Anonymous wrote:Whitman, Niche diversity: B+

Holton, Niche diversity: A

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Anonymous wrote:In our W neighborhood probably about 1/3 of the kids go to private. A large percentage were struggling in public for one reason or another. Many are quirky and could not deal socially with the big competitive environment of public schools and others were having trouble being motivated academically. I can think of only a handful of popular well adjusted kids who are A students who decided to go to private even for 9th.

Well in my Churchill zoned neighborhood, most go to public. The only ones who are in private are because of religious choice (that's us) or those going to privates like McLean School or Lab School for significant learning differences. However, with my daughter being in private, we find that her classmates live in much more affluent neighborhoods like Avenel and areas Chevy Chase and Bethesda. So I am guessing that people in our neighborhood stayed in mcps because they just couldn't swing the tuition or wanted to use that extra money for cars and vacations.

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Anonymous wrote:In our W neighborhood probably about 1/3 of the kids go to private. A large percentage were struggling in public for one reason or another. Many are quirky and could not deal socially with the big competitive environment of public schools and others were having trouble being motivated academically. I can think of only a handful of popular well adjusted kids who are A students who decided to go to private even for 9th.

Where I live in Bethesda 20817, everyone--or nearly everyone--with money is doing private. Liberal or Conservative. They have the resources and want out of MCPS.

I grew up in Bethesda, specifically the Whitman catchment, and graduated from there in 2009. Back then, most people I knew who lived in gigantic $2M+ homes were going to private schools instead of Whitman, though there were still a handful of kids in those homes who attended Whitman. Most kids actually attending Whitman back then lived in $600k-$1.5M homes. Fast forward to today, and homes zoned for Whitman and Churchill that are less than $1M are nearly non-existent, and even tear-downs are going for $900k. Homes that sold for just $1.3M as recently as 2019 could sell for $2.2M today. I find it extremely difficult to imagine that people living in an area that is as prohibitively expensive as Bethesda are abandoning MCPS for privates when the school enrollment trends in Bethesda show otherwise. In fact, I worry that Whitman and other schools in Bethesda/Potomac areas (and even RM at this point) are increasingly becoming "private public schools." Whitman was really affluent when I attended in the 2000s, but we still had an actual cohort of real middle-class students. Not DCUM "middle-class," but actual middle-class. I'm talking about dual fed families, households where one parent was a teacher for MCPS, and even a handful of students with a parent or parents who worked in high-paying blue-collar jobs. You won't find any families like that in Whitman anymore. In the next decade, there will be almost no kids at Whitman whose parents didn't buy their house (at least partially) with family money unless MoCo strives to bring more desperately needed affordable housing in the Whitman catchment.

I can just tell you that most people at my country club do private school, and most of the people I know in the 2+ million homes in 20817 do private school.

Some are family money. Many are entrepreneurs and other high earning professionals.

I think this pretty much sums it up. I've lived in Bethesda and Chevy Chase for a number of years now. Much of this school discussion can be reduced to basic human nature. For the very wealthy and privileged - the country club demographic - they will never send their children to a W school. Projecting status and exclusivity is very important to them. Nothing anyone says is going to convince them that sending a kid to Whitman is more valuable than sending a kid to Landon or Holton Arms. Because in their world it isn't. There's no status there.

For professionals with smart well-adjusted kids in the W clusters - families earning say 500, 600 thousand a year - nothing is going to convince them that spending $100,000 a year on two kids to attend private is worth it, particularly when you can get a very high level, very rigorous education at a W school. Those kids loading up on AP classes work their asses off. But they also have the benefit of being in a large school where there are all types of kids and everybody can find a place. Plus the wide variety of extracurriculars available at these schools. It's a no-brainer for these families.

So what you see - at least in the neighborhoods I'm familiar with - is that the private school kids tend to be very wealthy or they are special needs. Families decide that publics aren't going to work for their particular child. Could be behavioral issues, ADHD, lots of things. But to succeed in public schools does require a certain amount of self-motivation and an ability to read social situations.And everyone wants the best environment for their child. For many special needs kids who need more attention, privates probably are better.

Nothing anyone says here is going to change anyone's opinion. People live in their realities.

To the poster who said you can't take multivariable calculus in a public school here, yes you can. Whitman certainly offers it.

Spoken as someone who clearly has no direct experience with top private schools.

We have kids in private and some of this is true. The wealthiest in our zip code choose private more often than not and their kids are mostly lifers. For those who UMC but not uber-wealthy it's mostly the kids who have some kind of learning or social issue who chose private and many start in MS or HS.

We're not uber wealthy, but we have sent both kids through private school not because of any learning issues. Mainly wanting a way to get away from the woke culture at mcps which has destroyed education as we knew it. It is not a burden for us financially at all, but we don't have private jets or vacation homes.

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Anonymous wrote:In our W neighborhood probably about 1/3 of the kids go to private. A large percentage were struggling in public for one reason or another. Many are quirky and could not deal socially with the big competitive environment of public schools and others were having trouble being motivated academically. I can think of only a handful of popular well adjusted kids who are A students who decided to go to private even for 9th.

Where I live in Bethesda 20817, everyone--or nearly everyone--with money is doing private. Liberal or Conservative. They have the resources and want out of MCPS.

I grew up in Bethesda, specifically the Whitman catchment, and graduated from there in 2009. Back then, most people I knew who lived in gigantic $2M+ homes were going to private schools instead of Whitman, though there were still a handful of kids in those homes who attended Whitman. Most kids actually attending Whitman back then lived in $600k-$1.5M homes. Fast forward to today, and homes zoned for Whitman and Churchill that are less than $1M are nearly non-existent, and even tear-downs are going for $900k. Homes that sold for just $1.3M as recently as 2019 could sell for $2.2M today. I find it extremely difficult to imagine that people living in an area that is as prohibitively expensive as Bethesda are abandoning MCPS for privates when the school enrollment trends in Bethesda show otherwise. In fact, I worry that Whitman and other schools in Bethesda/Potomac areas (and even RM at this point) are increasingly becoming "private public schools." Whitman was really affluent when I attended in the 2000s, but we still had an actual cohort of real middle-class students. Not DCUM "middle-class," but actual middle-class. I'm talking about dual fed families, households where one parent was a teacher for MCPS, and even a handful of students with a parent or parents who worked in high-paying blue-collar jobs. You won't find any families like that in Whitman anymore. In the next decade, there will be almost no kids at Whitman whose parents didn't buy their house (at least partially) with family money unless MoCo strives to bring more desperately needed affordable housing in the Whitman catchment.

I can just tell you that most people at my country club do private school, and most of the people I know in the 2+ million homes in 20817 do private school.

Some are family money. Many are entrepreneurs and other high earning professionals.

I think this pretty much sums it up. I've lived in Bethesda and Chevy Chase for a number of years now. Much of this school discussion can be reduced to basic human nature. For the very wealthy and privileged - the country club demographic - they will never send their children to a W school. Projecting status and exclusivity is very important to them. Nothing anyone says is going to convince them that sending a kid to Whitman is more valuable than sending a kid to Landon or Holton Arms. Because in their world it isn't. There's no status there.

For professionals with smart well-adjusted kids in the W clusters - families earning say 500, 600 thousand a year - nothing is going to convince them that spending $100,000 a year on two kids to attend private is worth it, particularly when you can get a very high level, very rigorous education at a W school. Those kids loading up on AP classes work their asses off. But they also have the benefit of being in a large school where there are all types of kids and everybody can find a place. Plus the wide variety of extracurriculars available at these schools. It's a no-brainer for these families.

So what you see - at least in the neighborhoods I'm familiar with - is that the private school kids tend to be very wealthy or they are special needs. Families decide that publics aren't going to work for their particular child. Could be behavioral issues, ADHD, lots of things. But to succeed in public schools does require a certain amount of self-motivation and an ability to read social situations.And everyone wants the best environment for their child. For many special needs kids who need more attention, privates probably are better.

Nothing anyone says here is going to change anyone's opinion. People live in their realities.

To the poster who said you can't take multivariable calculus in a public school here, yes you can. Whitman certainly offers it.

Spoken as someone who clearly has no direct experience with top private schools.

We have kids in private and some of this is true. The wealthiest in our zip code choose private more often than not and their kids are mostly lifers. For those who UMC but not uber-wealthy it's mostly the kids who have some kind of learning or social issue who chose private and many start in MS or HS.

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Anonymous wrote:Whitman, Niche diversity: B+

Holton, Niche diversity: A

I guess if you're not Hispanic, then it's "diverse".

Whitman Hispanic: 12%
Holton Hispanic: 3%


Holton does have more wealthy black families, though, I'll give you that.

Cherry-picking data. Classic. Niche considers Holton to be doing better on diversity, so take it up with them.

Go tell a Hispanic person they are cherry picking data.

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Anonymous wrote:Why would a college accept a kid from a school with very few advanced classes?

Legacy
Money
Sports
Special talents.

The same reasons these kids are accepted at private schools

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Anonymous wrote:In our W neighborhood probably about 1/3 of the kids go to private. A large percentage were struggling in public for one reason or another. Many are quirky and could not deal socially with the big competitive environment of public schools and others were having trouble being motivated academically. I can think of only a handful of popular well adjusted kids who are A students who decided to go to private even for 9th.

Where I live in Bethesda 20817, everyone--or nearly everyone--with money is doing private. Liberal or Conservative. They have the resources and want out of MCPS.

yet, Whitman has 2000+ students. Must be all those poor people in Whitman.

Nobody said all poor. The net worth of those in private is just much, much higher.

Ah yes. Whitman, the school that draws from some of the wealthiest places in America, has poor students. LOLOLOL

Landon, Holton, Sidwell! The net worth of parents there is 10X that of WHITMAN. Be real.How many parents fly private with their kids who go to Whitman? A large minority do at the privates mentioned.

Whitman is a rich school. Stop pretending it’s not.

dp.. collectively, it's not as rich as the elite privates.

-public school parent

Rich.

Richer.

That’s what we’re arguing about. What stupidity.

It's like arguing about a good state school and an Ivy! Like it really makes a difference in life.

Anonymous wrote:Why would a college accept a kid from a school with very few advanced classes?

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Anonymous wrote:Whitman, Niche diversity: B+

Holton, Niche diversity: A

I guess if you're not Hispanic, then it's "diverse".

Whitman Hispanic: 12%
Holton Hispanic: 3%


Holton does have more wealthy black families, though, I'll give you that.

Cherry-picking data. Classic. Niche considers Holton to be doing better on diversity, so take it up with them.

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Anonymous wrote:private schools parents can try to justify paying up to $55000 for a subpar education from here to the heaven, but the fact is none of them can compete with the Ws.
Choose any academic competition and the W schools will run circles around them.

With this attitude and line of thinking YOU are much better off in public school. Many don't agree with you in private so you won't fit in, plus it sounds like you want o raise a "competitor" while most people in private are looking to raise trend setters and leaders.

Just check the stats on all your favorite leaders....pick an industry. While there will be public kids and private kids in both, leaders are overly represented from private. Less than 10% of the kids in the community try attend private, so that's your benchmark. If private kids are represented above 10%, then kids generally are better off.

Is the private school a cause or effect? Bill Gates went to private school, but his big entrepreneural break was a nepotism contract he got from his mom's friend on the board of IBM. But he got into computers because his private school has a rare at the time powerful computer.

Do you think public school kids don’t benefit from nepotism? We’re talking about public schools in Potomac and Bethesda, not Compton.

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Anonymous wrote:private schools parents can try to justify paying up to $55000 for a subpar education from here to the heaven, but the fact is none of them can compete with the Ws.
Choose any academic competition and the W schools will run circles around them.

With this attitude and line of thinking YOU are much better off in public school. Many don't agree with you in private so you won't fit in, plus it sounds like you want o raise a "competitor" while most people in private are looking to raise trend setters and leaders.

Just check the stats on all your favorite leaders....pick an industry. While there will be public kids and private kids in both, leaders are overly represented from private. Less than 10% of the kids in the community try attend private, so that's your benchmark. If private kids are represented above 10%, then kids generally are better off.

Is the private school a cause or effect? Bill Gates went to private school, but his big entrepreneural break was a nepotism contract he got from his mom's friend on the board of IBM. But he got into computers because his private school has a rare at the time powerful computer.

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Anonymous wrote:In our W neighborhood probably about 1/3 of the kids go to private. A large percentage were struggling in public for one reason or another. Many are quirky and could not deal socially with the big competitive environment of public schools and others were having trouble being motivated academically. I can think of only a handful of popular well adjusted kids who are A students who decided to go to private even for 9th.

Where I live in Bethesda 20817, everyone--or nearly everyone--with money is doing private. Liberal or Conservative. They have the resources and want out of MCPS.

yet, Whitman has 2000+ students. Must be all those poor people in Whitman.

Nobody said all poor. The net worth of those in private is just much, much higher.

Ah yes. Whitman, the school that draws from some of the wealthiest places in America, has poor students. LOLOLOL

Landon, Holton, Sidwell! The net worth of parents there is 10X that of WHITMAN. Be real.How many parents fly private with their kids who go to Whitman? A large minority do at the privates mentioned.

Whitman is a rich school. Stop pretending it’s not.

It's full of working stiffs...2 parents working for the government, parents who are doctors. Not big money...like we only work for fun, we don't need the money.

Ah yes. Whitman. The land of the working stiffs. You’re delusional.

I think you just have low standards of what you consider wealthy.

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Anonymous wrote:Whitman, Niche diversity: B+

Holton, Niche diversity: A

I guess if you're not Hispanic, then it's "diverse".

Whitman Hispanic: 12%
Holton Hispanic: 3%


Holton does have more wealthy black families, though, I'll give you that.

Anonymous wrote:Whitman, Niche diversity: B+

Holton, Niche diversity: A

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Anonymous wrote:In our W neighborhood probably about 1/3 of the kids go to private. A large percentage were struggling in public for one reason or another. Many are quirky and could not deal socially with the big competitive environment of public schools and others were having trouble being motivated academically. I can think of only a handful of popular well adjusted kids who are A students who decided to go to private even for 9th.

Where I live in Bethesda 20817, everyone--or nearly everyone--with money is doing private. Liberal or Conservative. They have the resources and want out of MCPS.

yet, Whitman has 2000+ students. Must be all those poor people in Whitman.

Nobody said all poor. The net worth of those in private is just much, much higher.

Ah yes. Whitman, the school that draws from some of the wealthiest places in America, has poor students. LOLOLOL

Landon, Holton, Sidwell! The net worth of parents there is 10X that of WHITMAN. Be real.How many parents fly private with their kids who go to Whitman? A large minority do at the privates mentioned.

Whitman is a rich school. Stop pretending it’s not.

It's full of working stiffs...2 parents working for the government, parents who are doctors. Not big money...like we only work for fun, we don't need the money.

Ah yes. Whitman. The land of the working stiffs. You’re delusional.