The Bryn Mawr School

I'm both an alumna and a current parent. I couldn't ask for a better school.

I cannot speak about the main school but my experience of the Bryn Mawr Little School has been one of total frustration and disappointment. Staffed by a complacent teaching staff who are unwilling and uninterested in supervising children on the playground (although they make excellent bench warmers) and a clueless, ineffectual director, it is a microcosm of what is wrong with private school education.

It doesn't matter that your child comes home injured and eventually scarred on an almost daily basis. It doesn't matter that someone could walk out of the center with your child without a single staff member noticing. Unless you are a potential high donor to the school, your cries of help will go unnoticed. As you raise concerns over your child's safety, you will quickly learn that Bryn Mawr is always right, never wrong, and that they will NEVER take any responsibility for their incompetence -- or take steps to improve their efforts. Don't bother talking to anyone "in charge" --- it's like talking to a door.

Never have I spent so much money to be treated so badly. RUN, do not walk to another pre-school!

You can do far better for your daughter virtually anywhere else. The school philosophy of rote learning and negative reinforcement is damaging to far too many students. They are stuck in the past in many ways and have not woken up to the fact that the world around them has changed, while they have consistently failed to keep up. They talk a good game, but don't be fooled for a minute. Teacher turnover is remarkably high, which should be a red flag for parents. My daughter had 3 advisors in 4 years. Now that she is at another school, she has discovered the joy of learning and is receiving a better education. My greatest regret as a parent is having sent my daughter to Bryn Mawr.

I have been attending Bryn Mawr since the 4th grade and it has been nothing short of excellent. It has provided me with opportunities, both inside and outside of the classroom, lifetime relationships, and a general eagerness to learn. I must be frank; if you are intelligent and are willing to work hard, you will succeed. Students and families that complain about the school tend to be poor students simply because they are more focused on things other than their education; they "pretend" to care by complaining. If you are looking for the best school in the Baltimore area, think Bryn Mawr. The program is vigorous, exciting, and only those who are motivated to step forward and take responsibility for their education will benefit. The school is heavily noted for its athletic teams, English program, clubs, teachers, and sense of community. For parents who are concerned with college matriculations, over half of the graduating senior class attends a university within the "top 20" of the "US Report"; specifically, those who are in cum laude will attend the most prestigious universities in the country.

We have been very disappointed in Bryn Mawr. We are a legacy family and have stayed for five years only because of that history. Except for a marvelous teacher in third grade, the teachers have been merely adequate - some mediocre - and it is well known throughout the lower school community that one of the first grade teachers chooses two or three girls and mistreats them (yelling, punishing without cause and not allowing them bathroom breaks for hours at a time) for the entire year. A number of families have left because of this teacher and she is one of several to be avoided. The administration, especially the lower school director and the Bryn Mawr headmistress, is not competent, unprofessional and not responsive to parent concerns. They have lied to us and have said whatever was expected in order to end the meeting and then completely failed to follow up with the promised actions. This behavior has extended to several different families and several different situations. The Bryn Mawr marketing material, which suggests that the mission is to create independent, strong, and confident women, is misleading. The school policies as practiced actually inhibit independent thought or reliance on oneself. Diversity in thought is not tolerated. Some of the curriculum is poorly planned; e.g.,it was arbitrarily decided to skip 4th grade math. There is no acceleration or natural progression - it is simply skipped and the students begin 4th grade with a 5th grade book. There is a rumor that this policy will be adjusted in the future. In addition, the math instruction in general is poor and the coordination among teachers within the various grades is inconsistent. The reading assignments are generally inappropriate - either too sophisticated for the age of the students or unrelated to the theme. A significant number of basic grammatical elements were missed and never taught. We feel that our years here have been a waste and have detrimentally affected our daughter's self-confidence. We do NOT recommend Bryn Mawr and we would suggest that when evaluating this school, one should talk to parents that one knows personally rather than the parent tour guides.