Whitman v. BCC?

[Anonymous]

Can parents of students at these schools (or recent grads) please provide insight into the comparison between them? I am considering a move to Bethesda and debating between neighborhoods that would feed into these two. I am not interested in schools further out than these. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I'm a relatively recent (as in, past 10 years) B-CC graduate and my much-younger sister is a senior there now. I have no direct experience with Whitman, but I can tell you about B-CC and what I perceive to be the salient differences between the two.

- B-CC has the IB program and Whitman does not. The IB is a voluntary opt-in program at B-CC, so anyone who wants to do it can (there are no selection criteria.) This obviously provides an alternative to taking AP classes, and the IB is better suited to some kids. I did the IB when I was there, and my sister is doing it now. We both think it's great. If you're an international family, getting the IB diploma makes it significantly easier to consider and apply to universities outside the United States. B-CC also offers a full array of AP classes, as does Whitman.

- B-CC, for better or for worse, is located in a more central location. This means that students leave the campus for lunch, student parking is very limited (you have to apply for a parking permit), and it's pretty easy to skip class because there are restaurants, Starbucks, etc. nearby. The parking situation could be a consideration if your DC wants to do an internship in 11th or 12th grade that she/he will have to drive to - parking permits are awarded on a case-by-case basis. But on the flip side, B-CC is also a 5 minute walk to the metro, so that option is available if they need to travel to internships or extracurricular activities after school.

- Whitman is more white. B-CC zoning extends to the outer reaches of Silver Spring and includes at least one low-income housing complex, so there is more racial and socioeconomic diversity there. FWIW (again, for better or worse, depending on your perspective), I found that students were pretty self-segregating, both socially and academically. MCPS offers on-level, honors, and AP/IB versions of most courses. In the harder (honors and AP/IB) classes, there is relatively little diversity. From what I understand from my sister, it's still like that. I was actually shocked to see B-CC's statistics on paper (FARMS rate, minority population, etc.) because my experience there did not reflect those facts. In general, it's a wealthy school and the environment/culture reflect that.

- B-CC has a pretty "international" environment. Lots of diplomats and international families send their kids there, partly because of the IB program. This made for some interesting class discussion, especially in my IB classes. B-CC also has an excellent foreign language department; when I was there, they offered Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian (but this may have changed.) I can't speak for Whitman, so it's entirely possible that it has a similar environment.

Unless you're set on the IB, I don't think the difference between Whitman and B-CC is that significant for a UMC family. On this site, it seems that most consider B-CC a tier down from the "W" schools, in part because of the greater diversity at B-CC, but I haven't found that to be the case (in terms of class rigor, parent involvement, college outcomes, etc.) I would just choose the house/neighborhood I liked best and let that be the deciding factor.

[Anonymous]

^ this is a good post. nice job, pp.

[Anonymous]

Have two students at BCC now and the post above largely reflects our experience. BCC is more diverse, location is much better for the students and academics seem similar. Have one child in IB and for her, it is ideal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have two students at BCC now and the post above largely reflects our experience. BCC is more diverse, location is much better for the students and academics seem similar. Have one child in IB and for her, it is ideal.

Academics are not similar in terms of test results, graduations rates and many other measurable metrics but fell free to claim they are. I will give you it is unclear how much of that disparity is the token amount of low income students bused in from Silver Spring but it should be noted BCC is statistically behind other schools that are actually located in Silver Spring and have a much higher percentage of Silver Spring kids. Whitman is superior in just about every metric but if you boil it down to like for like experiences, I am sure a wealthy driven student would be fine at both. Here is a link to recent SAT results where BCC finished 8th even against schools with higher FARMS rates and Whitman as always finished number 1 even over the highly touted Magnet schools. Whitman is doing something right.

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/Schools-Highest-SAT-Scores/1/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have two students at BCC now and the post above largely reflects our experience. BCC is more diverse, location is much better for the students and academics seem similar. Have one child in IB and for her, it is ideal.

Academics are not similar in terms of test results, graduations rates and many other measurable metrics but fell free to claim they are. I will give you it is unclear how much of that disparity is the token amount of low income students bused in from Silver Spring but it should be noted BCC is statistically behind other schools that are actually located in Silver Spring and have a much higher percentage of Silver Spring kids. Whitman is superior in just about every metric but if you boil it down to like for like experiences, I am sure a wealthy driven student would be fine at both. Here is a link to recent SAT results where BCC finished 8th even against schools with higher FARMS rates and Whitman as always finished number 1 even over the highly touted Magnet schools. Whitman is doing something right.

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/Schools-Highest-SAT-Scores/1/

RMIB magnet kids avg SAT is almost 350 pts higher than Whitman. You don't want to go there.

[Anonymous]

I was speaking with a current BCC teacher the other day. I know nothing about Whitman, but from what she told me -- go to Whitman!

[Anonymous]

It comes down to wanting a diverse school or not, that is the only difference. Look at the successful students form each school and they all go to the same colleges. the crime is equal at both schools, the drug issues, the bullying might be worse at Whitman.

The best thing to go to is a sporting event at Whitman when a school with a lot of black kids show up and watch the parents reactions. Classic....

[Anonymous]

Suburban vs Urban

Vast generalization re: the vibe

[Anonymous]

It is called Whiteman for a reason

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have two students at BCC now and the post above largely reflects our experience. BCC is more diverse, location is much better for the students and academics seem similar. Have one child in IB and for her, it is ideal.

Academics are not similar in terms of test results, graduations rates and many other measurable metrics but fell free to claim they are. I will give you it is unclear how much of that disparity is the token amount of low income students bused in from Silver Spring but it should be noted BCC is statistically behind other schools that are actually located in Silver Spring and have a much higher percentage of Silver Spring kids. Whitman is superior in just about every metric but if you boil it down to like for like experiences, I am sure a wealthy driven student would be fine at both. Here is a link to recent SAT results where BCC finished 8th even against schools with higher FARMS rates and Whitman as always finished number 1 even over the highly touted Magnet schools. Whitman is doing something right.

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/Schools-Highest-SAT-Scores/1/

RMIB magnet kids avg SAT is almost 350 pts higher than Whitman. You don't want to go there.

Does that mean that the rest of RM kids are really dumb to pull the averages down to the point where the school barely cracked the Top 5 for the county? Or are you stating that when you compare the few smartest kids in RM to an average of almost 2000 kids that it makes few look smarter? I am sure if you took the top couple of scores from Whitman they would do just fine if not beat any RM or Blair magnet scores. What we are talking about isn't how a school treats it's best students but rather the entire student body.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have two students at BCC now and the post above largely reflects our experience. BCC is more diverse, location is much better for the students and academics seem similar. Have one child in IB and for her, it is ideal.

Academics are not similar in terms of test results, graduations rates and many other measurable metrics but fell free to claim they are. I will give you it is unclear how much of that disparity is the token amount of low income students bused in from Silver Spring but it should be noted BCC is statistically behind other schools that are actually located in Silver Spring and have a much higher percentage of Silver Spring kids. Whitman is superior in just about every metric but if you boil it down to like for like experiences, I am sure a wealthy driven student would be fine at both. Here is a link to recent SAT results where BCC finished 8th even against schools with higher FARMS rates and Whitman as always finished number 1 even over the highly touted Magnet schools. Whitman is doing something right.

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/Schools-Highest-SAT-Scores/1/

RMIB magnet kids avg SAT is almost 350 pts higher than Whitman. You don't want to go there.

Does that mean that the rest of RM kids are really dumb to pull the averages down to the point where the school barely cracked the Top 5 for the county? Or are you stating that when you compare the few smartest kids in RM to an average of almost 2000 kids that it makes few look smarter? I am sure if you took the top couple of scores from Whitman they would do just fine if not beat any RM or Blair magnet scores. What we are talking about isn't how a school treats it's best students but rather the entire student body.

I would rather have the smartest kids form RM & Blair than Whitman. They have a lot more to offer than an entitled kid with no sense of the real world.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I'd rather not get into a debate about other schools besides Whitman and BCC. I fully appreciate strengths of all of the other schools, but for location purposes, I am just considering Whitman and BCC cluster areas. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'd rather not get into a debate about other schools besides Whitman and BCC. I fully appreciate strengths of all of the other schools, but for location purposes, I am just considering Whitman and BCC cluster areas. Thanks.

well sounds like you want the white school or you would be looking at the other ones which are better than both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'd rather not get into a debate about other schools besides Whitman and BCC. I fully appreciate strengths of all of the other schools, but for location purposes, I am just considering Whitman and BCC cluster areas. Thanks.

well sounds like you want the white school or you would be looking at the other ones which are better than both.

Thanks for the snark, PP. I am not looking for "the white school." I am looking to balance my family's commute time downtown for work, so that I can minimize time away from home and maximize my involvement with my children's daily events. It's a simple fact that these two schools are the closest into the city. I appreciate the first poster who explained her experience and her sister's at BCC. More feedback like that would be helpful.