BASIS v. Walls for high school
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Anonymous
Mom of BASIS senior here. My kid thinks the flexible senior year has been awesome. Definitely lives up to the hype and they’re looking forward to being done with classes in March and then doing an internship. Their friends at Walls seem considerably more stressed out about schoolwork, college admissions, social life (really everything) than BASIS kids. |
Anonymous
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BASIS will let seniors take one or two AP classes if the family pushes. We sent our kid to a month-long residential AP prep program in the summer between junior and senior year. We signed up for two AP tests in May of senior year that BASIS hadn't authorized, at a public school in Fairfax (easily done). We also signed up for two Cambridge International A-Levels (one in a language, pitched one or two years past AP) at the British International school of DC on the advice of our private college counselor (also easily done and not expensive). Cambridge exams are given in Nov and May and the tests are more sophisticated than AP exams, graded entirely by humans w/out multiple choice. Cambridge is a hot brand internationally, known to US elite colleges. Our kid took a community college language class to prep.
BASIS pushed hard for our kid to apply to colleges Oct-Jan of senior year, because they wanted the bragging rights to his admissions successes, but we didn't cooperate. On the advice of our private college counselor, we had our kid's transcripts and recommendations forwarded to a transcript forwarding service, which sent them on to colleges when we wanted. I'm not going to tell you where our kid was admitted to college, because that would out us, other than to say that our efforts paid off. If he'd applied to the same colleges in the fall/'winter of senior year, we highly doubt that he would have been admitted to the most competitive institutions, particularly one in the UK. Our gap year application strategy wasn't cheap, but worth it. We looked at BASIS as merely one source of application inputs. Our younger kid is aiming for Walls. |
Anonymous
Generalizing at all? We found it strange that BASIS offered v. little flexibility from 5th-11th grades, then plenty for senior year. The approach is pretty extreme. Flexibility all the way up would have been great. To each is or her own. |
Anonymous
I could have written this. My BASIS 8th grader has been on the distinguished honor roll almost every grading period since 5th grade, with a few exceptions (of “only” being on honor roll). We’re looking at Walls but we’ll look in greater earnest when/if my child gets in. My child likes BASIS and has expressed a desire to stay. But I also hear more complaints about teacher quality this year than ever before. But the poster above who anecdotally mentioned that a former peer from BASIS was bored at Walls for two whole years has me somewhat concerned. My BASIS 8th grader typically has a 98/99 average with very little effort, almost always completing homework while at school and never studying for tests. Would Walls be challenging enough? How does the academic rigor compare? |
Anonymous
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No, Walls isn't more rigorous than BASIS, unless your kid qualifies to take GW classes. In our experience, you can't rely on any DC public school for all your rigor where a kid is an academic high flier because this is a city without true test-in magnet programs like those in MoCo, Fairfax, and Arlington for IB Diploma. We enroll our children in rigorous weekend programs for music (at Strathmore) and foreign languages in MoCo (intensive, geared at families with native speaking adults). Our children have attended Johns Hopkins CTY in the summers. You have to supplement regardless.
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Anonymous
OP here - this is a good question. I think one of kid's main reasons to switch would be chance to reunite with elementary school friends who scattered to different middle schools. Possibly better sports (soccer) team offerings (not sure if they are that much better at walls?)? Allegedly better humanities instruction could be another reason - but kid is equally good at math and science, so a shame to give that up. Bigger cohort (140 vs. 60-70) could be a good thing - assuming the kids are nice. |
Anonymous
We must have the same child! We are debating the same thing, I think we might apply, but ultimately stick with basis. Child has a penchant for tech and wants to do engineering ultimately. Basis will probably set us up better for that. |
Anonymous
I can't speak to the comparison with Walls, but I have a Basis 9th grader and there has been a big jump in the intensity of English. Not only are there two English classes in 9th, but there's a lot more writing. For my child, who's strong in math/science but less so in language, the beginning of the year was rough, but he's gotten more comfortable with the writing demands. So if one consideration is the light reading and writing load in middle school, that's something to consider. |
Anonymous
If you like piña coladas And gettin' caught in the rain… |
Anonymous
As a parent of a 7th grader...that is great to hear! |
Anonymous
LOL. Probably went over most people’s heads. |
Anonymous
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So I’m looking at the Pina Colada Song lyrics and I can’t “Escape” my curiosity for the joke here…can someone please explain?
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Anonymous
| I just looked up this song — love it!! |
Anonymous
I don't get it either |
Anonymous
You don’t get the song? Or how it applies to someone obsessing over whether to enroll at Walls instead of BASIS? |