Why don’t more parents send their kids to Basis McLean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At least their learning something.

Like grammar ^^

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

It’s well regarded out west too and more academic, math and stem oriented than most options in DC.
DC area parents are too lib sets focused and set on the established liberal private schools here to consider it.

[Anonymous]

It’s a good apolitical option. I would think it would greatly appeal to international families as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

It’s well regarded out west too and more academic, math and stem oriented than most options in DC.
DC area parents are too lib sets focused and set on the established liberal private schools here to consider it.

My friends in Silicon Valley sent their kids to Basis. She said in her area, people all trying to send their kids either to Harker or Basis. Basis to UC all campus acceptance rate is very high: 84.1% for year 2018, 80.2% for 2019, 92.4% for 2020, and 91% for 2021.

[Anonymous]

Toured the school. It’s an office building in a high traffic area with no sports teams.

[Anonymous]

Last I heard, it seemed this school was on the brink of closing down?

[Anonymous]

This is not a public charter school; BASIS DC is a public charter school. This campus was part of the BASIS Independent group that was sold by the parent BASIS Charter organization to a new roll-up private school group that is ultimately owned by a Chinese investment fund. The old CEO was kicked out a year later, and the school has actually made limited, stumbling progress since then under new leadership.

But it's a private sector venture that has lost tons of money in refit and operating costs. Yes, the building was a FreddieMac office complex that a property REIT bought and leased to BIM. The red ink here is well into 8 digits by now. So bean counters will be watching everything that is spent.

If they get enough students to justify outfitting the other half of the building (they leased 200K sq ft and only use half of it) then the company will need millions more to turn that old office space into school space.

You are betting on their commitment to reaching the 5-year goals set in 2016 and not met yet.

[Anonymous]

The building has tons of sunlight with windows in every room and skylight over the hall. Every room is spacious and bright has natural light. It’s good for the kids. I wish i knew this school earlier so my kids would join earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not a public charter school; BASIS DC is a public charter school. This campus was part of the BASIS Independent group that was sold by the parent BASIS Charter organization to a new roll-up private school group that is ultimately owned by a Chinese investment fund. The old CEO was kicked out a year later, and the school has actually made limited, stumbling progress since then under new leadership.

But it's a private sector venture that has lost tons of money in refit and operating costs. Yes, the building was a FreddieMac office complex that a property REIT bought and leased to BIM. The red ink here is well into 8 digits by now. So bean counters will be watching everything that is spent.

If they get enough students to justify outfitting the other half of the building (they leased 200K sq ft and only use half of it) then the company will need millions more to turn that old office space into school space.

You are betting on their commitment to reaching the 5-year goals set in 2016 and not met yet.

What’s the five year goal.
One post said reaching 600 students was their goal. It’s already 640 student now

[Anonymous]

My kids are in lower to middle school. They love it. My middle schooler said teachers in Basis know how to teach. So they learn in an easier way. For me, I’d like to pay the tuition for them not wasting time at those slow pace public schools.
The low number of high school students also concerns me. Hopefully more middle school students will stay here for high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least their learning something.

Like grammar ^^

+1. Like the difference between their, there and they're.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love it or hate it....

https://www.greatschools.org/virginia/mclean/7611-BASIS-Independent-McLean/

Like I said before, most of Basis parents are busy upper middle class professionals who don't have time to write a review. And if they are happy with the school, they don't need a vent to say anything.
A single one unhappy parent may keep writing bad reviews.
This school not suit for everyone for sure.

If not seeing so many posts with bias, I would not write anything here either.

Lol on the "don't have time to write a review."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least their learning something.

Like grammar ^^

+1. Like the difference between their, there and they're.

+2 I was just about to write the same thing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least their learning something.

Like grammar ^^

+1. Like the difference between their, there and they're.

+2 I was just about to write the same thing!

Posts like this make me like Basis even more. To filter out these parents who feel superior and only focus on trivial things but don't have big pictures.
Let nature take it's course. Watching the rank of Basis rising everywhere while people here will never get it.
Last year Basis McLean was #15 in DC area from Niche ranking. People here laughed at saying "there were only 15 schools in DC"? This year it is #10 in DC area, better than many well-known names such as Maret, Landon, Georgetown Prep, Bullis, etc.. Then people here said "no one trust Niche". Ok, I get it. People here trust this forum more than Niche and US news. No matter how hard Basis worked, what accomplish Basis made, people here just won't see them because it's newer and cheaper than other private schools therefore won't give them the superior feelings.
Basis independent in Silicon Valley and NYC have established their good reputation. Here in McLean, with lots of good private schools options in DC area, and surrounding by top public schools like TJ, Langley and McLean, Basis Mclean was always facing high competitions and struggling to survive from the beginning. Almost 6 years since opened, they survived and are doing great. now they have 640 students and very good college acceptance rate.

[Anonymous]

The Basis booster has a distinctive writing style so we know it’s the same person posting over and over again.