Lake Braddock v Robinson for middle school?

[Anonymous]

I'm a little concerned about our daughter's options for high school. She's been in AAP since 3rd grade, but opted to stay at our base school where she has a core group of friends and a sibling. She's in 5th grade now, so I'm thinking this through a bit early. We had always intended to just send her to Robinson for middle school and let her do honors math classes for 7th and 8th, so that she would not have to change schools between middle and high school.

I'm rethinking that now.

DD is crazy about math and science. She does well in all subjects, but she absolutely comes alive in math class (according to her teacher) and won't shut up about physics, at home or at school. She gets 4s in other subjects too, but she doesn't love ELA or social studies and she does not enjoy writing all that much.

I'm concerned that Robinson's IB focus is not a good fit for this kid. I think she would enjoy the AP math and science courses available at Lake Braddock so much more (and the ability to choose her classes based on her interests, rather than the rigid schedule required if she were to pursue the IB diploma). And I'm pretty sure she'll think the writing emphasis in the IB program is intentionally designed to torture her.

So we are considering sending her to Lake Braddock for middle school AAP, and then applying for pupil placement to keep her there in high school (I've looked and Lake Braddock is the closest AP school to our home). The issue is that we'll have to kind of start leaning on her to make that switch, because she already does a few activities at Robinson (orchestra, some art stuff). And she has always assumed she'll go there with her little group of AAP besties that she's been with for years. She might be pretty resistant to the idea of changing that, so I want to be sure I have a good understanding of the options before I start talking to her about it.

Any parents at Robinson that can allay my concerns about lack of STEM options for an advanced kid? Any parents who opted to do the Lake Braddock pupil placement route who could offer insight from your experience?

[Anonymous]

You are going out of your way to make her sound precocious, so I see no reason why you can’t have a good discussion with her next year about the pros and cons of AAP and AP at Lake Braddock vs IB at Robinson.

It’s also possible they could stop allowing Robinson kids to attend Lake Braddock for AAP in the future or that your daughter might decide she doesn’t want to do the full IB program at Robinson if she goes there. The IB diploma should not be forced on kids who don’t fully embrace it. When it is, they often end up miserable and resentful when they see kids at AP schools getting into the same or better schools without having jumped through all the IB diploma hoops.

[Anonymous]

I apologize for going out of my way to make her sound precocious and giving too much background info. Here is a short version:

Will a kid at Robinson who does not pursue the full IB diploma (as I doubt my daughter would) have a range of advanced STEM classes that will be rigorous and look good on a college application to a tech school? Or would that kid be better of trying to go to Lake Braddock instead, where there are more AP courses available, despite the logistical complications of that transfer.

[Anonymous]

I don't think there's a lot of difference academically between the two schools for middle school so you could always play it by ear and revisit the LB idea for 9th (for a STEM kid, probably a wise choice). Socially, middle school is a really tough time to move, especially to schools as big as these. My DC was new to Robinson for 7th coming from out of state and really struggled to make friends because everyone came in with their elementary groups and didn't seem very open to expanding, except for the so-called popular kids from each school who all found each other quickly. I've been told it gets better in high school but we left for private instead. Otherwise DC probably would have switched to LB for AP and a fresh start.

[Anonymous]

We are in the same situation and decided to stay at Robinson for both MS and HS. We have known many STEM focused kids at Robinson and they’re doing fine. Many Robinson kids who didn’t pursue the full IB diploma still ended up in Virginia Tech etc. If you look at the colleges where graduates from both schools ended up with in the past years, they all look pretty similar. Also, your child still has many years to build up the writing skills and you never know if they may want to pursue the IB diploma. As much as my STEM kids hate writing, writing especially technical writing is important for scientists so it doesn’t hurt to start early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in the same situation and decided to stay at Robinson for both MS and HS. We have known many STEM focused kids at Robinson and they’re doing fine. Many Robinson kids who didn’t pursue the full IB diploma still ended up in Virginia Tech etc. If you look at the colleges where graduates from both schools ended up with in the past years, they all look pretty similar. Also, your child still has many years to build up the writing skills and you never know if they may want to pursue the IB diploma. As much as my STEM kids hate writing, writing especially technical writing is important for scientists so it doesn’t hurt to start early.

This is so helpful and reassuring. I don't really want to move her. Thank you for the insight!

[Anonymous]

My niece was in a similar position. My brother and his wife ended up sending her to Robinson for purely social reasons. It all worked out, she thrived in both MS and HS at Robinson. She didn't do the IB.

[Anonymous]

I can’t comment on Robinson HS stem but given what you’ve said about your kid have you considered TJ for her? Robinson usually has a small # of kids applying as it’s not a center school and not an TJ mania area so odds are likely better from there if so.

Just a consideration if you do want end up sending her to Robinson.

I’ll echo that my oldest found it hard to make friends freshman year (she was at a center that zones to LB while our base ES zones to Robinson) since she did not know many kids from ES. DS too - now in 8th at Robinson - really did not make any new friends until this year; almost all his friends are from ES. HS has a lot more social EC activity options for making new friends than MS does in my view.

[Anonymous]

I have one at Robo in 8th but can’t really speak to the differences in stem between the schools. Positive experience overall with the school.

I did just want to chime in on your AAP besties comment. While it’s hard to imagine, those kids may drift apart. Robo is a big middle school with 4 teams per grade. AAP kids are distributed across the teams, since there is no AAP at the school. Teams all have multiple honors sections of core courses.

Your kid likely won’t have classes with more than a kid or two from the feeder LLIV class they were in. There are two lunch periods as well - your kid may or may not even have lunch with their elementary friends. My kid is thriving and happy but by the end of 8th grade has different close friends.

This is all to say that while the transition may seem daunting if you feel LB is a better fit a academically, it may be a big reshuffle either way.

[Anonymous]

OP, I will preface this by saying that we know many families with kids in AAP at LB who are happy with it.

That said, my own math/science loving AAP kids went with Robinson, our zoned school, as did all of their friends. They have not yet made a decision about pursuing the full IB diploma.

Personally (and maybe I’m not enough of a tiger parent), I’ve found a lot of value in their peer relationships and how much that support made for an easy transition to MS/HS. Yes, they make new friends beyond the ES set, but interests can also change, so I wouldn’t discount the worth of staying with her existing community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I apologize for going out of my way to make her sound precocious and giving too much background info. Here is a short version:

Will a kid at Robinson who does not pursue the full IB diploma (as I doubt my daughter would) have a range of advanced STEM classes that will be rigorous and look good on a college application to a tech school? Or would that kid be better of trying to go to Lake Braddock instead, where there are more AP courses available, despite the logistical complications of that transfer.

Short answer: better off at Lake Braddock.