Why don’t more parents send their kids to Basis McLean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

Basis McLean's enrollment increases every year. Last year was around 478 students. Now I just checked, is 640 students.
Their lower to middle school is great. the number of student increased a lot. My kid's grade use to have only one class. Now have two class (almost 40 students total). We have sports clubs including soccer, basketball, tennis and chess. Maybe there are other I don't know.
regarding culture, I don't know how to compare to other private schools because I don't have experiences in other private schools. But I heard other schools has drug problem, small circle bullies. Here we don't have those.
Maybe students here have to focus on academic so they don't have time for other things. Maybe most of the parents are busy upper middle working class professionals who are not rich enough to spoil their kids. I don't know the reason. But for me, Basis's environment is warm and simple.
Don't know much about the high school. 2020 was literally the first high school graduate since they opened in the fall 2016. I think you can find their college admission from their website. It's phenomenal. Each class only has around 30 students, but all of them got admitted by good colleges including Stanford, MIT, U Chicago, Columbia, Brown, Cornel, Duke, UCB, UCLA, UVA,CMU, JHU, Emory, Rice etc..
DC area have many good well known private schools. The public surrounding Basis Mclean also top schools: TJ, McLean high, Langley High. Basis Mclean was always facing high competitions since it opened. It's not easy to survive as a new school but it is so far so good. The enrollment is good. The college enrollment is phenomenal.

An education consultant we used 2 years ago steered us away from BASIS McLean in no uncertain terms. Yes, BASIS has a good reputation nationally, but the kids are not going to school nationally. They are in that place. The curriculum is solid, but it takes more than that to have a good school experience. The one in DC is pretty good I hear. BASIS McLean is in a class B office tower (think of a mid-rise with an interior atrium). Classrooms are in what would otherwise be offices or conference rooms. It has had 6 or 7 Heads of School in the last 5 or 6 years. I don’t know if BASIS McLean has “phenomenal” college placement or not. If it does, that would not surprise me. As PP said, they sit in the middle of 3 really strong public high schools (McLean, Langley, Madison) and from what I understand the HS is drawn from a lot of kids who were gunning for TJ but didn’t get in. Those kids would have done well at practically any rigorous HS you put them in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Basis booster has a distinctive writing style so we know it’s the same person posting over and over again.

Good observation! LOL
I did wrote several. But cannot take credits from all others.
I call tell there are at least 4 or 5 persons "boost" Basis for the past two days. I simply cannot take credits away from them.
Also I have some standards for myself which prevent me using certain words even it's anonymous here. I certainly cannot take credits for those words either. LOL
Like I said in other posts, most of the Basis parents are hard working professionals. I doubts they will ever read posts here. I happened to have some time to check this forum. I feel like I should say something I know about Basis as Basis parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

Basis McLean's enrollment increases every year. Last year was around 478 students. Now I just checked, is 640 students.
Their lower to middle school is great. the number of student increased a lot. My kid's grade use to have only one class. Now have two class (almost 40 students total). We have sports clubs including soccer, basketball, tennis and chess. Maybe there are other I don't know.
regarding culture, I don't know how to compare to other private schools because I don't have experiences in other private schools. But I heard other schools has drug problem, small circle bullies. Here we don't have those.
Maybe students here have to focus on academic so they don't have time for other things. Maybe most of the parents are busy upper middle working class professionals who are not rich enough to spoil their kids. I don't know the reason. But for me, Basis's environment is warm and simple.
Don't know much about the high school. 2020 was literally the first high school graduate since they opened in the fall 2016. I think you can find their college admission from their website. It's phenomenal. Each class only has around 30 students, but all of them got admitted by good colleges including Stanford, MIT, U Chicago, Columbia, Brown, Cornel, Duke, UCB, UCLA, UVA,CMU, JHU, Emory, Rice etc..
DC area have many good well known private schools. The public surrounding Basis Mclean also top schools: TJ, McLean high, Langley High. Basis Mclean was always facing high competitions since it opened. It's not easy to survive as a new school but it is so far so good. The enrollment is good. The college enrollment is phenomenal.

An education consultant we used 2 years ago steered us away from BASIS McLean in no uncertain terms. Yes, BASIS has a good reputation nationally, but the kids are not going to school nationally. They are in that place. The curriculum is solid, but it takes more than that to have a good school experience. The one in DC is pretty good I hear. BASIS McLean is in a class B office tower (think of a mid-rise with an interior atrium). Classrooms are in what would otherwise be offices or conference rooms. It has had 6 or 7 Heads of School in the last 5 or 6 years. I don’t know if BASIS McLean has “phenomenal” college placement or not. If it does, that would not surprise me. As PP said, they sit in the middle of 3 really strong public high schools (McLean, Langley, Madison) and from what I understand the HS is drawn from a lot of kids who were gunning for TJ but didn’t get in. Those kids would have done well at practically any rigorous HS you put them in.

I heard some middle schoolers went to TJ, or boarding schools when they chose high schools. A few went back to home schools which are good public schools. But most of them stay in Basis for high school. With increasing enrollment in lower and middle school, I anticipate the high school enrollment rate will also increase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

Basis McLean's enrollment increases every year. Last year was around 478 students. Now I just checked, is 640 students.
Their lower to middle school is great. the number of student increased a lot. My kid's grade use to have only one class. Now have two class (almost 40 students total). We have sports clubs including soccer, basketball, tennis and chess. Maybe there are other I don't know.
regarding culture, I don't know how to compare to other private schools because I don't have experiences in other private schools. But I heard other schools has drug problem, small circle bullies. Here we don't have those.
Maybe students here have to focus on academic so they don't have time for other things. Maybe most of the parents are busy upper middle working class professionals who are not rich enough to spoil their kids. I don't know the reason. But for me, Basis's environment is warm and simple.
Don't know much about the high school. 2020 was literally the first high school graduate since they opened in the fall 2016. I think you can find their college admission from their website. It's phenomenal. Each class only has around 30 students, but all of them got admitted by good colleges including Stanford, MIT, U Chicago, Columbia, Brown, Cornel, Duke, UCB, UCLA, UVA,CMU, JHU, Emory, Rice etc..
DC area have many good well known private schools. The public surrounding Basis Mclean also top schools: TJ, McLean high, Langley High. Basis Mclean was always facing high competitions since it opened. It's not easy to survive as a new school but it is so far so good. The enrollment is good. The college enrollment is phenomenal.

Checked their website, there are college names listed but not separated by year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

Basis McLean's enrollment increases every year. Last year was around 478 students. Now I just checked, is 640 students.
Their lower to middle school is great. the number of student increased a lot. My kid's grade use to have only one class. Now have two class (almost 40 students total). We have sports clubs including soccer, basketball, tennis and chess. Maybe there are other I don't know.
regarding culture, I don't know how to compare to other private schools because I don't have experiences in other private schools. But I heard other schools has drug problem, small circle bullies. Here we don't have those.
Maybe students here have to focus on academic so they don't have time for other things. Maybe most of the parents are busy upper middle working class professionals who are not rich enough to spoil their kids. I don't know the reason. But for me, Basis's environment is warm and simple.
Don't know much about the high school. 2020 was literally the first high school graduate since they opened in the fall 2016. I think you can find their college admission from their website. It's phenomenal. Each class only has around 30 students, but all of them got admitted by good colleges including Stanford, MIT, U Chicago, Columbia, Brown, Cornel, Duke, UCB, UCLA, UVA,CMU, JHU, Emory, Rice etc..
DC area have many good well known private schools. The public surrounding Basis Mclean also top schools: TJ, McLean high, Langley High. Basis Mclean was always facing high competitions since it opened. It's not easy to survive as a new school but it is so far so good. The enrollment is good. The college enrollment is phenomenal.

An education consultant we used 2 years ago steered us away from BASIS McLean in no uncertain terms. Yes, BASIS has a good reputation nationally, but the kids are not going to school nationally. They are in that place. The curriculum is solid, but it takes more than that to have a good school experience. The one in DC is pretty good I hear. BASIS McLean is in a class B office tower (think of a mid-rise with an interior atrium). Classrooms are in what would otherwise be offices or conference rooms. It has had 6 or 7 Heads of School in the last 5 or 6 years. I don’t know if BASIS McLean has “phenomenal” college placement or not. If it does, that would not surprise me. As PP said, they sit in the middle of 3 really strong public high schools (McLean, Langley, Madison) and from what I understand the HS is drawn from a lot of kids who were gunning for TJ but didn’t get in. Those kids would have done well at practically any rigorous HS you put them in.

I heard some middle schoolers went to TJ, or boarding schools when they chose high schools. A few went back to home schools which are good public schools. But most of them stay in Basis for high school. With increasing enrollment in lower and middle school, I anticipate the high school enrollment rate will also increase.

The majority of the class has left after middle school. Every year. There is clearly a reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

Basis McLean's enrollment increases every year. Last year was around 478 students. Now I just checked, is 640 students.
Their lower to middle school is great. the number of student increased a lot. My kid's grade use to have only one class. Now have two class (almost 40 students total). We have sports clubs including soccer, basketball, tennis and chess. Maybe there are other I don't know.
regarding culture, I don't know how to compare to other private schools because I don't have experiences in other private schools. But I heard other schools has drug problem, small circle bullies. Here we don't have those.
Maybe students here have to focus on academic so they don't have time for other things. Maybe most of the parents are busy upper middle working class professionals who are not rich enough to spoil their kids. I don't know the reason. But for me, Basis's environment is warm and simple.
Don't know much about the high school. 2020 was literally the first high school graduate since they opened in the fall 2016. I think you can find their college admission from their website. It's phenomenal. Each class only has around 30 students, but all of them got admitted by good colleges including Stanford, MIT, U Chicago, Columbia, Brown, Cornel, Duke, UCB, UCLA, UVA,CMU, JHU, Emory, Rice etc..
DC area have many good well known private schools. The public surrounding Basis Mclean also top schools: TJ, McLean high, Langley High. Basis Mclean was always facing high competitions since it opened. It's not easy to survive as a new school but it is so far so good. The enrollment is good. The college enrollment is phenomenal.

An education consultant we used 2 years ago steered us away from BASIS McLean in no uncertain terms. Yes, BASIS has a good reputation nationally, but the kids are not going to school nationally. They are in that place. The curriculum is solid, but it takes more than that to have a good school experience. The one in DC is pretty good I hear. BASIS McLean is in a class B office tower (think of a mid-rise with an interior atrium). Classrooms are in what would otherwise be offices or conference rooms. It has had 6 or 7 Heads of School in the last 5 or 6 years. I don’t know if BASIS McLean has “phenomenal” college placement or not. If it does, that would not surprise me. As PP said, they sit in the middle of 3 really strong public high schools (McLean, Langley, Madison) and from what I understand the HS is drawn from a lot of kids who were gunning for TJ but didn’t get in. Those kids would have done well at practically any rigorous HS you put them in.

I heard some middle schoolers went to TJ, or boarding schools when they chose high schools. A few went back to home schools which are good public schools. But most of them stay in Basis for high school. With increasing enrollment in lower and middle school, I anticipate the high school enrollment rate will also increase.

The majority of the class has left after middle school. Every year. There is clearly a reason.

I was told the opposite. But I don't have official number. I did not care much about high school because my kids are not there yet. Let me ask the school about the exact rate and I will post here.

[Anonymous]

BASIS McLean has a pretty decent rejection rate -- in other words, it knows what size it wants to be and it only admits the kids it believes will be good fits. So it's not that more parents don't send their kids there; the school decides what size it wants to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BASIS McLean has a pretty decent rejection rate -- in other words, it knows what size it wants to be and it only admits the kids it believes will be good fits. So it's not that more parents don't send their kids there; the school decides what size it wants to be.

Good to know.
My two kids got accepted very easily and they seems don't have a deadline for application. Maybe it's relatively easier for lower school?
I can understand they would raise the standard for high school knowing some kids may fail the school.

[Anonymous]

Wait, people pay to send their kids to school in an office building---a school that is free in other states?

Where do they have recess? Where do they have outdoor activities? A high school with no sports?

[Anonymous]

Sending your kid to a for profit school just seems dumb.

[Anonymous]

Do they have an outdoor area for recess?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, people pay to send their kids to school in an office building---a school that is free in other states?

Where do they have recess? Where do they have outdoor activities? A high school with no sports?

It has outdoor field and indoor gym for recess.
It has sports clubs although it’s small. Kids can join outside sports clubs too.
It’s a office building with high ceiling, windows, skylight and tons of sunlight.
Each classroom is spacious and bright with windows to pass natural light. Not like in some other school they covered the windows to make it dark.
Basis charter schools in other states are free. But Basis independent schools are private schools with tuitions, like Basis independent school in Silicon Valley and NYC.

[Anonymous]

Personally would rather spend that much money for a real private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do they have an outdoor area for recess?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally would rather spend that much money for a real private school.

They seems don’t have deadline for applications. So in the middle of school year I decided to give my kids a try.
I was planing to apply for other established private schools too. But then my kids loved this school and did not want to transfer. So we stayed.
Looks like a fit for them. Don’t know if they would fit better in other schools. I heard other problems for those well established schools so I thought staying here might be a better choice.