FCPS high school choice - best strategy for college admisions
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Anonymous
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So should we move to Langley or McLean or stay in Westfield or Chantilly district if we want to get into the better colleges? (Since TJ admissions has changed, the aim-for-TJ plan is a toss-up and it might change completely in 4 years as a ranking school etc...).
If your kid is a TJ-type student (i.e. AAP, good student, taken the top-level courses so far up to middle school), and you are UMC and can afford to move anywhere in the county, what is the best approach for college admissions? If your kid takes a bunch of AP courses in high school and scores well, is a 5 on an AP exam and an equiv GPA in the course from Langley worth something more for UVA or Ivies or good colleges than the same thing from Westfield or Chantilly? Do the colleges lump all the FCPS schools in the same bucket or do they make distinctions based on the average SAT scores or USNWR high school ranking for that school? What do you think is the best optimal strategy from the school choice point of view? (Of course, for Ivies etc... is is national-level performance or life stories or hooks etc... that ultimately count but these factors are orthogonal to the school choice in the same FCPS district so I am not counting these for the comparison.) What do you think? |
Anonymous
| Moving to try to impact college acceptances is up there on the dumbest ideas I've heard. |
Anonymous
| College placement is considered school by school. Rather than be one of many high-flyers at Langley or Mclean, but *the* standout student at another school. |
Anonymous
So is it easier to get into UVA from Langley or Westfield for the same kid with the same potential and same academic choices and performance? |
Anonymous
UVA isn't the end all be all. |
Anonymous
If your kid is UVA material, it won't matter. |
Anonymous
+1 it would be really sad to uproot your family in hopes of a better chance of getting into UVA. if your kid has the requisite scores and GPA they will get in. |
Anonymous
| I have no idea if attending Langley is better for college admissions than Westfield. I’d guess the difference is small. There is probably a bigger difference between Langley and Marshall which is humanities oriented. And, if you have a humanities oriented kid don’t push them towards TJ. They might do well there but they wont have fun competing for top spots with kids who are super talented in stem |
Anonymous
| If you're going to do that, just move somewhere it will matter. Then again, I'm not sure I'd want my kid finishing high school in Danville, but that's just me. |
Anonymous
| Send your kid to the school where they will do their best. Just because a kid gets into Harvard from a school doesn't mean everyone there has a better chance of getting into Harvard. |
Anonymous
I agree that moving with hopes of impacting college decisions is not a great idea, but moving to impact how well the high school will prepare you for college might not be such a bad one. Here are links to the FCPS school profile test results pages for Westfield, Chantilly and Langley. https://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108:16:::NO:  0_CURRENT_SCHOOL_ID,P0_EDSL:020,0
https://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108:16:::NO: 0_CURRENT_SCHOOL_ID,P0_EDSL:250,0
https://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108:16:::NO: 0_CURRENT_SCHOOL_ID,P0_EDSL:240,0
Test scores are probably higher at Langley mostly because the students are stronger, but some of it may have to do with instruction, too. Either way, it's going to be more of an academics-focused experience there. Look, too, at the 'safe and secure' page, which will give you some idea of the kinds of issues each school faces and how frequent those problems are. It's interesting to note, too, that Chantilly's student:counselor ratio is under 200:1, while Langley's is about 290. There's probably a reason for that. Westfield is closer to Langley at around 260. |
Anonymous
| It would be really interesting to see a comparison of UVA or VT scattergrams from the different FCPS high schools (similar to what the Oakton poster did in the VA Tech thread). I suspect you'd see some pretty significant differences. |
Anonymous
That wasn't the question. |
Anonymous
| OP, if I were you I would stay in Westfield of Chantilly. The difference in educational quality between those schools and Langley or McLean is likely to be negligible, however, you will see a bump in admissions prospects from a school that has less competition for the top spots. It isn’t just about grades and test scores, it’s also about improving your DC’s chances to play varsity sports, school-based leadership opportunities, etc. |
Anonymous
+1 |