Woodson for a non competitive family?

[Anonymous]

We're trying to focus in on an area to buy a home and one area we're looking at feeds to Woodson (also looking at lake Braddock and West Springfield feeders). Anyway, I've heard that Woodson is a great school but that it's also one of those super competitive, high stress ones. Is that true or blown out of proportion? My husband and I are from the Midwest, and while we want our children to go to college, we won't push ivy league (state schools or a few years at community college are great options) and we just generally don't want to play the DC game I see talked about so much on these boards and have witnessed first hand living on capitol hill. Is Woodson not the school for us feeling this way, or is it possible to have a more normal life view (that sounds wrong, but i dont know how else to word it) and be happy with the school?

I know this is a weird question, but I'm hoping for some first hand insight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're trying to focus in on an area to buy a home and one area we're looking at feeds to Woodson (also looking at lake Braddock and West Springfield feeders). Anyway, I've heard that Woodson is a great school but that it's also one of those super competitive, high stress ones. Is that true or blown out of proportion? My husband and I are from the Midwest, and while we want our children to go to college, we won't push ivy league (state schools or a few years at community college are great options) and we just generally don't want to play the DC game I see talked about so much on these boards and have witnessed first hand living on capitol hill. Is Woodson not the school for us feeling this way, or is it possible to have a more normal life view (that sounds wrong, but i dont know how else to word it) and be happy with the school?

I know this is a weird question, but I'm hoping for some first hand insight.

It's not a weird question.
But when you say non-competitive, do you mean like no AP classes?
That would be weird.
Anyway all these big schools around here like Woodson have enough going on that your kids will fall in with a certain group, and you don't have to be competitive if you don't want to be.
I think the bigger fear would be falling through the cracks if the kid doesn't get involved in something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're trying to focus in on an area to buy a home and one area we're looking at feeds to Woodson (also looking at lake Braddock and West Springfield feeders). Anyway, I've heard that Woodson is a great school but that it's also one of those super competitive, high stress ones. Is that true or blown out of proportion? My husband and I are from the Midwest, and while we want our children to go to college, we won't push ivy league (state schools or a few years at community college are great options) and we just generally don't want to play the DC game I see talked about so much on these boards and have witnessed first hand living on capitol hill. Is Woodson not the school for us feeling this way, or is it possible to have a more normal life view (that sounds wrong, but i dont know how else to word it) and be happy with the school?

I know this is a weird question, but I'm hoping for some first hand insight.

It's not a weird question.
But when you say non-competitive, do you mean like no AP classes?
That would be weird.
Anyway all these big schools around here like Woodson have enough going on that your kids will fall in with a certain group, and you don't have to be competitive if you don't want to be.
I think the bigger fear would be falling through the cracks if the kid doesn't get involved in something.

No, I'd of course like there to be great educational opportunities, good teachers, etc. I guess I'd describe it as a challenging environment, not a competitive one. I guess at the heart of the matter is we make a good living in our eyes, but maybe not for the DC area. Is it the kind of school where everyone takes fancy vacations, buys their kids iPhones, everyone's obsessed with comparing college choice, etc? Or put another way, is it a pressure cooker? I'm having a really hard time describing what I'm worried about. Let's put it this way. I taught at one of the high end private schools in Maryland for a couple of years until I couldn't stand it anymore. The parents there just have this philosophy that their child is entitled to whatever will help them get ahead no matter the cost. I'm not sure if any public school has that environment, but I certainly want to avoid it and I'm wondering if Woodson edges towards that kind of family?

[Anonymous]

Being in Northern Virginia, all three of those schools have some element of competitiveness going on, but my sense is that the schools in the western part of the county have a more pervasive competitive atmosphere than these three. All three of these schools are big enough for your children to find a group of kids that they will get along with.
The key, as noted above, is to get involved in something. All three have large music and sports programs which require a pretty high level of expertise, but also have theatre, yearbook, and lots of special interest clubs for kids to get involved in.
Good luck with your move, hope you find a place here you really like. We moved here ourselves and it was a pretty big adjustment at first, but we truly enjoy the area now.

[Anonymous]

well where else are you going to go? Langley, McLean, Madison, Robinson, Oakton - there all pretty much the same.
Over 2,000 students and many have far nicer cars than the teachers.
BTW, U.S. News and World Report ranks it as the #122 high school in the country, so I don't see how you can go wrong.

[Anonymous]

Okay, I see what you're asking now. None of these schools are as much like that as the western county schools, but if I were to rank them, most to least, it would be:
1. Woodson
2. Lake Braddock
3. West Springfield

I've had kids at LB and know people at church with kids at the other two and that is the sense I have of these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
No, I'd of course like there to be great educational opportunities, good teachers, etc. I guess I'd describe it as a challenging environment, not a competitive one. I guess at the heart of the matter is we make a good living in our eyes, but maybe not for the DC area. Is it the kind of school where everyone takes fancy vacations, buys their kids iPhones, everyone's obsessed with comparing college choice, etc? Or put another way, is it a pressure cooker? I'm having a really hard time describing what I'm worried about. Let's put it this way. I taught at one of the high end private schools in Maryland for a couple of years until I couldn't stand it anymore. The parents there just have this philosophy that their child is entitled to whatever will help them get ahead no matter the cost. I'm not sure if any public school has that environment, but I certainly want to avoid it and I'm wondering if Woodson edges towards that kind of family?

I think you'll be fine if you allow yourself to be. Woodson HS does not serve the wealthiest parts of Fairfax County. Those kids go to Langley, McLean, Madison, Oakton, Marshall and Robinson.

Woodson has a top academic reputation because it has high test scores. It has high test scores because almost all the kids come from stable families and nice neighborhoods. There aren't many kids who go to Woodson who live in low-income apartments or who are just learning English, unlike at some other schools. It also has, for Fairfax, a high number of Asian and Jewish families who emphasize education. Put it together, and you end up with an environment that is academically challenging, but not one where all the families take family vacations. It has many kids who take multiple AP courses in their junior and senior years of high school, and many families who are heavily invested in making sure that their kids get into "good" schools or the "right" schools. It also has many kids who end up at NoVa or a lesser-known school. If you and your child take responsibility for your child's education, and decide what your priorities are, the opportunities are there. If you allow others to decide what your priorities should be, you might be unhappy, but that would be the case at other schools as well.

[Anonymous]

11:47 - meant to say "expensive family vacations," not "family vacations.

[Anonymous]

There are some families like this at all schools, but for the most part I think the families that are really well off and competitive opt for private school.

[Anonymous]

I live in a neighborhood that feeds into Woodson, and though my kids are only in ES, I feel confident in saying that it isn't a pressure cooker. Our neighborhood is solidly middle class- a mix of teachers, military, govt. workers, GMU profs, and I don't hear talk about fancy cars or exotic vacations, or any of the kind of obsessing about AAP that you see on this board. My neighbors are down-to-earth, and the families I know who are feeding into West Springfield and Lake Braddock are very similar. I tend think it is a somewhat different culture in this part of Fairfax county than what you find at Langley and McLean, which are much wealthier and more of a pressure-cooker atmosphere (ok, this last bit is conjecture on my point.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
No, I'd of course like there to be great educational opportunities, good teachers, etc. I guess I'd describe it as a challenging environment, not a competitive one. I guess at the heart of the matter is we make a good living in our eyes, but maybe not for the DC area. Is it the kind of school where everyone takes fancy vacations, buys their kids iPhones, everyone's obsessed with comparing college choice, etc? Or put another way, is it a pressure cooker? I'm having a really hard time describing what I'm worried about. Let's put it this way. I taught at one of the high end private schools in Maryland for a couple of years until I couldn't stand it anymore. The parents there just have this philosophy that their child is entitled to whatever will help them get ahead no matter the cost. I'm not sure if any public school has that environment, but I certainly want to avoid it and I'm wondering if Woodson edges towards that kind of family?

I think you'll be fine if you allow yourself to be. Woodson HS does not serve the wealthiest parts of Fairfax County. Those kids go to Langley, McLean, Madison, Oakton, Marshall and Robinson.

Woodson has a top academic reputation because it has high test scores. It has high test scores because almost all the kids come from stable families and nice neighborhoods. There aren't many kids who go to Woodson who live in low-income apartments or who are just learning English, unlike at some other schools. It also has, for Fairfax, a high number of Asian and Jewish families who emphasize education. Put it together, and you end up with an environment that is academically challenging, but not one where all the families take family vacations. It has many kids who take multiple AP courses in their junior and senior years of high school, and many families who are heavily invested in making sure that their kids get into "good" schools or the "right" schools. It also has many kids who end up at NoVa or a lesser-known school. If you and your child take responsibility for your child's education, and decide what your priorities are, the opportunities are there. If you allow others to decide what your priorities should be, you might be unhappy, but that would be the case at other schools as well.

Robinson? I would agree with your statement but remove Robinson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Robinson? I would agree with your statement but remove Robinson.

Why? The most affluent parts of Fairfax Station and Clifton feed into Robinson, together with other neighborhoods. My impression has always been that none of the areas that feed into Woodson are as wealthy as those neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a neighborhood that feeds into Woodson, and though my kids are only in ES, I feel confident in saying that it isn't a pressure cooker. Our neighborhood is solidly middle class- a mix of teachers, military, govt. workers, GMU profs, and I don't hear talk about fancy cars or exotic vacations, or any of the kind of obsessing about AAP that you see on this board. My neighbors are down-to-earth, and the families I know who are feeding into West Springfield and Lake Braddock are very similar. I tend think it is a somewhat different culture in this part of Fairfax county than what you find at Langley and McLean, which are much wealthier and more of a pressure-cooker atmosphere (ok, this last bit is conjecture on my point.)

Dunno; maybe it is conjecture. We're at McLean, and I've always thought it was more like Woodson and Madison than like Langley. There was a poster a while back who claimed that guidance counselors at Langley were pushing her daughter to take 4-5 AP courses/year, even though she was stressed out and not getting enough sleep. I never knew if that was really true, but it would not happen at McLean, although there are kids who do this on their own initiative or at their parents' behest. Our own view was that 1-2 AP courses/year were enough for our HS kids, and the counselors at McLean readily accepted that decision. At the end of the day, these are public schools and, even at the schools that serve the most affluent parts of the county, there are going to be students with different academic abilities and aspirations. Exactly how that translates into academic "pressure" isn't always obvious. In theory, a kid may feel less pressure if he knows his parents will pay to send him to a private LAC or an out-of-state public university than if he thinks he absolutely has to get into one of the top 3-4 public universities in the state.

[Anonymous]

Watch the suicides at Woodson. There was just another one over the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Watch the suicides at Woodson. There was just another one over the summer.

This seems very mean-spirited. Shame on you.