Arlington vs Fairfax vs MoCo schools

[Anonymous]

If you are on DCUM your kid is above average and will thrive in any environment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax is the gold standard.

Nah, everyone (be it public or private) wants to measure up or surpass MCPS. People don't think much of Fairfax outside of TJ. It is what it is.

-DC resident

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The W schools have the highest test scores in the area, so that makes people assume they are the best schools. But when adjusted for demographics (race, income and education level of parents) they're no better than the Arlington or Fairfax schools. Plus unless you want to shell out $$$ after graduation for private, your best college option is essentially commuting to University of Maryland. No other in state school is any good at all. In Virginia you have access to UVA, William & Mary, and Tech -- plus JMU, Mary Washington and VCU among others. You'd be crazy to walk away from that.

You're a clueless VA booster. I mean you mentioned JMU, MW and VCU. What about UMBC, Towson, MSM in MD

MSM? Mount Saint Mary's? It's a Catholic school -- and not a very good one. Maybe you mean St Mary's of Maryland. Yea, it's fine, but it's not as good as the best in VA. UMBC and Towson are decidedly average at best.

And JMU, MW and VCU, aren't they also average at best?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The W schools have the highest test scores in the area, so that makes people assume they are the best schools. But when adjusted for demographics (race, income and education level of parents) they're no better than the Arlington or Fairfax schools. Plus unless you want to shell out $$$ after graduation for private, your best college option is essentially commuting to University of Maryland. No other in state school is any good at all. In Virginia you have access to UVA, William & Mary, and Tech -- plus JMU, Mary Washington and VCU among others. You'd be crazy to walk away from that.

TJ has the highest test scores in the area, followed some some of the W schools, followed by Langley and McLean, followed by other W schools, followed by some of the Arlington schools.

TJ is a much larger STEM magnet than the magnet programs at Blair and Poolesville, so if you reallocated the magnet kids to their base schools, you'd end up with about the same number of "top" schools in Montgomery and Fairfax. The difference between MCPS and FCPS is that FCPS has more high schools that are considered very good, even if not at the W school/Langley/McLean level. Both systems have some lower-performing schools as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax is the gold standard.

Nah, everyone (be it public or private) wants to measure up or surpass MCPS. People don't think much of Fairfax outside of TJ. It is what it is.

-DC resident

I don't think your residence means much on this topic, other than people leaving DC may still be somewhat more likely to move to Bethesda or Chevy Chase (whereas NoVa is now getting more high-income transplants from other parts of the country).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The W schools have the highest test scores in the area, so that makes people assume they are the best schools. But when adjusted for demographics (race, income and education level of parents) they're no better than the Arlington or Fairfax schools. Plus unless you want to shell out $$$ after graduation for private, your best college option is essentially commuting to University of Maryland. No other in state school is any good at all. In Virginia you have access to UVA, William & Mary, and Tech -- plus JMU, Mary Washington and VCU among others. You'd be crazy to walk away from that.

You're a clueless VA booster. I mean you mentioned JMU, MW and VCU. What about UMBC, Towson, MSM in MD

MSM? Mount Saint Mary's? It's a Catholic school -- and not a very good one. Maybe you mean St Mary's of Maryland. Yea, it's fine, but it's not as good as the best in VA. UMBC and Towson are decidedly average at best.

And JMU, MW and VCU, aren't they also average at best?

Nope. They're better schools.

For every Maryland college, you can list one in VA that is better. You can argue until your blue in the face, but there's just no denying that the in state college options in VA are better than in MD. Try arguing something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The W schools have the highest test scores in the area, so that makes people assume they are the best schools. But when adjusted for demographics (race, income and education level of parents) they're no better than the Arlington or Fairfax schools. Plus unless you want to shell out $$$ after graduation for private, your best college option is essentially commuting to University of Maryland. No other in state school is any good at all. In Virginia you have access to UVA, William & Mary, and Tech -- plus JMU, Mary Washington and VCU among others. You'd be crazy to walk away from that.

TJ has the highest test scores in the area, followed some some of the W schools, followed by Langley and McLean, followed by other W schools, followed by some of the Arlington schools.

TJ is a much larger STEM magnet than the magnet programs at Blair and Poolesville, so if you reallocated the magnet kids to their base schools, you'd end up with about the same number of "top" schools in Montgomery and Fairfax. The difference between MCPS and FCPS is that FCPS has more high schools that are considered very good, even if not at the W school/Langley/McLean level. Both systems have some lower-performing schools as well.

I love the argument that the Fairfax neighborhood schools would be better than they are if TJ didn't exist and the TJ kids went to them instead. First, that's not a given -- many would probably go private. Second, a school is only as good as the students it has, not the ones that it doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The W schools have the highest test scores in the area, so that makes people assume they are the best schools. But when adjusted for demographics (race, income and education level of parents) they're no better than the Arlington or Fairfax schools. Plus unless you want to shell out $$$ after graduation for private, your best college option is essentially commuting to University of Maryland. No other in state school is any good at all. In Virginia you have access to UVA, William & Mary, and Tech -- plus JMU, Mary Washington and VCU among others. You'd be crazy to walk away from that.

TJ has the highest test scores in the area, followed some some of the W schools, followed by Langley and McLean, followed by other W schools, followed by some of the Arlington schools.

TJ is a much larger STEM magnet than the magnet programs at Blair and Poolesville, so if you reallocated the magnet kids to their base schools, you'd end up with about the same number of "top" schools in Montgomery and Fairfax. The difference between MCPS and FCPS is that FCPS has more high schools that are considered very good, even if not at the W school/Langley/McLean level. Both systems have some lower-performing schools as well.

No, that's not true. Outside of TJ, there are no very good schools in FCPS. Langley/McLean are above average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax is the gold standard.

Nah, everyone (be it public or private) wants to measure up or surpass MCPS. People don't think much of Fairfax outside of TJ. It is what it is.

-DC resident

I don't think your residence means much on this topic, other than people leaving DC may still be somewhat more likely to move to Bethesda or Chevy Chase (whereas NoVa is now getting more high-income transplants from other parts of the country).

But what the poster said is true. Everyone wants to measure up and beat MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The W schools have the highest test scores in the area, so that makes people assume they are the best schools. But when adjusted for demographics (race, income and education level of parents) they're no better than the Arlington or Fairfax schools. Plus unless you want to shell out $$$ after graduation for private, your best college option is essentially commuting to University of Maryland. No other in state school is any good at all. In Virginia you have access to UVA, William & Mary, and Tech -- plus JMU, Mary Washington and VCU among others. You'd be crazy to walk away from that.

TJ has the highest test scores in the area, followed some some of the W schools, followed by Langley and McLean, followed by other W schools, followed by some of the Arlington schools.

TJ is a much larger STEM magnet than the magnet programs at Blair and Poolesville, so if you reallocated the magnet kids to their base schools, you'd end up with about the same number of "top" schools in Montgomery and Fairfax. The difference between MCPS and FCPS is that FCPS has more high schools that are considered very good, even if not at the W school/Langley/McLean level. Both systems have some lower-performing schools as well.

No, that's not true. Outside of TJ, there are no very good schools in FCPS. Langley/McLean are above average.

Okay, okay, we're convinced. Really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the reputation of these 3 areas? We are in Arlington now. Most people love their elementary school, kind of get through middle school, and then really like their kid’s high school again. It seems like my friends and colleagues in Fairfax and MoCo feel about the same about their schools. But my sense is that things are more intense in Fairfax — more people supplementing outside of school, more competition to get into the AAP program. Although that could just be my friends and not true generally. We are considering moving from Arlington to Fairfax or MoCo and wonder how the school experience would change.

Fairfax > Montgomery > Arlington

Perhaps, if you're kid is completely average, but I went to FCPS. My kids go to MCPS. MCPS has much better enrichment for advanced learners.

AAP and TJ is dumbed down by comparison

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The W schools have the highest test scores in the area, so that makes people assume they are the best schools. But when adjusted for demographics (race, income and education level of parents) they're no better than the Arlington or Fairfax schools. Plus unless you want to shell out $$$ after graduation for private, your best college option is essentially commuting to University of Maryland. No other in state school is any good at all. In Virginia you have access to UVA, William & Mary, and Tech -- plus JMU, Mary Washington and VCU among others. You'd be crazy to walk away from that.

You're a clueless VA booster. I mean you mentioned JMU, MW and VCU. What about UMBC, Towson, MSM in MD

MSM? Mount Saint Mary's? It's a Catholic school -- and not a very good one. Maybe you mean St Mary's of Maryland. Yea, it's fine, but it's not as good as the best in VA. UMBC and Towson are decidedly average at best.

And JMU, MW and VCU, aren't they also average at best?

Nope. They're better schools.

For every Maryland college, you can list one in VA that is better. You can argue until your blue in the face, but there's just no denying that the in state college options in VA are better than in MD. Try arguing something else.

It's not exactly true. UMDCP for example is much better than any VA school for specific subjects like Phyhsics, Economics, Engineering, CS, or Math. Yes, I know UVA is #27 or something in CS whereas MD was around 15 overall but 10 for AI.

[Anonymous]

OP, first of all, commute is King. The school differences will not matter as much as other quality of life details. Imo, MoCo does a much better job at creative writing, teaching literature, critical thinking, debate. FCPS does a better job w/math and science. MoCo has done a much better job of differential instruction in the classroom rather than separate AAP. I hate the existence of AAP. MoCo is more liberal. There is a fairly strong military-family presence at many FCPS schools. Athletics and being fit is emphasized in FCPS, imho. Yes, there are more Va college choices ... but then you are going to college in Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The W schools have the highest test scores in the area, so that makes people assume they are the best schools. But when adjusted for demographics (race, income and education level of parents) they're no better than the Arlington or Fairfax schools. Plus unless you want to shell out $$$ after graduation for private, your best college option is essentially commuting to University of Maryland. No other in state school is any good at all. In Virginia you have access to UVA, William & Mary, and Tech -- plus JMU, Mary Washington and VCU among others. You'd be crazy to walk away from that.

TJ has the highest test scores in the area, followed some some of the W schools, followed by Langley and McLean, followed by other W schools, followed by some of the Arlington schools.

TJ is a much larger STEM magnet than the magnet programs at Blair and Poolesville, so if you reallocated the magnet kids to their base schools, you'd end up with about the same number of "top" schools in Montgomery and Fairfax. The difference between MCPS and FCPS is that FCPS has more high schools that are considered very good, even if not at the W school/Langley/McLean level. Both systems have some lower-performing schools as well.

I love the argument that the Fairfax neighborhood schools would be better than they are if TJ didn't exist and the TJ kids went to them instead. First, that's not a given -- many would probably go private. Second, a school is only as good as the students it has, not the ones that it doesn't.

OK, let's look at the students the schools have. According to the latest US News national rankings, TJ is currently #1 in the country, Whitman is #104, Langley is #136, McLean is #157, Wootton is #167, Churchill is #294, and Walter Johnson is #707.

Eliminate the TJ magnet, however, and Langley and McLean would likely be ranked even higher. Fairfax has a lot more jobs than Montgomery and people would still want to live close to their jobs even if there weren't a TJHSST.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the reputation of these 3 areas? We are in Arlington now. Most people love their elementary school, kind of get through middle school, and then really like their kid’s high school again. It seems like my friends and colleagues in Fairfax and MoCo feel about the same about their schools. But my sense is that things are more intense in Fairfax — more people supplementing outside of school, more competition to get into the AAP program. Although that could just be my friends and not true generally. We are considering moving from Arlington to Fairfax or MoCo and wonder how the school experience would change.

Fairfax > Montgomery > Arlington

Perhaps, if you're kid is completely average, but I went to FCPS. My kids go to MCPS. MCPS has much better enrichment for advanced learners.

AAP and TJ is dumbed down by comparison

Not very convincing.