Basis Independence McLean vs Bishop O’Connell

[Anonymous]

Has she visited each? They aren’t even remotely alike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They aren’t even remotely alike.

+1. Could not be more different.

[Anonymous]

Looks like a BIM booster started this to get free publicity for BIM. As usual. BIM boosters - just pay Jeff to run your ads.

[Anonymous]

My bad. My wife told me the Bishop shadow is until May 22. My DD already did the BIM visit.

BTW, we did the applications very late as we recently decided to move from MD to McLean. Thank goodness these two schools have rolling admissions as we missed the deadline for the other private schools. Langley HS is a great option if she didn’t get accepted but we rather a private school.

[Anonymous]

Our kid looked at both, so it isn't crazy. Not everyone who lives in Virginia wants the daily commute to DC or Maryland privates, especially if both parents work in Virginia. The schools are totally different though. O'Connell is a typical high school with sports and a much larger student body. The kids also take religion as a required class. They offer a full range of AP classes and generous scholarships if your kid scores high enough on the entrance exam. We felt like our kid would be challenged academically if he went there.

That said, our kid ended up choosing BIM, which I know many people on DCUM will think is crazy. However, our kid loved the small student body and the chance to do independent and accelerated study. The advantage to the smaller class size is that the teachers just move on once the kids have mastered the content. I don't understand the comments that I always see on here about BIM just teaching to the AP exam, because that has not been our experience. Our kid is going way deeper into the content than he ever did in public school. Many of the high school kids stay after school to do passion projects with the teachers, which the teachers seem to enjoy as much as the kids. It has more of a PhD program vibe than a high school vibe, which isn't for everyone, but certain types of kids will love it. A lot of people on this board criticize BASIS for the lack of a sports program (which it doesn't have). However, the kids who go there were never going to be varsity recruited athletes in their public schools, so I don't think they care. It is sort of a nerdy school. There are plenty of other more cerebral clubs available, and BIM has been doing extremely well in competitions like debate, quiz bowl, computer programming, Science Olympiad, etc. The debate team was just on the front page of the Sun Gazette after placing 1st in the entire Washington region (over public and private schools) and advancing to the national level.

You know your kid best, and your kid should be able to quickly figure out which school is the best fit (they really are very different!). Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kid looked at both, so it isn't crazy. Not everyone who lives in Virginia wants the daily commute to DC or Maryland privates, especially if both parents work in Virginia. The schools are totally different though. O'Connell is a typical high school with sports and a much larger student body. The kids also take religion as a required class. They offer a full range of AP classes and generous scholarships if your kid scores high enough on the entrance exam. We felt like our kid would be challenged academically if he went there.

That said, our kid ended up choosing BIM, which I know many people on DCUM will think is crazy. However, our kid loved the small student body and the chance to do independent and accelerated study. The advantage to the smaller class size is that the teachers just move on once the kids have mastered the content. I don't understand the comments that I always see on here about BIM just teaching to the AP exam, because that has not been our experience. Our kid is going way deeper into the content than he ever did in public school. Many of the high school kids stay after school to do passion projects with the teachers, which the teachers seem to enjoy as much as the kids. It has more of a PhD program vibe than a high school vibe, which isn't for everyone, but certain types of kids will love it. A lot of people on this board criticize BASIS for the lack of a sports program (which it doesn't have). However, the kids who go there were never going to be varsity recruited athletes in their public schools, so I don't think they care. It is sort of a nerdy school. There are plenty of other more cerebral clubs available, and BIM has been doing extremely well in competitions like debate, quiz bowl, computer programming, Science Olympiad, etc. The debate team was just on the front page of the Sun Gazette after placing 1st in the entire Washington region (over public and private schools) and advancing to the national level.

You know your kid best, and your kid should be able to quickly figure out which school is the best fit (they really are very different!). Good luck!

How big are the student body and individual grades now? It's never published, and boosters here claim some internal site closed to the public has accurate figures, but of course there is nothing to measure that against. Did they announce numbers for this year?

[Anonymous]

I don't know who the "boosters" are, but I don't think BIM hides the school size. If you ask when you contact the school, they will tell you. We never felt like they hid anything from us when we went through the admissions process. To answer your question though, the 12th grade is 25 students this year, but the 9th grade is 50 students. The size of the graduating class has been steadily growing each year, so I would guess the high school will be at least 200 kids when my child graduates. BIM has had some pretty good success with college admissions, which seems to be increasing interest in students entering in middle and high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know who the "boosters" are, but I don't think BIM hides the school size. If you ask when you contact the school, they will tell you. We never felt like they hid anything from us when we went through the admissions process. To answer your question though, the 12th grade is 25 students this year, but the 9th grade is 50 students. The size of the graduating class has been steadily growing each year, so I would guess the high school will be at least 200 kids when my child graduates. BIM has had some pretty good success with college admissions, which seems to be increasing interest in students entering in middle and high school.

BIM is one of the only privates that doesn't post enrollment data on its website at all. If they did, people could track it year to year and see the erratic growth. That senior class is not much different from right before Covid, which you would see if there was trackable data.

The real tell is they keep paying rent on 100K sq ft of space that they have never used because they don't have the revenue to justify building it out.

Money talks.

[Anonymous]

DJO. BIM way too small, very limiting socially. You can take AP at O’Connell to be challenged and have a more normal high school experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know who the "boosters" are, but I don't think BIM hides the school size. If you ask when you contact the school, they will tell you. We never felt like they hid anything from us when we went through the admissions process. To answer your question though, the 12th grade is 25 students this year, but the 9th grade is 50 students. The size of the graduating class has been steadily growing each year, so I would guess the high school will be at least 200 kids when my child graduates. BIM has had some pretty good success with college admissions, which seems to be increasing interest in students entering in middle and high school.

BIM is one of the only privates that doesn't post enrollment data on its website at all. If they did, people could track it year to year and see the erratic growth. That senior class is not much different from right before Covid, which you would see if there was trackable data.

The real tell is they keep paying rent on 100K sq ft of space that they have never used because they don't have the revenue to justify building it out.

Money talks.

How about some real numbers. The class of 2020 had 28 seniors. More interesting, the 8th grade that year had 55 students.

So 25 left to graduate now is more than 50% attrition.

Want to guess why BIM doesn't publish its enrollment stats?

[Anonymous]

If BIM published its various numbers online in a manner similar to other local privates, they would have more credibility than they do have right now.

They have been selling the story about senior class growing each year for a while now, yet graduating class size is not materially larger. If the graduating class size story really were true, probably they would publish the numbers online (like other schools) to show the trend. Ditto with college matriculation transparency. As near as we can tell, there is a mass exodus annually after students complete 8th grade, not to TJ, but to public or to other privates.

They also have had higher levels of staff turnover and leadership turnover than is typical at a good private, both of which are negative indicators.

Do whatever you think best for your DC, because you are the expert on your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know who the "boosters" are, but I don't think BIM hides the school size. If you ask when you contact the school, they will tell you.

Other privates publish that data online. Anyone can plot the actual trends from the online data.

BIM has had some pretty good success with college admissions, …

Again, this claim about BIM is not so clear or obviously true. Perhaps the difference lies in what one considers “pretty good success” ? One can look online at Potomac for example, and get the past few years of every matriculation, along with indications where multiple students attended the same college. Other good local privates also have similar quality data online for recent years of matriculations.

BIM is substantially less transparent than other local privates. They need to be more honest and more transparent, showing warts and all, not just marketing, if they really want to be taken seriously by the community at large. I know a bunch of folks who drive past BIM and have a longer commute for their DC to/from school because of BIM’s credibility gap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My bad. My wife told me the Bishop shadow is until May 22. My DD already did the BIM visit.

BTW, we did the applications very late as we recently decided to move from MD to McLean. Thank goodness these two schools have rolling admissions as we missed the deadline for the other private schools. Langley HS is a great option if she didn’t get accepted but we rather a private school.

Well for one thing don’t call it Bishop. Bishop O’Connell, O’Connell, or DJO (for Denis J O’Connell) but never Bishop. There’s also Bishop Ireton, which is Bishop Ireton, Ireton, or BI, but also never just Bishop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Again, this claim about BIM is not so clear or obviously true. Perhaps the difference lies in what one considers “pretty good success” ? One can look online at Potomac for example, and get the past few years of every matriculation, along with indications where multiple students attended the same college. Other good local privates also have similar quality data online for recent years of matriculations.

BIM is substantially less transparent than other local privates. They need to be more honest and more transparent, showing warts and all, not just marketing, if they really want to be taken seriously by the community at large. I know a bunch of folks who drive past BIM and have a longer commute for their DC to/from school because of BIM’s credibility gap.

It’s literally right there on their website. They post this every year. https://basisindependent.com/schools/va/mclean/about/blog/class-of-2024-acceptances-to-date/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If BIM published its various numbers online in a manner similar to other local privates, they would have more credibility than they do have right now.

They have been selling the story about senior class growing each year for a while now, yet graduating class size is not materially larger. If the graduating class size story really were true, probably they would publish the numbers online (like other schools) to show the trend. Ditto with college matriculation transparency. As near as we can tell, there is a mass exodus annually after students complete 8th grade, not to TJ, but to public or to other privates.

They also have had higher levels of staff turnover and leadership turnover than is typical at a good private, both of which are negative indicators.

Do whatever you think best for your DC, because you are the expert on your kids.

They must be pretty transparent if you’re able to deduce all that (I’m sure you’re not some disgruntled former employee who had all this information which is clearly pre-2021). There hasn’t been any change in leadership or high teacher turnover since 2021 when teacher turnover was making national news all over the place.