Honors vs. Regular classes at McLean High School

[Anonymous]

We are in the process of selecting classes for high school and looking for feedback on honors vs. regular classes at McLean. My child was not in AAP but has straight A’s at Longfellow and is in honors math already. Many friends have said that 9th grade is the easiest year so taking all four honors classes in primary subjects is doable regardless of whether child was in aap. And it’s easy to drop down in first month. Has anyone else had experience with this for a child not coming from aap? Some parents have told me that regular classes are disruptive and not challenging at all. So I’m torn, mainly on science. Thank you for any feedback you have.

[Anonymous]

Take the honors. Let your kid rise to the occasion.

Also, the parents telling you that regular classes are disruptive are snobs and awful people. Don't hang out with them.

[Anonymous]

My student was told to only take Honors in classes she really liked/was passionate about, and to not take all Honors Freshman Year. This was from the McLean Counselors coming to visit LMS to help choose classes.

[Anonymous]

If child is college bound then take all honors.

[Anonymous]

Have your child talk to each teacher and ask specifically about that subject.

There is going to be a step up. If your child is earning an A in a non honors course and they do the same amount of work, they will probably earn a B in an honors course. But if they are willing to step up the effort, would get an A.

[Anonymous]

All classes as Longfellow are honors level (with Math beibg different) so OP’s kid is used to honors level classes already.

Take honors

[Anonymous]

Are AP classes an option? If the student is getting all As at Longfellow, OP’s should be able to handle more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If child is college bound then take all honors.

Do not listen to this. It’s simply not true. Longfellow and McLean will tell you to start with 1-2 honor classes. This will be great for most kids. Some will also do just fine in all honors. Unfortunately it is teacher dependent in both honors and regular. Dropping down can be difficult for kids mentally and dropping down in more than one class can be very hard to deal with. Their schedule could change completely as well.We found (2 kids) it’s best to start with a few honors classes and increase rigor each year. By junior year a mix of AP and Honors for one child but for another Regular, honors and AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If child is college bound then take all honors.

Do not listen to this. It’s simply not true. Longfellow and McLean will tell you to start with 1-2 honor classes. This will be great for most kids. Some will also do just fine in all honors. Unfortunately it is teacher dependent in both honors and regular. Dropping down can be difficult for kids mentally and dropping down in more than one class can be very hard to deal with. Their schedule could change completely as well.We found (2 kids) it’s best to start with a few honors classes and increase rigor each year. By junior year a mix of AP and Honors for one child but for another Regular, honors and AP.

This was the advice one of my nephews got, and he regrets listening to it. He is strong academically, and says his GPA never recovered from not getting an honors bump in the first year, which made him less competitive than he should've been for colleges. He advised his younger brother to do all honors (although he is objectively a weaker student), and he is more competitive for colleges (we're not talking T-20, more like T50) than his older brother. It's sad that this has to be the calculus, but for academically strong kids, the college planning has to start sooner rather than later.

[Anonymous]

We have a friend whose son is at SLHS. He is not a stellar student but found the regular classes to be too easy and too chaotic. He bumped up to the honors classes. He is struggling in his math and science class but doing fine in the other classes. He asked to move from regular math and science into the honors because he knew he wasn’t learning much in the regular class.

The regular classes are not a good fit for kids who are on grade level. I don’t know if SLHS regular classes are different then McLean’s regular classes, I know the student body composition is different so the classes could be different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in the process of selecting classes for high school and looking for feedback on honors vs. regular classes at McLean. My child was not in AAP but has straight A’s at Longfellow and is in honors math already. Many friends have said that 9th grade is the easiest year so taking all four honors classes in primary subjects is doable regardless of whether child was in aap. And it’s easy to drop down in first month. Has anyone else had experience with this for a child not coming from aap? Some parents have told me that regular classes are disruptive and not challenging at all. So I’m torn, mainly on science. Thank you for any feedback you have.

I teach standard World 2 at another FCPS school and my classes are not disruptive at all. We have a mix of kids and most of them are hardworking and polite. Are there occasional disturbances? of course. But that happens in honors level classes as well. This may depend somewhat on the demographics of the school overall. Since the beginning of the school year, I have had 5 students drop down from honors to standard level World 2. I have also had a couple kids move up to honors based on my recommendation and talking to the student. The main difference between the two is that there is much more writing in honors and not as much “handholding”. For some, the transition from middle to high school is difficult and they need more structure and help. Others are just fine and handle without issue. You know your child and what they can handle. I don’t think not choosing all honors in 9th is going to penalize you in the future - yes, their GPA might not be as high, but there are many other things that go into getting into college. I say this as a mom whose son just went through the process last year - he had a 4.0 unweighted, but “only” a 4.3 weighted partly because his school in APS didn’t offer honors classes, and also because he didn’t take every AP class he could possibly take. He is currently an Echols scholar at UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If child is college bound then take all honors.

Do not listen to this. It’s simply not true. Longfellow and McLean will tell you to start with 1-2 honor classes. This will be great for most kids. Some will also do just fine in all honors. Unfortunately it is teacher dependent in both honors and regular. Dropping down can be difficult for kids mentally and dropping down in more than one class can be very hard to deal with. Their schedule could change completely as well.We found (2 kids) it’s best to start with a few honors classes and increase rigor each year. By junior year a mix of AP and Honors for one child but for another Regular, honors and AP.

This was the advice one of my nephews got, and he regrets listening to it. He is strong academically, and says his GPA never recovered from not getting an honors bump in the first year, which made him less competitive than he should've been for colleges. He advised his younger brother to do all honors (although he is objectively a weaker student), and he is more competitive for colleges (we're not talking T-20, more like T50) than his older brother. It's sad that this has to be the calculus, but for academically strong kids, the college planning has to start sooner rather than later.

This mindset can also be very detrimental to kids that aren't truly up to it especially at the more competitive high schools. Every single year there are roughly 2-4 kids in each my AP classes that have no business or interest being there. Typically a couple of those AP kids basically give up for the rest of the year by 2nd quarter and do bare minimum for a D once they've lost all interest in material. Classmates know who belongs and who doesn't and they can end up socially secluded. Usually it turns out their parents are also the most picky for minor details so I assume it was parents pushing them into Honors/AP.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone share info on honors vs regular classes at Chantilly?

[Anonymous]

We are finding that the academics seem to be getting harder since the pandemic and the teacher leniency is gone(which is a good thing). Our graduate(last year) took similar classes as the above poster shared. A few Honors freshman year working up to APs and Honors through senior year. Got into T50s just fine. Sports, strong extras,job etc. When applying to college we were told that schools looked more for rigor than the actual GPA(and some schools ignore weighted GPA). Now our HS freshman, who is equally hardworking and intelligent, seems to not be doing as well. Had to drop down to a regular in one class, has a few A's more B's only one Honor class now and is working very hard. Athlete and one other extra. Maybe its the difference in teachers, but it just seems to be more workload and harder assignments and tests in general.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All classes as Longfellow are honors level (with Math beibg different) so OP’s kid is used to honors level classes already.

Take honors

Somehow I find this hard to believe...