Gilman Graded Greatly

In October of 2024, Niche.com ranked Gilman first for all private schools in Maryland and sixth nationally. In a recent interview with Head of School Henry Smyth, he provided helpful insight regarding the implications of the Niche rankings. When asked about his reaction to the Niche rankings he said, “I’m thrilled that they see us so favorably, but I’m not entirely sure what they’re basing their information on.” Furthermore, The Gilman News asked him how Gilman was able to achieve this accolade. Mr. Smyth remarks that Gilman has not done anything to curry favor with Niche but rather that Gilman is great because of its uniqueness: “I don’t think there’s another school that has a combination of things as we have, which is this combination of the programs, academic pragmatic excellence, [and] all boys pre-K to 12, with a unique tri-school coordinate program in Baltimore City.” When asked about what areas Gilman needed to focus on and improve on, Mr. Smyth responded, “we’re working to create a new, renovated performing arts and community space” and “turning our attention also to some of our athletic buildings and facilities.” He believes that the improvement of these facilities is essential to enhancing both the student and teacher experience. 

When asked about his reaction to the Niche rankings, Head of Upper School Brian Ledyard said that while he was excited that Niche ranked Gilman highly, Niche's definition of success does not fully encapsulate what Gilman stands for. According to him, a successful student is more than just their grades or accolades as he believes that one’s character and happiness are equally important. As well as this, Mr. Ledyard also highlighted certain categories not ranked by Niche but which are still important. These include community, student-teacher relationships, and character development of students. Furthermore, he affirmed that his personal mission aligns with the Gilman mission to develop men of character that positively impact their community. He notes that Gilman’s success in rankings can also be partially attributed to impressive college admissions in recent years, but once again, colleges and jobs should not fully determine the character of a person. When asked about what area he wanted to focus on, he answered that rebuilding the community and trust in Gilman is essential and necessary. 

On Niche, Gilman excelled in all of the rankings, scoring all As and A+s. However, it is important to analyze the credibility of these rankings. Niche claims to gather data through reviews and publicly available data from organizations like the Department of Education. However, one weakness within Niche's rankings appears to be the reviewing system, in which any user can write reviews about any school. While Gilman receives incredible reviews like, “Gilman truly embodies everything we wanted for a school for our son,” reviews are not moderated and there is no way to verify the identity of reviewers, leading to inaccurate rankings. However, reviews still can provide valuable insight for those users who want to provide truthful feedback. Niche counters this bias by weighing reviews far less than the fact-checked, publicly available data, and through this, they still allow people's reviews to somewhat impact the rankings while keeping them accurate. Considering that reviews are the only potential weakness among the plethora of other criteria that Niche uses, Niche clearly remains a great way to rank and compare schools.

Overall, the recent Niche rankings are great for Gilman, as they portray the success of the community, especially in recent years. This newfound display of prestige should increase interest among prospective families and bring students to Gilman. Despite this great news, there is still more room for improvement, as both Mr. Smyth and Mr. Ledyard stated. While Niche’s reviews bring reassurance to the excellence of our school, we must not become complacent and must continue to strive to achieve the Gilman Five.