How is McLean for a bright but not super gifted child?

[Anonymous]

I have a preschooler who I love dearly but don't necessarily think he is super gifted. We know many children who are far more advanced at the same age. DH and I are well educated. We have both attended ivy league schools at some point in our academic careers. We are looking to move in the near future. DH thinks we should move to Mclean. We have a house budget of $2 million. I'm concerned that DS will be stressed out at school with too many bright children and he will fall behind.

Are McLean academics that advanced? How is it for an average child?

DH thinks our kids will do fine. I can't help but be worried reading these boards. At the same time, I attended a supposedly top school district and I did not find the school challenging at all. I got straight A's without trying.

[Anonymous]

"McLean academics" = Fairfax County academics. Yes, there are many people who move to McLean with the presumption that their child is going to be in AAP and they want that particular pyramid. However, the thing that separates McLean from other Fairfax County areas is that McLean is full of people that can afford $2M homes. In that sense, your child will fit right in.

[Anonymous]

Your child would fit in fine. I wouldn't move to McLean just for the schools though. Make sure it suits your ideal of what you want in a town/community, e.g., commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a preschooler who I love dearly but don't necessarily think he is super gifted. We know many children who are far more advanced at the same age. DH and I are well educated. We have both attended ivy league schools at some point in our academic careers. We are looking to move in the near future. DH thinks we should move to Mclean. We have a house budget of $2 million. I'm concerned that DS will be stressed out at school with too many bright children and he will fall behind.

Are McLean academics that advanced? How is it for an average child?

DH thinks our kids will do fine. I can't help but be worried reading these boards. At the same time, I attended a supposedly top school district and I did not find the school challenging at all. I got straight A's without trying.

Holy, I can't wait to move out of this area and away from all this "perfect" focus!!

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't trust anything you read on this board. Do your research through the Fairfax county school website to search for a school with a good fit for your family and your friends and family and their friends for opinions. Many posters on this site bad mouth certain schools that their kids don't even go to. Its not worth getting sucked into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't trust anything you read on this board. Do your research through the Fairfax county school website to search for a school with a good fit for your family and your friends and family and their friends for opinions. Many posters on this site bad mouth certain schools that their kids don't even go to. Its not worth getting sucked into.

We are NYC transplants. I'm beginning to think we don't fit in anywhere in the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a preschooler who I love dearly but don't necessarily think he is super gifted. We know many children who are far more advanced at the same age. DH and I are well educated. We have both attended ivy league schools at some point in our academic careers. We are looking to move in the near future. DH thinks we should move to Mclean. We have a house budget of $2 million. I'm concerned that DS will be stressed out at school with too many bright children and he will fall behind.

Are McLean academics that advanced? How is it for an average child?

DH thinks our kids will do fine. I can't help but be worried reading these boards. At the same time, I attended a supposedly top school district and I did not find the school challenging at all. I got straight A's without trying.

Holy, I can't wait to move out of this area and away from all this "perfect" focus!!

We just moved from NYC. $2 million is not much of a housing budget in Manhattan. We do not have a perfect focus at all. We are trying to find the right place to raise our family.

[Anonymous]

Cutting past the snark in some of the prior responses, your kid will do fine. McLean has a lot of kids enrolled in AAP courses. But so do Vienna, Great Falls, Herndon, Oakton and Chantilly, and most kids in McLean public schools are not in AAP centers and thrive.

It's ultimately not about your kid, it's about you, and whether you'll stress out if you hear your neighbors talking about the Holy Trinity of McLean public school giftedness - Haycock AAP, Longfellow AAP, and TJ. If you think it will bother you if your kid isn't in that company, you'd probably be better off looking in North Arlington or Alexandria or Fairfax Station. But your kid will do fine either way, unless you make him like he's not meeting your expectations because he doesn't run with the AAP crowd.

And, of course, since he's a pre-schooler, you probably don't really know where he'll be academically in a few years anyway.

[Anonymous]

OP, what kind of demographics do you want your kid to friends with? I am from NYC too. You will find bright but not necessarily gifted. Gifted in McLean is 2-3 kids per classroom. I wouldn't worry about academics as they are similar in the good schools in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, what kind of demographics do you want your kid to friends with? I am from NYC too. You will find bright but not necessarily gifted. Gifted in McLean is 2-3 kids per classroom. I wouldn't worry about academics as they are similar in the good schools in FCPS.

I hope this comes out politically correct. If I could put my preferences into a magic ball. I would prefer the school to be 60% Caucasian, 10% Asian, 10% Hispanic, 10% African-American and 10% other/mixed. I would prefer less than 20% ESL and FARMS. I do not need everyone to live in million dollar homes. It would be nice to have a mix of economic diversity but not poverty.

DH and I do ok financially. Within the next few years, we should earn close to or more than $1 million per year combined. I would not want our kids to be the wealthiest kids at school. In NYC, all our friends earned similar incomes and were well educated. It didn't really matter where you worked or went to school. We just had a good time together.

I would like to be within 15 miles of DC. We also have room in our housing budget. We could probably go up to $3 million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, what kind of demographics do you want your kid to friends with? I am from NYC too. You will find bright but not necessarily gifted. Gifted in McLean is 2-3 kids per classroom. I wouldn't worry about academics as they are similar in the good schools in FCPS.

I hope this comes out politically correct. If I could put my preferences into a magic ball. I would prefer the school to be 60% Caucasian, 10% Asian, 10% Hispanic, 10% African-American and 10% other/mixed. I would prefer less than 20% ESL and FARMS. I do not need everyone to live in million dollar homes. It would be nice to have a mix of economic diversity but not poverty.

DH and I do ok financially. Within the next few years, we should earn close to or more than $1 million per year combined. I would not want our kids to be the wealthiest kids at school. In NYC, all our friends earned similar incomes and were well educated. It didn't really matter where you worked or went to school. We just had a good time together.

I would like to be within 15 miles of DC. We also have room in our housing budget. We could probably go up to $3 million.

I doubt you'll find that demographic mix in NoVa. You might find it in some parts of Montgomery County. Usually in Fairfax, if a school has around 10% AA students, it will typically have either at least 25% Asian students, 25% Hispanic students, or both. But change the 10% Asian to 15% and the 10% AA to 5%, and that's fairly close to what you'll get in the McLean HS pyramid. There are quite a few $2M houses - typically tear-downs in neighborhoods where the houses go from $750K to $2.5M. $3M, on the other hand, sounds more like the Langley Forest area of McLean or some parts of Great Falls, both of which are in the Langley HS pyramid, and some properties in Old Town Alexandria (City of Alexandria schools).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, what kind of demographics do you want your kid to friends with? I am from NYC too. You will find bright but not necessarily gifted. Gifted in McLean is 2-3 kids per classroom. I wouldn't worry about academics as they are similar in the good schools in FCPS.

I hope this comes out politically correct. If I could put my preferences into a magic ball. I would prefer the school to be 60% Caucasian, 10% Asian, 10% Hispanic, 10% African-American and 10% other/mixed. I would prefer less than 20% ESL and FARMS. I do not need everyone to live in million dollar homes. It would be nice to have a mix of economic diversity but not poverty.

DH and I do ok financially. Within the next few years, we should earn close to or more than $1 million per year combined. I would not want our kids to be the wealthiest kids at school. In NYC, all our friends earned similar incomes and were well educated. It didn't really matter where you worked or went to school. We just had a good time together.

I would like to be within 15 miles of DC. We also have room in our housing budget. We could probably go up to $3 million.

"I hope this comes out politically correct." This is what people commonly say right before they say something that reveals them for the raving idiot that they are. Too many brown and poor kids make you uncomfortable, huh? You reinforce all the worst stereotypes of the affluent suburbs.

[Anonymous]

and what a saint you are for still loving your preschooler dearly despite his lack of giftedness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, what kind of demographics do you want your kid to friends with? I am from NYC too. You will find bright but not necessarily gifted. Gifted in McLean is 2-3 kids per classroom. I wouldn't worry about academics as they are similar in the good schools in FCPS.

I hope this comes out politically correct. If I could put my preferences into a magic ball. I would prefer the school to be 60% Caucasian, 10% Asian, 10% Hispanic, 10% African-American and 10% other/mixed. I would prefer less than 20% ESL and FARMS. I do not need everyone to live in million dollar homes. It would be nice to have a mix of economic diversity but not poverty.

DH and I do ok financially. Within the next few years, we should earn close to or more than $1 million per year combined. I would not want our kids to be the wealthiest kids at school. In NYC, all our friends earned similar incomes and were well educated. It didn't really matter where you worked or went to school. We just had a good time together.

I would like to be within 15 miles of DC. We also have room in our housing budget. We could probably go up to $3 million.

"I hope this comes out politically correct." This is what people commonly say right before they say something that reveals them for the raving idiot that they are. Too many brown and poor kids make you uncomfortable, huh? You reinforce all the worst stereotypes of the affluent suburbs.

Would your energies be better spent lobbying the federal government and local school districts not to compile and publish the demographic data for others to peruse?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:and what a saint you are for still loving your preschooler dearly despite his lack of giftedness.

+1