BASIS high school versus middle school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The music teacher is amazing but doesn't begin to have the facilities or resources to teach much in the way of music. Great art teacher, hopeless art room and very limited supplies and equipment. Decent drama teacher, no stage or other performance space, no orchestra, weak performing arts. Decent PE teacher, no gym or no playing fields and hardly any sports equipment. You can come on DCUM calling BASIS enrichment adequate, or even world class, without making it so.

+100. If you all you really care about are impressive AP scores for college admissions and your kid going to high school with some of their middle school friends, the BASIS high school rocks.

If you care about more, the program is subpar across the board. The BASIS high school doesn't work well for your kid to pursue serious ECs with school friends either.

If we could have afforded better, we'd have bought it. We couldn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re a BASIS family with high-achieving kids who could easily afford private but continue to stay at BASIS. We would definitely not choose Saint Anselms over BASIS. We are applying to Walls this year, but suspect we will stay at BASIS. We like the education and the peer group. And my kids, when repeatedly asked, express a strong desire to stay.

With respect to music, I get that BASIS doesn’t have a strong instrumental program. But its music teacher is amazing and one of the best things about the school.

New poster. BASIS family with a sixth grader who is happy at the school but also says he does not want to stay for high school. When carpooling friends, his friends have all commented (loudly) at some point about how they don't want to stay for high school. I'm wondering if your kids changed their minds sometime between sixth and eighth grade, or if they always said they wanted to stay.

M kids always wanted to go for better art, music and sports and more hands-on learning. I always wanted them to go for a curriculum and teaching that put more emphasis on promoting intellectual curiosity, and more experienced teachers and admins. We told them that they had to suck BASIS up because we couldn't afford both private MS & HS. They did and we've kept our side of the bargain.

[Anonymous]

We looked at all of the privates and chose BASIS and haven’t regretted it for a second. Truth be told, if we had a boy, that might have been a different decision on the front end. There are no choices for girls that fit our child and family. But we are very happy.

The learning is so much more than just the AP based education, as these kids learn to use city resources better than I’ve seen from other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re a BASIS family with high-achieving kids who could easily afford private but continue to stay at BASIS. We would definitely not choose Saint Anselms over BASIS. We are applying to Walls this year, but suspect we will stay at BASIS. We like the education and the peer group. And my kids, when repeatedly asked, express a strong desire to stay.

With respect to music, I get that BASIS doesn’t have a strong instrumental program. But its music teacher is amazing and one of the best things about the school.

You say that you are happy with BASIS and your kids express a strong desire to stay at BASIS. Serious question: Why are you applying to Walls?

A 1/4 of the kids that apply to Walls and make it to the pool of 500 don't even bother to interview. They obviously weren't very interested to begin with. In other words, each of those kids boxed out a kid with a slightly lower GPA from the pool, who now won't be considered. Sure, even if kids who were boxed out made the pool of 500, they might not ultimately get in. But now they don't even have a chance.

So, again, why are you applying to Walls? Just so you can brag that you made the cut and turned down the interview? Or just to say that you were admitted to Walls (assuming your are) and turned it down?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We looked at all of the privates and chose BASIS and haven’t regretted it for a second. Truth be told, if we had a boy, that might have been a different decision on the front end. There are no choices for girls that fit our child and family. But we are very happy.

The learning is so much more than just the AP based education, as these kids learn to use city resources better than I’ve seen from other schools.

This just wasn't our experience, and we left last year. Where were all these great city resources? MLK library because BASIS doesn't have a library? OK, that was true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We looked at all of the privates and chose BASIS and haven’t regretted it for a second. Truth be told, if we had a boy, that might have been a different decision on the front end. There are no choices for girls that fit our child and family. But we are very happy.

The learning is so much more than just the AP based education, as these kids learn to use city resources better than I’ve seen from other schools.

This has been the story on Capitol Hill forever. Not difficult for boys to get Gonzaga or DeMantha for HS, St. Peters for MS or St Anselms for MS & HS.

[Anonymous]

We’re applying to Walls to keep options open. A lot can happen in a year. I also want my child to feel like she’s at BASIS due to choice. If the WALLS admissions process is worth anything, my BASIS kid will get in, but the admissions process seems arbitrary. We also have other strong public options for high school (based on where we live and/or sibling preference).

I think the process of deciding high schools will be good preparation for larger and more significant decisions about college. I want my child to have the experience, since I’ve made every academic decision to date until now (with the exception of BASIS electives).

My child hasn’t always been set on staying through high school. But she’s always been open to it. And now she wants to stay, despite complaints about several teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re applying to Walls to keep options open. A lot can happen in a year. I also want my child to feel like she’s at BASIS due to choice. If the WALLS admissions process is worth anything, my BASIS kid will get in, but the admissions process seems arbitrary. We also have other strong public options for high school (based on where we live and/or sibling preference).

I think the process of deciding high schools will be good preparation for larger and more significant decisions about college. I want my child to have the experience, since I’ve made every academic decision to date until now (with the exception of BASIS electives).

My child hasn’t always been set on staying through high school. But she’s always been open to it. And now she wants to stay, despite complaints about several teachers.

What does that mean? JR? Latin? I'd bail from BASIS to Latin in a minute if I could, unless my kid was a math star.

[Anonymous]

Academics at BASIS are better than Latin. For a top student at BASIS switching to Latin for high school is not an obvious choice…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Academics at BASIS are better than Latin. For a top student at BASIS switching to Latin for high school is not an obvious choice…

I totally agree with this. Latin is in a terrible/inconvenient location and the math/science doesn't seem nearly as good as at BASIS. I also hear the soccer field has lots of potholes . My kid still wants to put it down in the high school lottery (as another PP above notes, while kid's lean is staying at BASIS, wants to- keep options open) but fingers crossed kid doesn't win that particular lottery (kid has a close friend at Latin that creates a pull).

[Anonymous]

Latin isn't a school with a strong controlling streak. Families can breathe free there.

Latin's HS offers far more flexibility in its curriculum than BASIS and their course work is spread out over four years, not three. BASIS academics are undoubtedly better, but constant test pressure in 9th, 10th and 11th grades, a narrow focus on AP prep, and aloof leadership can become a real drag even for the strongest students.

We have longtime neighbors/close friends whose kid was admitted to any Ivy from Latin after applying Early Decision in Oct of a gap year. She went into college application season with as many high AP exam scores (mostly in humanities subjects) as the highest-performing BASIS Ivy and MIT-bound seniors. To each his, her or their own.

[Anonymous]

If my strong BASIS student had started out at Latin I’m confident she’d be thriving there now and we’d likely eagerly stay at Latin. It’s a great school.

But their science and math curriculum in particular are behind BASIS’ and my child thinks she’d bored at Latin and doesn’t want to switch, for social and academic reasons. And I have no reason to compel her to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Academics at BASIS are better than Latin. For a top student at BASIS switching to Latin for high school is not an obvious choice…

I totally agree with this. Latin is in a terrible/inconvenient location and the math/science doesn't seem nearly as good as at BASIS. I also hear the soccer field has lots of potholes . My kid still wants to put it down in the high school lottery (as another PP above notes, while kid's lean is staying at BASIS, wants to- keep options open) but fingers crossed kid doesn't win that particular lottery (kid has a close friend at Latin that creates a pull).

People on this site complain constantly about how awful the Basis building is but you complain how terrible Latin’s location is. And Latin has fields but you find a way to knock that. Just can’t help dragging another school down!

[Anonymous]

Latin (I) clearly has better facilities but BASIS is more centrally located with easier access to public transportation. Many BASIS families ranked Latin higher on the lottery (we did) but have come to appreciate the academic strength of BASIS and almost view it as a blessing in disguise to have not gotten the offer from Latin (I or II). The Latin HS test scores and academic metrics are seemingly worse than its middle school and it seems Latin has its own attrition as well. The difference is that Latin will take new students in HS. There are pros to that, of course, but BASIS’s lack of any new HS students has a certain appeal with respect to building close relationships in a smaller community and having continuity. I feel there still needs to be a critical mass of students so BASIS should focus on improving retention, as it has been. If enough of our kid’s friends remain, there’s a much greater likelihood we will, too.

[Anonymous]

If BASIS wants to improve retention, the franchise needs to ensure that the DC program is better led and funded. We left after the difficult current head shut us down over a minor request for this or that one too many times. We got tired of being told that there was no funding for certain extra curriculars. We had to pay for activities ourselves to represent BASIS outside of DC, to the tune of thousands of dollars, mainly in travel costs.

I have a sibling whose kids have attended one of the original Arizona campuses for the past 6 or 7 years. It sounds to us like the difference between the way the Arizona campus is run and the DC campus is run is night and day. My siblings children have been permitted to study modern languages at school since 5th grade, including at the advanced level in middle school and the college level in high school. They've been given instrumental music lessons during the school day for years, and play in a school orchestra that competes at the local, state and regional levels. Their program offers far more high quality electives and low cost extra curriculars than BASIS DC, and classes don't end in 11th grade.

Sounds to us like the DC campus gets the short end of the stick in a big way in many respects. I don't know the political ins and outs.