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Anonymous wrote:My middle schooler at gds doesn’t have that much work

It’s coming. High school at GDS is 3-4 hours a night. They are very proud of this fact and tell all prospective high school students and their parents.

That's simply not true. My high schooler doesn't have nearly that much, and he gives tours as well, and no one in the admissions office would have said that.

Sure It is said at every step of the admissions process. A few parents had follow up questions for the guy(with the head of school next to him)and he clearly(actually proudly) said it is 3-4 hours a night. The head of school agreed. GDS tells prospective high school students and their parents the school gives 3-4 hours of homework each night.

We were told this at multiple steps of the interview/tour as well.

Anonymous wrote:Current Sidwell Parent. The school is VERY intense. It is not enough to be an excellent student in MS coming in. They are probably 3 or 4 students at the very top who find it to be easy going. The rest have to work pretty hard.

Ick. Why would you want to send your child here? Sounds terrible. Expensive private school does not = guaranteed success in life.

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Anonymous wrote:It sounds absolutely miserable. I am stressed just thinking about it. Why does anyone want to go?

Agree.

So many ways to skin a cat and learn a lot, be challenged, find a great college & career track. Why do this for high school….

This is my life, homework 3 hours a night, in high school. I grow up in Asia. It is worse now.

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Anonymous wrote:Here’s what I don’t understand and can hope someone can help me out. What does the grueling 3-4 hours of homework so for these kids? If the college outcomes at a less rigorous school like Maret look nearly identical or GDS or Sidwell, what is the point of it all? It doesn’t seem like the high schools better prepare these kids for college. So what gives?

For our kid, the goal isn't college placement or outcome (and they are still this way in college search). They chose their school over Maret because they felt like there were more kids in class that were serious about academics and were fully prepared for class. Maret had more of a mix (which, I personally like). This is not to diss Maret or any other school, as DC felt they could succeed in any of the area schools and get the academic challenge at all of them. But for them, they liked the more serious nature at the school they chose.

How can you gauge a class of kids’ academic seriousness? Was this done in one day of a shadow day going into 9th? I don’t have a dog here but am truly trying to wonder. If Maret’s lowest ranking college matriculation one year is a school like ODU and Sidwell’s is Montgomery College, doesn’t that indicate there are a mixes of many types of kids? I know dozens of smart kids with 4.0s that were equally shut out of both schools.

I can't speak to your larger question of placement, but my kid based this opinion on time in classes at the schools. This was pre-COVID and my kid was at each school two separate times shadowing (Fall and after admit). They could tell by how students interacted in class and their discussions outside of class (in between class discussions). They could also tell by how many people had done the homework. For example, a class where out of 10, 1/3 had clearly done no work at all, 1/3 had done it but probably at a surface level based on class discussions, 1/3 had done it well and were fully engaged in class discussion. At Maret this was very obvious. Granted it "could" be at the school they chose, it's the same breakdown as to 1/3 no work, 1/3 just getting by work, 1/3 did work in depth but that the seriousness of the culture at their chosen school would mean that students would mask their HW effort better in the classroom setting - and still try to participate as if they had done the work whether they did it or not. In either case, my kid preferred the more serious one. But, as I noted, they thought they could thrive and be academically challenged at Maret - so this speaks to your specific college placement comparison. I am certain my kid would do equally in placement at both. We let them choose. I think it's important they are happy with school fit. I know many families who have chosen Maret over Big 3 schools and their kids are happy and do very very well in college admissions. They were all very strong students going in.

Anonymous wrote:Here’s what I don’t understand and can hope someone can help me out. What does the grueling 3-4 hours of homework so for these kids? If the college outcomes at a less rigorous school like Maret look nearly identical or GDS or Sidwell, what is the point of it all? It doesn’t seem like the high schools better prepare these kids for college. So what gives?

They are doing homework to learn. It has nothing to do with what you personally perceive as 'good' 'college outcomes." There are hundreds of excellent colleges that many brilliant students will enjoy attending. Learning is the goal in high school and in college. If name dropping is your goal, then you don't really care about academics, do you?

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Anonymous wrote:Here’s what I don’t understand and can hope someone can help me out. What does the grueling 3-4 hours of homework so for these kids? If the college outcomes at a less rigorous school like Maret look nearly identical or GDS or Sidwell, what is the point of it all? It doesn’t seem like the high schools better prepare these kids for college. So what gives?

For our kid, the goal isn't college placement or outcome (and they are still this way in college search). They chose their school over Maret because they felt like there were more kids in class that were serious about academics and were fully prepared for class. Maret had more of a mix (which, I personally like). This is not to diss Maret or any other school, as DC felt they could succeed in any of the area schools and get the academic challenge at all of them. But for them, they liked the more serious nature at the school they chose.

How can you gauge a class of kids’ academic seriousness? Was this done in one day of a shadow day going into 9th? I don’t have a dog here but am truly trying to wonder. If Maret’s lowest ranking college matriculation one year is a school like ODU and Sidwell’s is Montgomery College, doesn’t that indicate there are a mixes of many types of kids? I know dozens of smart kids with 4.0s that were equally shut out of both schools.

Many kids who are too athletes leave to succeed academically AND athletically.

If SFS won’t work with your kids training or tournament schedule and keeps dinging them based on attendance, yeah you leave for a school that will. And those exist- boarding schools, other private schools, and to public schools here. They end up at top colleges of their choice.

Do you not have any older parent friends or coworkers who have BtDT? Talk to them.

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t want to call out any family friends but people do leave these schools in order to succeed academically and athletically elsewhere, and have a less crazy life and equal success.

At least in banking or something you’re learning in the job and have tons of exit opps in 3 years at better jobs and balance. For 9-12 why go through hell for the same exit opps as a more sane top public or balance private.

You assume incorrectly that the happy moderate chill schools have "the same exit opps" as Sidwell. They do not.

They might be a perfectly excellent choice for 9-12, however.

An intelligent, travel sport, hard working, charismatic top 5-10% student absolutely has the same college “exit opps” if s/he went to sidwell or SWW or Bullis or BCC.

Now if they were all that and also at TJ or Blair magnet hoovering up all the stem school admits I’d be really impressed.

Just quoting you -- if a kid needs to "leave these schools [like Sidwell] in order to succeed academically," they're not generally a top 5% kind of kid Unless the school they flee to is pretty bad.

You also moved the goal post by fleshing out the profile of said student, who is now additionally a top athlete and charismatic and hard working (and top of her class). Yes, I agree that this magical and unusual prospect might end up at Tufts although they transferred from Sidwell to Bullis after 8th grade.

The run of the mill, counseled out 8th grader would've had better EXIT OPPs by staying at Sidwell. The middle and bottom of the class there punches above its weight, year after year in a way that the middle of BCC or SAES does not. (full pay, unhooked).

Who or what are you quoting? Unclear in your first sentence premise, which was not at all what the PP claimed.

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t want to call out any family friends but people do leave these schools in order to succeed academically and athletically elsewhere, and have a less crazy life and equal success.

At least in banking or something you’re learning in the job and have tons of exit opps in 3 years at better jobs and balance. For 9-12 why go through hell for the same exit opps as a more sane top public or balance private.

You assume incorrectly that the happy moderate chill schools have "the same exit opps" as Sidwell. They do not.

They might be a perfectly excellent choice for 9-12, however.

An intelligent, travel sport, hard working, charismatic top 5-10% student absolutely has the same college “exit opps” if s/he went to sidwell or SWW or Bullis or BCC.

Now if they were all that and also at TJ or Blair magnet hoovering up all the stem school admits I’d be really impressed.

Just quoting you -- if a kid needs to "leave these schools [like Sidwell] in order to succeed academically," they're not generally a top 5% kind of kid Unless the school they flee to is pretty bad.

You also moved the goal post by fleshing out the profile of said student, who is now additionally a top athlete and charismatic and hard working (and top of her class). Yes, I agree that this magical and unusual prospect might end up at Tufts although they transferred from Sidwell to Bullis after 8th grade.

The run of the mill, counseled out 8th grader would've had better EXIT OPPs by staying at Sidwell. The middle and bottom of the class there punches above its weight, year after year in a way that the middle of BCC or SAES does not. (full pay, unhooked).

Not really. That profile gets ushered to Tier 2 & 3 tiny slacs for $80k a year full pay. It’s a symbiotic school and slac relationship. They usually require grad school as well due to less career services and studies majors.

Anonymous wrote:Here’s what I don’t understand and can hope someone can help me out. What does the grueling 3-4 hours of homework so for these kids? If the college outcomes at a less rigorous school like Maret look nearly identical or GDS or Sidwell, what is the point of it all? It doesn’t seem like the high schools better prepare these kids for college. So what gives?

For our kid, the goal isn't college placement or outcome (and they are still this way in college search). They chose their school over Maret because they felt like there were more kids in class that were serious about academics and were fully prepared for class. Maret had more of a mix (which, I personally like). This is not to diss Maret or any other school, as DC felt they could succeed in any of the area schools and get the academic challenge at all of them. But for them, they liked the more serious nature at the school they chose.

Anonymous wrote:Here’s what I don’t understand and can hope someone can help me out. What does the grueling 3-4 hours of homework so for these kids? If the college outcomes at a less rigorous school like Maret look nearly identical or GDS or Sidwell, what is the point of it all? It doesn’t seem like the high schools better prepare these kids for college. So what gives?

Why do you need to understand it? I have a big 3 kid that doesn’t mind the work and really don’t care that much about the high school choices of other kids and their parents. I assume they are basing they decision on best fit, like we did.

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Anonymous wrote:DC is in a highly competitive school similar to Sidwell and it's not abnormal for 1-3 kids each year to leave right before 9th usually to another great private.

I wouldn't say they were counseled out but by then kids and parents know more about their learning style and what they'd like for their high school experience. One child of a family friend who left when DC was in early elementary is now at a great medical school.

Only 1-3!?!

I used to work with someone who’s wife owns a DC based tutoring company for the last 15-20 years now. She knows exactly which schools have the most miserable students and parents, slogging away for perceived something or other.

To be fair, wouldn’t the tutoring company primarily see kids who are struggling so not necessarily representative of the entire student population? My kid is very happy at a Big 3. It’s a lot of work but the reason they chose this school is this is the type of academic environment they prefer.

When 80% of SFs and NCs is using constant tutors, no. And the other 20% has their mom or dad helping them daily or weekly. Some cultures prefer the parent as a tutor and motivating factor.

I’ve never hired a tutor for my high schooler and haven’t helped them with homework since 5th grade so there’s that.

That’s great your student has never had tutoring or supplementing from an adult. Not sure what school or program they’re at but congrats I guess! Yours definitely an anomaly in our various circles. And of course some families try to hide the amount of parental help or tutoring.

NP here - our DC at SFS also has no tutors and we have never even known what their HW is. Friend group has maybe one with a tutor in one subject, so PP's child is not an anomaly. But our kid started in 9th - are your "various circles" families with kids that started earlier than 9th? We did know a family (different aged child) from SFS who started their perfectly capable children with summer tutors in 2nd grade for fear of falling behind classmates....I got the feeling her "crowd" was using tutors unnecessarily. We haven't run into those types in our time there - but we also know fewer families at a 9th entry during COVID times.