Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All publics in the DMV outside of a handful suck. Anything "public" is low quality.

Moco is a great place to live for the best privates.

Which are the handful that you think are good, or at least don't suck.

MCPS

Anonymous wrote:12:29, those are good schools. Perhaps not the top 3 but those are all going to give a great education. I am a public and private school veteran and will tell you that those of us who decide to go private generally consider publics--any publics--less desirable. My public was a W cluster and my private was one of the schools that probably has some openings. My education and experiences at that private were far better than at the public and to be frank, the overall success of my classmates from the private school is on a totally different level than what came from the W school.

As for political relationships, as a private school veteran, there have been relatives and children of politicians and famous people at all of the schools listed so for those of us who have attended, we are not so dazzled by the presence of a child of a president or vice president or congressman or pro athlete---regardless of the political party. Those kids are just kids and their parents are doing what they think is best for them and that is what parents do. And to their classmates, they are simply classmates.

And lastly, for those of you who keep touting MCPS, please stop. I, for one, felt like my early education in public school in MCPS was great and tried that for my kids. For two years. And then we went private. It is a huge and hard decision to make that move but once a family makes that decision, there is no benefit to keep arguing the equivalency or superiority of public. We already had those discussions internally---for most people the cost and inconvenience of going to private school instead of the neighborhood school is a matter about which much thought has been given and is usually done knowing that to a certain crowd it will only ever be viewed as elitist. For most people it is about education plain and simple and how to ensure that their kids get the best education. There are no guarantees but the constant attempts to convince private school parents that publics are an option is absurd. We know it is an option and have decided against it. Let us alone and go back to your forum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All publics in the DMV outside of a handful suck. Anything "public" is low quality.

Moco is a great place to live for the best privates.

Which are the handful that you think are good, or at least don't suck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It you are really desperate call Bullis. They have a lot of openings in all grades. I drove by there the other day and the sign is out front. It is pricey and if you are willing to pay it will be easy. It it not ranked highly. Academics appear weak and the sports program is top priority. We looked at it for our DS a few years ago. Very diverse, mostly AA and Asian student body. Give them a call though if nothing else comes through. Atleast get them in for the first year and then apply to more competitive schools. I hear St. Andrews is very good.

Anything has to be better than MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:Are your kids boys or girls? A lot of the private schools in the area are single sex.

For girls, the "best" is probably Holton Arms which is in Potomac or Bethesda. Not sure which one technically (my kids are in public). I don't believe Holton has a religious affiliation. Stoneridge, Holy Child and Holy Cross are all Catholic, and girls only. Those 3 are also in the Potomac/Bethesda/Rockville area.

For boys, Georgetown Prep in Rockville/Bethesda is very highly regarded. That's high school only. Mater Dei is an all-boys elementary/middle school that sends a lot of kids to Prep. Prep is a Jesuit school. Landon and The Heights are also options
The Heights is in Potomac. I don't actually know where Landon is.

Bullis is co-ed, and in Potomac, but close to Rockville. I don't know if it has a religious affiliation. Good Counsel is Catholic co-ed in Olney.

For the 5th grader, there are several parochial K-8 schools in the Rockville area - St. James, Christ Episcopal, St. Patrick's, St. Raphael's, St. Elizabeth, St. Mary's. You might have luck finding a spot for this year at one of those. I don't imagine you'll get a spot this year at one of the high school privates. Maybe Bullis or Good Counsel?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my child is in public ES in MoCo but we'd like to try private for MS and up. And I have a question for all of you advising OP to 'try Sidwell/Georgetown Prep/Hoton' - are you serious? Don't you know that your child needs to apply, show up for interviews and shadow days, submit recommendations, take tests, then wait around.. and even then he/she might not get in?? And admission decisions have already been made in the spring?

If I didn't live around here, I'd think that anyone can waltz into Sidwell on August 15th and sign up their 12th-grader for classes!

You never know what kind of connections OP has. If they are well-connected, spots can be found.

It's unlikely someone moving here would have those kind of connections. And someone with those connections would not be crowd sourcing info on DCUM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my child is in public ES in MoCo but we'd like to try private for MS and up. And I have a question for all of you advising OP to 'try Sidwell/Georgetown Prep/Hoton' - are you serious? Don't you know that your child needs to apply, show up for interviews and shadow days, submit recommendations, take tests, then wait around.. and even then he/she might not get in?? And admission decisions have already been made in the spring?

If I didn't live around here, I'd think that anyone can waltz into Sidwell on August 15th and sign up their 12th-grader for classes!

You never know what kind of connections OP has. If they are well-connected, spots can be found.

Anonymous wrote:OP, my child is in public ES in MoCo but we'd like to try private for MS and up. And I have a question for all of you advising OP to 'try Sidwell/Georgetown Prep/Hoton' - are you serious? Don't you know that your child needs to apply, show up for interviews and shadow days, submit recommendations, take tests, then wait around.. and even then he/she might not get in?? And admission decisions have already been made in the spring?

If I didn't live around here, I'd think that anyone can waltz into Sidwell on August 15th and sign up their 12th-grader for classes!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It you are really desperate call Bullis. They have a lot of openings in all grades. I drove by there the other day and the sign is out front. It is pricey and if you are willing to pay it will be easy. It it not ranked highly. Academics appear weak and the sports program is top priority. We looked at it for our DS a few years ago. Very diverse, mostly AA and Asian student body. Give them a call though if nothing else comes through. Atleast get them in for the first year and then apply to more competitive schools. I hear St. Andrews is very good.

I am confused. I've seen a lot of posts boasting how strong Bullis is, especially for STEM. Obviously people can simply have different opinions, but is there anything more to the divergence of descriptions.

While I do not know about the entire school, both of my kids grades are full.

Anonymous wrote:OP, go with the list of schools in the 8/1, 11:49 post, and start your research via school website and calling the schools.

Best wishes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It you are really desperate call Bullis. They have a lot of openings in all grades. I drove by there the other day and the sign is out front. It is pricey and if you are willing to pay it will be easy. It it not ranked highly. Academics appear weak and the sports program is top priority. We looked at it for our DS a few years ago. Very diverse, mostly AA and Asian student body. Give them a call though if nothing else comes through. Atleast get them in for the first year and then apply to more competitive schools. I hear St. Andrews is very good.

I am confused. I've seen a lot of posts boasting how strong Bullis is, especially for STEM. Obviously people can simply have different opinions, but is there anything more to the divergence of descriptions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:29, those are good schools. Perhaps not the top 3 but those are all going to give a great education. I am a public and private school veteran and will tell you that those of us who decide to go private generally consider publics--any publics--less desirable. My public was a W cluster and my private was one of the schools that probably has some openings. My education and experiences at that private were far better than at the public and to be frank, the overall success of my classmates from the private school is on a totally different level than what came from the W school.

As for political relationships, as a private school veteran, there have been relatives and children of politicians and famous people at all of the schools listed so for those of us who have attended, we are not so dazzled by the presence of a child of a president or vice president or congressman or pro athlete---regardless of the political party. Those kids are just kids and their parents are doing what they think is best for them and that is what parents do. And to their classmates, they are simply classmates.

And lastly, for those of you who keep touting MCPS, please stop. I, for one, felt like my early education in public school in MCPS was great and tried that for my kids. For two years. And then we went private. It is a huge and hard decision to make that move but once a family makes that decision, there is no benefit to keep arguing the equivalency or superiority of public. We already had those discussions internally---for most people the cost and inconvenience of going to private school instead of the neighborhood school is a matter about which much thought has been given and is usually done knowing that to a certain crowd it will only ever be viewed as elitist. For most people it is about education plain and simple and how to ensure that their kids get the best education. There are no guarantees but the constant attempts to convince private school parents that publics are an option is absurd. We know it is an option and have decided against it. Let us alone and go back to your forum.

I completely agree. We are likely going to try public and if we end up in private, it will be the result of bad experiences and a ton of thought and consideration. It comes with a lot of sacrifices (financial and social) but ultimately the quality of the kid’s education is what’s most important. For many people, the first choice would be a high quality public school, and if they choose to give that up, it’s not without a lot of careful consideration.