College placement from Yorktown or Washington-Lee?

[Anonymous]

I was inspired by the thread on the OT forum yesterday about moving from MD to VA and I'm trying to learn more about the Arlington school system. I've been digging in the archives, but I'd be curious if anyone knows if there is any data on college admissions from these two HS? Bethesda magazine publishes an annual list of acceptances received by 6 or 8 big HS, so I'm wondering if there is any similar survey done for Arlington or NOVA more generally?

Back story is that I'm in MoCo right now with a great school system but increasingly unhappy with this area. We bought an older house on a busy street here just to get into the BCC cluster ten years ago, and getting more/nicer space would probably require a much longer commute at our budget. We both commute into DC, so there's no good reason that we need to be in MD vs. VA.

BTW, if anyone has any better tools for making a comparison between Yorktown/WL and BCC and the Bethesda HS, I'm all ears. And please don't flame me for being interested in college placement now when my kids are only in elementary school - it's just seems like a more useful measure of a school's academic reputation than test scores.

[Anonymous]

Ok, why are you unhappy with the BCC area?

Are you sure this wouldn't repeat itself with Arlington, or would you be better served by maybe moving to Rockville/upper Silver Spring or its VA counterparts (Vienna/Burke/Springfield)?

In general: Yorktown is better, but houses are pricier. Somewhere in here I posted SAT scores for both, they are among the top scorers in the area. Even Wakefield is good in serving the 60-70% of its student body that care about college/academics, although there's more of a focus on at-risk/marginal kids.

[Anonymous]

No idea, but just wanted to say that I attended Yorktown back in the day and my sister went to W-L (boundary change). In both of our classes, there was the full range of college admissions - state schools (which in VA are quite good, UVA, Va Tech, W&M, etc), out of state-state schools, smaller liberal arts schools, and, of course, Ivy league, Ivy-like, and public Ivys (Ivies?) That was nearly 20 years ago - I find it hard to believe that they aren't even more competitive nowadays...

I'm assuming you're wanting to find out WHERE kids are enrolling? Data on what percentages of kids matriculate in 4-year college are available through the school system and for both W&L and Yorktown are very high...

Don't you think it's enough to know that elite schools DO accept students from these schools? I think it's a bit much to try to parse which schools send how many kids to which college and so forth - I mean, in the end it's not like you're going to have any control over where your child is accepted to college.

[Anonymous]

OP here, sorry if I wasn't clear. The elementaries in my cluster are massively overcrowded and from what little I understand there's probably no solution that will make that better in the near or even medium term. I like the MoCo area just fine, but with nonstop power outages and talk of more cuts and higher taxes, I'm just trying to assess my options. I don't want a longer commute; to me losing that much time with my kids just isn't worth it (at this stage).

The posters on the other thread made north Arlington sound amazing - very easy commute and terrific schools. What I'm trying to understand is whether these HS are genuinely the equivalent of Whitman/Churchill/BCC (as someone posted on the other thread). I'm sold that they are good schools; just still trying to place them within the universe of schools that I know a tiny bit about. Honestly it just seems a little too good to be true, especially because it seems like you do a little better at my sadly modest price range in that area as compared with Beth/CC.

I don't think college placement stats can predict where my kids will go to school; but it's an interesting data point particularly when you're comparing schools. More interesting to me than SAT scores, anyway.

[Anonymous]

Please don't move to Arlington if you are trying to avoid overcrowding. The elementary schools that are supposedly "good" are all getting seriously overcrowded. My kids' school is almost 200 kids above capacity and they keep adding trailers...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don't move to Arlington if you are trying to avoid overcrowding. The elementary schools that are supposedly "good" are all getting seriously overcrowded. My kids' school is almost 200 kids above capacity and they keep adding trailers...

I agree with this. There have been numerous articles recently about the overcrowding issue in Arlington and how it is just getting worse. W-L is brand new, but I believe it is already at capacity and will be overcrowded shortly. I love Arlington and think the schools are great and the county has great services, but if you are just trying to avoid overcrowding, that is definitely not a reason to move here.

[Anonymous]

+1 to this. Take a look at the Arlington County Schools website. A study was done, I think last year, about projections for school size and growth. It's not pretty. For that matter, if you decide to move and like one particular elementary school, make sure you live some place that would not potentially be rezoned to another school. There's been lots of shifting the last few years, and neighborhoods on the margins of a school's boundary are finding themselves moving from one to another.

The high schools do track school acceptances. You might be able to see the data by calling the guidance office at each school, but they typically don't allow people to leave with the documentation.

I don't know anything about MoCo, so can't compare for you. Arlington Schools are great, but crowding, especially at the lower grades, is probably the major issue.

[Anonymous]

not sure about APS, but FCPS schools are better than MCPS, that's the general impression.

[Anonymous]

Adding to the posters who said that you will find the same overcrowding in Arlington as BCC ....

you're also likely to face the problem of budget cuts, which you are hoping to flee in MoCo. With predictable consequences. No school district is going to be immune, whether they are candid about this (MoCo is, see WashPost today) or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don't move to Arlington if you are trying to avoid overcrowding. The elementary schools that are supposedly "good" are all getting seriously overcrowded. My kids' school is almost 200 kids above capacity and they keep adding trailers...

Seriously, the problem with overcrowding is caused by parents who decide to have more than 2 kids. Nowadays, you see many parents opting to have 3 or more kids. This is not being green, and has serious ramifications due to their carbon footprints.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1 to this. Take a look at the Arlington County Schools website. A study was done, I think last year, about projections for school size and growth. It's not pretty. For that matter, if you decide to move and like one particular elementary school, make sure you live some place that would not potentially be rezoned to another school. There's been lots of shifting the last few years, and neighborhoods on the margins of a school's boundary are finding themselves moving from one to another.

The high schools do track school acceptances. You might be able to see the data by calling the guidance office at each school, but they typically don't allow people to leave with the documentation.

I don't know anything about MoCo, so can't compare for you. Arlington Schools are great, but crowding, especially at the lower grades, is probably the major issue.

Actually, there was one, tiny boundary shift a few years ago to help one school, Tuckahoe, that is still very overcrowded. The School Board members are cowards who back down to the entitled N. Arlington parents who don't want their kids moved in a boundary change. The School Board and Superintendent blabber on about short-term and long-term options for alleviating overcrowding, but the only thing they seem to be willing to implement now is to increase class sizes (and, voila, the overcrowding is gone!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 to this. Take a look at the Arlington County Schools website. A study was done, I think last year, about projections for school size and growth. It's not pretty. For that matter, if you decide to move and like one particular elementary school, make sure you live some place that would not potentially be rezoned to another school. There's been lots of shifting the last few years, and neighborhoods on the margins of a school's boundary are finding themselves moving from one to another.

The high schools do track school acceptances. You might be able to see the data by calling the guidance office at each school, but they typically don't allow people to leave with the documentation.

I don't know anything about MoCo, so can't compare for you. Arlington Schools are great, but crowding, especially at the lower grades, is probably the major issue.

Actually, there was one, tiny boundary shift a few years ago to help one school, Tuckahoe, that is still very overcrowded. The School Board members are cowards who back down to the entitled N. Arlington parents who don't want their kids moved in a boundary change. The School Board and Superintendent blabber on about short-term and long-term options for alleviating overcrowding, but the only thing they seem to be willing to implement now is to increase class sizes (and, voila, the overcrowding is gone!).

If you paid the taxes that they pay, then you would feel entitled too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't move to Arlington if you are trying to avoid overcrowding. The elementary schools that are supposedly "good" are all getting seriously overcrowded. My kids' school is almost 200 kids above capacity and they keep adding trailers...

Seriously, the problem with overcrowding is caused by parents who decide to have more than 2 kids. Nowadays, you see many parents opting to have 3 or more kids. This is not being green, and has serious ramifications due to their carbon footprints.

r u (people) serious?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't move to Arlington if you are trying to avoid overcrowding. The elementary schools that are supposedly "good" are all getting seriously overcrowded. My kids' school is almost 200 kids above capacity and they keep adding trailers...

Seriously, the problem with overcrowding is caused by parents who decide to have more than 2 kids. Nowadays, you see many parents opting to have 3 or more kids. This is not being green, and has serious ramifications due to their carbon footprints.

r u (people) serious?

Oh yeah, the Washington Post had a huge article about 1 year ago saying parents are opting to have a lot of kids these days, in the US, and this has serious ramifications to the environment due to their carbon footprint.

Nowadays, you see many couples who have 3-4 kids. This causes the overcrowding of schools. Totally unnecessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 to this. Take a look at the Arlington County Schools website. A study was done, I think last year, about projections for school size and growth. It's not pretty. For that matter, if you decide to move and like one particular elementary school, make sure you live some place that would not potentially be rezoned to another school. There's been lots of shifting the last few years, and neighborhoods on the margins of a school's boundary are finding themselves moving from one to another.

The high schools do track school acceptances. You might be able to see the data by calling the guidance office at each school, but they typically don't allow people to leave with the documentation.

I don't know anything about MoCo, so can't compare for you. Arlington Schools are great, but crowding, especially at the lower grades, is probably the major issue.

Actually, there was one, tiny boundary shift a few years ago to help one school, Tuckahoe, that is still very overcrowded. The School Board members are cowards who back down to the entitled N. Arlington parents who don't want their kids moved in a boundary change. The School Board and Superintendent blabber on about short-term and long-term options for alleviating overcrowding, but the only thing they seem to be willing to implement now is to increase class sizes (and, voila, the overcrowding is gone!).

Yes, I believe they moved some of them to Glebe which used to be underenrolled, but is now dealing with significant increase in class size at the K level and got its first trailers this year! WHat baffles me is that no one seemed to see this coming. The projections that were made last year were so low and when all the new students came, it seemed to surprise everyone on the Board! I could totally see it coming by just looking on my own street - tons of kids in the newborn - 4 age range.