Wakefield or Arlington Tech for an A/B Student Who Will Most Likely Stay In-State for College

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is at Arlington Tech. It is absolutely a college prep program. His schedule this year include Intensified World History, Intensified English, Intensified Algebra II/Trig, Biology, 3rd year foreign language plus TV production. Next year, he'll start dual enrollment classes with DE Pre Calculus. The dual enrollment program is most valuable if you expect your child to go to a VA university because they have guaranteed credit transfer arrangements with all the VA public Us. And, they get more guaranteed credits than they would with AP/IB. However, the same may not carry over at private schools. Personally, I don't care that much about the credit transfer -- I'd want him to retake foundational classes for his major at college regardless of any DE/AP/IB credit. More important to me is that he's taking rigorous classes and DE seems to do fine on that front. The curriculum has to be the same as the class at NOVA and the teacher has to have a master's degree in the specific subject they are teaching (that is not required for AP/IB classes).

It definitely needs to be the student's decision to go there. It's quite a different HS experience, esp. since they don't yet have 4 full grades of students. I like the personal attention he gets and the project approach and he particularly likes his science and TV classes, but he has at least one friend who has decided to go back to his home school next year because he thinks the school is too small and he wants the more traditional HS social experience.

Looking at the kids a year ahead, the classes they are taking and the projects they get to do, I have no question that they will do fine in their college applications.

No doubt that it is very much a college-prep program. One problem is, it doesn't sound like one. Only a handful of well-known college prep programs (such as Brooklyn Tech) use names that sound like Vo-Tech. So one fear for OP is that DC may have to repeatedly explain to people that, no, it isn't a vocational school.

Well, when the colleges look at the transcript that will be clear. Don't really care about having to explain it to anyone else or worried about what other parents might think. I recognize it is a challenge for some families, you really need to be comfortable trying something that doesn't have a path lots of other kids have already taken. But, I think that's actually a plus -- these kids will have very interesting things to talk about and the opportunity to gain a lot of leadership experience in basically creating a school from the ground up.

[Anonymous]

I think that problem might just exist in N Arlington. Besides what’s wrong with a tech program or a trade? My friends family business is a million dollar plumbing business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:206 freshmen applied. All were accepted.

Geez, I hope a bunch of them turn it down. Original plan was 100 and i heard they were willing to go up 150. I don't know where they'd put 200, even with the internal construction we're told is supposed to be done over the summer!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:206 freshmen applied. All were accepted.

Geez, I hope a bunch of them turn it down. Original plan was 100 and i heard they were willing to go up 150. I don't know where they'd put 200, even with the internal construction we're told is supposed to be done over the summer!

incorrect. they want 200 this year all along. they're going to be under target actually because not everyone applied/accepted will go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:206 freshmen applied. All were accepted.

Geez, I hope a bunch of them turn it down. Original plan was 100 and i heard they were willing to go up 150. I don't know where they'd put 200, even with the internal construction we're told is supposed to be done over the summer!

incorrect. they want 200 this year all along. they're going to be under target actually because not everyone applied/accepted will go.

The goal has been a moving target. When my son applied last year we were told the plan was 100 for this yr's freshman class, 100 the next year, 200 each year after that (presumably the construction would be done by then). Earlier this school year current parents were told they'd increased the target to 150. Sounds like by the time the were communicating the applicants they upped it to 200 but really with some not taking spots, hopefully, it will end up more like 150 and that will work with the short-term space changes they can make. The decision to add TBD HS seats there derailed plans to expand the Career Center for the planned 800 seat Arlington Tech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that problem might just exist in N Arlington. Besides what’s wrong with a tech program or a trade? My friends family business is a million dollar plumbing business.

There's nothing wrong with a tech program, and we have the Career Center already. What many parents are still watching is to see how Arlington Tech plays out. APS is clear that it isn't competition for TJ and isn't prepping kids for MIT or Stanford, but it's not vo-tech either, it's somewhere in the middle. I'll be a believer when kids come out and head to schools with good tech or engineering or IT types of majors. If they all come out going to NOVA, then that's not what most of us think of when we hear the term college prep. It's not a bad thing, but it's a different thing. Hopefully the kids get the education they are expecting, and are prepared for the types of careers they want down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that problem might just exist in N Arlington. Besides what’s wrong with a tech program or a trade? My friends family business is a million dollar plumbing business.

There's nothing wrong with a tech program, and we have the Career Center already. What many parents are still watching is to see how Arlington Tech plays out. APS is clear that it isn't competition for TJ and isn't prepping kids for MIT or Stanford, but it's not vo-tech either, it's somewhere in the middle. I'll be a believer when kids come out and head to schools with good tech or engineering or IT types of majors. If they all come out going to NOVA, then that's not what most of us think of when we hear the term college prep. It's not a bad thing, but it's a different thing. Hopefully the kids get the education they are expecting, and are prepared for the types of careers they want down the road.

these are kids who got all As/Bs in MS, and maintain C or above (i believe) in HS to stay in the program. also plenty of URMs at the school. i think you're selling APS students as a whole a little short to even suggest this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that problem might just exist in N Arlington. Besides what’s wrong with a tech program or a trade? My friends family business is a million dollar plumbing business.

There's nothing wrong with a tech program, and we have the Career Center already. What many parents are still watching is to see how Arlington Tech plays out. APS is clear that it isn't competition for TJ and isn't prepping kids for MIT or Stanford, but it's not vo-tech either, it's somewhere in the middle. I'll be a believer when kids come out and head to schools with good tech or engineering or IT types of majors. If they all come out going to NOVA, then that's not what most of us think of when we hear the term college prep. It's not a bad thing, but it's a different thing. Hopefully the kids get the education they are expecting, and are prepared for the types of careers they want down the road.

these are kids who got all As/Bs in MS, and maintain C or above (i believe) in HS to stay in the program. also plenty of URMs at the school. i think you're selling APS students as a whole a little short to even suggest this.

Plus, since all or nearly all their 11th-12th grade classes will already be dual enrollment with NoVa there would not be much point to going there. Students who can't handle a full-load of dual enrollment should not attend Arlington Tech. Your non-college-bound students who want to take advantage of occupational training/certification would more likely be at the main HS and bus over to Career Center for those classes.

[Anonymous]

I would go to yorktown

[Anonymous]

You can get more of a flavor of the program through this student produced video: https://vimeo.com/247835700

And the student newspaper (esp. good for photos of the facility): https://accvanguard.com/

Scrolling through their Twitter feed also can show you some of the projects. I especially like the GoBabyGo project -- the students re-engineer a ride-on car to meet the needs of a disabled child.
https://twitter.com/Margaretchungcc/status/943777498793435137

[Anonymous]

There is nothing Arlington parents detest more than uncertainty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing Arlington parents detest more than uncertainty.

LOL, that's true. Takes a unique perspective (in the N Arl world) to be comfortable trying something off the beaten path. Five years from now DCUM will be full of people whining that it's not fair their kids can't get into Arlington Tech just like they now complain about HB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing Arlington parents detest more than uncertainty.

LOL, that's true. Takes a unique perspective (in the N Arl world) to be comfortable trying something off the beaten path. Five years from now DCUM will be full of people whining that it's not fair their kids can't get into Arlington Tech just like they now complain about HB.

I'm 0730 and I hope that's the case and that it's wildly successful since the main high schools are desperately overcrowded and we need to fill any seats at Arlington Tech that are available. It looks promising so far, but results will matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would go to yorktown

Not an option

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would go to yorktown

Not an option

Sell yo house