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oliver_babish t1_jacog4x wrote

As someone who has parented two kids through these schools:

  • Private school doesn't matter nearly as much until 6th/7th grade, when the rigor and individual attention matters more. You need to talk to Bache Martin parents about their experience, because it may well be good enough for your kids to learn the fundamentals. And you're not only saving money but adding that many more hours to the time you spend with your kids, while they develop friendships (as do you) in the neighborhood. It is not fun to pick up your kid from a sleepover in Malvern.
  • This is the most important thing I want to say: there are many great private schools out there and you need to find the best fit for your kids, and it may be a different one for each of them. GFS, as others have said, has the reputation for being the most rigorous ... but also for burning kids out and a developed recreational drug culture to cope with it. There are other schools with sterling reputations which will educate your kids well, given then outstanding individualized attention, and prepare them for (and have the reputation to get them into) great colleges -- among the Quaker schools (and these are all stereotypes with some basis in fact) Friends' Central is like GFS, but more progressive and less pressured; Penn Charter is more jockish, Friends Select is progressive and great but doesn't have the facilities of suburban campuses, etc. And then there are non-Quaker schools -- someone else talked about SCA; there's the single-sex schools like Baldwin and Agnes Irwin which are fantastic if that's the experience in which your daughter will thrive, and so on. And there's Shipley, Haverford, Barrack Academy ... look, it's a lot. You have to visit. (Added: to be clear, obviously there are some teenagers doing drugs at all these schools. They are teenagers. But it's from GFS parents that I most often hear complaints of a systemic problem with academic pressure and coping, and it's been for years.)
  • Going back to bullet one: among the public schools, Masterman and Central are outstanding schools. I've heard good things about Science Leadership Academy. Your child will not get the same individualized attention, but will develop a sense of grit and a connection to this City that is intense. And the top graduates will wind up at the same elite colleges as kids who went to GFS.
  • Even if you do choose the private school route for your kids, you can go with something closer in the earlier years (Friends Select, The Philadelphia School, etc) before one which imposes a longer commute on your child and more of a hike for you for parent-teacher night, athletic events, etc.
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nayrb1523 t1_jactyrh wrote

Excellent points all around. We lived in South Philly for some years and had one of our kids at PC and even that distance anything outside of school sucked to deal with for us, and our daughter missed out on some friend events due to travel, etc. Totally a shame. We did move closer to the school during the pandemic and it's been night and day. Great call out, and a key for people thinking of living in CC and putting their sons in Haverford, and whatnot. Even CC to SCH constantly adds up, so closer to home is a key IMO.

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oliver_babish t1_jaczbgq wrote

I've seen families in Society Hill / Queen Village send their elementary school kids to schools on the Main Line and ... why? It's one thing to do that when your kid is old enough to take Regional Rail back and forth every day (which itself is great for fostering independence), but I can't justify 12 years of it.

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nayrb1523 t1_jad0g02 wrote

Completely agree. I former colleague's sons attend Haverford and live in CC, and between driving to an outpost for a shuttle pickup and the like, it's about 2.5 hours a day in communing for early middle schoolers. TPS is right around the area for them and is great until you decide what the next move.

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Lunamothknits t1_jacwafv wrote

I live near PC and the amount of PC cars I see on my way back from SP where I take my teen cracks me up. I wish we could all connect and trade pick up/drop off routes. xD

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nayrb1523 t1_jaczj8g wrote

Would have been nice! For a year and a half she took the school bus and it was a 6:10 pick up to get her out to PC and a rough go all around.

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BigShawn424 t1_jacu3e8 wrote

Palumbo is also a great school, great teachers and administrators. There are no midterms or finals as well. I attended a private school from 3rd to 8th grade and found the content to be all all over the place and difficult to understand. Not to mention teachers who didn’t care about rampant bullying in their establishment.

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puppyfartzz t1_jaf4te7 wrote

Best tip about picking up your kid from a sleepover in Malvern 💯 it’s crazy how much I underestimated commuting and quality of life until starting the school search!

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fritolazee t1_jadjj48 wrote

I'm curious, do most people pay the sticker price at your school?

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oliver_babish t1_jadkwd8 wrote

Most do at all these schools, but all of them have significant financial assistance available.

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fritolazee t1_jadll58 wrote

Wow that is amazing to me as a kid who went to a Midwestern public magnet school lol. Thanks for sharing and kudos to you for making that much paper. I looked up the full tuition of GFS and it is about 2x my mortgage payment 😭

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snooloosey OP t1_jacz7wc wrote

this is chock full of great info, thank you. Can you elaborate more on the drug use? are you talking about serious opioids or stuff like weed? Not that I'm comfortable with any of it but just trying to get a sense.

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oliver_babish t1_jad0umw wrote

I haven't heard of opioid abuse -- in high school, that comes in more through athletic injuries if they're overprescribed/not weaned off correctly -- but definitely weed and ... look, I don't want to disparage or be unfair here, so talk to contemporary parents or parents of recent grads.

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