to the last spot, for example, a sibling preference could easily tip the balance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I deny its elitism and am the parent of a senior.

You deny whose elitism - Maret? I have one at Maret and another at a big 3 and while both parent communities are pretty “Exclusive” and intense, the Maret community is certainly less racially, ethnically, or economically diverse. I guarantee a significant portion of the homogenous Maret parent community think of themselves as the most selective, elite in the area. My child is thriving, but we are turned off enough by the community that we did not choose Maret for our younger child, even with the Maret sibling benefit.

Huh? I don’t believe you are who you say you are.

Agree. Maret is one of the most racially diverse schools in DC. Even more than GDS is think. I’m also curious what you mean by ‘sibling benefit?’