WIS for HS - pros/cons

[Anonymous]

Well, I guess you can look at it in lots of ways. The embassies and NGOs typically pay less than full rate, which I guess one could argue eats into what would be a financial aid pool. However, the tuition at WIS is more or less in line with other independent schools.

[Anonymous]

“ On average 16 percent of the current students receive some amount of financial aid. Grant amounts vary depending on need, although all families pay some portion of tuition and fees. Aid is available to approximately 15 newly-admitted students per year. Any family entering WIS as full pay will remain full pay unless a significant change in circumstances can be established through the SSS process.”


That’s lower than most top tier independent schools but not ridiculously so (Sidwell is 22%, Maret 25%, GDS is 22%, STA 34%). I also suspect that they don’t consider the discounted rates to be financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“ On average 16 percent of the current students receive some amount of financial aid. Grant amounts vary depending on need, although all families pay some portion of tuition and fees. Aid is available to approximately 15 newly-admitted students per year. Any family entering WIS as full pay will remain full pay unless a significant change in circumstances can be established through the SSS process.”


That’s lower than most top tier independent schools but not ridiculously so (Sidwell is 22%, Maret 25%, GDS is 22%, STA 34%). I also suspect that they don’t consider the discounted rates to be financial aid.

There are no discounted rates, no idea what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

PP stated it well. WIS good at what it does, but just be certain you understand its raison d’etre before committing.

[Anonymous]

But embassy kids are often fully funded right?

[Anonymous]

And next the PP will presumably peddle that the WB/IMF/Embassy kids go through the same admissions process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But embassy kids are often fully funded right?

Yes, fully or mostly funded.

And WIS is obviously in the FAQ section of the “So, where should I send my kids to school during the Washington posting?”

The school is excellent but is designed to provide an education for the many foreign folks stationed in Washington, and everything about it is for that purpose. It’s not an insult, but a family deciding between WIS any of the Big 3/5/10/50 is not the target market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But embassy kids are often fully funded right?

Yes, fully or mostly funded.

And WIS is obviously in the FAQ section of the “So, where should I send my kids to school during the Washington posting?”

The school is excellent but is designed to provide an education for the many foreign folks stationed in Washington, and everything about it is for that purpose. It’s not an insult, but a family deciding between WIS any of the Big 3/5/10/50 is not the target market.

Families often apply to multiple schools. Those that place high value on 2nd, or even 3rd, language and on the internationally oriented curriculum, do with some regularity choose WIS over offers from Big 3/5/10/50. So yes, it probably is more about the learning than about the immediate value of school community connections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And next the PP will presumably peddle that the WB/IMF/Embassy kids go through the same admissions process?

You have done strange ideas. Of course IMF and World Bank kids go through the same admissions process. Why wouldn’t they?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But embassy kids are often fully funded right?

Yes, fully or mostly funded.

And WIS is obviously in the FAQ section of the “So, where should I send my kids to school during the Washington posting?”

The school is excellent but is designed to provide an education for the many foreign folks stationed in Washington, and everything about it is for that purpose. It’s not an insult, but a family deciding between WIS any of the Big 3/5/10/50 is not the target market.

Families often apply to multiple schools. Those that place high value on 2nd, or even 3rd, language and on the internationally oriented curriculum, do with some regularity choose WIS over offers from Big 3/5/10/50. So yes, it probably is more about the learning than about the immediate value of school community connections.

We chose WIS over a Big 3. Trust me people do it every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone also talk about the prestige of completing the Bilingual International Baccalaureate? It’s a rigorous program and I’m just wondering what kinds of doors this will open for my child, if completed. Thanks!

It opens up quite a few university options in other countries. We have friends who are seriously considering WIS for high school for their daughter because the IB degree would allow their her to go without additional prep to an excellent college essentially free in her parents' home country, as she has citizenship there via her parents.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for all the comments - we are seriously considering this school for DC (current 7th grader) for HS. I will need to go to their website to check the curriculum requirements obviously but could anyone clarify a few things?

Are all students required to do the 'dual language IB' diploma? Or is there an option to do IB only in English? Our child is not a native speaker of either French or Spanish - she would do Spanish if she got in.

A previous poster wrote:
It's worth noting as well that WIS maintains strong relationships with embassies and NGOs, the vast majority of whom either pay for or significantly subsidize the tuition for the kids of their employees. This is not a negative at all, but it's important to know that this constituency (and keeping them happy) is intrinsic to the business model.

What does "keeping them happy" mean exactly? We are currently at a well regarded (at least on DCUM anyway) K-8 and there are some students whose parents are wealthy/big donors/connected and these students (and their close friends) are given a wide berth in terms of academic performance (they are "allowed" to goof off, disrupt in class with minimal consequences) /school class requirements (some of them don't have to take certain classes for unknown reasons) / almost all their bad behavior is tolerated without repercussions. By now, the other kids in the class have come to accept that these kids are "protected" and there is no point in saying anything because the HOS and administrators want to "keep them happy". Perhaps this is what happens in all private schools around here (we have no idea as we are both products of public school).

Is this what happens at WIS also with the embassy/NGO families?

Thanks for all the helpful advice.

[Anonymous]

You said better than I could. Yes, that’s precisely what happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for all the comments - we are seriously considering this school for DC (current 7th grader) for HS. I will need to go to their website to check the curriculum requirements obviously but could anyone clarify a few things?

Are all students required to do the 'dual language IB' diploma? Or is there an option to do IB only in English? Our child is not a native speaker of either French or Spanish - she would do Spanish if she got in.

A previous poster wrote:
It's worth noting as well that WIS maintains strong relationships with embassies and NGOs, the vast majority of whom either pay for or significantly subsidize the tuition for the kids of their employees. This is not a negative at all, but it's important to know that this constituency (and keeping them happy) is intrinsic to the business model.

What does "keeping them happy" mean exactly? We are currently at a well regarded (at least on DCUM anyway) K-8 and there are some students whose parents are wealthy/big donors/connected and these students (and their close friends) are given a wide berth in terms of academic performance (they are "allowed" to goof off, disrupt in class with minimal consequences) /school class requirements (some of them don't have to take certain classes for unknown reasons) / almost all their bad behavior is tolerated without repercussions. By now, the other kids in the class have come to accept that these kids are "protected" and there is no point in saying anything because the HOS and administrators want to "keep them happy". Perhaps this is what happens in all private schools around here (we have no idea as we are both products of public school).

Is this what happens at WIS also with the embassy/NGO families?

Thanks for all the helpful advice.

I'm not sure what 'maintains a strong relationship with NGOs' means. My DH is at the IMF. We have never had any official communication from the IMF about WIS. They don't care where your child attends school. However, there definitely is a fair bunch of IMF kids there so there is word of mouth within the community. We also have IMF friends who choose to send their kids to MCPS or other privates. I can't comment on the school's relationship with embassies. No, the school doesn't go to lengths to 'keep us happy'. I have no idea of whether there is any 'special' treatment of children of big donors as inevitably happens at other private schools.

None of the IMF kids we know are doing the dual language IB. They did not go through the immersion program which starts in Pre-K and so are not bilingual in a second language. Kids who enter from 6th grade onwards are not part of the immersion group unless they arrive already fluent in a language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for all the comments - we are seriously considering this school for DC (current 7th grader) for HS. I will need to go to their website to check the curriculum requirements obviously but could anyone clarify a few things?

Are all students required to do the 'dual language IB' diploma? Or is there an option to do IB only in English? Our child is not a native speaker of either French or Spanish - she would do Spanish if she got in.

A previous poster wrote:
It's worth noting as well that WIS maintains strong relationships with embassies and NGOs, the vast majority of whom either pay for or significantly subsidize the tuition for the kids of their employees. This is not a negative at all, but it's important to know that this constituency (and keeping them happy) is intrinsic to the business model.

[b]What does "keeping them happy" mean exactly? We are currently at a well regarded (at least on DCUM anyway) K-8 and there are some students whose parents are wealthy/big donors/connected and these students (and their close friends) are given a wide berth in terms of academic performance (they are "allowed" to goof off, disrupt in class with minimal consequences) /school class requirements (some of them don't have to take certain classes for unknown reasons) / almost all their bad behavior is tolerated without repercussions. By now, the other kids in the class have come to accept that these kids are "protected" and there is no point in saying anything because the HOS and administrators want to "keep them happy". Perhaps this is what happens in all private schools around here (we have no idea as we are both products of public school).

Is this what happens at WIS also with the embassy/NGO families?

Thanks for all the helpful advice.

No, this does NOT happen. I'm the PP who had two kids at the school for 15 years. AGAIN - OP talk to ACTUAL WIS parents. I don't think any of these folks that blather on about the IMF/WB families have ever stepped foot on a WIS campus. When we toured the school over 15 years ago, the AD told us that their goal was maintaing the following breakdown: one third both parents are international, one third one American-born parent and one international parent, and one third both American-born parents. And during our 15 years at WIS, I think that balance has been pretty much maintained. And as another PP said, the WB hasn't provided a tuition benefit now for many years. We are an American/international family but we have no ties to any embassy or international organizaiton. Both DH and I are entrepreneurs. We know many many other WIS families who also have no ties to international organizations. Nobody gets special treatment in admissions, behavior, or tuition discounts. This is just false. I was very involved with the school for many years; I don't believe the naysayers have any first-hand knowledge of WIS.

And to answer the question about the bilingual diploma, no your DC does not have to complete a bililingual diploma. It's mostly kids who were lifers or who have their Language A as their home language. My DCs were lifers and that's why they did the bilingual diploma. We don't speak the target langauge at home (we speak other languages) and our DCs have a very high level of fluency in the target language they learned at WIS since PreK. We've traveled to countries where their target language is spoken and people think they are native speakers.

Best of luck to you and your DC in your search for the right school for your DC and your family.