Burgundy Farm Country Day
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Anonymous
| Tell me about this school. We are moving from FL to Alexandria (most likely) and are intrigued by this school. Is it strong? Tuition seems a little less than the other top privates. Where do most kids end up for HS? |
Anonymous
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It is a decent school, but it is pretty liberal. Students call teachers by their first name.
Burgundy grads go everywhere after graduating. There is not one typical path. I've known grads to go Maret, Potomac, Sidwell, Georgetown Day, Bishop Ireton, and a good number to TC Williams. The ones au know about did very well at TC and were some of the top students there. |
Anonymous
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OP, suggest you do a thorough search on this board for Burgundy. It is very controversial. Many posters have what appear to be decidedly negative impressions of the culture, the academics, the exmissions/placement, and the overall tone. Several specific stories and threads of possible interest have been posted.
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Anonymous
It's a mediocre private school in Alexandria. Academically it underperforms even the Alexandria City Public Schools, but some people like the experiential emphasis the school stresses. It also only goes through Grade 8, if that's important to you. I remember one year how pissed off a friend of mine who was sending her daughter to BF was to learn they, too, were using Everyday Math. I also had three separate public school teachers tell me that they had to spend a lot of time with transfers to get them up to speed with what the publics were teaching. Now, that was 5 years ago, so maybe something has changed. But that was the rap then. |
Anonymous
So your reference point is a friend who was pissed off 5 years ago? And everyone uses Everyday Math even though no one seems to actually like it. As with any school, it's all about fit. There are really bright, super motivated kids who go on to schools like Sidwell, GDS, Maret etc. and also ones who go on to be valedictorian of their massive public high schools. There are also kids who aren't on that path and may ultimately end up at a junior college. The difference is really in the culture. Personally, I think all the Alexandria privates are far only similar on academic strength with the possible exception of SSSAS. Culturally, I think they're all quite different and that's the piece of the puzzle OP needs to figure out. Some people love it, some hate it. Just pointing to one group or the other does absolutely nothing to answer OP's question. |
Anonymous
| Burgundy kids aren't usually at a disadvantage in HS, and many of the transfers are either counseled out or pulled because the type of learning at BFCDS isn't working for the individual kid. I'll agree it's very liberal. A lot of the learning of from the culture of the school, the whole sustainability and diversity thing is a really big deal, and kids have to learn how to speak to adults. Some of the school tours are student lead, as I recall, so that would show a lot about how your DC would end up in Middle School. |
Anonymous
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OP, there are a couple of hard core Burgundy badgers who always pop up here. Yes, do a search; as you'll see, there are numerous strong opinions. That said I would not describe burgundy as "controversial"-- it is just a school that is not for everyone (well, no school is). The people who love it seem to really love it, and the people who hate it seem to really hate it.
My kids go there and I suppose I am in between: there are things I love about it and things I find really irritating. But I do think the idea that it is "mediocre" and "underperforms" relative to the public schools is just goofy. The students tend to be quite bright, so they go on to fine high schools and colleges. Is this due to Burgundy, or because they are bright kids to start with? Who knows? And, really, who cares? Bottom line, they seem to be happy and they seem to do fine. We turned down a so-called top three school because we wanted to stay in Alexandria, didn't want a long commute, and liked Burgundy. I don't have any major regrets, and am not at all concerned about the kids getting into decent high schools. So, what do I like and dislike? Pros (to me -- these might be cons to someone else): relaxed and nurturing atmosphere, warm teachers and staff, kids get a ton of outdoor time and independence, not rigid or driven by standardized testing, teachers are mostly dedicated and fantastic (though there are a handful I disliked), small classes, teachers are free to be flexible and creative and are not tied to a rigid schedule or curriculum, kids are nice to each other, school really works hard to nip cliquishness and bullying in the bud; good arts and drama programs, lovely campus, nice parents, friendly atmosphere and, as I said, the kids do well in exmissions. Cons: a little on the disorganized side. Staff a bit uneven. Teacher and staff responsiveness varies. Language instruction is lame in the lower school. Instrumental program a bust. Extracurrics kind of random and uneven quality. Not actually very "progressive" in curriculum or teaching style (or at any rate, not clearly more so than many more "traditional" schools. They claim to offer differentiated learning but I've never truly seen this. Mixed-age classrooms (2/3 and 4/5) do not, in my view, work very well: even with two teachers they feel too chaotic. Hope that helps! |
Anonymous
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Oops, PP here-- Burgundy "badgers" was supposed to be Burgundy "bashers." Autocorrect strikes again.
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Anonymous
I am not a Burgundy parent, but I recognize this poster because they always say the same thing about their friend being angry about Everyday Math at Burgundy. You can see two of their posts here (at least it sounds like the same person): http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/274169.page#2982317 http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/216637.page#2164989 And, by the way, I think most schools use Everyday Math. I know some are switching over to Singapore Math. Some people love the school, some people don't. There are a ton of threads on the school if you go through the archives. I'm sure you will, but when you move here, you should go visit the school. Even if you end up not liking the school, the campus is so idyllic it's a fun thing to do with the kids. |
Anonymous
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"Language instruction is lame in the lower school."
I have to disagree with this. Christine, the French teacher, is wonderful, and prepared my daughter for both high school French (got a 5 on her French AP test) and college French, where she's getting A's at Yale. |
Anonymous
And, OP, there likewise seem to be a few die-hard Burgundy fans who post regularly in response to every inquiry. From what I've seen, they all say "Burgundy isn't for everyone, it's far from perfect, I myself have the following problems with the place [brief enumeration follows], but [insert subjective characteristic] about Burgundy is really fun!" I'm not 20:58, but I think what 20:58 says is fair and certainly reflects, in part, our own miserable experiences with Burgundy. The environment was downright strange, the academics seemed terribly weak, and while many of the kids went on to do extremely well in HS and college, a shocking number seemed to wind up in alternative/remedial programs. I mean, like 1/4 seemed to wind up in community college, or in therapeutic HS programs, or the like. The parents generally subscribed to an unquestioning group-orthodoxy about the place that inhibited asking even the most innocent question. When we pulled, so did roughly 1/3 of our DC's class group. |
Anonymous
Um-- exactly why would you characterize as a "die-hard fan" someone who says ""Burgundy isn't for everyone, it's far from perfect, I myself have the following problems with the place [brief enumeration follows], but [insert subjective characteristic] about Burgundy is really fun!"? Seems to me that a die-hard fan says "it's all great." Noting that a) it is not for everyone and things some people like will be off-putting to others; and b) even people who generally like it have some complaints Doesn't seem all that booster-ish: it's just an honest response from someone actually trying to answer the OPs question. And though yes, I have indeed posted this on previous threads, I will say once more: the claim that "a shocking number [of Burgundy grads] seemed to wind up in alternative/remedial programs. I mean, like 1/4 seemed to wind up in community college, or in therapeutic HS programs, or the like" is verifiably false. Burgundy was founded almost seventy years ago, so in that time I imagine it's had its ups and downs. But as a parent who has had kids there for seven years and who obsessively checks the high school and college lists every year, I can tell you that your statement is certainly false for this time period. Believe me, if your statement were true my kids would be long gone. I don't know what combination of ignorance and malice would motivate such a statement, but OP, just call the school: they can provide you with lists of the high school and college destinations of any classes you choose to ask about, and you can judge for yourself. |
Anonymous
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Don't have the college lists but here are the high schools attended by grads from the classes of 2012 and 2012:
Bishop Ireton Edmund Burke School Elizabeth Seton High School Episcopal High School The Field School The Flint Hill School Georgetown Day School The Hayfield Secondary School J.E.B Stuart High School The Madeira School Maret School Metropolitan School of the Arts The New School of Northern Virginia Pacific Crest Community School School Without Walls Sidwell Friends School South Kent School, CT St. Albans School St. Anselm's Abbey School St. Andrew's School, DE St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School St. Timothy's School Thomas Edison High School Walt Whitman High Schol Washington-Lee High School West Potomac High School Yorktown High School |
Anonymous
| Accidentally omitted TC Williams from that high school list. |
Anonymous
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OP, you can see a list of colleges currently attended by Burgundy grads here:
http://www.burgundyfarm.org/news/item/index.aspx?LinkId=42&ModuleId=31 Can't tell from that list how many of the roughly 120 Burgundy grads for that time period go to each school on the list, but the list is about 100 schools long, so there can't be a ton of overlap. The list includes Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Duke, Chicago, Michigan, Amherst, Pomona, Wesleyan, Vassar, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Carleton, Kenyon, NYU, Northwestern... Just eyeballing it, I'd say that about a two-thirds of the schools on the list would be "top 100" from a US News perspective, about a third would be top 50, and the remaining third are more varied, but include many decent regional colleges or specialized schools: e.g., Elon, the College of Charleston, Savannah School of Art & Design, Oberlin Conservatory. If this is what 15:54 considers evidence that "a shocking number" of Burgundy grads end up in "alternative or remedial" programs or that "1/4 seemed to wind up in community college, or in therapeutic HS programs, or the like," s/he is operating with a rather idiosyncratic set of definitions. 15:54, I'm sorry you found Burgundy a "miserable" experience with a "strange" environment and "weak" academics. I don't doubt that this was subjectively true for you, but how 'bout sticking to describing your own experiences, instead of making claims that -- if you bothered to check -- you'd easily see are false? |