St. John's College High School

2607 Military Road Northwest

Washington, DC 20015

25 Reviews

School District
Grade

9-12
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by other on April 28, 2017

Hugely disappointing. After two stress-filled years, we're leaving SJC. Our child was accepted into the Scholars Program (combination of high HSPT scores, middle school grades & an extra admissions essay) and received a merit-based scholarship. Always a strong student, he really struggled right off the bat with math (Hn Alg I). After months of failing tests, student tutors, extra help from the teacher, meetings with the counselor, a hired tutor at $250/session, the teacher causally mentions that he tested well below the minimum cut off for Hn Alg I but was put into the class anyway because it was part of the Scholars curriculum. "We thought he had a bad test day." Really?! Six months after taking the math placement test and 4 months of constant stress and struggle, now you tell us? They dropped the ball and were very blase about it! So freshman year was awful. Considered transferring at the end of the year but he wanted to stick it out.Sophomore year was a little better but he never really hit his stride. Teachers mean well but are very young and inexperienced. Lots of busy work, not very creative, really uninspired and uninspiring.
Submitted by parent on March 09, 2017

Let me start by saying that I think one has to evaluate St. John's in the context of one's own expectations and requirements. In our case, my husband and I are both college educated and were looking for high quality academics, and our son is an accomplished basketball player who had wanted to play basketball for St. John's since he was 7. Sadly, we mistook the overpowering arrogance of this school for actual quality. There are many good things about St. John's including some good teachers, a vast array of extracurricular activities, and a sense of community. Their best asset is the great group of kids they have. The school, however, thinks one should be eternally grateful just for being there....and say so repeatedly. In reality, the faculty overall is weak and much too young. There is very little in terms of teacher development and few have advanced degrees. Work is excessive and often without purpose. The newly promoted dean of students seems poorly educated with inadequate age and experience. At a recent band concert, she gave commentary before each piece, but had to read her comments and could not pronounce the composers' names. There is no feeling that anyone at the school truly cares about our son as an individual or who he becomes. The final staggering disappointment was to find that the school has made a strategic decision to become an elite sports powerhouse. While this may sound fine on its face, in fact the result is that there is a diminishing opportunity for kids who are not specifically recruited or nationally ranked superstars to make any of the teams. So if sports is a priority for your family, think carefully about whether St. John's is the place for you. And remember: they don't need you and they will act accordingly.
Submitted by other on February 26, 2017

Great staff, wonderful facility, respectful students . Visited yesterday.
Submitted by parent on May 12, 2015

Both my children have attended St John's and I can't say that I would recommend it to anyone looking at high schools. I can say that my children had a good experience. But for a high school that bills itself as challenging academically and college prep, it is not. I don't find the school prepared my oldest for college and it was not challenging even in honors and APs. The teachers can be good but for many of the AP classes, the teachers seem ill-prepared to teach at that level. There is a wide range of styles and effectiveness in these classes. This variance i think is attributable to the lack of interest to provide professional development to the staff or even academic oversight over instruction. I have also found the school was never engaged in getting to know my children or even caring about their outcome. I find this appalling for a LaSallian school. There is a small circle of school favorites that receive most of the accolades, leadership roles and attention. The assignments of the students in peer ministry program is a good example of this type of preferential treatment. Children who don't go through the application process are often picked over those who do.
Submitted by parent on January 22, 2015

I have two sons currently attending St. John's. We are very pleased with the school. I have seen a steady improvement in my older son in terms of his organization skills and preparation for class. By the time he finishes he will be well prepared for college. My youngest son who is taking honors classes is really challenged for the first time in school. They both get a ton of homework, but at this point are very used to doing it. They are active in sports for most of the year and the teams they play on are very welcoming. The diversity at the school is excellent. The biggest difference I see between this school and public high school is that the parents and kids for the most part are there to learn and all plan on going to college. The % of students that go on to college is over 99%. It isn't cheap, but they do offer alot of financial aid, but you get what you pay for.
Submitted by parent on January 21, 2015

The thing I give praise to SJC for is developing the students to want to work together as a family. Yes you may have some clicks( not that bad), but the students here learn a valuable lesson, to work together and treat each other with respect . I give the school credit for the diversity of its student population. In the years helping out with school events, it brought me joy to see how all the students interact with each other. Believe me there is not one "perfect school" anywhere in the DC MD Va area, but one thing is certain,the relationships they established being apart of the SJC community last a life time!!!!
Submitted by parent on August 06, 2014

We've had a daughter go through all four years at SJC and a son that transferred after freshman year into SJC. Our daughter's high school years were exceptional. She saw her grades continually improve, finished with a 3.5, took some challenging courses and got a very broad academic experience. She rowed on the crew team, a sport she knew nothing about , and participated in a number of other extracurricular activities, including chorus, clubs and SGA. Our son attended one the most "elite" prep schools in the area for his first year. Bullying, drugs and nepotism were all issues. He transferred to SJC for his sophomore year and thankfully, we got our old kid back. SJC is built around "community", unlike the rote discipline, over achievement or status symbol orientation found at other schools. It is easily the most diverse private school in DC. metro area. Emphasis is on the student as an individual, with a focus on development of integrity, service and leadership. You will be hard pressed to find a better private high school than SJC in the entire Washington area. Check it out. We have no regrets, nothing but praise and travel from Virginia to have our kids attend it.
Submitted by parent on November 23, 2013

Our experience with St, John's was very bad. They make promises they don't keep, the athletic emphasis is not backed up by healthy attitudes on the part of the coaches, and the teachers range from excellent to robotic (more of the latter). On back to school night all the teachers gave the same intro speech VERBATIM. Organized? Yes. Honest? No. They have a minimum standard of performance for the teachers, administrators and students, and if you're willing to settle for it, go ahead any waste your money. But if you live in Maryland the public school system - if used wisely - can provide a much better education.
Submitted by parent on October 28, 2013

We left SJC for good. As the others mentioned below the indifference and arrogance of the administration makes us to take the decision to leave when our kid was bullied and nothing was done about it. The drug use after school at the school premises is also a very bad problem but I guess that is similar to the public schools in the area. Teachers are ok, you have the ones that care and the ones that not. This is a preparatory school and my kid counselor didn't even know that my kid was planning to go to college, maybe she though that we were paying that much just for high school diploma. One think I didn't like it was that your kid has a different counselor each year, so really they will never get to know your kid.
Submitted by parent on August 15, 2013

My husband is an alum of SJC and we are very happy with the education that 5 of our children have received. Our youngest will attend a year from now. We are especially impressed with the teachers that St. John's is able to retain. To have 2 PHD teachers on the staff who have been there each longer than 25 years is remarkable. In our experience, teachers across the board will meet with students before, after or during lunch to help out a student. You won't find that in a public school. We love the Christian Brothers and the atmosphere they engender. We had 2 students with health issues that the school bent over backward to help out. My higher achieving students were challenged with honors courses and AP courses. My children who graduated from St. John's have done well in their college classes. All my children connected with most of their teachers and my husband and I are very happy about this. One of our children did the ROTC program and learned leadership skills from the fine men who run the program. We are also excited about the new Robotics program for our youngest child. This school has been a great joy for us.
Submitted by parent on July 15, 2013

My son went to Catholic School grades 1-12. He graduated from St Johns 4 years ago and just recently completed college and has a fabulous job. St Johns was the perfect fit for him. He was in JROTC which really helped him become more confident and the JROTC instructors were superb! He had many terrific teachers during his 4 years. I found his teachers very responsive to any questions that I had. My son became involved in the club ice hockey team and I was happily surprised to see administration and some teachers attend a few games even though they were off campus. I was surprised at some of the reviews below. My son applied at 6 colleges and was accepted at all of them including Drexel. His guidance counselor really helped him start the search and his English teacher helped him with his essay. When his SAT scores were not what we hoped his counselor suggested the ACT and he blew it away! We never would have thought of it. My son became ill during exams and missed several. One of the administrators came in Sat and Sun to give them to him so he would not fall behind. I love St Johns and really appreciate the great job they did getting my son ready for college and life.
Submitted by parent on June 12, 2013

This review is from a non Benilde, non athletic and non ROTC family. The comments below on the lack of communication from the school and administration are exactly what we experience. A student here,we found, will need a very healthy dose of self direction and self confidence going in because that may be all she/he will receive. Two stars for some teachers who were indeed very good and gave personal attention. The music program is good.
Submitted by parent on March 20, 2013

My kids went to private school from 1st to-9th grades. They were challenged in classes but were missing sports, drama, band and music. Same kids every year - All the private schools care about was the grades and not making sure the kids learn in many ways. In the end very few graduates from these private schools are going to IVY league colleges considering they only put emphasis on academics. In addition, the DC private schools are full of many rich kids with no economic diversity. SJC offers strong academics if you are on an honors path just as challenging as GDS, Potomac School & Maret but they also have diversity with kids who actually graduate with w/scholarships in sport or ROTC getting into the same schools. The kids are forced to be balanced & challenged on many levels rather than just academics making them more attractive to colleges as well rounded kids. At 16k a year my 2 kids were much happier and had way more at SJC over the private schools and they actually made friends they bonded with who understood the value of money, academic, sports, leadership and structure. Go SJC!!
Submitted by parent on February 24, 2013

Teachers for the most part are excellent. They connect very well with the students. Academically rigorous enough for students in the honors class. AD does a great job with providing an opportunity for all students to participate in a sport. Other extracurriulars are lacking because the focus is sports heavy. Administrators are arrogant and deaf to concerns. Do not expect any sort of reasonable engagement with them if you have a concern about academics or a teacher. They would rather deny there is a problem or spend their energy arguing with a parent than solving simple issues. The principal in particular does not seem to know how to manage parent's concerns and is very rude. Drug and alcohol use among the students is a concern as it would be at any high school but the school does not handle it judiciously or wisely.
Submitted by other on February 19, 2013

I Wannna Go Here But I'm Not Catholic So Can I Still Go and Will IT Be k
Submitted by parent on September 12, 2012

St John's College High School is both an academically challenging and academically supportive environment. They believe in educating the whole person and therefore encourage all of their students to participate in at least one activity in addition to academia, such as athletics, arts, clubs, etc. The school also has a long tradition of a JROTC program for both boys and girls which teaches them strong leadership and organization skills.
Submitted by parent on September 12, 2012

My child just started and so far the teachers, coaches and staff have spent more time patting themselves on the back for their reputation and achievements than expressing an interest in our student. Academically, our student is mostly repeating work from last year even though grades were mostly A's then. Jury is still out, but it's not an impressive start.............
Submitted by other on July 01, 2012

I just graduated from SJC last month and I say that I'm so glad I went here. SJC has really change these last 4 years because of the amazing leadership! We're getting a new cafeteria/library, uniforms, everything. The teachers are great. They actually care about the students and they do help us! I was in the Benilde program, which is a program for learning-disabled students. It helped me a lot and if it wasn't for Benilde and their arrangements, I would flunk math. The class choices are great. As for student life, it has dramatically changed. For the first 2 years, the clubs were nothing. But, during my last 2 years, mostly everyone is involved with something! We also have amazing athletic and performing arts (music/theatre, which I was in both of them) programs! Most of the students here are very friendly. Yes, there are cliques and thankfully, they're welcoming and warm. But again, there are bad ones, obivously (I didn''t experienced any though). I made amazing friends here and I thank SJC. The spirituality program is pretty good though. My only major complaint is sometimes in certain programs of the school, they pick favorites and that isn't fair.
Submitted by parent on November 18, 2011

Our son is in his freshman year at SJC. His teachers are caring and very supportive. They notice when their students are not academically challanged. SJC offers a wide range of courses, including honors and AP. We feel in love with this school the day of Open House. We went to a few others opens houses in the area and when we walked through the doors at SJC, we felt such good energy and we still feel this way. As a 9th grader, it was an balancing act with school, sports and then homework. But he has managed it all with the support of his parents and his teachers.
Submitted by parent on September 15, 2011

This is a great school. I have 2 daughters who attend and the academics are top notch. For those that say the school is easy and mediocre am wondering if your children are taking honors and AP classes. The academics here are very challenging if you chose the appropriate course load. The faculty and administration is outstanding. And above all, the people are very welcoming and friendly.