Tell me about Albert Einstein HS

[Anonymous]

I may be in the minority, but I'm actually a lot more concerned about my kid having rich friends with access to prescription drugs/hard drugs and the like than going to a really diverse school with FARMS and working-class kids. I feel like smart kids with good family support will seek out like peers and avoid situations of violence in most cases, but it could be harder to avoid a culture at a higher SES school where taking ADHD drugs off-label, etc is considered ok.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if anyone answered OP's question, though. Is Einstein really a violent school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if anyone answered OP's question, though. Is Einstein really a violent school?

No, it is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if anyone answered OP's question, though. Is Einstein really a violent school?

Its no more violent than any other school. Those at BCC, WJ, Churchill and others are fooling themselves to think they are far safer. Rich kids have far more access to money and drugs. There is equal drug use and issues but at the richer schools its covered up more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I may be in the minority, but I'm actually a lot more concerned about my kid having rich friends with access to prescription drugs/hard drugs and the like than going to a really diverse school with FARMS and working-class kids. I feel like smart kids with good family support will seek out like peers and avoid situations of violence in most cases, but it could be harder to avoid a culture at a higher SES school where taking ADHD drugs off-label, etc is considered ok.

OP here. Yes, I guess that is something else to think about. I think I was naive to think this was just a problem with expensive privates like Georgetown Prep but I guess many of the schools (BCC, Whitman, Walter Johnson) have very high SES areas with a drug culture.

There were definitely drugs in the school my parents moved to. I wasn't friends with the kids into hard drugs but I did have friends who experimented (I was just too nervous to try and didn't have a problem saying no - after a while, they wouldn't bother asking). Is that definitely more prevalent than a school with a mixed to lower SES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I may be in the minority, but I'm actually a lot more concerned about my kid having rich friends with access to prescription drugs/hard drugs and the like than going to a really diverse school with FARMS and working-class kids. I feel like smart kids with good family support will seek out like peers and avoid situations of violence in most cases, but it could be harder to avoid a culture at a higher SES school where taking ADHD drugs off-label, etc is considered ok.

OP here. Yes, I guess that is something else to think about. I think I was naive to think this was just a problem with expensive privates like Georgetown Prep but I guess many of the schools (BCC, Whitman, Walter Johnson) have very high SES areas with a drug culture.

There were definitely drugs in the school my parents moved to. I wasn't friends with the kids into hard drugs but I did have friends who experimented (I was just too nervous to try and didn't have a problem saying no - after a while, they wouldn't bother asking). Is that definitely more prevalent than a school with a mixed to lower SES?

OP, I think that to one degree or another, drugs (including alcohol) are everywhere. Given that, I would say, Know Your Kid. Is your kid a follower, easily influenced by peers, eager to please his peers? Do you have a close relationship with your teen, do you talk about these things and share your thoughts and concerns?

My 17yo is a junior at Blair, and drugs (including alcohol) are there for sure. Kids drink and get high - both low-achieving and high-achieving kids do this, at Blair and everywhere. Whitman, the highest-performing school in the county, is known for its students being busted at parties.

My son steers clear of this, hangs with kids who aren't into that (or avoids them when they are, I don't know), and has no plans to get into that stuff himself anytime soon. He is super-busy and in a varsity sport (which he loves; he would hate to be booted for an infraction). We talk about the alcoholism in my family and the impact of drugs and alcohol on the developing brain; about what a citation can do to you vis-a-vis college applications; about why people think it's fun to get drunk. My husband and I model responsible alcohol use and never drive after drinking. I am 99% sure he is not into drugs or alcohol.

If he were a different kid, I might be worried.

If you believe that your kid is focused on doing well in school and being active in extracurricular interests, then I think s/he will be fine at any school you choose, including Einstein.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I may be in the minority, but I'm actually a lot more concerned about my kid having rich friends with access to prescription drugs/hard drugs and the like than going to a really diverse school with FARMS and working-class kids. I feel like smart kids with good family support will seek out like peers and avoid situations of violence in most cases, but it could be harder to avoid a culture at a higher SES school where taking ADHD drugs off-label, etc is considered ok.

I just don't really want my kids growing up around so many wealthy families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I may be in the minority, but I'm actually a lot more concerned about my kid having rich friends with access to prescription drugs/hard drugs and the like than going to a really diverse school with FARMS and working-class kids. I feel like smart kids with good family support will seek out like peers and avoid situations of violence in most cases, but it could be harder to avoid a culture at a higher SES school where taking ADHD drugs off-label, etc is considered ok.

I just don't really want my kids growing up around so many wealthy families.

Ditto. Now educated families, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd go for B-CC in a heartbeat over Einstein. Let's not beat around the bush, it's just an academically stronger peer group and the chances are lower than your kid will fall in with a crowd that places a low priority on education. And it's not like B-CC is without diversity, it's just that the overall tone is more conducive to getting a good education.

I recall seeing some of Einstein's SAT scores rising a few years ago. At first I was impressed, but when I did some digging I learned that the percentage of students bothering to take the SATs was surprisingly low. It made me think there is a big cohort there that is not academically motivated.

Of course, most people who live in SS are going to say good things about Blair and Einstein, but WJ and B-CC are worth stretching for, IMO.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd go for B-CC in a heartbeat over Einstein. Let's not beat around the bush, it's just an academically stronger peer group and the chances are lower than your kid will fall in with a crowd that places a low priority on education. And it's not like B-CC is without diversity, it's just that the overall tone is more conducive to getting a good education.

I recall seeing some of Einstein's SAT scores rising a few years ago. At first I was impressed, but when I did some digging I learned that the percentage of students bothering to take the SATs was surprisingly low. It made me think there is a big cohort there that is not academically motivated.

Of course, most people who live in SS are going to say good things about Blair and Einstein, but WJ and B-CC are worth stretching for, IMO.

+1

I went to BCC and WJ - there was nothing special about them. We are zoned for Einstein and I have no concern sending my kids there over the mentioned things. I have issues with MCPS but that is not the issue addressed here. If you have young kids, its also going to turn over more as middle/upper-middle class families are moving in and the area has greatly changed in the past 10 years and continues to.

[Anonymous]

I live in down county SS Northwood district. Met a well-spoken high school senior girl recently. She was finishing up at Einstein. She only had good things to say about it and was sad about moving on. To me, that speaks volumes.

I've seen some pretty rich kid mean girl middle school drama in girls who go to Westland, which feeds into BCC. BCC is not, IMHO, a panacea of avoiding issues.

[Anonymous]

I went to BCC and WJ - there was nothing special about them. We are zoned for Einstein and I have no concern sending my kids there over the mentioned things. I have issues with MCPS but that is not the issue addressed here. If you have young kids, its also going to turn over more as middle/upper-middle class families are moving in and the area has greatly changed in the past 10 years and continues to.

Oddly, not many Einstein posters. There seems to be BCC posters saying why they would prefer, Blair posters saying they know kids there and pre-Einstein posters saying they will go there. Is it because many of the new families that PP mentioned before aren't there yet?

There are mostly small children in the Oakland Terrace and Flora Singer community. I think the first wave of Oakland kids hit Newport in the last year and I noticed that its great schools rating increased. Is the thought that we have to wait to see more of those families get to HS before we can get good feedback?

[Anonymous]

OP,

We used to live in Silver Spring.
We moved to Bethesda for the schools.

There is no comparison between Einstein and BCC (also an IB school). The student body at BCC is of a different mentality and has been exposed to a much wider culture and sense of the world. Are they snobbish? No, and definitely not compared to the lily white, affluent western Bethesda suburbs. BCC is reasonably diverse because it's the downtown high school.

As a foreigner, I particularly appreciate the multinational aspect of Bethesda. There are many international families here, who are all highly educated and bring something extra to the school cluster.

That being said, I believe parents are the first educators in a child's life, so I'm sure you can have a great experience at Einstein as well. But if the environment can be made a little better, it makes your job as a parent that much easier, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There is no comparison between Einstein and BCC (also an IB school). The student body at BCC is of a different mentality and has been exposed to a much wider culture and sense of the world. Are they snobbish? No, and definitely not compared to the lily white, affluent western Bethesda suburbs. BCC is reasonably diverse because it's the downtown high school.

B-CC: 58% white
Whitman: 70% white
Churchill: 56% white
Wootton: 46% white

Now, what were you saying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I went to BCC and WJ - there was nothing special about them. We are zoned for Einstein and I have no concern sending my kids there over the mentioned things. I have issues with MCPS but that is not the issue addressed here. If you have young kids, its also going to turn over more as middle/upper-middle class families are moving in and the area has greatly changed in the past 10 years and continues to.

Oddly, not many Einstein posters. There seems to be BCC posters saying why they would prefer, Blair posters saying they know kids there and pre-Einstein posters saying they will go there. Is it because many of the new families that PP mentioned before aren't there yet?

There are mostly small children in the Oakland Terrace and Flora Singer community. I think the first wave of Oakland kids hit Newport in the last year and I noticed that its great schools rating increased. Is the thought that we have to wait to see more of those families get to HS before we can get good feedback?
We live in the Oakland Terrace / Flora Singer Community. Most of the kids in our immediate neighborhood have moved away (replaced with young couples and young families). We love our house and neighborhood. I'm very pleased that our daughter got accepted to the TPMS Magnet because we would have had to make the same tough decisions as the OP. The fact is, many people who have the means to do so move to a better school district or go private as their kids get older. Only a percentage of the kids that are currently in Oakland Terrace / Flora Singer will continue on to Einstein. I watched it happen to me as I progressed from ES through Eastern then Blair.