Why don’t more parents send their kids to Basis McLean?

[Anonymous]

I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

[Anonymous]

Search up Basis Tysons Corner/McLean here. Terrible reviews of that particular campus. Lots of turnover at the top of school. Each Basis school has to be judged on its own merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

Basis McLean's enrollment increases every year. Last year was around 478 students. Now I just checked, is 640 students.
Their lower to middle school is great. the number of student increased a lot. My kid's grade use to have only one class. Now have two class (almost 40 students total). We have sports clubs including soccer, basketball, tennis and chess. Maybe there are other I don't know.
regarding culture, I don't know how to compare to other private schools because I don't have experiences in other private schools. But I heard other schools has drug problem, small circle bullies. Here we don't have those.
Maybe students here have to focus on academic so they don't have time for other things. Maybe most of the parents are busy upper middle working class professionals who are not rich enough to spoil their kids. I don't know the reason. But for me, Basis's environment is warm and simple.
Don't know much about the high school. 2020 was literally the first high school graduate since they opened in the fall 2016. I think you can find their college admission from their website. It's phenomenal. Each class only has around 30 students, but all of them got admitted by good colleges including Stanford, MIT, U Chicago, Columbia, Brown, Cornel, Duke, UCB, UCLA, UVA,CMU, JHU, Emory, Rice etc..
DC area have many good well known private schools. The public surrounding Basis Mclean also top schools: TJ, McLean high, Langley High. Basis Mclean was always facing high competitions since it opened. It's not easy to survive as a new school but it is so far so good. The enrollment is good. The college enrollment is phenomenal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

The culture is heavy on testing and APs and more testing. It's the core of the curriculum. Works really well for some, but many others have left. The problem with sports is tiny, limited facilities and space.

If the enrollment really is headed to 600+ next year like they targeted for a few years ago, that could change the character of the school away from the tiny grades, tiny clubs, no upper school performing arts, etc.

You really need to talk to current parents to see if it's a fit. For most, it clearly is or isn't. Then go see it up close and decide if those facilities are enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

The culture is heavy on testing and APs and more testing. It's the core of the curriculum. Works really well for some, but many others have left. The problem with sports is tiny, limited facilities and space.

If the enrollment really is headed to 600+ next year like they targeted for a few years ago, that could change the character of the school away from the tiny grades, tiny clubs, no upper school performing arts, etc.

You really need to talk to current parents to see if it's a fit. For most, it clearly is or isn't. Then go see it up close and decide if those facilities are enough.

see my post above. Now we have 640 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

The culture is heavy on testing and APs and more testing. It's the core of the curriculum. Works really well for some, but many others have left. The problem with sports is tiny, limited facilities and space.

If the enrollment really is headed to 600+ next year like they targeted for a few years ago, that could change the character of the school away from the tiny grades, tiny clubs, no upper school performing arts, etc.

You really need to talk to current parents to see if it's a fit. For most, it clearly is or isn't. Then go see it up close and decide if those facilities are enough.

see my post above. Now we have 640 students.

Do you have a link to that somewhere? They used to treat the enrollment numbers like a state secret, especially when they were crashing in spring 2020. I think I saw a number 478 on their website in the past, but I don't see it on there now.

What is your source?

[Anonymous]

Love it or hate it....

https://www.greatschools.org/virginia/mclean/7611-BASIS-Independent-McLean/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

The culture is heavy on testing and APs and more testing. It's the core of the curriculum. Works really well for some, but many others have left. The problem with sports is tiny, limited facilities and space.

If the enrollment really is headed to 600+ next year like they targeted for a few years ago, that could change the character of the school away from the tiny grades, tiny clubs, no upper school performing arts, etc.

You really need to talk to current parents to see if it's a fit. For most, it clearly is or isn't. Then go see it up close and decide if those facilities are enough.

see my post above. Now we have 640 students.

Do you have a link to that somewhere? They used to treat the enrollment numbers like a state secret, especially when they were crashing in spring 2020. I think I saw a number 478 on their website in the past, but I don't see it on there now.

What is your source?

I saw 640 students from ParentSquare. All have names. The website may not up to date.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love it or hate it....

https://www.greatschools.org/virginia/mclean/7611-BASIS-Independent-McLean/

Like I said before, most of Basis parents are busy upper middle class professionals who don't have time to write a review. And if they are happy with the school, they don't need a vent to say anything.
A single one unhappy parent may keep writing bad reviews.
This school not suit for everyone for sure.

If not seeing so many posts with bias, I would not write anything here either.

[Anonymous]

Who would pay for a school thats free other places? Doesnt seem like a good value.

[Anonymous]

Because it's yucky that it's owned by a hedge fund.

[Anonymous]

The school is trying to find its footing. It’s been a revolving door of admin (7th HoS in 6 years), teachers (tons of turnover), and students (in a typical year many students churn at all grades but it’s a solid majority that leave between 8th and 9th every year). As per other posts, it is a very niche school which is highly appealing to those that fit the niche. For those that do not, or that want a more well-rounded experience BIM doesn’t work well. It does attract smart kids and families with intense academic focus. This is reflected in the strong academic achievements, high standardized test scores and strong college acceptances (2020 was not the first graduating class).

Most clubs are academic-oriented, sports are expensive activities run by outside vendors, same for many clubs. Because the school is so small there are not enough kids to field more than one or two competitive sports teams.

Every private in the area got tons of increase applications during COVID because the local publics were a $hit$how. BASIS’s foundation in being a public charter leads it to running the school much more like public schools than independent schools in the area and not all parents like that approach when paying tuition.

[Anonymous]

At least their learning something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The school is trying to find its footing. It’s been a revolving door of admin (7th HoS in 6 years), teachers (tons of turnover), and students (in a typical year many students churn at all grades but it’s a solid majority that leave between 8th and 9th every year). As per other posts, it is a very niche school which is highly appealing to those that fit the niche. For those that do not, or that want a more well-rounded experience BIM doesn’t work well. It does attract smart kids and families with intense academic focus. This is reflected in the strong academic achievements, high standardized test scores and strong college acceptances (2020 was not the first graduating class).

Most clubs are academic-oriented, sports are expensive activities run by outside vendors, same for many clubs. Because the school is so small there are not enough kids to field more than one or two competitive sports teams.

Every private in the area got tons of increase applications during COVID because the local publics were a $hit$how. BASIS’s foundation in being a public charter leads it to running the school much more like public schools than independent schools in the area and not all parents like that approach when paying tuition.

Like this kind of information sharing post although may not agree to your every word.
I said literally 2020 is the first graduate because the years before this students did not spent their whole 4 years here in Basis.
With more kids enrolling, hopefully there are more sports clubs here. Yes, most of students practice and compete at outside clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

Basis McLean's enrollment increases every year. Last year was around 478 students. Now I just checked, is 640 students.
Their lower to middle school is great. the number of student increased a lot. My kid's grade use to have only one class. Now have two class (almost 40 students total). We have sports clubs including soccer, basketball, tennis and chess. Maybe there are other I don't know.
regarding culture, I don't know how to compare to other private schools because I don't have experiences in other private schools. But I heard other schools has drug problem, small circle bullies. Here we don't have those.
Maybe students here have to focus on academic so they don't have time for other things. Maybe most of the parents are busy upper middle working class professionals who are not rich enough to spoil their kids. I don't know the reason. But for me, Basis's environment is warm and simple.
Don't know much about the high school. 2020 was literally the first high school graduate since they opened in the fall 2016. I think you can find their college admission from their website. It's phenomenal. Each class only has around 30 students, but all of them got admitted by good colleges including Stanford, MIT, U Chicago, Columbia, Brown, Cornel, Duke, UCB, UCLA, UVA,CMU, JHU, Emory, Rice etc..
DC area have many good well known private schools. The public surrounding Basis Mclean also top schools: TJ, McLean high, Langley High. Basis Mclean was always facing high competitions since it opened. It's not easy to survive as a new school but it is so far so good. The enrollment is good. The college enrollment is phenomenal.

Very detail. thanks