Flint Hill Vs. Cooper/Langley
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sunshine237
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| My rising 7th grader (AAP) student is scheduled to go to Cooper middle school. We are also considering Flint Hill as private school option. In exception to class size, does Flint Hill have similar academic offering to Cooper/Langley? And similar opportunity to land in a good college? |
Anonymous
| Yes and yes. |
Anonymous
| Is flint hill rolling admission right now for 7th grade? |
Anonymous
| FH is a glorified pubic school. Check out their college admits from last year - the same range you’d see at a public school. |
Anonymous
Flint Hill is significantly worse than Langley for college admissions. I’m not saying FH doesn’t have any smart kids but Langley will have a stronger academic peer group. |
Anonymous
| They have at least one CalTech admit this year at FH. If you go and can be a top student that stands out, that is the most important thing as you are competing with your peers at any given school for college admissions. Harder to do at Langley. |
Anonymous
NP, and we are not at either FH or LHS. This admissions difference is not obviously an indicator of academics or how an unhooked child will do in the college lottery. Really, it is impossible to compare schools directly like this — not enough data available about legacy status to know. Many many Langley parents are wealthy alumni in GF who regularly donate to their Ivy or t30, so there are LOTS of legacies at Langley. Fewer legacies are at FH simply because it has a broader geographic draw than LHS. This distorts the apparent LHS college placement rates. Even with today’s lottery like college admissions, legacy hooks can be the tipping point that gets one child accepted and an equally academic (but unhooked) child a rejection. |
Anonymous
The type of family who picks FH is also different. I know it is often mentioned for students who have ADHD. They have a learning center for kids who need help. I don’t necessarily think FH is a school for parents who are gunning to get their kid into an ivy or other top college. |
Anonymous
| OP - I wouldn’t necessarily make a decision based on DCUM - talk to parents and learn first hand about FH. I know several students in and entering FH middle school who were in the FCPS AAP program and do not use the learning center which I believe has limited enrollment anyway. I don’t think you can give much weight to opinions that are not based on personal experience. |
Anonymous
| Thank you for great conversation. It is interesting that admissions to FH are easier vs. Potomac. Apparently, a lot of families prefer Potomac vs. FH. I am curious why is that? |
Anonymous
Agree. They also offer college counselling starting 9th grade. However, on independent comparison of academic offerings, Langley and FH seemed comparable. |
Anonymous
FH is a great school—in fact, it was in the top 2 of our and DC’s HS choices and really only came down to being farther away than the school we went with, and Potomac would have been a terrible fit for our dyslexic/ADHD kid so we didn’t consider it past a first look—but Potomac is far more selective and competitive to get into. Its reputation is basically that of being the best of the mainstream VA privates and it’s in a wealthy area inside the Beltway. I think it’s likely a tougher school than FH overall—although a strong student can get a rigorous education at FH. However a student who wants to put in less effort can get away with that at FH in a way they couldn’t at Potomac. Potomac considered more elite—not on par with the top NWDC schools, but still strong. |
Anonymous
Potomac is seen as a top DC-area private that happens to be located in McLean. It’s viewed as academically rigorous and as having some social cachet (though not the same as the Big 3 in DC). Flint Hill is seen as a suburban private school for kids who couldn’t thrive in publics or whose defense contractor parents didn’t have anything better to spend their money on. It has the trappings of a private school, but isn’t any stronger academically than roughly half of the high schools in the county. This is the reality, like it or not. |
Anonymous
You partially already hit on one of the more important "factors" that go into the quality of the education your child will receive - the size of the classroom. Some studies, particularly those focusing on elementary grades and larger class size reductions (around 7-10 fewer students), show a positive effect on academic achievement, including test scores and even college enrollment rates with students from disadvantaged backgrounds seemingly benefitting the most. At the end of the day, don't focus on test scores and college placement but more on the "fit" and school environment for your individual child and how it fits into their learning needs. How well do you think your child will thrive at each school? How do you feel about the overall learning community and environment? How does that align with your child's preferences/interests/needs? There are detractors here on DCUM that seem to have it out for Flint Hill, but ignore them. Make a decision based on the questions posed previously. Find the best fit for your child. |