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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Came from another thread about National semi finalist: Basis McLean has 7 semi finalists out of a small class of ～30 , about 23%, a tad lower that TJ’s percentage but much higher than other DMV schools’.

Good to know.
My friends who just relocated from CA are asking this school.

I heard BASIS in CA and NYU have very good reputations.
Do they also have management issues and high turnover rate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When BIM opened the target was 500 students the first year and 1000 for year two. They didn’t make the year one number and even dipped lower some years and still have not made the year two number. Hundreds if not thousands have churned through the school in its short history. Anecdotally only a small percentage of the “founding families” remain.

As others have said, the school is appealing to a very niche group of students/families who are extremely academically focused. For this group the school is a great fit, hence the high NMSF. Those that like the school and can stay in are high academic performers.

Now it is close to 600. Not far away from 700.

I don’t know, I think 700 sounds like a long way from 1000 which was supposed to be the target 6 years ago. The school needs much higher enrollment for the corporate office to make any meaningful investment..

They really needed VMPI to pass to boost their enrollment. Even without it, it might go up with what I hear is a dropping of math acceleration in Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When BIM opened the target was 500 students the first year and 1000 for year two. They didn’t make the year one number and even dipped lower some years and still have not made the year two number. Hundreds if not thousands have churned through the school in its short history. Anecdotally only a small percentage of the “founding families” remain.

As others have said, the school is appealing to a very niche group of students/families who are extremely academically focused. For this group the school is a great fit, hence the high NMSF. Those that like the school and can stay in are high academic performers.

Now it is close to 600. Not far away from 700.

I don’t know, I think 700 sounds like a long way from 1000 which was supposed to be the target 6 years ago. The school needs much higher enrollment for the corporate office to make any meaningful investment..

They really needed VMPI to pass to boost their enrollment. Even without it, it might go up with what I hear is a dropping of math acceleration in Fairfax.

There is also a financial issue. An early press release said they spent $20 million refitting the half of the building that they use now. Will the new owners be willing to do that again if they think they have enough students?

That's the acid test. I would be surprised if we hear anything like that for a long while. Even then, the work would take a while to finish. But if they step up to complete the facility, you will know if the school is finally serious or still just a wannabe.

[Anonymous]

Kids that survive the academic rigor, even for a few years, will display an enormous advantage in testing performance. If you believe SAT/ACT still matters for admission and merit aid (in contrast to what universities say) then you should consider Basis. Ultimately the experience will depend on the the child being a "good" fit or not. You got to know your child and be realistic about how she/he fits the well known pros and cons of Basis. Some criticism towards Basis come from disgruntled parents whose kids turned out not be good fits (this has nothing to do with being smart), but it is also true that the school has some lacking dimensions (diversity, social life, sports) that could be particularly hard for some to cope (again, not good fits).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids that survive the academic rigor, even for a few years, will display an enormous advantage in testing performance. If you believe SAT/ACT still matters for admission and merit aid (in contrast to what universities say) then you should consider Basis. Ultimately the experience will depend on the the child being a "good" fit or not. You got to know your child and be realistic about how she/he fits the well known pros and cons of Basis. Some criticism towards Basis come from disgruntled parents whose kids turned out not be good fits (this has nothing to do with being smart), but it is also true that the school has some lacking dimensions (diversity, social life, sports) that could be particularly hard for some to cope (again, not good fits).

That's an excellent summary. If your kid's existence is all about testing performance, BIM is the best mechanic to tune them up.

If not......

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

OMG OP stop bumping your thread over and over again. The school year has already started. This ship has sailed.

[Anonymous]

You know it's bad when your local FCPS ES has two teachers enrolled in the $40K "resident teacher" program that used to teach at Basis McLean. It must be an awful place to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know it's bad when your local FCPS ES has two teachers enrolled in the $40K "resident teacher" program that used to teach at Basis McLean. It must be an awful place to work.

Someone wants BASIS fail so badly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know it's bad when your local FCPS ES has two teachers enrolled in the $40K "resident teacher" program that used to teach at Basis McLean. It must be an awful place to work.

High staff turnover in any organization is a sign that something is really wrong; either the job itself is that unpleasant, pay is intolerable, or management drives people away.

BIM has a beautiful building in a nice location with rich kid students. Teachers are leaving in some cases for lower pay elsewhere.

So it's pretty clear that the wave of departures is from people who either had other changes in their lives or just couldn't stand the latest HoS and his crowd. Clearly, working at BIM was not a powerful magnet to hold them there. Even teachers who started with the school in 2016.

I have heard stories about both from teachers who left. Regardless, the result is new teachers and inexperienced managers running the school at various levels now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New BIM family here. I found it really weird that there are so many non-BIM family members posting on this thread demanding "truth" on the school website. Why are you so invested or threaten by this small school? Do you check out other school websites and demand the same "truth" too? If you pulled your kids out from BIM, where are your kids now? Do you demand the same "truth" with your current school?

Agree completely. The NCS and GDS websites have plenty of out-of-date curricular information and no information on actual schedules and which classes are actually taught. The staff pages are also only periodically updated. All these private schools are haphazard in what they update on their websites.

NCS and GDS don’t have new HOS every year or recruitment/retention issues. They have a very solid track record of academic success and college placements. BIM has not yet sent a kid to HYP.

BIM is new, only had very few high school graduates, less than or around 100 maybe in total It already sent kids to Stanford, MIT, Columbia, Brown, Connell, U Chicago,Duke, CMU, JHU, UCB, UCLA, Rice, Emory, UVA, GT, UMD, WM, etc. From what I know, almost everyone got into top 50 schools, More than 30% got into T10.
Do you think Niche ranking is less creditable than this forum?

Agree.
The 2023 Niche results out:
https://www.niche.com/k12/basis-independent-mclean-mclean-va/

[Anonymous]

It lacks the special sauce people around here are looking for in a private school. Generations of their family did not attend. The family name is not engraved anywhere in the building (nor would they allow it to be, really).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It lacks the special sauce people around here are looking for in a private school. Generations of their family did not attend. The family name is not engraved anywhere in the building (nor would they allow it to be, really).

Having six heads of school in 7 years is not a good look either, plus losing key faculty and managers this school year.

And a comical lack of physical plant compared to the school's regarded here as the best.

[Anonymous]

This school is a joke. Had kids there 1 year. I can't imagine a worse school. Truly awful. Most of the parents are coming from public so they don't know how bad the school is compared to any other private. I feel so sorry for the kids there.

[Anonymous]

The school is probably great for certain kids