Anonymous wrote:st. andrew? Most of the parents i met are very down to earth, and most of the moms are working moms as well.

Absolutely. It is a very basic school. Nothing fancy about it. You would be comfortable there.

st patricks

we are very much enjoying there

I think that you can still do it! It might be uncomfortable, but why not give your daughter this opportunity?

It might be ideal to choose a school with a uniform. That has been a godsend for my daughter.

My family is also lower middle class and my child was lucky enough to get enough financial aid to be able to afford to send him to GDS for high school. We also were in your shoes, never thinking about sending our child to a private school until we just decided to apply to GDS and Sidwell. Sidwell accepted my son as well, but weren't able to give us enough money so we decided GDS. He is now a junior and loves it there. He is able to do a ton of clubs that give him free out of school experiences that we would not be able to afford without GDS' help. Also for all trips and anything that requires money GDS will give the same percent of financial aid as they do on your tuition on those trips. I guess in your case you might need to talk to the director of financial aid to see how that works with paying full tuition. My son has never felt alone or like he was the poor one as most kids there don't like to talk about their parents money (at least my sons friends). GDS really did welcome us with open arms and made us feel like we were part of the community even though we are not your typical private school family.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WES in Bethesda is solid.

WES is K-8. OP's kid is in middle school looking to high school. And we found the classes too small at WES; we had a serious girl bullying problem and chose to leave because admin. and teachers wouldn't do anything about it. Once that starts on a grade in a small school, it's difficult for girls to find a safe place

Just wow. That's not how the school sells their programs at all. Would love more input from others at WES!

Anonymous wrote:WES in Bethesda is solid.

WES is K-8. OP's kid is in middle school looking to high school. And we found the classes too small at WES; we had a serious girl bullying problem and chose to leave because admin. and teachers wouldn't do anything about it. Once that starts on a grade in a small school, it's difficult for girls to find a safe place

Anonymous wrote:Maybe Burke -- while there are definitely families with serious resources, the school culture (at least to me) feels pretty grounded

+1. It's very noticeably different from Big 3 in this respect.

Anonymous wrote:Ha. My kid is at Sidwell’s fun unpretentious cousin, and I was about to say I think your family would be very comfortable there. We have a teacher and artist level HHI, live in a neighborhood that would give most DCUM people the vapors, in a 1200ft house. We’re fine. Our kid loves the school and loves their friends.

It helps that I don’t particularly yearn to be richer. I know compared to the rest of the world (heck, compared to the rest of the US) we are very well off. I’m content not being in the top 5% or whatever. What we have is plenty. So I have never been particularly self conscious or worried about fitting in - and it’s been just fine.

I feel that way about Gonzaga. It's a diverse school, draws from 32 zip codes and encompasses all income levels. I never really worry or much less cared about fitting in so it's never been an issue - there's plenty of wealthy Gonzaga families but just as many middle income earners.

Lowell has many families where the parents did not go to private school. It’s pretty down to earth, as far as privates go.

Only flag is you said your kid doesn’t have good grades. I think boredom is going to be hard to explain during admissions as the reason for that. Could definitely hurt your chances but perhaps being full pay will help. Also, just another caution, being 99th percentile in testing compared to the national average isn’t that uncommon at private schools and probably won’t offset the low grades. Private school kids take the ERBs and it’s pretty common to score tippy top on the national ranking but only average in the independent school ranking.

WES in Bethesda is solid.

Anonymous wrote:st. andrew? Most of the parents i met are very down to earth, and most of the moms are working moms as well.

I had this thought too.

But really I agree with PP that you need to go tour some schools. Have your child to the shadow day. They will know if they feel uncomfortable. I think there are some schools where there is reported to be a lot of "rich cliques." And there are many many that seem extremely down to earth.