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Our family has been attending PCDS since Pre-K. We are now 11th year and can honestly say we've seen the school at its best and its worst. Every school, public or private, has chinks in the armour, and if you choose to focus on such things in a dis-proportionate manner, you reap a false conclusion. This school is simply far and away the best college prepatory school in Arizona. It is comparable to East Coast private schools academically and in the arts. Many, many conversations with parents from back East have convinced me this is true. Even more telling is when you have a conversation with an Upper School student and witness for yourself the poise, confidence, humility and ease with which this young person communicates with an adult. They possess the ability to communicate a well-thought-out opinion that allows for constructive discourse. This is the rule, not the exception!
I'm an alumnus and I feel very lucky to have gone to PCDS for high school. With the small class sizes, the excellent teachers, and the chance to be among my intellectual equals as a student, PCDS prepared me ridiculously well for college and also made me into a smarter person in addition to just teaching me new things. For a school with only 250 students in the Upper School (grades 9-12) it offers a very diverse curriculum, including a plethora of Advanced Placement courses in a variety of fields. If you are lucky enough to have the money to send your children to PCDS, then it's definitely worth the tuition. Even if you can't afford it, PCDS offers fairly generous financial aid, as well as the Project Excellence program.
My son graduated in '07 and proved to be well prepared for college, both academically and emotionally. No student falls through the cracks in such a small school. Regarding the environment, cultural diversity has improved greatly in the last few years, both with students and faculty/staff. Yes, tuition is high, but there seem to be increasingly more students on financial aid, so the socio-economic picture is also changing. My Middle Schooler has many friends, plays sports, and finds the schoolwork challenging. It's a well-rounded picture.
I am a former student of PCDS. It is by far the best school in the state and provides great preparation for college. No other school in the state has 100% of its students go to 4-year colleges, of which a very large percentage go to IVY league schools, and very few stay in-state. Many people on the reviews complain about the social situation of the school. Yes it is true that because most students come from wealthy families (since I think tuition is now somewhere near $20,000 a year) the school does not represent 'the real world.' I think however to deny a child a world class education for that reason is ridiculous. You as parents, can always teach your children about the real world so they do not become jaded by money.
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