Yorktown HS (APS) compared to Wilson High School (DCPS)

[Anonymous]

Can kids from Yorktown and Wakefield apply for IB at WL? Is it based on MS grades? Just curious how hard it is to get a spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can kids from Yorktown and Wakefield apply for IB at WL? Is it based on MS grades? Just curious how hard it is to get a spot.

Yes they can, there's a basic prerequisite process and then those students are put into a random lottery. And if you don't stay in IB you have to return to your home school.

https://wl.apsva.us/international-baccalaureate-program/application-information/

Here is the most recent application/wait list information:
https://www.apsva.us/school-options/school-transfer-data/secondary-options-transfers-application-data-school-year-2021-22/

There is a waitlist every year.

[Anonymous]

In 2019-20, Yorktown sent 209 kids to W-L but W-L only sent 45 kids to Yorktown. It's fair to assume most were transferring for IB and would have been among the top students at Yorktown had they stayed. APS stacks the deck in favor of W-L at the expense of Yorktown and Wakefield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Recruited athletes”? Is that really a thing — it’s a neighborhood highschool.

Not sure if this is a thing here but I played basketball and softball in California in the 1990's. It was well known that there were certain schools that were regularly scouted by Division I colleges to recruit athletes. Families of girls who were athletically gifted regularly talked to the High School coaches and sent tapes of their Middle School kid to see if they had a good shot of making the varsity squad. If the Coach said yes, families moved into that boundary so that the kids could attend.

So yes, there is recruiting of high school players. I knew that my team was never going to win the conference in basketball because there were two teams that had girls who were, on average, 6 feet tall on their basketball squad. My 5'8" self could not match up with their centers. Either those teams had something in their water that led to lots of tall girls or people were moving into those areas to play basketball. And yes, almost all of those girls went to play Women's Basketball at Division I schools in College.

It is no different than the star athletes going to College Prep High Schools or private schools to play sports. It is just less obvious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In 2019-20, Yorktown sent 209 kids to W-L but W-L only sent 45 kids to Yorktown. It's fair to assume most were transferring for IB and would have been among the top students at Yorktown had they stayed. APS stacks the deck in favor of W-L at the expense of Yorktown and Wakefield.

Where is your data? I don't think this is necessarily true. There are plenty of top students at all 3 schools. And if you look at the number of true IB graduates at W-L, there are plenty of kids who end up back at WHS or WLHS when they decide they don't want to put in the work of the IB classes. Which W-L students can pick and choose if they want to pursue since that's their neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 2019-20, Yorktown sent 209 kids to W-L but W-L only sent 45 kids to Yorktown. It's fair to assume most were transferring for IB and would have been among the top students at Yorktown had they stayed. APS stacks the deck in favor of W-L at the expense of Yorktown and Wakefield.

Where is your data? I don't think this is necessarily true. There are plenty of top students at all 3 schools. And if you look at the number of true IB graduates at W-L, there are plenty of kids who end up back at WHS or WLHS when they decide they don't want to put in the work of the IB classes. Which W-L students can pick and choose if they want to pursue since that's their neighborhood school.

It's APS data. Look it up yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: APS stacks the deck in favor of W-L at the expense of Yorktown and Wakefield.

So it's your contention that families that would like to live in-bounds for W-L can't afford to?

[Anonymous]

It was cheaper for me to buy a small 3 bedroom in bounds for Yorktown than in bounds for W-L. Worked out cause we got an IB transfer. But yeah, the Metro corridor does make WL pricey unless you buy in Carlin Springs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In 2019-20, Yorktown sent 209 kids to W-L but W-L only sent 45 kids to Yorktown. It's fair to assume most were transferring for IB and would have been among the top students at Yorktown had they stayed. APS stacks the deck in favor of W-L at the expense of Yorktown and Wakefield.

It doesn't stack the deck anymore than TJ stacks the deck at the expense of McLean and Langley. It's an option, that's all. Plenty of smart in boundary kids choose to stay at Yorktown and go the AP route.

[Anonymous]

Because there’s no reason to transfer to YHS or WHS. Every APS school has AP classes so w-l kids wouldn’t need or want to transfer to yhs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because there’s no reason to transfer to YHS or WHS. Every APS school has AP classes so w-l kids wouldn’t need or want to transfer to yhs.

There may not be an academic program to transfer to Yorktown for; but Wakefield does have the AP Capstone program. And some have transferred for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because there’s no reason to transfer to YHS or WHS. Every APS school has AP classes so w-l kids wouldn’t need or want to transfer to yhs.

There may not be an academic program to transfer to Yorktown for; but Wakefield does have the AP Capstone program. And some have transferred for that.

To add - Wakefield also has the immersion program. So if students want to continue immersion and live in WL or YHS zones, they transfer to Wakefield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 2019-20, Yorktown sent 209 kids to W-L but W-L only sent 45 kids to Yorktown. It's fair to assume most were transferring for IB and would have been among the top students at Yorktown had they stayed. APS stacks the deck in favor of W-L at the expense of Yorktown and Wakefield.

It doesn't stack the deck anymore than TJ stacks the deck at the expense of McLean and Langley. It's an option, that's all. Plenty of smart in boundary kids choose to stay at Yorktown and go the AP route.

You are defensive and rightly so, but it’s not the same. An analogous situation in FCPS would be if they offered AP and IB at Marshall and let 200 kids from each of Langley and McLean transfer there, while limiting Langley and McLean to AP. That’s not the case.

And, of course, Yorktown also loses some kids to TJ as well on top of all the transfers to W-L.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I graduated from Yorktown many years ago (early 2000s), we always had a slew of Ivy League/Ivy equivalent (Stanford/MIT/Duke/Chicago) admissions. What has happened? I just moved back to North Arlington. Has Yorktown gone downhill?

You're misremembering. It wasn't a "slew" back then, either -- it was more like a handful. It was always UVA or Bust.

I’m actually remembering correctly. My year three students went to Yale alone. I went to Duke. We had students going to Brown, Columbia, Penn, Williams, and Chicago. Previous years were similar. It wasn’t just UVA with one kid headed off to an Ivy...