If you left APS for private…

[Anonymous]

If you left APS for private, are you happy with your decision? Was it a bit improvement?Which school did you choose? So many privates have terrible commutes from Arlington (upper NW DC, Maryland) and I think the kids would hate so much time in the car.

We are not happy with the academic rigor or behavioral issues at our neighborhood school and are weighing options.

[Anonymous]

Which school are you at?

[Anonymous]

I never regretted leaving. The APS experience wasn’t too bad; but the private school experience is better. The tuition has no impact on our finances so my calculations may have been different if this was the case. My kids work much harder (at private) for less impressive grades. And I don’t think that it will help for college admissions. But that isn’t the reason we sent our kids to private. I have no doubt that my kid will be prepared for college. Perhaps it will even be easier than HS. A neighbor’s kid went from NCS to a Virginia state school and the kid couldn’t believe how easy it was (in a very difficult major).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never regretted leaving. The APS experience wasn’t too bad; but the private school experience is better. The tuition has no impact on our finances so my calculations may have been different if this was the case. My kids work much harder (at private) for less impressive grades. And I don’t think that it will help for college admissions. But that isn’t the reason we sent our kids to private. I have no doubt that my kid will be prepared for college. Perhaps it will even be easier than HS. A neighbor’s kid went from NCS to a Virginia state school and the kid couldn’t believe how easy it was (in a very difficult major).

This is exactly my goal. College is hard, with being on your own far from family, so I want the actual school part to be “easy”.

Going private hurts our finances significantly, but we found it so worth it. The commute is a pain, but buses are okay (I grew up in country where a 1 hr bus ride was common anyways, so 30 mins is hardly a hardship).

OP look at Potomac?

[Anonymous]

Potomac or little Langley.

[Anonymous]

We would have stayed had we won the ATS lottery. We switched to private as the backup when we did not get an ATS offer. Overall, we are happy with the outcome, but likely also would have been happy at ATS.

[Anonymous]

We have one in private and one in public. Two different kids with two different needs/interests. Each are very happy with their school.

Private commute isn’t ideal, nor is having HS friends all over, but the kid still loves it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We would have stayed had we won the ATS lottery. We switched to private as the backup when we did not get an ATS offer. Overall, we are happy with the outcome, but likely also would have been happy at ATS.

ATS and HB. The county should be all these. Build a lot more high schools, just smaller, and have kids travel to shared athletic facilities.

ATS would be trivial to implement all over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We would have stayed had we won the ATS lottery. We switched to private as the backup when we did not get an ATS offer. Overall, we are happy with the outcome, but likely also would have been happy at ATS.

ATS and HB. The county should be all these. Build a lot more high schools, just smaller, and have kids travel to shared athletic facilities.

ATS would be trivial to implement all over.

I assume you're trying to start something. Are your kids in private?

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't commute to MD but depending on where you live in Arlington, the schools between Georgetown and Upper NW aren't too bad. It just depends where you live in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We would have stayed had we won the ATS lottery. We switched to private as the backup when we did not get an ATS offer. Overall, we are happy with the outcome, but likely also would have been happy at ATS.

ATS and HB. The county should be all these. Build a lot more high schools, just smaller, and have kids travel to shared athletic facilities.

ATS would be trivial to implement all over.

I'm with you sort of but these two models aren't a fit for all students. I'd like to see more programs of different types.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you left APS for private, are you happy with your decision? Was it a bit improvement?Which school did you choose? So many privates have terrible commutes from Arlington (upper NW DC, Maryland) and I think the kids would hate so much time in the car.

We are not happy with the academic rigor or behavioral issues at our neighborhood school and are weighing options.

It's hard for people to have a response without knowing which APS school you are unhappy with now.

[Anonymous]

We sent our kids to APS all the way through 8th and then private Big3 HS. Our kids did very well and had no issue coming from APS, they were well prepared. But, our private HS experience was vastly different than our public school friend at W&L and Yorktown. To each their own, but we were very happy for the children to experience the rigor of private for the HS years. I would not send my kids to private ES and expect some big difference…unless I was at a not great ES or alternatively my kid had a lot of needs. Just my two cents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We would have stayed had we won the ATS lottery. We switched to private as the backup when we did not get an ATS offer. Overall, we are happy with the outcome, but likely also would have been happy at ATS.

ATS and HB. The county should be all these. Build a lot more high schools, just smaller, and have kids travel to shared athletic facilities.

ATS would be trivial to implement all over.

I assume you're trying to start something. Are your kids in private?

We are mixed with some in private and some in APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We sent our kids to APS all the way through 8th and then private Big3 HS. Our kids did very well and had no issue coming from APS, they were well prepared. But, our private HS experience was vastly different than our public school friend at W&L and Yorktown. To each their own, but we were very happy for the children to experience the rigor of private for the HS years. I would not send my kids to private ES and expect some big difference…unless I was at a not great ES or alternatively my kid had a lot of needs. Just my two cents.

We found that middle school and the emphasis on executive function, planning, project work, reading of complete novels was very different between private and APS. Lots of passage reading in APS for example, and novel reading was always readers choice vs assigned class novel that they all analyze and discuss