Alexandria city middle and HS recs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holy cow. If you believe the above post then I have a bridge to sell you, OP. It is golden. It has a gate. You'll love it.

TC Boosters - it is okay to advocate for your school but to say that TC is better than local private schools like Episcopal, SSSAS and BI is laughable, and make your posts unbelievable. We live in Alexandria, too. TC has some significant problems that are evident simply by looking at the data published by the VDOE (Virginia Department of Education) let alone rating scales like Great Schools. When you lie and exaggerate you do everyone a disservice.

I’m a single mom in ACPS. OP won’t be sending her kids to any of the privates you listed; neither will I. My kids are still in lower elementary, and I’m trying to figure out whether to stay or go. Episcopal, SSSAS, and the like aren’t in my budget.

OP, if you’ll be commuting to Ballston have you considered Arlington? South Arlington is more affordable but there are affordable apartments and townhouses in North Arlington zoned for Glebe which would give you almost no commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holy cow. If you believe the above post then I have a bridge to sell you, OP. It is golden. It has a gate. You'll love it.

TC Boosters - it is okay to advocate for your school but to say that TC is better than local private schools like Episcopal, SSSAS and BI is laughable, and make your posts unbelievable. We live in Alexandria, too. TC has some significant problems that are evident simply by looking at the data published by the VDOE (Virginia Department of Education) let alone rating scales like Great Schools. When you lie and exaggerate you do everyone a disservice.

SSSAS and BI are laughable. To pay that much to go to mediocre (at best) private schools says something about your IQ, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, do a search in VA Public Schools for the terms Alexandria, ACPS, GW, Jefferson Houston, Maury. That will give you some more information. What is your housing price range? You might be in better shape looking in the Alexandria portion of Fairfax County. You would get a bigger house and yard with essentially the same commute. And the schools in that area are significantly better.

This post is absolutely ridiculous!! That area of FCPS is probably the only area worse than ACPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, do a search in VA Public Schools for the terms Alexandria, ACPS, GW, Jefferson Houston, Maury. That will give you some more information. What is your housing price range? You might be in better shape looking in the Alexandria portion of Fairfax County. You would get a bigger house and yard with essentially the same commute. And the schools in that area are significantly better.

This post is absolutely ridiculous!! That area of FCPS is probably the only area worse than ACPS.

NP. That is nonsense. Edison, Hayfield and West Potomac are all better environments than TC Williams. Only Mount Vernon is arguably worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy cow. If you believe the above post then I have a bridge to sell you, OP. It is golden. It has a gate. You'll love it.

TC Boosters - it is okay to advocate for your school but to say that TC is better than local private schools like Episcopal, SSSAS and BI is laughable, and make your posts unbelievable. We live in Alexandria, too. TC has some significant problems that are evident simply by looking at the data published by the VDOE (Virginia Department of Education) let alone rating scales like Great Schools. When you lie and exaggerate you do everyone a disservice.

SSSAS and BI are laughable. To pay that much to go to mediocre (at best) private schools says something about your IQ, PP.

The difference in tuition between BI and SSSAS is $23,000 a year.

BI is reasonable if your intention is to sidestep TC.

SSSAS is a joke for the cost.

EHS is actually a very decent school but it's incredibly expensive and even if I could afford it, I don't like the idea of my kid moving out of the house at 13.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at all the white private moms swarm!

This. You know where the SSSAS kids I know went to college? West Virginia, UNC Greensboro and College of Charleston.

That's a craptastic ROI if you ask me.

My TC kid went to Brown.

My DH went to Bishop Ireton and also went to West Virginia! Our neighbors' kids also went to BI then went on to Marymount! DH saw no value in private school so our kids are at/went to Edison HS in FCPS!

For OP - schools in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County are as panned as much as TC Williams. We know parents/kids who go to all these schools and all have been pleased with the school. As PPs have said, overall, the schools are very good and your DC will have excellent educational opportunities. If you're new to the area, do NOT underestimate the impact of your commute. You should buy in an area that balances your need for decent commute with the kind of housing you want. If I was commuting to Ballston, I would look in south Arlington or Alexandria City. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

OP, it depends on your child's personality, confidence and resilience. Sadly, not all students do well in ACPS in spite of what is said above. Think hard before you move and commit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at all the white private moms swarm!

This. You know where the SSSAS kids I know went to college? West Virginia, UNC Greensboro and College of Charleston.

That's a craptastic ROI if you ask me.

My TC kid went to Brown.

My DH went to Bishop Ireton and also went to West Virginia! Our neighbors' kids also went to BI then went on to Marymount! DH saw no value in private school so our kids are at/went to Edison HS in FCPS!

For OP - schools in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County are as panned as much as TC Williams. We know parents/kids who go to all these schools and all have been pleased with the school. As PPs have said, overall, the schools are very good and your DC will have excellent educational opportunities. If you're new to the area, do NOT underestimate the impact of your commute. You should buy in an area that balances your need for decent commute with the kind of housing you want. If I was commuting to Ballston, I would look in south Arlington or Alexandria City. Good luck.

That's simply not true. Edison, Hayfield and West Potomac are not "panned as much as TC Williams." Mount Vernon is the only school in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County that is compared to TC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, do a search in VA Public Schools for the terms Alexandria, ACPS, GW, Jefferson Houston, Maury. That will give you some more information. What is your housing price range? You might be in better shape looking in the Alexandria portion of Fairfax County. You would get a bigger house and yard with essentially the same commute. And the schools in that area are significantly better.

This post is absolutely ridiculous!! That area of FCPS is probably the only area worse than ACPS.

NP. That is nonsense. Edison, Hayfield and West Potomac are all better environments than TC Williams. Only Mount Vernon is arguably worse.

How do you know this?

[Anonymous]

To OP: you need to take the poster's advice and do a search using the terms described. There is a lot to be concerned about. The threads are enlightening.

Also, look above. See the posts attacking the poster, not the content? That is a very typical Alexandria parent behavior. It is definitely a factor in why we don't send our children to Alexandria schools. We don't want them around people who are raising their children to be like them.

You haven't posted a lot of personal information and that is good. The missing piece is that there are two tracks at ACPS - the white middle class child track and everyone else. If your child is a member of the white middle class then your child will be fine; if not, then your child will not be fine. There are occasional exceptions but you need to think about whether your child will be the one anomaly. There was one anomaly last year at TC so I am sure someone will come screeching back to shrilly espouse the occurrence.

On the other hand if you think your child will be in the top 25% of the class then there is benefit to being at TC precisely because it is what it is. Your child won't need to have any "hook" because of the bump that he or she will receive as being part of an extremely low-performing school with a high FARM rate. Some of the parents touting their child's college placement know that this is the reason for his or her child's acceptance. There is a huge advantage to applying to colleges out of a school like TC. The challenge will be to ensure that your child is tracked on the white middle class track and not the everyone else track.

You should look at the Fairfax County portion of Alexandria. The high school and middle schools are higher rated than TC and there are two elementary schools that are the best in the FCPS system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy cow. If you believe the above post then I have a bridge to sell you, OP. It is golden. It has a gate. You'll love it.

TC Boosters - it is okay to advocate for your school but to say that TC is better than local private schools like Episcopal, SSSAS and BI is laughable, and make your posts unbelievable. We live in Alexandria, too. TC has some significant problems that are evident simply by looking at the data published by the VDOE (Virginia Department of Education) let alone rating scales like Great Schools. When you lie and exaggerate you do everyone a disservice.

SSSAS and BI are laughable. To pay that much to go to mediocre (at best) private schools says something about your IQ, PP.

The difference in tuition between BI and SSSAS is $23,000 a year.

BI is reasonable if your intention is to sidestep TC.

SSSAS is a joke for the cost.

EHS is actually a very decent school but it's incredibly expensive and even if I could afford it, I don't like the idea of my kid moving out of the house at 13.

There are some programs at BI that are good like the academic support program. You do pay extra, but it a good option for kids who wouldn't necessarily qualify for an IEP in public school. We wanted a Catholic education and were willing to pay for it. Most families we know at BI are there for a Catholic education as opposed to side stepping public schools.

As for SSSAS, I still see magnets on cars so people must still be going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To OP: you need to take the poster's advice and do a search using the terms described. There is a lot to be concerned about. The threads are enlightening.

Also, look above. See the posts attacking the poster, not the content? That is a very typical Alexandria parent behavior. It is definitely a factor in why we don't send our children to Alexandria schools. We don't want them around people who are raising their children to be like them.

You haven't posted a lot of personal information and that is good. The missing piece is that there are two tracks at ACPS - the white middle class child track and everyone else. If your child is a member of the white middle class then your child will be fine; if not, then your child will not be fine. There are occasional exceptions but you need to think about whether your child will be the one anomaly. There was one anomaly last year at TC so I am sure someone will come screeching back to shrilly espouse the occurrence.

On the other hand if you think your child will be in the top 25% of the class then there is benefit to being at TC precisely because it is what it is. Your child won't need to have any "hook" because of the bump that he or she will receive as being part of an extremely low-performing school with a high FARM rate. Some of the parents touting their child's college placement know that this is the reason for his or her child's acceptance. There is a huge advantage to applying to colleges out of a school like TC. The challenge will be to ensure that your child is tracked on the white middle class track and not the everyone else track.

You should look at the Fairfax County portion of Alexandria. The high school and middle schools are higher rated than TC and there are two elementary schools that are the best in the FCPS system.

OP- here's the bitterness from a rich, white, SAHM whose child went to SSSAS at the cost of $250,000 and only got into Elon and VCU.

[Anonymous]

Episcopal is a boarding only school and is definitely not filled with kids from Alexandria. It is a top school but you can’t categorize it with the rest of the Alexandria or even NOVA schools because the demographics are much much broader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at all the white private moms swarm!

Exactly! So crackery!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To OP: you need to take the poster's advice and do a search using the terms described. There is a lot to be concerned about. The threads are enlightening.

Also, look above. See the posts attacking the poster, not the content? That is a very typical Alexandria parent behavior. It is definitely a factor in why we don't send our children to Alexandria schools. We don't want them around people who are raising their children to be like them.

You haven't posted a lot of personal information and that is good. The missing piece is that there are two tracks at ACPS - the white middle class child track and everyone else. If your child is a member of the white middle class then your child will be fine; if not, then your child will not be fine. There are occasional exceptions but you need to think about whether your child will be the one anomaly. There was one anomaly last year at TC so I am sure someone will come screeching back to shrilly espouse the occurrence.

On the other hand if you think your child will be in the top 25% of the class then there is benefit to being at TC precisely because it is what it is. Your child won't need to have any "hook" because of the bump that he or she will receive as being part of an extremely low-performing school with a high FARM rate. Some of the parents touting their child's college placement know that this is the reason for his or her child's acceptance. There is a huge advantage to applying to colleges out of a school like TC. The challenge will be to ensure that your child is tracked on the white middle class track and not the everyone else track.

You should look at the Fairfax County portion of Alexandria. The high school and middle schools are higher rated than TC and there are two elementary schools that are the best in the FCPS system.

OP- here's the bitterness from a rich, white, SAHM whose child went to SSSAS at the cost of $250,000 and only got into Elon and VCU.

Is one of them Whitewood--I mean Waynewood?