Bethesda High Schools- New Family

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had kids in both Whitman and BCC feeder patterns. You can't go wrong with either choice although I personally preferred BCC.

One thing to look at is the foreign languages each offers. If your child is likely to want a language that is offered at one and not the other, then look there.

In general, Whitman is a bit more insulated, suburban, wealthy white kids. It is competitive. BCC has more of an urban feel and is more diverse because it pulls from some more working-class housing. But what I like about BCC is that because it has both a full, open IB curriculum and full APs, there are a lot of opportunities to advance. The kids can mix and match and there is less gatekeeping that was our experience at Whitman (or RM - one of my kids attended RM and that was all about the gatekeeping). There are also lots of interesting choices - things like IB music or IB science classes that aren't as hard as AP Chem.

Not the OP.
Thank you so much PP; now THIS is a useful response. We are trying to pick between Westland/BCC and Pyle/Whitman. I would prefer the more economically diverse school district, since we are not wealthy and I don't want to be the "misfits" at Whitman....also an IB program sounds useful. At the same time, I am conflicted since I hear that Pyle though big, but is very strong academically, more so than Westland. Not sure between Whitman and BCC; many people think they are both great, but some people say that Whitman is stronger. Tough decision.

It is the same curriculum at both schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had kids in both Whitman and BCC feeder patterns. You can't go wrong with either choice although I personally preferred BCC.

One thing to look at is the foreign languages each offers. If your child is likely to want a language that is offered at one and not the other, then look there.

In general, Whitman is a bit more insulated, suburban, wealthy white kids. It is competitive. BCC has more of an urban feel and is more diverse because it pulls from some more working-class housing. But what I like about BCC is that because it has both a full, open IB curriculum and full APs, there are a lot of opportunities to advance. The kids can mix and match and there is less gatekeeping that was our experience at Whitman (or RM - one of my kids attended RM and that was all about the gatekeeping). There are also lots of interesting choices - things like IB music or IB science classes that aren't as hard as AP Chem.

Not the OP.
Thank you so much PP; now THIS is a useful response. We are trying to pick between Westland/BCC and Pyle/Whitman. I would prefer the more economically diverse school district, since we are not wealthy and I don't want to be the "misfits" at Whitman....also an IB program sounds useful. At the same time, I am conflicted since I hear that Pyle though big, but is very strong academically, more so than Westland. Not sure between Whitman and BCC; many people think they are both great, but some people say that Whitman is stronger. Tough decision.

It is the same curriculum at both schools.

IB classes are available at BCC, but not Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had kids in both Whitman and BCC feeder patterns. You can't go wrong with either choice although I personally preferred BCC.

One thing to look at is the foreign languages each offers. If your child is likely to want a language that is offered at one and not the other, then look there.

In general, Whitman is a bit more insulated, suburban, wealthy white kids. It is competitive. BCC has more of an urban feel and is more diverse because it pulls from some more working-class housing. But what I like about BCC is that because it has both a full, open IB curriculum and full APs, there are a lot of opportunities to advance. The kids can mix and match and there is less gatekeeping that was our experience at Whitman (or RM - one of my kids attended RM and that was all about the gatekeeping). There are also lots of interesting choices - things like IB music or IB science classes that aren't as hard as AP Chem.

Not the OP.
Thank you so much PP; now THIS is a useful response. We are trying to pick between Westland/BCC and Pyle/Whitman. I would prefer the more economically diverse school district, since we are not wealthy and I don't want to be the "misfits" at Whitman....also an IB program sounds useful. At the same time, I am conflicted since I hear that Pyle though big, but is very strong academically, more so than Westland. Not sure between Whitman and BCC; many people think they are both great, but some people say that Whitman is stronger. Tough decision.

It is the same curriculum at both schools.

IB classes are available at BCC, but not Whitman.

Wouldn’t that somewhat correlate to Whitman’s AP classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had kids in both Whitman and BCC feeder patterns. You can't go wrong with either choice although I personally preferred BCC.

One thing to look at is the foreign languages each offers. If your child is likely to want a language that is offered at one and not the other, then look there.

In general, Whitman is a bit more insulated, suburban, wealthy white kids. It is competitive. BCC has more of an urban feel and is more diverse because it pulls from some more working-class housing. But what I like about BCC is that because it has both a full, open IB curriculum and full APs, there are a lot of opportunities to advance. The kids can mix and match and there is less gatekeeping that was our experience at Whitman (or RM - one of my kids attended RM and that was all about the gatekeeping). There are also lots of interesting choices - things like IB music or IB science classes that aren't as hard as AP Chem.

Not the OP.
Thank you so much PP; now THIS is a useful response. We are trying to pick between Westland/BCC and Pyle/Whitman. I would prefer the more economically diverse school district, since we are not wealthy and I don't want to be the "misfits" at Whitman....also an IB program sounds useful. At the same time, I am conflicted since I hear that Pyle though big, but is very strong academically, more so than Westland. Not sure between Whitman and BCC; many people think they are both great, but some people say that Whitman is stronger. Tough decision.

It is the same curriculum at both schools.

IB classes are available at BCC, but not Whitman.

Wouldn’t that somewhat correlate to Whitman’s AP classes.

no they're entirely different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had kids in both Whitman and BCC feeder patterns. You can't go wrong with either choice although I personally preferred BCC.

One thing to look at is the foreign languages each offers. If your child is likely to want a language that is offered at one and not the other, then look there.

In general, Whitman is a bit more insulated, suburban, wealthy white kids. It is competitive. BCC has more of an urban feel and is more diverse because it pulls from some more working-class housing. But what I like about BCC is that because it has both a full, open IB curriculum and full APs, there are a lot of opportunities to advance. The kids can mix and match and there is less gatekeeping that was our experience at Whitman (or RM - one of my kids attended RM and that was all about the gatekeeping). There are also lots of interesting choices - things like IB music or IB science classes that aren't as hard as AP Chem.

Not the OP.
Thank you so much PP; now THIS is a useful response. We are trying to pick between Westland/BCC and Pyle/Whitman. I would prefer the more economically diverse school district, since we are not wealthy and I don't want to be the "misfits" at Whitman....also an IB program sounds useful. At the same time, I am conflicted since I hear that Pyle though big, but is very strong academically, more so than Westland. Not sure between Whitman and BCC; many people think they are both great, but some people say that Whitman is stronger. Tough decision.

It is the same curriculum at both schools.

IB classes are available at BCC, but not Whitman.

Yes, both schools have comparable offerings but they aren't identical. Nevertheless, any student can get a fine education at either school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Greetings,
We are relocating this month to the area and will get several months of corporate housing through my partner's job (and eventually will officially relocate to a permanent home.) Job is downtown DC and we have options in BCC, Whitman, and possibly Jackson Reed. All get top scores on Great Schools. We have a rising 9th-grade boy who is coming from a large public school in Florida. Are each of these schools similar in culture & personality? They seem to be similar in size. Leaning towards BCC because of the convenience of the apartment (and extra bathroom) but open. Ideally, we would have done school visits with actual kids in the building. If your kid attends any of the schools mentioned will you tell me something you like about the school? I don't need to hear the bad- all schools are not perfect but we would like to get the lay of the land.

It's all right here. You can sort by State.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/search?state-urlname=maryland&ranked=true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had kids in both Whitman and BCC feeder patterns. You can't go wrong with either choice although I personally preferred BCC.

One thing to look at is the foreign languages each offers. If your child is likely to want a language that is offered at one and not the other, then look there.

In general, Whitman is a bit more insulated, suburban, wealthy white kids. It is competitive. BCC has more of an urban feel and is more diverse because it pulls from some more working-class housing. But what I like about BCC is that because it has both a full, open IB curriculum and full APs, there are a lot of opportunities to advance. The kids can mix and match and there is less gatekeeping that was our experience at Whitman (or RM - one of my kids attended RM and that was all about the gatekeeping). There are also lots of interesting choices - things like IB music or IB science classes that aren't as hard as AP Chem.

Not the OP.
Thank you so much PP; now THIS is a useful response. We are trying to pick between Westland/BCC and Pyle/Whitman. I would prefer the more economically diverse school district, since we are not wealthy and I don't want to be the "misfits" at Whitman....also an IB program sounds useful. At the same time, I am conflicted since I hear that Pyle though big, but is very strong academically, more so than Westland. Not sure between Whitman and BCC; many people think they are both great, but some people say that Whitman is stronger. Tough decision.

It is the same curriculum at both schools.

IB classes are available at BCC, but not Whitman.

Wouldn’t that somewhat correlate to Whitman’s AP classes.

no they're entirely different.

In what way? I have read that ib is a lot of writing, if not mostly.