Whittle School

[Anonymous]

Give it a couple of years and see what happens to the school. When BASIS McLean first opened up their class we applied and our DC was accepted, but instead of enrolling we decided to stay at the current school which was known to be a feeder to one of the Big 3. Now 3 years later, we have not regretted our decision at all, the HOS at BASIS left only one year, the second also left after about one year, now they have a third HOS...all in THREE years. It is a mess over there and I believe this year is the first graduating class of 12th graders. Do not know what the track record is but if I was an admissions officer, I would be skeptical of these students from BASIS McLean and how they will perform at a top tier university.
Our DC is now thriving at a Big 3 school...looking back, we were certainly foolish to think BASIS McLean was even on our radar!

[Anonymous]

Which is why I question 8:03 about why they would be willing to send their kid(s) to a brand new school with absolutely no track record.

[Anonymous]

8:13 here...I know that I sure as hell wouldn’t

[Anonymous]

While we’re at it, does anyone know of a single child rejected by Whittle (who were full pay)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While we’re at it, does anyone know of a single child rejected by Whittle (who were full pay)?

They are starting from scratch, why would they reject anyone? And this is what I am trying to gauge...who would actually apply?

[Anonymous]

I agree with the earlier post questioning the amount of time people are spending on this thread, promoting skepticism and negativity about a school that has yet to even open. Let the model play out and see if it proves itself in the same way the model has in other metropolitan areas. We are also a family considering Whittle for next year. I cannot say I will choose it over other more established schools, but I won’t know our child’s options until Friday. Eliminating it before then is silly and trash talking the program irresponsible. Take pride in the choices you make, but do not speak ill of the choices others make when you really do not know them or their circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Sad is the obvious marketing. Place is near DOA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the earlier post questioning the amount of time people are spending on this thread, promoting skepticism and negativity about a school that has yet to even open. Let the model play out and see if it proves itself in the same way the model has in other metropolitan areas. We are also a family considering Whittle for next year. I cannot say I will choose it over other more established schools, but I won’t know our child’s options until Friday. Eliminating it before then is silly and trash talking the program irresponsible. Take pride in the choices you make, but do not speak ill of the choices others make when you really do not know them or their circumstances.

NP and we feel exactly the same.

[Anonymous]

Isn't it telling though, that some of the PPs seem to be considering Whittle only if things don't go well with admissions decisions on Friday (assuming they're legitimate and not plants or sock puppets, which is a big if)?

[Anonymous]

9:01 again. Not a sock puppet—ask Jeff if you want to confirm. Not sure what’s telling about people thinking of Whittle as more of a second choice after established privates. I assume that would be true of pretty much any new school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While we’re at it, does anyone know of a single child rejected by Whittle (who were full pay)?

They are starting from scratch, why would they reject anyone? And this is what I am trying to gauge...who would actually apply?

Why would they accept everybody? Not every school is a good fit for every child. It's not about rejection per se.

With for-profit schools, filling seats is a priority over fit. Somewhat ironically, public schools have the same monetary incentive. Butts in seats.

I'm more interested in who actually attends -- especially Mandarin speakers -- than who applies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do all the nay sayers even take the time to weigh in here? Are your lives really that empty and inner confidence that small that you feel you have to cut a place down that your not even interested in learning more about? I have no affiliation to Whittle other than wanting to learn more to determine if it is a fit for my child. I’m an intelligent adult who can analyze for myself and just want perspective on mission and plans. The negativity folks bring is ugly, distracting, and annoying. It is not informative in any way. Go show your bully selves in the real world and stop hiding here to live out your disfunctional power fantasies. So sad...

Don't hate the players, hate the game. It's fun to play out dysfunctional power fantasies anonymously online. Doing it IRL is harmful.

As an intelligent adult, you are probably capable of ignoring things that aren't targeted at you personally. Gaslighting the naysayers into self-censorship just ain't gonna work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Give it a couple of years and see what happens to the school. When BASIS McLean first opened up their class we applied and our DC was accepted, but instead of enrolling we decided to stay at the current school which was known to be a feeder to one of the Big 3. Now 3 years later, we have not regretted our decision at all, the HOS at BASIS left only one year, the second also left after about one year, now they have a third HOS...all in THREE years. It is a mess over there and I believe this year is the first graduating class of 12th graders. Do not know what the track record is but if I was an admissions officer, I would be skeptical of these students from BASIS McLean and how they will perform at a top tier university.
Our DC is now thriving at a Big 3 school...looking back, we were certainly foolish to think BASIS McLean was even on our radar!

This is helpful. There are many parallels between BASIS McLean and Whittle. BASIS had similarly hyperbolic boosters. Unlike Whittle, they had an academic track record with charter schools in wealthy areas. I have not seen much about it on private forum since launch. The charter school attracts a lot of attention on the DC public forum.

I can see value in wait-and-see.

[Anonymous]

For the person who keeps yelling "PRESIDENT OF YALE!" He was not the greatest president of Yale the University ever had:

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/14/magazine/the-yale-schmidt-leaves-behind.html

The Chinese government influence of a private school based in the United States is something I think people should be more concerned about then what I'm reading here. You certainly wouldn't be able to communicate with your friends in the PRC based schools over Facebook, Twitter or Instagram because those are banned in China.

And any collaborative research projects between students at each school won't have access to the same information. Censored information isn't something I'd expect from a private school in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it telling though, that some of the PPs seem to be considering Whittle only if things don't go well with admissions decisions on Friday (assuming they're legitimate and not plants or sock puppets, which is a big if)?

Will Whittle take applications after this Friday? Have they had enough applications?