Anonymous wrote:Assuming my DS will not get into any privates just because it’s almost impossible right now, we are turning to our inbounds HS, Whitman. I hear only great things. My DS is a very good student with some LD, great athlete who will no doubt make the team of his sport and may even play varsity freshman year. He’s super quiet. How will he do at Whitman? He’s never been in such a huge school. His current school is tiny. But he’s looking forward to HS.

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Anonymous wrote:Whitman publishes senior college destinations in the school paper (The Black & White) each spring for anyone who is curious. Always lots of kids going to great schools all over the country and lots of kids going to community college, which I’m assuming never happens at the top local privates.

When you say a lot go to CC what kind of numbers are you talking? I see that list every year and while a huge number go to UMDCP I only ever see less than 3 or less than 5 going to CC.

It has been a while since I checked, but around 15. It’s self reported, and I’m sure not all of the kids opt to report.

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Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’d like to hear about people’s experiences there. Clearly from my original post, my excellent boy isn’t aiming to go to an Ivy League school, so I really don’t care about how many kids from Whitman end up at Harvard or whatever. What is the general atmosphere like there? Are the classes and teaching generally good? Is there a lot of bullying? Etc. I am not interested in debating if Whitman is on par with the privates.

I have two kids at Whitman, a boy and a girl. It's crowded, noisy and chaotic. There are days wasted at school football rallies and "spirit days" "one Whitman" etc where you aren't allowed to leave early, and are patronized with the most obvious, boring lectures about diversity (yes we know we are diverse and these rules don't hold up in reality). Also the counselor allocated to my kids, is next to impossible to see - it's February and neither has managed to get an appt to see them.

The teaching is patchy - so while the syllabus is fairly consistent from class to class, you might have an ancient Algebra 2 teacher who is unclear, barely audible (due to a crowded, noisy class and mask wearing) and shuffling towards retirement, while in the next room you might have a highly engaged, excellent Algebra 2 teacher who has clarity and actually teaches.

Football rallies are more important than school for kids socially. My shy daughter in A W school in pandemic started doing stuff on trampoline and mats watching tic tic videos for almost one year. To my surprise she begged to try out cheerleading and made it. She did the whole football season and every rally. She loved it. Honestly she will forget every class from 9th grade eventually but being a cheerleader was a huge deal. She practiced 20 hours a week. The Pom Pom girls practice too, and the players and coaches of course and heavy PTA involvement and the parents. It is called school spirit. It took a lot of guts for my daughter to attend school on Pep rally day in full uniform and make up on bus and perform a full routine in front of whole school at 14 with back flips that took a year to learn.

Your response, is inane.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’d like to hear about people’s experiences there. Clearly from my original post, my excellent boy isn’t aiming to go to an Ivy League school, so I really don’t care about how many kids from Whitman end up at Harvard or whatever. What is the general atmosphere like there? Are the classes and teaching generally good? Is there a lot of bullying? Etc. I am not interested in debating if Whitman is on par with the privates.

I have two kids at Whitman, a boy and a girl. It's crowded, noisy and chaotic. There are days wasted at school football rallies and "spirit days" "one Whitman" etc where you aren't allowed to leave early, and are patronized with the most obvious, boring lectures about diversity (yes we know we are diverse and these rules don't hold up in reality). Also the counselor allocated to my kids, is next to impossible to see - it's February and neither has managed to get an appt to see them.

The teaching is patchy - so while the syllabus is fairly consistent from class to class, you might have an ancient Algebra 2 teacher who is unclear, barely audible (due to a crowded, noisy class and mask wearing) and shuffling towards retirement, while in the next room you might have a highly engaged, excellent Algebra 2 teacher who has clarity and actually teaches.

Football rallies are more important than school for kids socially. My shy daughter in A W school in pandemic started doing stuff on trampoline and mats watching tic tic videos for almost one year. To my surprise she begged to try out cheerleading and made it. She did the whole football season and every rally. She loved it. Honestly she will forget every class from 9th grade eventually but being a cheerleader was a huge deal. She practiced 20 hours a week. The Pom Pom girls practice too, and the players and coaches of course and heavy PTA involvement and the parents. It is called school spirit. It took a lot of guts for my daughter to attend school on Pep rally day in full uniform and make up on bus and perform a full routine in front of whole school at 14 with back flips that took a year to learn.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whitman publishes senior college destinations in the school paper (The Black & White) each spring for anyone who is curious. Always lots of kids going to great schools all over the country and lots of kids going to community college, which I’m assuming never happens at the top local privates.

When you say a lot go to CC what kind of numbers are you talking? I see that list every year and while a huge number go to UMDCP I only ever see less than 3 or less than 5 going to CC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’d like to hear about people’s experiences there. Clearly from my original post, my excellent boy isn’t aiming to go to an Ivy League school, so I really don’t care about how many kids from Whitman end up at Harvard or whatever. What is the general atmosphere like there? Are the classes and teaching generally good? Is there a lot of bullying? Etc. I am not interested in debating if Whitman is on par with the privates.

I have two kids at Whitman, a boy and a girl. It's crowded, noisy and chaotic. There are days wasted at school football rallies and "spirit days" "one Whitman" etc where you aren't allowed to leave early, and are patronized with the most obvious, boring lectures about diversity (yes we know we are diverse and these rules don't hold up in reality). Also the counselor allocated to my kids, is next to impossible to see - it's February and neither has managed to get an appt to see them.

The teaching is patchy - so while the syllabus is fairly consistent from class to class, you might have an ancient Algebra 2 teacher who is unclear, barely audible (due to a crowded, noisy class and mask wearing) and shuffling towards retirement, while in the next room you might have a highly engaged, excellent Algebra 2 teacher who has clarity and actually teaches.

Anonymous wrote:My experience is that the private school my child attends is not better than what was being taught in public. English is worse at the private and math is ok. This is at one of the top privates in DC, we will not be returning next year.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’d like to hear about people’s experiences there. Clearly from my original post, my excellent boy isn’t aiming to go to an Ivy League school, so I really don’t care about how many kids from Whitman end up at Harvard or whatever. What is the general atmosphere like there? Are the classes and teaching generally good? Is there a lot of bullying? Etc. I am not interested in debating if Whitman is on par with the privates.

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Anonymous wrote:Assuming my DS will not get into any privates just because it’s almost impossible right now, we are turning to our inbounds HS, Whitman. I hear only great things. My DS is a very good student with some LD, great athlete who will no doubt make the team of his sport and may even play varsity freshman year. He’s super quiet. How will he do at Whitman? He’s never been in such a huge school. His current school is tiny. But he’s looking forward to HS.

Whitman is better than any private school in the area

Then why do so many families in the Whitman sending area send their kids to private schools at significant expense?

Are these people dumb?

In our Potomac neighborhood we see Landon, Prep, Gonzaga, Bullis, St Albans, Holton, etc. jackets and sweatshirts in abundance. And some Whitman ones, too.

Vanity.

If by "vanity" you mean a realization that Whitman has been trading on its reputation from 25 years ago for a while now, its recent acceptance results for top colleges have been pedestrian and no longer are even the best among MCPS high schools, and that MCPS is such a train wreck now that it's only going to get worse in years to come, then I agree 100%.

Look, Whitman is a good school. But it's not the best-in-class public school that it once was. To seriously wonder why families would choose to send their kids to some of the best private schools in the DMV over Whitman means you're either in denial and want to make yourself feel better about your personal decision, or you have no ability or desire to understand why it's not for everyone.

But it's still better than any private school acceptance results in the DMV.

PP - Where can I find data that shows this? We're trying to figure out the private vs. public question and trying to piece together college acceptance results seems impossible.

Bethesda Magazine posts all the destinations of all the Bethesda area schools, and you can compare them to the college acceptances as outlined on the private school websites (if they have them).

I did this one year and while it looked like 10-15 kids from Whitman were going to the Ivies + MIT & Stanford, there were similar numbers going from the privates like GDS and Sidwell. But those private schools as you know, have a far smaller student body, so statistically, they were sending more kids to those colleges than the publics. Hope that helps.

LOL
And where did you get the Sidwell list so you could compare?[/quote]

I got it from their website. Where did you think I got it, pulled it out of my ass? Jesus.