Our Lady of Good Counsel High School

​Our Lady of Good Counsel High School is a top-ranked coeducational Catholic high school in the Washington DC area, founded in 1958.  The school has won the prestigious US Blue Ribbon Educational Award twice. More than 1,200 young men and women from grades 9 to 12 attend Good Counsel.  Fewer than 4% of the students are international. Students succeed in the International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), Fine Arts, and College Preparatory programs. Good Counsel has been recognized as a Distinguished Project Lead the Way School, a distinction earned by only 2% of qualified schools nationally.

The reported college acceptance rate for Good Counsel graduates is 100% yearly.  98% of our international student graduates attend the top 100 universities ranked in US News & World Report, including Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Hong Kong University, and more.  The Class of 2024 received offers of over $45 million in scholarships to colleges and universities.  In addition, every year, Good Counsel has had multiple acceptances to the Ivy League and other premier universities like Georgetown, Duke, University of Virginia, UNC–Chapel Hill, and many more, including placement in the prestigious Honors, Scholars, and Gemstone Programs at the University of Maryland. 

Our Lady of Good Counsel High School is located 45 minutes north of Washington, D.C., in a historical and safe area that earned a NICHE ranking as one of the safest places to live in Maryland. In addition, Olney is located near several famous universities, including Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, American University, and the University of Maryland. Good Counsel is the only high school in Maryland certified by CSIET.

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program allows students to earn both a Good Counsel diploma and an IB diploma, an academic credential recognized worldwide. The STEM program (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is a four-year curriculum that enables students to focus on a specific area of engineering study each year, including Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Engineering Design and Development. The school also has a challenging Advanced Placement program, offering 18 courses across all academic disciplines. The Xaverian Honors Program challenges qualified high-achieving students to think critically and engage deeply in subjects as it prepares students for AP and/or IB courses.

The facilities include a 650-seat performing arts center, 51-acre campus including athletic fields, more than 12 science and technology labs, a dance studio, a chapel, two weight rooms, two gyms, a football stadium with a turf field, and 50 high tech classrooms wired with Apple TV / Smart Boards and Zoom technology. International students receive a dedicated orientation, a personal iPad, a school bus pass, school lunch, and TOEFL prep courses as part of their school fees. The teacher/student ratio is 13:1, with an average class size of 20, and 84% of our teachers have advanced degrees.

Our Lady of Good Counsel High School’s superior athletic program has seen students continue to compete in the Olympics, the NBA, and the NFL. Distinguished by both its breadth and individual student performance, the athletic program includes opportunities on 40+ athletic teams, including soccer, basketball, baseball, rugby, track and field, tennis, swimming, and more. 

Good Counsel’s dynamic arts program allows students to read, interpret, and create. Students have gone on to star in Broadway shows and major motion pictures and work as professionals in various performing and fine arts. The arts program connects students with professional artists from each discipline (instrumental music, choir, speech, debate, painting, drawing, ceramics, dance, and theatre) in a variety of ways, including workshops, mentorships, and community-based relationships that connect our work in the classroom to the world at large.