How bad is Edison High in Alexandria?

[Anonymous]

Edison has an IB program. Your kid will be just fine and overschooled by the time they are 18. I went to Mark Twain and had plenty of friends who went to Edison who all went to good colleges and are sufficiently successful.

Seriously, did you research Edison at all or are you just using the school as an excuse to move out of the barrio?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Overall, a kid who does well at Edison may have an advantage at U.Va admissions over someone at Langley. To my knowledge, Edison doesn't have a track record of sending a lot of kids to Ivies. But the Ivies are a crap shoot these days, with admissions rates under 10%. Planning one's life around getting a kid admitted to one is a risky proposition, and there are many great schools out there. Relax!

How do you figure? That doesn't even make sense. Are you suggesting that an admission's office looks at an application and goes, "oh, well, this one excelled DESPITE the conditions at Edison, so let's take it."

Doesn't work that way. That's like the people who cynically send their kids to TC Williams believing the "survival" factor gives them a leg up. Yes people do think this way. I've had the conversation before. On here, no less.

That said, Edison isn't TC Williams.

What do you mean when you say Edison isn't TC Williams?

I mean T.C. is in a class all by itself with its own very special problems.

Whatever problems Edison may have, they're minor compared to T.C.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How do you figure? That doesn't even make sense. Are you suggesting that an admission's office looks at an application and goes, "oh, well, this one excelled DESPITE the conditions at Edison, so let's take it."

Doesn't work that way. That's like the people who cynically send their kids to TC Williams believing the "survival" factor gives them a leg up. Yes people do think this way. I've had the conversation before. On here, no less.

That said, Edison isn't TC Williams.

Admissions offices follow a variety of different approaches. Some may indeed give the advantage to the Edison student in a tie-breaker situation.

You know this, how? Or, are you just being wishful?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Overall, a kid who does well at Edison may have an advantage at U.Va admissions over someone at Langley. To my knowledge, Edison doesn't have a track record of sending a lot of kids to Ivies. But the Ivies are a crap shoot these days, with admissions rates under 10%. Planning one's life around getting a kid admitted to one is a risky proposition, and there are many great schools out there. Relax!

How do you figure? That doesn't even make sense. Are you suggesting that an admission's office looks at an application and goes, "oh, well, this one excelled DESPITE the conditions at Edison, so let's take it."

Doesn't work that way. That's like the people who cynically send their kids to TC Williams believing the "survival" factor gives them a leg up. Yes people do think this way. I've had the conversation before. On here, no less.

That said, Edison isn't TC Williams.

What do you mean when you say Edison isn't TC Williams?

I mean T.C. is in a class all by itself with its own very special problems.

Whatever problems Edison may have, they're minor compared to T.C.

Thank you for the feedback. I have heard about Yale or Jail at TC Williams.

It seems like Twain and Edison's test scores are dragged down by the large population of ESOL students. We don't know anyone in the area with high school aged children. All the people we meet are either moving or plan to move.

[Anonymous]

My DH's family all went to Twain/Edison - except DH who went to Bishop Ireton because his parents wanted him to have a Catholic education not because they thought it was any better than Edison. We live in the Twain/Edison district and our kids are and will remain in public school. It's a fine school system and every child has excellent educational opportunities if she chooses to avail herself of them. A school should be judged by so much more than just test scores. If it's important for you that your DC go to school with kids that look like him and whose parents are on the same level with you socioeconomically, then Edison isn't for you.

I'd also think less about the caliber of college/university your child goes to and what is a good fit academically, socially and financially. Certainly, UVA is a good school (one that I'd never heard of before moving to this area) but there are many excellent schools here. Even George Mason (gasp!) is outstanding in certain areas. Like so many things in life, you get out of college what you put into it. You should stop drinking the 'test score' koolaid.

[Anonymous]

You never heard of the University of Virginia?????

[Anonymous]

OP - honestly, with your attitude, you should probably move.

Edison is not a bad school by any measure, other than perhaps DCUM standards.

It is diverse - socioeconomically as well as racially - and so a school like Langley, where there is less diversity, especially socio-economic, is always going to do better from a test score standpoint.

But seriously, how old are your kids?

Do you have any idea how many things can change between the time your child starts K and then enters high school????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are trying to decide if we should move. Our house is zoned for Edison High. I drive by the school everyday and it looks fine. Most people we know seem to move before or during early elementary. If a child is motivated and does well there, is it safe to expect him to get into a decent college? I would want and expect our kids to go to at least UVA. Is there a place where I can see where last year's graduating class went to college?

Your kids are - what - in elementary school? Or are they even there yet?

But let me tell you this - if your kids don't get into UVA, I can guarantee it that it won't be b/c they went to Edison instead of - say - Langley...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You never heard of the University of Virginia?????

13:18 here. No, I had never heard of UVA before moving to this area. Why would it surprise you that people not from this area would be familiar with UVA? I don't believe colleges were being ranked untl the late 90s and even they had been ranked before that, I'm not from the east coast, wouldn't have looked into out of state colleges and there are PLENTY of excellent universities/colleges in my home area.

[Anonymous]

It has been a university for hundreds of years and was founded by Thomas Jefferson. It is a place most cultured, educated people have at least heard mentioned once or twice. Maybe you are from another country.

I certainly wouldn't consider Cornell equal to UVA.

Regardless, a school like Edison with more ESOL students does have an advantage for your typical upper middle class kids--they have a lot less competition at the top of the class and for extracurricular activites. Also, for in-state colleges, admissions people have an idea of how many kids they want to accept from each school. So a school like Edison could give your dc a competitive advantage over not standing out at all somewhere like Langley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It has been a university for hundreds of years and was founded by Thomas Jefferson. It is a place most cultured, educated people have at least heard mentioned once or twice. Maybe you are from another country.

I certainly wouldn't consider Cornell equal to UVA.

Regardless, a school like Edison with more ESOL students does have an advantage for your typical upper middle class kids--they have a lot less competition at the top of the class and for extracurricular activites. Also, for in-state colleges, admissions people have an idea of how many kids they want to accept from each school. So a school like Edison could give your dc a competitive advantage over not standing out at all somewhere like Langley.

No, I'm not from another country, I'm from the midwest where some of our universities have been around for a couple hundred years. I also have an MA in the Classics (Latin) and an MBA and by any standard am considered "educated and cultured". While you obviously have a lot of pride in UVA, and it's certainly a good school, it's not an important school for most of us outside this area. Why should it be? There are excellent colleges/universities all over the US - and UVA is hardly a sports powerhouse which would have generated name recognition.

I have no idea what you mean by the Cornell comment but I'd heard of Cornell long before I ever heard of UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has been a university for hundreds of years and was founded by Thomas Jefferson. It is a place most cultured, educated people have at least heard mentioned once or twice. Maybe you are from another country.

I certainly wouldn't consider Cornell equal to UVA.

Regardless, a school like Edison with more ESOL students does have an advantage for your typical upper middle class kids--they have a lot less competition at the top of the class and for extracurricular activites. Also, for in-state colleges, admissions people have an idea of how many kids they want to accept from each school. So a school like Edison could give your dc a competitive advantage over not standing out at all somewhere like Langley.

Are you saying that UVA is better than Cornell?

I'm sorry but anyone from out of state would probably disagree with you. I am from the Northeast and a few of my friends applied to UVA as a backup. That is why I had heart of it before. They all decided not to go there. It is not as appealing to people from out of state.

[Anonymous]

Cornell, while the least prestigious Ivy, is still more prestigious than U. Va. U. Va. is a great state university (particularly when compared to College Park), but it's not necessarily a place that a lot of "cultured, educated people" outside the DC area know much about.

If you did very well at Edison, you'd have a good shot at getting into either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You never heard of the University of Virginia?????

13:18 here. No, I had never heard of UVA before moving to this area. Why would it surprise you that people not from this area would be familiar with UVA? I don't believe colleges were being ranked untl the late 90s and even they had been ranked before that, I'm not from the east coast, wouldn't have looked into out of state colleges and there are PLENTY of excellent universities/colleges in my home area.

I grew up in Ohio, graduated HS in '89 and knew even then that UVA was a top-tier school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You never heard of the University of Virginia?????

13:18 here. No, I had never heard of UVA before moving to this area. Why would it surprise you that people not from this area would be familiar with UVA? I don't believe colleges were being ranked untl the late 90s and even they had been ranked before that, I'm not from the east coast, wouldn't have looked into out of state colleges and there are PLENTY of excellent universities/colleges in my home area.

I grew up in Ohio, graduated HS in '89 and knew even then that UVA was a top-tier school.

There is a long list of schools that are probably considered top notch geographically that people not in that geographic region do not deem prestigious - Rice, NYU, Wash U, Tufts, Vanderbilt, UMich, UNC Chapel Hill, Penn State, etc.

Up until 1 minute ago, I did not realize that UVA was ranked higher than GWU. I had heard of GWU but had not known that UVA was any better than any other state school (Penn State, SUNY, UNC, UMass)