Where do people move to (w/ school name) in VA or MD if they struck out on lottery and inbound is not an option?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks all! I appreciate you sharing your research. Einstein/ Blair in MoCo, Rockville or Howard County sound like great options.

My DC is an A student in DC, but we have not supplemented learning so a pressure cooker school in MD or VA may not be the best option. I’m not sure what A student in DC translates to in other states.

The idea of a VA school for in-state tuition sounds great. I’m not sure how competitive DC would need to be.

We’ll likely rent a house inbound for a high school while renting out our DC home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks all! I appreciate you sharing your research. Einstein/ Blair in MoCo, Rockville or Howard County sound like great options.

My DC is an A student in DC, but we have not supplemented learning so a pressure cooker school in MD or VA may not be the best option. I’m not sure what A student in DC translates to in other states.

The idea of a VA school for in-state tuition sounds great. I’m not sure how competitive DC would need to be.

We’ll likely rent a house inbound for a high school while renting out our DC home.

For UVA you need to be a top student. But there are lots of instate VA schools to choose from for lots of different kids. Both my nephews are average to above average students. One graduated last year from VCU. The other one is at James Madison. Both with really good experiences. You cannot beat the price. It’s a steal for what you get. Bonus is that it’s far enough but not too far away from the DMV for the parents.

[Anonymous]

My information is older as my children have graduated, but we know several families who moved to the McLean pyramid from the District. While it is over crowded, it is a great school and we found that most of the teachers were excellent - especially in math and science. It is a AP school. If you are looking for IB, consider Marshall..

[Anonymous]

We moved away from all of our friends to get into a better school. It’s hard. I would do it over again in a heartbeat. People go through h*ll to emigrate to better countries all the time. They come to the US with the clothes on their back and no money to fly home. I drive “home” to see my old friends as often as possible.

[Anonymous]

You can get Wootton districted houses starting in the 7-800s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move to NoVa. HS goes by fast and the in-state college options in NoVa are better than Md. In DC, they are non-existent.

This.

+1

MD resident

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks all! I appreciate you sharing your research. Einstein/ Blair in MoCo, Rockville or Howard County sound like great options.

My DC is an A student in DC, but we have not supplemented learning so a pressure cooker school in MD or VA may not be the best option. I’m not sure what A student in DC translates to in other states.

The idea of a VA school for in-state tuition sounds great. I’m not sure how competitive DC would need to be.

We’ll likely rent a house inbound for a high school while renting out our DC home.

For UVA you need to be a top student. But there are lots of instate VA schools to choose from for lots of different kids. Both my nephews are average to above average students. One graduated last year from VCU. The other one is at James Madison. Both with really good experiences. You cannot beat the price. It’s a steal for what you get. Bonus is that it’s far enough but not too far away from the DMV for the parents.

+1 also, you have in-state tuition for W&M, which is really unique for a public school. Competitive but not as much as UVA. And VT is really competitive for some majors but not for a lot of them.

We're in Arlington and know several people who moved from DC for high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're laid back but your kid loves school, take a look at Rockville in the Richard Montgomery district. Perhaps unpopular by DCUM standards but could be a good fit.

- Affordable compared to W-schools in MCPS, and a lot more rental options/apartments
- Could be in a walkable neighborhood close to the metro. Not close to the same as being in DC, but kids have a lot more freedom
than in many of the suburban areas.
- It's too late for your kid to apply to the IB magnet program for freshman year, but they'd still have access to lots of the classes (as well as lots of APs), and if they want to do the diploma programme they can apply for junior year. All academically capable in-bound students can do MYP in 9th and 10th, and then apply to do the diploma programme with the magnet kids junior and senior year.
- Solid performing and visual arts

Also incredible bagpipe band.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're laid back but your kid loves school, take a look at Rockville in the Richard Montgomery district. Perhaps unpopular by DCUM standards but could be a good fit.

- Affordable compared to W-schools in MCPS, and a lot more rental options/apartments
- Could be in a walkable neighborhood close to the metro. Not close to the same as being in DC, but kids have a lot more freedom
than in many of the suburban areas.
- It's too late for your kid to apply to the IB magnet program for freshman year, but they'd still have access to lots of the classes (as well as lots of APs), and if they want to do the diploma programme they can apply for junior year. All academically capable in-bound students can do MYP in 9th and 10th, and then apply to do the diploma programme with the magnet kids junior and senior year.
- Solid performing and visual arts

Also incredible bagpipe band.

That's Rockville HS, not Richard Montgomery HS (and the pipe band hasn't been affiliated with RHS for years now).

If buying in Rockville, I would avoid Rockville HS.

Obviously Niche ratings are far from perfect etc etc, but it's hard to discount that by their account Richard Montgomery is #8 in the state public school rankings and Rockville is #39. There are reasons for that 30-spot difference.

[Anonymous]

Loudoun county has the Academies of Sciences as an option (the primary application period is during 8th grade). Ashburn is great for some people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The people I know all moved in bounds for Whitman, Churchill or Walter Johnson in Bethesda. One moved for Langley in McLean.

So you know rich people 😂 There are some affordable apartments zoned for Walter Johnson along Rockville Pike but I just cannot pull the trigger to move to Rockville.

Move to North Bethesda instead

[Anonymous]

The two best high schools in NoVa are generally acknowledged to be Langley and McLean, both in Fairfax County. As others have noted, you'll also have a wide array of in-state tuition options available in Va, including W&M and UVa, which both are very well regarded although different in character.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The two best high schools in NoVa are generally acknowledged to be Langley and McLean, both in Fairfax County. As others have noted, you'll also have a wide array of in-state tuition options available in Va, including W&M and UVa, which both are very well regarded although different in character.

There are so many wonderful high schools in Virginia. It’s not true that everyone considers Langley and McLean the best. We live in Arlington, so I don’t have a dog in this fight necessarily, but if we moved to Fairfax, we wouldn’t focus on Langley and McLean. It’s very different from MoCo where people are very focused on the W schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks all! I appreciate you sharing your research. Einstein/ Blair in MoCo, Rockville or Howard County sound like great options.

My DC is an A student in DC, but we have not supplemented learning so a pressure cooker school in MD or VA may not be the best option. I’m not sure what A student in DC translates to in other states.

The idea of a VA school for in-state tuition sounds great. I’m not sure how competitive DC would need to be.

We’ll likely rent a house inbound for a high school while renting out our DC home.

For UVA you need to be a top student. But there are lots of instate VA schools to choose from for lots of different kids. Both my nephews are average to above average students. One graduated last year from VCU. The other one is at James Madison. Both with really good experiences. You cannot beat the price. It’s a steal for what you get. Bonus is that it’s far enough but not too far away from the DMV for the parents.

+1. I realize this board skews towards the idea that it's an elite school or nothing, but the vast majority also have to face reality - the vast majority of NoVa HS grads aren't getting into UVA. NoVa also has a great community college program with guaranteed transfer to UVA, William and Mary, etc. after two years and a 3.5 (I think?) GPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP we have not moved yet as we are not yet at that point (on the Hill and feel it's coming though). However, since I don't being at the mercy of the lottery, I've done a ton of research on this. We can only do Maryland for commute reasons. Here's what I've found:

- We are largely priced out of the western part of Bethesda/Potomac. I also feel these schools may be too intense for our family. Our kid is very bright but is highly sensitive. Our approach is usually to provide opportunity and support but not pressure, and then see what she does. I don't think she'd do well in a pressure cooker environment as she tends to internalize that kind of competition and even when she performs well, it's at the cost of her well being. So we are unlikely to stretch for a school like Whitman or Walter Johnson.

- Our best options seem to be in the eastern half of MoCo, specifically Einstein and Blair though we are looking at all of them. This will likely be our first choice and we may move sooner than later because these areas are getting more expensive all the time. A complicating factor here is the DCC (Downcounty Consortium) which allows students to apply to magnet programs at high school's outside their boundary. If your child is starting high school in the fall, you should look into the rules for applying to these programs and timing (I truly do not know, the deadlines might have already passed, I don't know if you can apply after freshman year). But when looking at these schools, make sure that you understand whether you are even eligible for the magnet program, and if not, make sure you are evaluating the non-magnet program when deciding if it's a fit. For instance, for us, our DC is very interested in the arts and Einstein is well known for its visual and performing arts programs. However, this is mostly due to the fact that it has magnet programs in these areas -- an IB student attending Einstein would get decent arts programming, but that's different than the magnet programming the school gets lauded for. But that's only available to the magnet students. Anyway, be aware of this feature of MoCo high schools as you make choices.

- Another option we're considering is Howard County, which is considered both pretty chill and with excellent schools, plus is more affordable than MoCo. Obviously the downside is distance from DC. We're really torn right now as to whether we are ready to make that leap. For us, the commute wouldn't be that bad, but after decades in DC it feels like really moving "away" socially. DH has some colleagues who live there, but those are the only people we know there and I don't really even know them very well. But it does feel like a good fit, and the value of the schools for the price of homes there feels better than anything we'd get in DC or MoCo. Some people also seem to like Ann Arundel county for similar reasons, but the commute makes less sense for us and it doesn't feel like a good cultural fit so we've ruled it out.

Einstein parent here with a clarification: the arts magnet at Einstein is the Visual Arts Center or VAC. This is a very small magnet program for the county's best visual artists. There is also the Visual and Performing Arts Academy or VAPA, which is open to any student attending Einstein.