Why would the same person apply to ATS and Campbell? (Arlington option schools)

[Anonymous]

I am hearing from several families that they got into or are waitlisted at multiple places, sometimes including BOTH Arlington Traditional and Campbell. Those schools have opposite philosophies. Why would you apply to both? I can see applying to one or the other plus immersion.

[Anonymous]

They hate their neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Campbell was our safety choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing from several families that they got into or are waitlisted at multiple places, sometimes including BOTH Arlington Traditional and Campbell. Those schools have opposite philosophies. Why would you apply to both? I can see applying to one or the other plus immersion.

One thing all option schools have in common is a student body that is self selecting. The act of applying is some small measure of student/family interest and involvement. Does that mean neighborhood schools lack it? Of course not. But it’s great to go to a school where most people want to be there and chose it.

[Anonymous]

This is OP. Those reasons make good sense! I take back my original confusion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing from several families that they got into or are waitlisted at multiple places, sometimes including BOTH Arlington Traditional and Campbell. Those schools have opposite philosophies. Why would you apply to both? I can see applying to one or the other plus immersion.

One thing all option schools have in common is a student body that is self selecting. The act of applying is some small measure of student/family interest and involvement. Does that mean neighborhood schools lack it? Of course not. But it’s great to go to a school where most people want to be there and chose it.

This. Plus I wanted a school that wouldn’t continue to grow larger all year like our neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

When we went to an info session at Campbell (3 years ago) the principal made a very pointed comment that if you liked certain other option schools way of doing things, you would not be happy at Campbell. It was very much a side “eff off ATS parents” without naming ATS.

We are at Claremont, so no dog in the fight now, but I may have snickered just a little.

[Anonymous]

My experience is a little dated now (DS is now in middle school), but we entered the kindergarten lottery for both ATS and Campbell. We knew families who had had good experiences at both schools and we thought both offered interesting options that could be a good fit for DS, albeit for different reasons. We didn't think that immersion would be a good fit for DS, so we did not apply there.

Pre-K DS was a fairly typical somewhat impulsive, high-energy boy. It seemed equally plausible to us that he might benefit from a more structured and disciplined environment (ATS) or a a more relaxed outdoor focused environment (Campbell). The Campbell environment mimicked more closely what he was used to in Pre-K and that was appealing. And the ATS environment seemed like it could instill good habits and high expectations and that was appealing.

When I attended the pre-lottery tours at both schools, I ran into lots of parents of boys like mine. Some had made the prediction that Campbell would be the better fit and some ATS. And others like me were interested in both options and were impressed by both schools. Remember that the kids we are talking about are four or five years old at the time of the kindergarten lottery. It doesn't strike me as odd at all that plenty of parents with kids that age would be open to schools with varied educational philosophies.

Who knows how your four/five year old child is going to develop in the years to come? Why wouldn't you be open to exploring different types of schools? Perhaps the more significant divide is between the parents who are interested in lottery schools (any lotter school) versus neighborhood schools. There are lots of good reasons why parents might prefer one model over the other.

We were lucky enough to get into both ATS and Campbell and ended up choosing ATS. One of the things I found unexpectedly appealing about ATS was not the educational philosophy per se, but quite possibly a by-product of it. There were tons of families there with at least one parent who was not born in the U.S., and those foreign-born parents were from an extremely wide variety of countries. This was very noticeable on the tour and, later, very apparent in the composition of DS's kindergarten class where there were parents from the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Finland, Colombia, India, Egypt, and Mongolia. This also described our family and I liked the international feel.

ATS proved to be a good experience for DS and we have no regrets. But I suspect that we would also have had a good experience at Campbell. And I can't imagine that I'm the only parent in Arlington with a child that could have thrived in either school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My experience is a little dated now (DS is now in middle school), but we entered the kindergarten lottery for both ATS and Campbell. We knew families who had had good experiences at both schools and we thought both offered interesting options that could be a good fit for DS, albeit for different reasons. We didn't think that immersion would be a good fit for DS, so we did not apply there.

Pre-K DS was a fairly typical somewhat impulsive, high-energy boy. It seemed equally plausible to us that he might benefit from a more structured and disciplined environment (ATS) or a a more relaxed outdoor focused environment (Campbell). The Campbell environment mimicked more closely what he was used to in Pre-K and that was appealing. And the ATS environment seemed like it could instill good habits and high expectations and that was appealing.

When I attended the pre-lottery tours at both schools, I ran into lots of parents of boys like mine. Some had made the prediction that Campbell would be the better fit and some ATS. And others like me were interested in both options and were impressed by both schools. Remember that the kids we are talking about are four or five years old at the time of the kindergarten lottery. It doesn't strike me as odd at all that plenty of parents with kids that age would be open to schools with varied educational philosophies.

Who knows how your four/five year old child is going to develop in the years to come? Why wouldn't you be open to exploring different types of schools? Perhaps the more significant divide is between the parents who are interested in lottery schools (any lotter school) versus neighborhood schools. There are lots of good reasons why parents might prefer one model over the other.

We were lucky enough to get into both ATS and Campbell and ended up choosing ATS. One of the things I found unexpectedly appealing about ATS was not the educational philosophy per se, but quite possibly a by-product of it. There were tons of families there with at least one parent who was not born in the U.S., and those foreign-born parents were from an extremely wide variety of countries. This was very noticeable on the tour and, later, very apparent in the composition of DS's kindergarten class where there were parents from the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Finland, Colombia, India, Egypt, and Mongolia. This also described our family and I liked the international feel.

ATS proved to be a good experience for DS and we have no regrets. But I suspect that we would also have had a good experience at Campbell. And I can't imagine that I'm the only parent in Arlington with a child that could have thrived in either school.

Second this. We applied to both schools because we were looking for more diversity (we just moved to the US recently from Turkey and didn’t want DD to feel different). We ended up going to ATS. I’m not sure what the obsession with philosophies is here. Kids enter kindergarten when they are 5 years old. Their personalities aren’t formed yet. Most kids will do fine at a school so long as it’s good. The philosophies don’t matter. I went to a montessori school until I was 6 years old then moved to a more structured school later. I transitioned just fine. All a child needs is a good curriculum, good teachers and a loving kind atmosphere. We ended up going to ATS and are very happy. It has the international atmosphere we are looking for, wonderful caring teachers and most importantly, DD loves it! I’m sure she would have enjoyed our neighborhood school as well

[Anonymous]

For the same reason all the ATS parents apply to HB for middle school. The two schools could not be more different, but ATS parents still want to send their kids to HB. IMO it's a status thing - neighborhood schools aren't good enough for our kid; we need a special school.

[Anonymous]

The #1 motivation to apply to an option school is to avoid their neighborhood school for some reason. The #2 motivation is geography. The philosophy is largely irrelevant other than Immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the same reason all the ATS parents apply to HB for middle school. The two schools could not be more different, but ATS parents still want to send their kids to HB. IMO it's a status thing - neighborhood schools aren't good enough for our kid; we need a special school.

I love it when people who don’t have kids at ATS speak for people who don’t have kids at ATS and pretend to know the reason behind why we send our kids to ATS. It’s exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the same reason all the ATS parents apply to HB for middle school. The two schools could not be more different, but ATS parents still want to send their kids to HB. IMO it's a status thing - neighborhood schools aren't good enough for our kid; we need a special school.

I love it when people who don’t have kids at ATS speak for people who don’t have kids at ATS and pretend to know the reason behind why we send our kids to ATS. It’s exhausting.

New poster. I don't have a kid at ATS and didn't apply, but I do wonder why folks who did send their kids to ATS then apply to HB. But I also think you should also be able to hit/win the lottery only once.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the same reason all the ATS parents apply to HB for middle school. The two schools could not be more different, but ATS parents still want to send their kids to HB. IMO it's a status thing - neighborhood schools aren't good enough for our kid; we need a special school.

I love it when people who don’t have kids at ATS speak for people who don’t have kids at ATS and pretend to know the reason behind why we send our kids to ATS. It’s exhausting.

New poster. I don't have a kid at ATS and didn't apply, but I do wonder why folks who did send their kids to ATS then apply to HB. But I also think you should also be able to hit/win the lottery only once.

When we applied to ATS back, long ago, when my child was 5 - we had no idea if the philosophy would fit or not. But, we were blown away by the tour and the principal, so threw our name in the hat and got a spot.

Then, for MS, my child, who succeeded at ATS but was a little on the quirky side and we didn't think would quite fit the mainstream MS experience, we thought we'd give HB a try. And got a spot.

Both schools were good experiences for my child. The 5 year old who entered ATS, exited a different child, with different needs. And HB fit those needs very well.

[Anonymous]

My child was easily agitated by other kid’s misbehavior, a real type A rule follower and behavior was an issue at our large, over capacity school. As he’s grown he’s gotten more flexible and is a mature, self-directed learner who enjoys projects. If he chooses to apply to HB we will.