Anonymous wrote:We are debating among Park School, Bryn Mawr, Friends and RPCS. Which would you recommend and why? Which is the most academically rigorous?
I can only report my experience at Friends, where DS attended from K through HS. Friends has a very strong English curriculum and good English teachers; arts, music and drama are quite good, while science and math can be more rigorous. That said, a few students have taken college-level math classes (concurrently) at Hopkins and scored well. Friends has the best Russian language program in Maryland, as evidenced (for example) by the awards won in Olympiada of Spoken Russian and National Russian essay contests, as well as scholarships from the US. State Dept. DS took Russian from 6th grade on, and used this continuous pursuit to help him to stand out (albeit a little) in his college applications, as Russian is identified as a critical language in the US. He is studying a math-oriented major in college; I do hope that he will have time for Russian again. Friends does not offer any AP classes; all classes are taught at Honors level. I feared that the lack of APs might hurt his chances when applying to colleges, but this turned out not to be the case. Friends is the most politically progressive school in Baltimore.