Leaving Big 3 (maybe) for MCPS. Hate to say it college admissions matters to me. Where else can we go near MoCo?
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Anonymous
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My kids are in Bethesda-area MCPS and one graduated and attends college.
It will be helpful to identify clearly what you want out of your children's K-12 experience. Is it: 1. The best academic learning environment: what do you think that is? Is a private full of comforts, emphasis on respect, that selects good students at entry and has good teachers in most every subject, something you value for your children? Do you consider that publics, who all have great teachers in certain core subjects but maybe not all of them, and where really bad teachers can also stay for long periods of time, are also a good learning environment? Do you consider that publics in safe, wealthy neighborhoods may retain better teachers over time than publics in less-desirable neighborhoods, because parents put pressure on the administration to get rid of bad teachers, and good teachers want to teach and not have to deal with too many side issues? 2. The right socio-economic scene: what is that for you? Do you want your kids surrounded by wealth and comfort and live in that sort of bubble? Do you want your kids exposed to more realistic lifestyles, and how much: there will be a huge difference in school atmosphere between low-income and wealthy neighborhoods, because beyond the usual drugs/DUIs/teen antics, the realities of life are not the same. 3. Cultural exposure: do you want your kids to be exposed to a cosmopolitan group? Are you fine with a school with very little cultural diversity? Culture, in terms of number and provenance of foreign nationals, number of different ethnicities, variety of languages spoken by students, families with different origins, values, professions. As a multi-ethnic foreigner, that last is quite important to me. I have lived in small rural towns and capital cities around the world. I would never, ever, move my kids to places that do not have a strong international presence. 4. College admissions: the hope that there is a school where your kids could have a college admissions advantage is a myth, unless you want to move to an under-represented state, with a possibly lower quality of all 3 criteria explained above. Admissions offices across the country know very well what value to ascribe to a selective private, an MCPS school or any other school. Schools are required to provide a profile of their demographics, graduations rates and course offerings during the admissions process. Admissions are looking for students who have pushed themselves to get the most out of what was available to them. But a move to a rural part of an empty state with easier courses might be red flag in the application, might not get your kids into the universities you want, and might not prepare your kids well enough for college study. The moral of this story is that you should never pay for private just for a college admissions advantage. |
Anonymous
And they weren’t even from tiny schools. Graduating classes 200-250 in many cases. Just there was pretty much no demand. A lot of kids went to community college or didn’t go at all. This was 20-25 years ago. |
Anonymous
You'll be miserable everywhere, because you look at life like a girl who wants a wedding not a marriage. |
Anonymous
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Friend's child left private school after 8th and went to their really chaotic, almost all FARMS, low ranked public school. Instead of paying 40 to 50 K on private school they spent a boatload of money on tutors. So their child was by the best math student, turned in the best essays etc, at the school. Student was able to do really well on AP tests because of the tutors/outside classes and took dual enrollment classes.The kid was also really prepared for college.
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Anonymous
I think that sounds wonderful. What's wrong with going somewhere where the pace of life is more relaxing? |
Anonymous
| UWC. New Mexico. Your kid will LOVE it. You’re welcome. |
Anonymous
What were the college results? |
Anonymous
This thread is full of people who know nothing about the Rock Mountain west. The kind of person who frets this much over college admissions and considers it a failure to not secure a spot at HYPStanfordMIT is not the kind of person who would be able to live outside the DMV bubble. |
Anonymous
Did they have any friends or a social life? |
Anonymous
Why wouldn't they? And what does that have to do with private versus public |
Anonymous
Folks, MCPS =/= Maryland 
OP, if you just want to reduce the amount of competition with legacy admits, look at the surrounding counties - Frederick, Washington, Carroll, Harford, Queen Anne’s. All of them have some decent high schools, access to community colleges for dual enrollment, and enough density in the area for there to be access to activities. Will selective schools also be familiar with those high schools? Sure. But there just won’t be the concentration of legacies that there is close in to DC. |
Anonymous
| I would go to a school like Einstein or Northwood where there is a cohort of high achieving kids but it’s small. Your child could take all of the hardest classes and really stand out and have little college competition. My friends whose kids went through those schools had really good college results. |
Anonymous
| Move to DC and go to Jackson Reed |
Anonymous
What’s wrong with Wyoming? Would love to live there. |