Students across the D.C. metropolitan region are dusting off the ties and blazers this week as private schools open their gates for a new year.
One by one, the region’s independent schools are calling students back from vacation, a marked contrast from the nearly en-masse openings of area public schools within county systems. At the Potomac School in McLean,doors opened Thursday to about 900 students. Sidwell Friends, which has campuses in the District and Maryland, opens Sept. 11 for some 1,100 boys and girls.
At Georgetown Preparatory School, an all-male Jesuit high school in Bethesda, about 450 tie-clad teens convened on Tuesday. For this school year, Georgetown Prep saw an 18 percent increase in applications while maintaining an essentially fixed enrollment, said Dean of Admissions Mike Horsey. He said this trend is not necessarily a good thing, however.
“You want [the school] to be attractive enough that it’s hard to get into, but not so hard to get into that people don’t apply,” he said.
Student populations do not appear to be increasing dramatically, though tuitions are on the rise. With a yearly price tag in some cases exceeding $30,000 a year, the area’s private institutions are becoming as expensive as many private colleges.
“As the cost of living increases, certainly the tuition has to increase in order to accommodate the cost of hiring excellent teachers, particularly in areas with a relatively high cost of living, such as D.C.,” said Myra McGovern, spokeswoman for the D.C.-based National Association of Independent Schools.
But as the price tag increases at the nation’s private schools, so does financial aid, she said. Potomac School, for example, doles out $2.4 million each year in need-based financial aid to 14 percent of its students, said spokeswoman Jill Lucas.
Tom Boyland, who has one son who graduated from Georgetown Prep and another entering his senior year, dismissed elitist private school stereotypes when explaining why he sends his children there.
“It’s not about the money and trying to be in the highest and most prestigious school,” he said. “It’s really about the development of character, and they really do focus on that.”
