Whitman, WJ, and BCC parent question

[Anonymous]

Parents of kids who've graduated from these high schools in the last five years:

Can you share what percentage of students that graduated attend Top 40 U.S. schools?
Of this subset that attends them, what percentage had family connections to those schools (do you think)?

I'm aware that Bethesda Today publishes tables, but there are many columns to read through and they of course don't provide any indication of which accepted students had family members attend.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents of kids who've graduated from these high schools in the last five years:

Can you share what percentage of students that graduated attend Top 40 U.S. schools?
Of this subset that attends them, what percentage had family connections to those schools (do you think)?

I'm aware that Bethesda Today publishes tables, but there are many columns to read through and they of course don't provide any indication of which accepted students had family members attend.

Thank you.

How would the parents know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents of kids who've graduated from these high schools in the last five years:

Can you share what percentage of students that graduated attend Top 40 U.S. schools?
Of this subset that attends them, what percentage had family connections to those schools (do you think)?

I'm aware that Bethesda Today publishes tables, but there are many columns to read through and they of course don't provide any indication of which accepted students had family members attend.

Thank you.

lol

[Anonymous]

My kid is going to a Top 30 next year and we have no hooks.

[Anonymous]

But seriously no one has this information. Anecdotal at best. And even if someone’s kid got in as a legacy, they probably won’t tell anyone about it (why would they?)

[Anonymous]

My kid graduated from one of those schools with 700 other kids. There is no way to know where everyone has ended up. The Insta account and Bethesda Mag are the only means to have any sense of where kids ended up.

I can tell you that in her friend group and adjacent friend group, which is roughly 20 kids, mostly rich and white (but not all), about 10 are in top 10-20 schools, no legacies, no athletes. Two deferred from an Ivy but ended up in top 15.
The rest are in the top 50 including UMD - I mention that b/c some had no choice, financially, to not go in-state but perhaps could have ended up in the top 20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid graduated from one of those schools with 700 other kids. There is no way to know where everyone has ended up. The Insta account and Bethesda Mag are the only means to have any sense of where kids ended up.

I can tell you that in her friend group and adjacent friend group, which is roughly 20 kids, mostly rich and white (but not all), about 10 are in top 10-20 schools, no legacies, no athletes. Two deferred from an Ivy but ended up in top 15.
The rest are in the top 50 including UMD - I mention that b/c some had no choice, financially, to not go in-state but perhaps could have ended up in the top 20.

Great post!

[Anonymous]

By they time you are where we are, one graduated one graduating this year, nobody cares about that stuff and you look back where you are now and realize you wasted so much energy and time worrying bout it.

Many of them take time off, many drop out, many transfer and the only people who care are the parents who can't mind their own business and are constantly comparing their kids to others.

[Anonymous]

Professor parent here and this is what I think too. None of this matters.

[Anonymous]

My oldest graduated from WJ in '23 and my youngest is at BCC.

I have no clue, and don't care.

What I know, OP, is that the three you mention are great schools. Whitman and WJ are the best academically. BCC is a little lower down, but still in the top group of MCPS high schools.

Are you wondering where to move to for your kid? Be aware that boundaries are getting worked out because there's a new high school next to WJ, Woodward, that is going to take kids out of overcrowded WJ and other neighboring schools (but apparently not BCC).

[Anonymous]

I had a NMF at one of these schools who didn’t even apply to any t50s.

I’m not sure I understand your question. Are you asking about the quality of the education or trying to figure out if the schools are unattractively striver-ish where people overvalue expensive name brands in an effort to impress their neighbors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a NMF at one of these schools who didn’t even apply to any t50s.

I’m not sure I understand your question. Are you asking about the quality of the education or trying to figure out if the schools are unattractively striver-ish where people overvalue expensive name brands in an effort to impress their neighbors?

Ha ha. If OP is asking the question, it's always the first option. Never the second.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a NMF at one of these schools who didn’t even apply to any t50s.

I’m not sure I understand your question. Are you asking about the quality of the education or trying to figure out if the schools are unattractively striver-ish where people overvalue expensive name brands in an effort to impress their neighbors?

Someone asking about stats like that will always belong to the former group, and be the most socially clueless, intensely bulldozer one of them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By they time you are where we are, one graduated one graduating this year, nobody cares about that stuff and you look back where you are now and realize you wasted so much energy and time worrying bout it.

Many of them take time off, many drop out, many transfer and the only people who care are the parents who can't mind their own business and are constantly comparing their kids to others.

Thank you for saying this. I'm halfway there with my kids and this is not really something that I worry about a lot. But when I do, I try and tamp it down and remember that this is not something worth stressing about.

[Anonymous]

My recent grad, who goes to a top 20 school has been asked this question by no less than 3 doctors of Indian descent in the last year!