Capitol Hill - middle school and beyond?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a BASIS parent would do whatever it takes, wouldn't they move to the suburbs in the first place?

? Kids in the suburbs aren’t getting better college results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hmm. I'm looking at the 2023 outplacement instagram for Latin, and I see Princeton, UVA, Bucknell, Boulder, GWU, Georgetown, Bryn Mawr, Richmond, Trinity, Vanderbilt, Cornell, Northeastern, Penn, USC, Middlebury, Boston College, to name a few.

It's not a large class. What more are we asking for here? And you get this all from "laid-back," well-rounded and HAPPY kids? I'll take it.

+100. I went to an elite HS and elite college. My DS is a HS student at Latin and is so so much happier and having a richer, more enjoyable experience compared to my HS experience. Will he get into any of the above schools listed? He absolutely will not. And that's fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the nicest things about sending kids to Latin is that Latin parents aren’t DCUM posters.

Ironic

Not really, as I don't have kids old enough to send to Latin. My neighbor told me this, and seeing this thread, I see what she means.

I think some of this is parent self-selection. BASIS has more hyperacheiving Type A parents who want their kids to be the same & are more likely to have kids capable of being the same. Latin parents tend to be a bit more laid back about academics. Latin seems like a lovely, well-run school where kids are happy, but I look at the college outcomes and cringe. Why is virtually no one getting into the kind of school my DH & I went to? BASIS seems to have many issues, but some kids are getting into such schools. Most normal, laid back parents rank Latin over BASIS given everything else... I'd love to be one of those parents. BUT... I have this decision to make very soon & I'm not sure I can be.

Because times have changed and the college landscape has changed. It's a generational thing, it's not just Latin. The kids I interview for my alma mater come from all different schools, are 1000x better than I ever was, and don't get in.

That doesn't change the fact that SOME of them come from BASIS and virtually none seem to come from Latin. I don't disagree at all that it's much harder to get into such schools these days. Absolutely true.

Nonsense. Latin had a Princeton admit this year. BASIS had zero 2023 Ivy admits. They got one into CalTech and one into Johns Hopkins though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a BASIS parent would do whatever it takes, wouldn't they move to the suburbs in the first place?

? Kids in the suburbs aren’t getting better college results.

In the suburbs, where? My nephew attends TJ. He tells me that classmates cracked every Ivy, MIT, Stanford, you name it. BASIS didn't get any student into any of those schools this year.

[Anonymous]

Isn't TJ the best public high school in the country? Now I'm no TJ grad, but that doesn't feel statistically representative of the 'burbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the nicest things about sending kids to Latin is that Latin parents aren’t DCUM posters.

Ironic

Not really, as I don't have kids old enough to send to Latin. My neighbor told me this, and seeing this thread, I see what she means.

I think some of this is parent self-selection. BASIS has more hyperacheiving Type A parents who want their kids to be the same & are more likely to have kids capable of being the same. Latin parents tend to be a bit more laid back about academics. Latin seems like a lovely, well-run school where kids are happy, but I look at the college outcomes and cringe. Why is virtually no one getting into the kind of school my DH & I went to? BASIS seems to have many issues, but some kids are getting into such schools. Most normal, laid back parents rank Latin over BASIS given everything else... I'd love to be one of those parents. BUT... I have this decision to make very soon & I'm not sure I can be.

Because times have changed and the college landscape has changed. It's a generational thing, it's not just Latin. The kids I interview for my alma mater come from all different schools, are 1000x better than I ever was, and don't get in.

That doesn't change the fact that SOME of them come from BASIS and virtually none seem to come from Latin. I don't disagree at all that it's much harder to get into such schools these days. Absolutely true.

Nonsense. Latin had a Princeton admit this year. BASIS had zero 2023 Ivy admits. They got one into CalTech and one into Johns Hopkins though.

There is something wrong with Basis. With how hard they are pushing the kids and their big talk about rigor, they should be getting Ivy/MIT/Stanford admits, and the fact that their aren't is concerning. Something is wrong with their model, and their execution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hmm. I'm looking at the 2023 outplacement instagram for Latin, and I see Princeton, UVA, Bucknell, Boulder, GWU, Georgetown, Bryn Mawr, Richmond, Trinity, Vanderbilt, Cornell, Northeastern, Penn, USC, Middlebury, Boston College, to name a few.

It's not a large class. What more are we asking for here? And you get this all from "laid-back," well-rounded and HAPPY kids? I'll take it.

+100. I went to an elite HS and elite college. My DS is a HS student at Latin and is so so much happier and having a richer, more enjoyable experience compared to my HS experience. Will he get into any of the above schools listed? He absolutely will not. And that's fine.

Yikes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hmm. I'm looking at the 2023 outplacement instagram for Latin, and I see Princeton, UVA, Bucknell, Boulder, GWU, Georgetown, Bryn Mawr, Richmond, Trinity, Vanderbilt, Cornell, Northeastern, Penn, USC, Middlebury, Boston College, to name a few.

It's not a large class. What more are we asking for here? And you get this all from "laid-back," well-rounded and HAPPY kids? I'll take it.

+100. I went to an elite HS and elite college. My DS is a HS student at Latin and is so so much happier and having a richer, more enjoyable experience compared to my HS experience. Will he get into any of the above schools listed? He absolutely will not. And that's fine.

Yikes.

??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the nicest things about sending kids to Latin is that Latin parents aren’t DCUM posters.

Ironic

Not really, as I don't have kids old enough to send to Latin. My neighbor told me this, and seeing this thread, I see what she means.

I think some of this is parent self-selection. BASIS has more hyperacheiving Type A parents who want their kids to be the same & are more likely to have kids capable of being the same. Latin parents tend to be a bit more laid back about academics. Latin seems like a lovely, well-run school where kids are happy, but I look at the college outcomes and cringe. Why is virtually no one getting into the kind of school my DH & I went to? BASIS seems to have many issues, but some kids are getting into such schools. Most normal, laid back parents rank Latin over BASIS given everything else... I'd love to be one of those parents. BUT... I have this decision to make very soon & I'm not sure I can be.

Because times have changed and the college landscape has changed. It's a generational thing, it's not just Latin. The kids I interview for my alma mater come from all different schools, are 1000x better than I ever was, and don't get in.

That doesn't change the fact that SOME of them come from BASIS and virtually none seem to come from Latin. I don't disagree at all that it's much harder to get into such schools these days. Absolutely true.

Nonsense. Latin had a Princeton admit this year. BASIS had zero 2023 Ivy admits. They got one into CalTech and one into Johns Hopkins though.

There is something wrong with Basis. With how hard they are pushing the kids and their big talk about rigor, they should be getting Ivy/MIT/Stanford admits, and the fact that their aren't is concerning. Something is wrong with their model, and their execution.

Basis parent here and I have no expectation or desire that my child will get into those schools. I do expect admission to a good college that is a good fit, and more importantly success at that school due to the strong academic preparation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the nicest things about sending kids to Latin is that Latin parents aren’t DCUM posters.

Ironic

Not really, as I don't have kids old enough to send to Latin. My neighbor told me this, and seeing this thread, I see what she means.

I think some of this is parent self-selection. BASIS has more hyperacheiving Type A parents who want their kids to be the same & are more likely to have kids capable of being the same. Latin parents tend to be a bit more laid back about academics. Latin seems like a lovely, well-run school where kids are happy, but I look at the college outcomes and cringe. Why is virtually no one getting into the kind of school my DH & I went to? BASIS seems to have many issues, but some kids are getting into such schools. Most normal, laid back parents rank Latin over BASIS given everything else... I'd love to be one of those parents. BUT... I have this decision to make very soon & I'm not sure I can be.

Because times have changed and the college landscape has changed. It's a generational thing, it's not just Latin. The kids I interview for my alma mater come from all different schools, are 1000x better than I ever was, and don't get in.

That doesn't change the fact that SOME of them come from BASIS and virtually none seem to come from Latin. I don't disagree at all that it's much harder to get into such schools these days. Absolutely true.

Nonsense. Latin had a Princeton admit this year. BASIS had zero 2023 Ivy admits. They got one into CalTech and one into Johns Hopkins though.

There is something wrong with Basis. With how hard they are pushing the kids and their big talk about rigor, they should be getting Ivy/MIT/Stanford admits, and the fact that their aren't is concerning. Something is wrong with their model, and their execution.

Their model is tons of AP courses and kids like this are a dime a dozen all over the country. They don’t have robust extracurriculars, sports, clubs, and opportunities like these outside academics to augment just the AP.

[Anonymous]

Even if BASIS had the dough or orientation to offer robust HS ECs, few high school kids would have time to pursue them since BASIS effectively crams 4 years of HS into 3. Kids don't take classes senior year: they're expected to have taken all their AP classes/exams by the end of jr. year. The arrangement works best for the highly math gifted, who can burn through math requirements with time to spare. We found that BASIS didn't celebrate individual talents, backgrounds and learning enough to position many kids to crack the most highly competitive colleges. What they're really after is piles of college merit aid, vs. Ivy admissions (contrary to how they pitch the program to parents).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if BASIS had the dough or orientation to offer robust HS ECs, few high school kids would have time to pursue them since BASIS effectively crams 4 years of HS into 3. Kids don't take classes senior year: they're expected to have taken all their AP classes/exams by the end of jr. year. The arrangement works best for the highly math gifted, who can burn through math requirements with time to spare. We found that BASIS didn't celebrate individual talents, backgrounds and learning enough to position many kids to crack the most highly competitive colleges. What they're really after is piles of college merit aid, vs. Ivy admissions (contrary to how they pitch the program to parents).

This is accurate. The BASIS model is exactly what you'd expect from a Moneybag approach to testing and college admissions. It's the opposite of a holistic approach, which is what all the top schools use for admissions because they get to choose from their pick of the kids who already have top grades and test scores. They want unicorns -- the kids with top grades/scores but who also have demonstrated passions, creativity, leadership skills, and community involvement.

But BASIS isn't interested in producing unicorns. They are interested in maximizing scoring on the metrics that can be scored. The end.

[Anonymous]

Moneyball, not Moneybag. Lol, autocorrect.

[Anonymous]

It's interesting to me that even the most meritocratic parents here have given up on the tip-top university admissions. And not just because of the odds - because the steps required to approach the throne are just too much, and our next generation of kids might as well be happy with a decent white collar job and a chance to see our grandchildren awake rather than trying to turn themselves into McKinsey/biglaw/medical-resident slaves to their jobs (which many of us have been far too willing to do, for so little goddam return, having been convinced that academic stardom and meritocratic success would make us happy and guess Fing what)

Unless I've totally misread the tenor of recent posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's interesting to me that even the most meritocratic parents here have given up on the tip-top university admissions. And not just because of the odds - because the steps required to approach the throne are just too much, and our next generation of kids might as well be happy with a decent white collar job and a chance to see our grandchildren awake rather than trying to turn themselves into McKinsey/biglaw/medical-resident slaves to their jobs (which many of us have been far too willing to do, for so little goddam return, having been convinced that academic stardom and meritocratic success would make us happy and guess Fing what)

Unless I've totally misread the tenor of recent posts.

For me it's the odds. My kids are smart, but they're not smart or driven in specific pursuits enough that the effort would be worth the potential payoff. And also, maturity and experience in myself-- I hire people from state school honors programs all the time who are excellent! I've met so many great folks who are making a comfortable life for themselves and a difference in the world, from all sorts of colleges. Unless you're a super genius and can achieve high things without burning yourself out, and going to end up doing something really impressive, it's just not worth it. If I had that kind of kid I would feel differently, but my kids are only moderately gifted.

I also take very seriously teen mental health, which wasn't so much a thing when I was a kid.