Also, 20:15 here, clicked submit too early: regarding diversity, there is a lot more diversity among the boarding students than the day student population. Probably just because of the demographics of the immediate area. Obviously more diversity in the boarding students in terms of race and nationality, but also as far as socio-economic diversity goes they seemed to have a lot more money available for boarders. This is 100% my speculation though, if you want legit info get in touch with the admissions department, obviously.

One DD there now, one graduated: they both loved their Madeira experiences. They're both bright girls who really enjoy school and like to challenge themselves, but also are not super competitive or type A and have a creative side (theater and studio art). Madeira is academically rigorous (and boarding students start off having study hall every night which helps a lot with the workload and good study habits) but not hypercompetitive which I think both my girls appreciated, and it led to a bit more diversity of types of students. The culture very much encourages girls to be well rounded, especially the co-curriculum program. The thing I like best about it (and was really struck by when I first visited) was how much of a community feeling there is to the school (both DDs were boarders), overall it feels like a place where girls and teachers work to support each other, both in class and in boarding life. My oldest was very into STEM at Madeira, and is currently studying bioengineering in college. She actually mentioned to me the other day how grateful she was for her Madeira study hall when she got to college, despite how terrible she thought it was at the time

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in northern VA - thought about having DD apply to Madeira and it's merit scholarship - assume the latter is quite hard to get - but upon looking at college acceptances and NMSF stats in the past, I was not as impressed as I thought.

Any feedback on the level of academic rigor/challenge there? Also, looking at the videos/photos on the website - there were zero south asians with some east asians and some AA girls. Is this a very WASP school?

If you look at any of the privates in this area, none have a truly impressive list of colleges. Every single one is on par with a decent public so if you choose private, you need to do so for the experience that it will afford.

Yes, Maderia has some diversity. You actually need to visit to see it.

+1 that the privates are not that impressive like other big cities or some top-level boarding schools.
Don't know anything about the publics.

Yep, but then you are looking at a $60k+ price tag and uber competitiveness at some of those top-level boarding schools, for about 80 seats, plus home-sickness. There is a trade-off and the boarding school system is pretty much the same -- only the top 10-20% (about 15 students in a class of about 80), are positioned for the best colleges, etc. And you are competing against top-level global competition if you're talking Andover, Exeter, Hotchkiss, etc. We looked at this option and even received spots at a few top boards. At the end of the day, for the pricetag (though great facilities and course offerings), we decided that the higher priced schools did not offer much more than what we could do here. You can get into HYP from DC schools. No need to relocated to New Hampshire or Mass. to find rigorous academics and top college acceptances. The college acceptances into HYP may not be as plentiful, but they are attainable (plus my DC gets to sleep at night in her own bed).