VA Middle and high school selection and rent/buy choice

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,
I have 5th grade son and 2nd grade daughter and our house in Arlington is for Swanson middle + Liberty high. I walk 15min to metro to work in DC three days a week (i dont like long commute). My goal is to send my kids to UVA or VT. My current concerns are: (1) I heard swanson is not very good. Kids hang out at westover stores; My son is good at maths and i am not sure if there is advanced maths program offered in Swanson and I know liberty high last year has about 200 applications to UVA and 50 accepted. (2) arlington does not offer AAP program and my daughter is very smart and self-motivated.
I have been on market to buy a house for mclean high or langley high for quite a while because i think it offers better schools for my son and my daughter can join their 3rd grade AAP. Now I am considering giving up mclean because of low inventory and high interests rate. Here are a few options I can think of:
(1) rent in mclean area and wait until market is more reasonable. And rent out my house in arlington.
(2) buy in other less hot area such as marshall high, or yorktown high + willimasburg middle. I have saving for downpayment so would not sell arlington house but rent it out.
(3) still buy mclean. or any other suggestions?
Would very much appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!!!

[Anonymous]

I didn't read you want your kids to go to UVA or VT. good luck! those are fast becoming lottery schools! Please don't mention those names in front of your kids. Get them the best education possible that you can and see where life leads them. Don't toss names in front of them. Good luck

[Anonymous]

A general comment that it may be easier for your kids to get into the colleges you want from less competitive high schools. While there aren’t quotas per se, class rank is looked at, and kids are compared with others from their school.

I thought that Arlington had gifted or advanced education for specific subjects, although not AAP. That could be even better if a child is strong in only certain areas. Arlingtonians would be able to comment better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't read you want your kids to go to UVA or VT. good luck! those are fast becoming lottery schools! Please don't mention those names in front of your kids. Get them the best education possible that you can and see where life leads them. Don't toss names in front of them. Good luck

Not the OP and don't have kids yet, but wow - I got into VT a decade ago as a non-minority, no-extracurricular 3.7 GPA kid. Crazy that it has gotten so competitive.

[Anonymous]

Lots of inaccuracies or at least misperceptions, OP.

Swanson is a good school academically as far as APS middle schools go. The behavior problems they've had have gotten more attention than other schools, but they aren't alone.

APS doesn't do a pull-out AAP model like Fairfax. It's a push-in. Math has always had an advanced track, offering Geometry in 8th. Starting this year they've introduced intensified English and Science at the 7th and 8th grade levels, and that will expand to 6th next year. 8th grade World Geo is already supposedly a HS-level course so there is no additional intensified option. Middle school redistricting potentially will be on the table before your daughter gets to middle school, so if it matters strongly to you I'd see whether your planning unit would likely push to Hamm, Williamsburg or Kenmore or if it is fairly solidly Swanson.

High schools will continue to shuffle. Wakefield is most over-crowded but Washington Liberty (or W-L) is massive due to its newly-added capacity. It's also funny you say Williamsburg to Yorktown is less desirable, as many on DCUM would tell you it's the only worthwhile pyramid.

[Anonymous]

Your daughter might not get into AAP even if you move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of inaccuracies or at least misperceptions, OP.

Swanson is a good school academically as far as APS middle schools go. The behavior problems they've had have gotten more attention than other schools, but they aren't alone.

APS doesn't do a pull-out AAP model like Fairfax. It's a push-in. Math has always had an advanced track, offering Geometry in 8th. Starting this year they've introduced intensified English and Science at the 7th and 8th grade levels, and that will expand to 6th next year. 8th grade World Geo is already supposedly a HS-level course so there is no additional intensified option. Middle school redistricting potentially will be on the table before your daughter gets to middle school, so if it matters strongly to you I'd see whether your planning unit would likely push to Hamm, Williamsburg or Kenmore or if it is fairly solidly Swanson.

High schools will continue to shuffle. Wakefield is most over-crowded but Washington Liberty (or W-L) is massive due to its newly-added capacity. It's also funny you say Williamsburg to Yorktown is less desirable, as many on DCUM would tell you it's the only worthwhile pyramid.

I think Yorktown is a great HS. But Williamsburg is known as a cave on DCUM bc it’s so old and dirty, and everyone knows WL offers IB and draws a lot of kids away from Yorktown. So it’s not exactly second-rate. I think Hamm is the best MS, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks so much for all responded. I thought Williamsburg + Yorktown is better than my current Swanson+WL, but not as good as McLean pyramid, so could be an option. Maybe I don’t need to move anywhere listening to people here. But I do want to upgrade to a newer house with office spaces. Just timing and where. Thanks so much and would appreciate any more advises.

[Anonymous]

OP here again. One more question, what exactly IB can play? More options? And if IB is good, why not consider also falls church city which had IB from elementary to high school? Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks so much for all responded. I thought Williamsburg + Yorktown is better than my current Swanson+WL, but not as good as McLean pyramid, so could be an option. Maybe I don’t need to move anywhere listening to people here. But I do want to upgrade to a newer house with office spaces. Just timing and where. Thanks so much and would appreciate any more advises.

Again, there are pros and cons to both YT and W-L. Some people have strong preferences or beliefs as to which is better.

We are an APS family so I can't compare to Falls Church or McLean schools.

[Anonymous]

The problem you'll have if you make decisions based on getting your kids into UVA or VA Tech is that no one knows what criteria they will be using in 7-10 years. DD's private school friends seemed to have a much easier time getting into UVA this past cycle. Maybe they liked private school this year. Maybe they'll prefer kids from rural areas the year your kids apply. Maybe they'll favor artistic kids, or kids who were really involved with community service. Who know how GPA and SAT scores will count (or not) in 7-10 years.
My point is, you're looking for which school gives your kid the best chance and that's not even a valid question to ask. There's no correct answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks so much for all responded. I thought Williamsburg + Yorktown is better than my current Swanson+WL, but not as good as McLean pyramid, so could be an option. Maybe I don’t need to move anywhere listening to people here. But I do want to upgrade to a newer house with office spaces. Just timing and where. Thanks so much and would appreciate any more advises.

Again, there are pros and cons to both YT and W-L. Some people have strong preferences or beliefs as to which is better.

We are an APS family so I can't compare to Falls Church or McLean schools.

+1 UVA is a challenging admit from either school. At W-L, however, you pretty much need to do the very demanding IB program to be in play for UVA.
Both schools typically get in about 50 students per year regardless of the number of apps so just being smaller, the odds might be better at Yorktown.

VT has a higher admit rate but is very unpredictable, they seem to often waitlist higher stat students. but they also just dropped early decision so admission practices will be in flux again and hard to predict.

[Anonymous]

Are you open to a newer townhouse or are you only looking for a single-family house?

[Anonymous]

Op again. Thank you again for people making conversations going. In general I am happy if my kids can go any top 50 universities but UVA, W&M, VT have big advantage for in state tuition and being close to home. I hear you that nobody knows what admission criteria will be.
I have a single family house without garage or mudroom or office. Would be nice to upgrade on these. But can certainly compromise. Would love to hear more about comparison between arlington and Fairfax.
Thanks a million!

[Anonymous]

In general, you’re coming across as someone who’d be happiest in the Longfellow/McLean area in terms of academics and overall fit, but budget sounds like it’s an issue and McLean HS (the building) is in poor condition. You might want to look at some of the newer townhouses near Tysons and West Falls Church zoned to McLean or Marshall. There’s also an older SFH neighborhood near the WFC Metro zoned to Marshall called Falls Hill that’s quite nice.