Three W's?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The most important thing to me is class size. I don't know if there's any place to get classes smaller than 20 other than at privates.

You might find a class of 20 in some of the higher level electives...think B/C Calculus. 9th grade biology or English-- it will be a big class.

[Anonymous]

Winston Churchill is considered one of the W schools. I would also say that BCC, although not a W school, is on the same level as the Ws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So other than the 4 ws and the blair and RM magnets, are there any other acceptable schools? What about Northwest, and Quince Orchard?

What makes a school "acceptable"? As a general rule, all of the Mont. schools are acceptable. Algebra is algebra no matter where you take it. What are you looking for?

I am looking for a school that if DC does well (top 5% in his class), his choices are not limitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most important thing to me is class size. I don't know if there's any place to get classes smaller than 20 other than at privates.

You might find a class of 20 in some of the higher level electives...think B/C Calculus. 9th grade biology or English-- it will be a big class.

Depends on the school. That may be a downside of the Ws - there are so many kids in the higher level classes those are the largest classes. You might get a smaller class size in an on-level class than AP B/C. At most of the schools that are at or above capacity (all of the Ws and BCC) you are likely to find that most classes are at the max for students.

Agree with PP that BCC is generally in the mix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So other than the 4 ws and the blair and RM magnets, are there any other acceptable schools? What about Northwest, and Quince Orchard?

BCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So other than the 4 ws and the blair and RM magnets, are there any other acceptable schools? What about Northwest, and Quince Orchard?

BCC.

That is it? No where more affordable ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yes they are all just as equal becasue if your kid does well at either of them they will be fine.

so you might as well throw any school in there. If you think a student with all A's at Einstienor any other school you are going to go where you want if you have the scores to match.

and btw i went to Whitman

It's one thing to get an A on an individual paper or assignment assigned by a teacher. It's another to be in a class of academically inquisitive and challenging peers.

there are kids romm all the schools in the county that go to tops schools. But I will add this about whitman, they have a destress time for kids built into the day, sorry but i would nto put my kid in a school that has that part fo the day. i would rather have a b student without the stress than an a harvard bound kid that needs to be destressed everyday.

The are piloting a program called Mindfulness this year. Some teachers are using mindfulness techniques. It's not required and it's not built into the day. My DC hasn't been in any of these classes. I'm sure there are some stressed out kids at Whitman but most of the ones I see seem pretty darn chill and these are kids taking multiple APs, playing varsity sports, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So other than the 4 ws and the blair and RM magnets, are there any other acceptable schools? What about Northwest, and Quince Orchard?

What makes a school "acceptable"? As a general rule, all of the Mont. schools are acceptable. Algebra is algebra no matter where you take it. What are you looking for?

I am looking for a school that if DC does well (top 5% in his class), his choices are not limitted.

What does that mean? Do you mean limited in college choices? Limited in classes he can take?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So other than the 4 ws and the blair and RM magnets, are there any other acceptable schools? What about Northwest, and Quince Orchard?

BCC.

That is it? No where more affordable ?

There are 25 MCPS high schools. They have the same curriculum, although some schools do offer different classes based on demand. I guess it depends how you define acceptable. What exactly are you looking for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So other than the 4 ws and the blair and RM magnets, are there any other acceptable schools? What about Northwest, and Quince Orchard?

BCC.

That is it? No where more affordable ?

It depends on what you're looking for. Poolesville is more affordable and has great test scores on par with Churchill, but it's also smaller and doesn't have some of the other programs, like IB at WJ. I think of Blair as being similar to RM in that both have some great programs and are in more affordable areas, but with a big difference in performance between those kids and the rest of the kids. Schooldigger.com has some good info, as does US News and the MCPS website. All three can tell you about test scores, special programs, graduation rates, etc. but they miss a lot of the "vibe" of the school. The best schools unfortunately do tend to be in the more expensive neighborhoods because you have higher SES families there, typically with more resources and involvement.

[Anonymous]

Blair is more affordable than RM and also has a higher FARMS rate. I know many families that are very happy with the non-magnet programs at Blair and RM. Poolesville also has a magent that bumps up its scores. Scores reflect income so affordable and high scores don't really happen.

[Anonymous]

There seems to be a fair amount of positive comments about Einstein on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Einstein is smaller and has small classes. A child in the top 5% is not going to be limited by going to any MCPS high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RM serves a more socioeconomically diverse population than the W schools. The scores are boosted by a 100 student competitive magnet program. Without the magnet the scores would likely be lower..though I don't think that means the school isn't as good just that scores almost always reflect the income of the families involved as opposed to teaching quality etc. There have been manu discussions on this topic on the board if you want to search.

OP here. Thanks for the info! I did try to search, but a lot comes up when you type in "three w".

Where are you getting the 3 W concept? I'm surprised anything is coming up on that search. There are 4 schools people refer to as the Ws, - Whitman, Wootton, Winston Churchill and Walter Johnson. These 4, along with BCC and Poolesville, tend to have the highest rankings in USNWR, the highest SAT scores, the highest AP pass rates, highest graduation rates, etc. It doesn't mean that the other 19 high schools aren't acceptable though. The Ws are somewhat unique in that they are all strong schools without test in programs. So only kids who are in-bounds attend. It also means that if you are in bounds you are guaranteed a spot - no application process. Because they are all over capacity there isn't much COSA allowed at these schools except in very unusual circumstances.

I think you need to be a little more specific about what you are looking for and what you deem "acceptable".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RM serves a more socioeconomically diverse population than the W schools. The scores are boosted by a 100 student competitive magnet program. Without the magnet the scores would likely be lower..though I don't think that means the school isn't as good just that scores almost always reflect the income of the families involved as opposed to teaching quality etc. There have been manu discussions on this topic on the board if you want to search.

OP here. Thanks for the info! I did try to search, but a lot comes up when you type in "three w".

Where are you getting the 3 W concept? I'm surprised anything is coming up on that search. There are 4 schools people refer to as the Ws, - Whitman, Wootton, Winston Churchill and Walter Johnson. These 4, along with BCC and Poolesville, tend to have the highest rankings in USNWR, the highest SAT scores, the highest AP pass rates, highest graduation rates, etc. It doesn't mean that the other 19 high schools aren't acceptable though. The Ws are somewhat unique in that they are all strong schools without test in programs. So only kids who are in-bounds attend. It also means that if you are in bounds you are guaranteed a spot - no application process. Because they are all over capacity there isn't much COSA allowed at these schools except in very unusual circumstances.

I think you need to be a little more specific about what you are looking for and what you deem "acceptable".

OP here. I wasn't the one that used the term "acceptable."

I see "three Ws" thrown around on this board, so was curious.