TC Williams or private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, ACPS published it's class of 2016 "decision day" list of colleges and universities. Link below. 331 students headed to college. Since you mentioned UVA - 31 from the class of 2016 are headed there. TC students are also headed to Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, UC Berkley. Lots going to other Virginia schools too (e.g., 50 to Va Tech, 16 to Radford).

http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=2666

This year's college list isn't really bad, but it's not anywhere near as good as any recent year's list. No Harvard, no Yale, no UPenn, no Chicago, no MIT, not one single service academy (right near the Pentagon -- NONE? No West Point or Annapolis or Colo Springs or New London or King's Point -- not even one kid?), no Duke, etc etc. Only one each for Cornell, Stanford, Emory, and so forth. Colleges that picked up one or two TC seniors every year seem to have moved to zero. This is a very, truly bad result for TC this year. Not a confidence-builder for any parent that looks carefully at the list and compares it to the list for any recent year. One reason might be the SAT performance -- 2d lowest scores in the last decade. The school board had better be ready to deliver an explanation to the parents and voters, because performance has really plummeted, in just one year.

ACPS must focus on academics above all. The Capital Improvement Plan over the next 15 years on new ACPS builds should reflect this focus with school basics, not all the fluff. Buildings don't educate, teachers and a organized admin do. Get rid of ACPS entrenchment and get on with ACPS academic improvement.

Huh? Capital improvement and a focus on academics are not mutually exclusive. We need space for kids, which means we need buildings. And we need improvements to existing spaces that are well past need for repairs. As a student or teacher or administrator, how can you "focus on academics" if your classroom is a closet or your school is closed because of HVAC issues or flooding? Having adequate in which to teach and learn is important to academic success. Learning environment matters.

The college list seems fine to me. As someone posted above, these the schools chosen on decision day - it gives you no insight as to where students were accepted and chose not to go (or what schools they applied to for that matter). It also tells you nothing about where any given TC student in the future might apply and be accepted. And by the way, going private doesn't guarantee admission to any of the schools you list either - just my friends who spent 40K a year on private school whose kid is headed to VA Tech with 50 kids from TC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, ACPS published it's class of 2016 "decision day" list of colleges and universities. Link below. 331 students headed to college. Since you mentioned UVA - 31 from the class of 2016 are headed there. TC students are also headed to Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, UC Berkley. Lots going to other Virginia schools too (e.g., 50 to Va Tech, 16 to Radford).

http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=2666

This year's college list isn't really bad, but it's not anywhere near as good as any recent year's list. No Harvard, no Yale, no UPenn, no Chicago, no MIT, not one single service academy (right near the Pentagon -- NONE? No West Point or Annapolis or Colo Springs or New London or King's Point -- not even one kid?), no Duke, etc etc. Only one each for Cornell, Stanford, Emory, and so forth. Colleges that picked up one or two TC seniors every year seem to have moved to zero. This is a very, truly bad result for TC this year. Not a confidence-builder for any parent that looks carefully at the list and compares it to the list for any recent year. One reason might be the SAT performance -- 2d lowest scores in the last decade. The school board had better be ready to deliver an explanation to the parents and voters, because performance has really plummeted, in just one year.

It's a nice list but when you do just a little math:

"A total of 331 students from T.C. Williams are college-bound in the fall"

The total senior class as of April 2016 is 707. So @46% of the entire senior class are headed to college in the fall.

Of that 331 students, 142 students are headed to NOVA - that's @ 42% of the students heading to college

That leaves 189 students heading to other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, ACPS published it's class of 2016 "decision day" list of colleges and universities. Link below. 331 students headed to college. Since you mentioned UVA - 31 from the class of 2016 are headed there. TC students are also headed to Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, UC Berkley. Lots going to other Virginia schools too (e.g., 50 to Va Tech, 16 to Radford).

http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=2666

This year's college list isn't really bad, but it's not anywhere near as good as any recent year's list. No Harvard, no Yale, no UPenn, no Chicago, no MIT, not one single service academy (right near the Pentagon -- NONE? No West Point or Annapolis or Colo Springs or New London or King's Point -- not even one kid?), no Duke, etc etc. Only one each for Cornell, Stanford, Emory, and so forth. Colleges that picked up one or two TC seniors every year seem to have moved to zero. This is a very, truly bad result for TC this year. Not a confidence-builder for any parent that looks carefully at the list and compares it to the list for any recent year. One reason might be the SAT performance -- 2d lowest scores in the last decade. The school board had better be ready to deliver an explanation to the parents and voters, because performance has really plummeted, in just one year.

ACPS must focus on academics above all. The Capital Improvement Plan over the next 15 years on new ACPS builds should reflect this focus with school basics, not all the fluff. Buildings don't educate, teachers and a organized admin do. Get rid of ACPS entrenchment and get on with ACPS academic improvement.

Huh? Capital improvement and a focus on academics are not mutually exclusive. We need space for kids, which means we need buildings. And we need improvements to existing spaces that are well past need for repairs. As a student or teacher or administrator, how can you "focus on academics" if your classroom is a closet or your school is closed because of HVAC issues or flooding? Having adequate in which to teach and learn is important to academic success. Learning environment matters.

The college list seems fine to me. As someone posted above, these the schools chosen on decision day - it gives you no insight as to where students were accepted and chose not to go (or what schools they applied to for that matter). It also tells you nothing about where any given TC student in the future might apply and be accepted. And by the way, going private doesn't guarantee admission to any of the schools you list either - just my friends who spent 40K a year on private school whose kid is headed to VA Tech with 50 kids from TC.

1. It most certainly does tell you where the kids got in. No one, not one TC student, got into Yale and turned it down for NoVa. Not one. Top colleges typically meet financial need, or come very close. Going to a top college is no more net-expensive than going to Longwood.

2. The kid at a higher-ranked private that winds up at VT is in the lower portion of the class. A TC kid that is lucky enough to get into VT is in the top 15%. Completely different target-ranges.

TC is just lost on college admissions. They cater to the appearance of serving the absolute bottom cohort.

[Anonymous]

. It most certainly does tell you where the kids got in. No one, not one TC student, got into Yale and turned it down for NoVa. Not one. Top colleges typically meet financial need, or come very close. Going to a top college is no more net-expensive than going to Longwood.

Um, and you know this how exactly? You've interviewed every TC student?

There are any number of reasons why someone might turn down a "top school" in favor of a state or "not top" school, and yes, finances pay a huge part in that....And I say that as someone who between undergraduate and grad school turned down an Ivy and other "top schools" in favor of good/solid schools that offered scholarships to cover tuition (and the"better" schools offered zilch). It is far from the case that "top schools typically meet financial need", and families who are in the vast middle in terms of family income (not lower income, but nowhere close to upper income) often have to make the choice between a better school with a price tag tens of thousands of dollars higher, and a state/good school that is cheaper or offers better aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she can get into Sidwell or I would do private. Other good academic school for girls are not co-Ed. Otherwise I would stay in public.. Second tier private schools can be excellent places to learn, but if a t college is important they wouldn't help that much.

Isn't learning the whole point of school? I hate people like this who sit around and try to game the system. What a warped perspective they're passing onto their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

. It most certainly does tell you where the kids got in. No one, not one TC student, got into Yale and turned it down for NoVa. Not one. Top colleges typically meet financial need, or come very close. Going to a top college is no more net-expensive than going to Longwood.

Um, and you know this how exactly? You've interviewed every TC student?

There are any number of reasons why someone might turn down a "top school" in favor of a state or "not top" school, and yes, finances pay a huge part in that....And I say that as someone who between undergraduate and grad school turned down an Ivy and other "top schools" in favor of good/solid schools that offered scholarships to cover tuition (and the"better" schools offered zilch). It is far from the case that "top schools typically meet financial need", and families who are in the vast middle in terms of family income (not lower income, but nowhere close to upper income) often have to make the choice between a better school with a price tag tens of thousands of dollars higher, and a state/good school that is cheaper or offers better aid.

We are a family that will not qualify for any financial aid, we make too much money and have too many assets. However, we also will not be sending our children to anything other than a state school due to the price tag. Kids are aware of that and aware that if they want to go somewhere else, they will foot the bill for the difference.

[Anonymous]

"I went to TC- went on to UVA and then worked overseas and came back to get my MBA from UVA (in-state tuition is a major bonus- plus outstanding school). Anyway, I did meet the people that the PP mentioned- it does remind me so much of the cliques of Maury and some other schools that were predominantly white and quite capable of sending their kids to private but didn't. Those kids certainly did bond and create a clique together- they were so not inclusive and - hum- arrogant and some other words. This is given we were at a public high school and they made it clear they FELT above others. So- yes, if your child goes keep in mind the cliques are huge. I could name so many cliques - the burn outs, the jocks, the "popular" since I could have gone to a private .. BUT, it's such a large school that it really is easy not to care. I personally would not send my children to TC Williams- despite that academically- it was outstanding in AP and honors classes (which I took). I just don't see the sense to send my kids to such a jungle .. this is my own personal opinion. We don't have the $ to go private so I never considered living in Alexandria. We live in Fairfax County. "

Thank you! I, too, graduated from TC and yes the Crew cliques were the worst. This was in the 1980s, after going ACPS the whole way. Yes, they made it abundantly clear they FELT above everyone else. They were almost exclusively white and extremely affluent. Our family was white and affluent, but not extremely so, so I wasn't good enough to be part of them. (Example--today my parent's house is worth $700k, but their houses are now worth $1.2-3 million.) But what saddens me the most is nobody seems to have really heard or listened to each other. All races and socioeconomic groups were together, but we were told to sit down and shut up by our teachers, and the curriculum never really addressed any of the inequalities we were living, despite their obvious historical roots in slavery. No one controlled the way we socialized---nor did any teacher mitigate all the sharp cuts of exclusion and shunning that went on to extremes for some "outcasts" who were even lower on the totem pole than myself. I felt shunned and terrified in every direction, and I literally had one best friend who I clung to for dear life. The cursing, the stories overheard of sexual exploits and drinking that occurred at Crew, Mock UN Club, theater--all the Popular's social circles--were just appalling to me, and I came to be a misanthrope when I wasn't suicidal. I wanted to vomit over most of what I heard. The African American kids seemed immersed in their social circles and didn't seem to feel snubbed by these white snobs the way upper middle class kids on the edge of affluence were. It just caused a raging boiling in my blood that got stirred when again I saw that same ilk of mothers talking together at elementary school pick up in the very affluent neighborhoods of Alexandria. I couldn't take it another day, and we moved to Arlington. At least here my daughter has been able to establish a much larger group of friends in her school than I was able to---a diverse group ethnically, but a similar group socio-economically. She is still brought down by the antics of "the populars," but the degree of insularity is just not the same as it is in such a stark environment of inequality as TC is.
The whole visionary dream of Martin Luther King was never realized the way I experienced it at TC. I never made any black friends, and almost no white friends either. It didn't matter if you were kind, or frostily cold and civil, it only mattered what clothes you wore and who your parents were. Rather than inspiring a belief that all people are equal, it revealed ugly depths of favoritism, snobbishness, and opportunism--the populars would brown nose their teachers to look like the "All-American wholesome good kid" when they were anything but. I could totally understand why the hippies wanted to drop out, because these people were a lost cause, in my experience.
Inequality hurts everyone, most of all the people at the top who can't see that they are hurting...their lifestyle of cutting exclusion and snobbishness is unhealthy, because it is not based in truth. The truth is we are all humble mortals, and we all need meaningful work, healthy food, safe neighborhoods and schools and community. These things aren't possible when such snobbery and bitterness exists, and so I am not surprised one bit that someone like Donald Trump can arise and harness this disgust at hypocrisy to his own advantage. It is the wrong answer, but when people can clearly see how unequal our society is, they become ripe for the picking by someone like Trump. It is really sad, but I expect things to continue to get worse before they get better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, ACPS published it's class of 2016 "decision day" list of colleges and universities. Link below. 331 students headed to college. Since you mentioned UVA - 31 from the class of 2016 are headed there. TC students are also headed to Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, UC Berkley. Lots going to other Virginia schools too (e.g., 50 to Va Tech, 16 to Radford).

http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=2666

This year's college list isn't really bad, but it's not anywhere near as good as any recent year's list. No Harvard, no Yale, no UPenn, no Chicago, no MIT, not one single service academy (right near the Pentagon -- NONE? No West Point or Annapolis or Colo Springs or New London or King's Point -- not even one kid?), no Duke, etc etc. Only one each for Cornell, Stanford, Emory, and so forth. Colleges that picked up one or two TC seniors every year seem to have moved to zero. This is a very, truly bad result for TC this year. Not a confidence-builder for any parent that looks carefully at the list and compares it to the list for any recent year. One reason might be the SAT performance -- 2d lowest scores in the last decade. The school board had better be ready to deliver an explanation to the parents and voters, because performance has really plummeted, in just one year.

It's a nice list but when you do just a little math:

"A total of 331 students from T.C. Williams are college-bound in the fall"

The total senior class as of April 2016 is 707. So @46% of the entire senior class are headed to college in the fall.

Of that 331 students, 142 students are headed to NOVA - that's @ 42% of the students heading to college

That leaves 189 students heading to other schools.

The reason so many kids go on to NOVA from TC is because it is incredibly inexpensive, they can live at home so have no room and board and they can keep or get jobs. For many at TC, this is the only realistic way of going to college and still supporting their families. And - it is very smart. NOVA has amazing agreements with schools throughout VA and even outside of VA which allow credits to count as such schools as VA Tech, UVA and many other great schools. So students can pay a quarter of what they would pay at those school for their first two years of school and then finish at the more expensive schools. TC actively encourages students to go this route who might otherwise not go to college. It just makes sense and should not be viewed in a negative light when compared to private schools - private school students generally don't have those kinds of financial and family responsibilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, ACPS published it's class of 2016 "decision day" list of colleges and universities. Link below. 331 students headed to college. Since you mentioned UVA - 31 from the class of 2016 are headed there. TC students are also headed to Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, UC Berkley. Lots going to other Virginia schools too (e.g., 50 to Va Tech, 16 to Radford).

http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=2666

This year's college list isn't really bad, but it's not anywhere near as good as any recent year's list. No Harvard, no Yale, no UPenn, no Chicago, no MIT, not one single service academy (right near the Pentagon -- NONE? No West Point or Annapolis or Colo Springs or New London or King's Point -- not even one kid?), no Duke, etc etc. Only one each for Cornell, Stanford, Emory, and so forth. Colleges that picked up one or two TC seniors every year seem to have moved to zero. This is a very, truly bad result for TC this year. Not a confidence-builder for any parent that looks carefully at the list and compares it to the list for any recent year. One reason might be the SAT performance -- 2d lowest scores in the last decade. The school board had better be ready to deliver an explanation to the parents and voters, because performance has really plummeted, in just one year.

It's a nice list but when you do just a little math:

"A total of 331 students from T.C. Williams are college-bound in the fall"

The total senior class as of April 2016 is 707. So @46% of the entire senior class are headed to college in the fall.

Of that 331 students, 142 students are headed to NOVA - that's @ 42% of the students heading to college

That leaves 189 students heading to other schools.

The reason so many kids go on to NOVA from TC is because it is incredibly inexpensive, they can live at home so have no room and board and they can keep or get jobs. For many at TC, this is the only realistic way of going to college and still supporting their families. And - it is very smart. NOVA has amazing agreements with schools throughout VA and even outside of VA which allow credits to count as such schools as VA Tech, UVA and many other great schools. So students can pay a quarter of what they would pay at those school for their first two years of school and then finish at the more expensive schools. TC actively encourages students to go this route who might otherwise not go to college. It just makes sense and should not be viewed in a negative light when compared to private schools - private school students generally don't have those kinds of financial and family responsibilities.

What a spin job public school promoters in Alexandria City do here! Even NOVA (Northern Virginia Community College) is now just a fine college to go to, but if you happen to go to a private college that you worked hard to get into, it's because you are lacking in the weight of "those kinds of financial and family responsibilities" that less fortunate ACPS students have. What nonsense pp. Go drink some more democratic city kool aid. Many Alexandria City private college students and their parents work their collective butts off to pay that college tuition before, during and after matriculation, and yes work two jobs, overtime or longer hours, and do without to pay those "born with a silver spoon in their mouth private college tuitions."

Alexandria City Public School is a mess because Alexandria City is a mess: filled with lame democratic views that are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

[Anonymous]

Why does every post about ACPS end result in such nasty, bitter comments? It is exhausting.

The schools are far from perfect, but my children have had good experiences in their years in ACPS.

They are both at TC now, and I fully expect them to be able to do whatever they want to do when they graduate. They might not be able to get into particular colleges because of grades or selectivity or the arbitrariness of the application process; we may not be able to afford a particular college because we fall in the gray area of not qualifying for financial aid, but not being able to write a big check easily; but in the end, I think they will be well positioned to do whatever they want to do. They have good teachers, challenging classes, and interesting extracurricular activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does every post about ACPS end result in such nasty, bitter comments? It is exhausting.

The schools are far from perfect, but my children have had good experiences in their years in ACPS.

They are both at TC now, and I fully expect them to be able to do whatever they want to do when they graduate. They might not be able to get into particular colleges because of grades or selectivity or the arbitrariness of the application process; we may not be able to afford a particular college because we fall in the gray area of not qualifying for financial aid, but not being able to write a big check easily; but in the end, I think they will be well positioned to do whatever they want to do. They have good teachers, challenging classes, and interesting extracurricular activities.

Man, I want to kiss you for this post. I don't normally post, but I had to say that because I'm sure the haters will come in soon to tell you how delusional you are....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, ACPS published it's class of 2016 "decision day" list of colleges and universities. Link below. 331 students headed to college. Since you mentioned UVA - 31 from the class of 2016 are headed there. TC students are also headed to Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, UC Berkley. Lots going to other Virginia schools too (e.g., 50 to Va Tech, 16 to Radford).

http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=2666

This year's college list isn't really bad, but it's not anywhere near as good as any recent year's list. No Harvard, no Yale, no UPenn, no Chicago, no MIT, not one single service academy (right near the Pentagon -- NONE? No West Point or Annapolis or Colo Springs or New London or King's Point -- not even one kid?), no Duke, etc etc. Only one each for Cornell, Stanford, Emory, and so forth. Colleges that picked up one or two TC seniors every year seem to have moved to zero. This is a very, truly bad result for TC this year. Not a confidence-builder for any parent that looks carefully at the list and compares it to the list for any recent year. One reason might be the SAT performance -- 2d lowest scores in the last decade. The school board had better be ready to deliver an explanation to the parents and voters, because performance has really plummeted, in just one year.

ACPS must focus on academics above all. The Capital Improvement Plan over the next 15 years on new ACPS builds should reflect this focus with school basics, not all the fluff. Buildings don't educate, teachers and a organized admin do. Get rid of ACPS entrenchment and get on with ACPS academic improvement.

Huh? Capital improvement and a focus on academics are not mutually exclusive. We need space for kids, which means we need buildings. And we need improvements to existing spaces that are well past need for repairs. As a student or teacher or administrator, how can you "focus on academics" if your classroom is a closet or your school is closed because of HVAC issues or flooding? Having adequate in which to teach and learn is important to academic success. Learning environment matters.

The college list seems fine to me. As someone posted above, these the schools chosen on decision day - it gives you no insight as to where students were accepted and chose not to go (or what schools they applied to for that matter). It also tells you nothing about where any given TC student in the future might apply and be accepted. And by the way, going private doesn't guarantee admission to any of the schools you list either - just my friends who spent 40K a year on private school whose kid is headed to VA Tech with 50 kids from TC.

1. It most certainly does tell you where the kids got in. No one, not one TC student, got into Yale and turned it down for NoVa. Not one. Top colleges typically meet financial need, or come very close. Going to a top college is no more net-expensive than going to Longwood.

2. The kid at a higher-ranked private that winds up at VT is in the lower portion of the class. A TC kid that is lucky enough to get into VT is in the top 15%. Completely different target-ranges.

TC is just lost on college admissions. They cater to the appearance of serving the absolute bottom cohort.

You seem pretty fired up about this. I don't share your passion in the subject, and I don't share your belief that there are t any kids who got accepted into "better" schools than they're going to attend. I'd bet many of the kids heading to UVA are doing so partly for financial reasons. I personally know a kid (in Fairfax county) who decided to attend UVA but got into an Ivy. Why can't it be the case for a student at TC as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, ACPS published it's class of 2016 "decision day" list of colleges and universities. Link below. 331 students headed to college. Since you mentioned UVA - 31 from the class of 2016 are headed there. TC students are also headed to Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, UC Berkley. Lots going to other Virginia schools too (e.g., 50 to Va Tech, 16 to Radford).

http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=2666

This year's college list isn't really bad, but it's not anywhere near as good as any recent year's list. No Harvard, no Yale, no UPenn, no Chicago, no MIT, not one single service academy (right near the Pentagon -- NONE? No West Point or Annapolis or Colo Springs or New London or King's Point -- not even one kid?), no Duke, etc etc. Only one each for Cornell, Stanford, Emory, and so forth. Colleges that picked up one or two TC seniors every year seem to have moved to zero. This is a very, truly bad result for TC this year. Not a confidence-builder for any parent that looks carefully at the list and compares it to the list for any recent year. One reason might be the SAT performance -- 2d lowest scores in the last decade. The school board had better be ready to deliver an explanation to the parents and voters, because performance has really plummeted, in just one year.

It's a nice list but when you do just a little math:

"A total of 331 students from T.C. Williams are college-bound in the fall"

The total senior class as of April 2016 is 707. So @46% of the entire senior class are headed to college in the fall.

Of that 331 students, 142 students are headed to NOVA - that's @ 42% of the students heading to college

That leaves 189 students heading to other schools.

The reason so many kids go on to NOVA from TC is because it is incredibly inexpensive, they can live at home so have no room and board and they can keep or get jobs. For many at TC, this is the only realistic way of going to college and still supporting their families. And - it is very smart. NOVA has amazing agreements with schools throughout VA and even outside of VA which allow credits to count as such schools as VA Tech, UVA and many other great schools. So students can pay a quarter of what they would pay at those school for their first two years of school and then finish at the more expensive schools. TC actively encourages students to go this route who might otherwise not go to college. It just makes sense and should not be viewed in a negative light when compared to private schools - private school students generally don't have those kinds of financial and family responsibilities.

What a spin job public school promoters in Alexandria City do here! Even NOVA (Northern Virginia Community College) is now just a fine college to go to, but if you happen to go to a private college that you worked hard to get into, it's because you are lacking in the weight of "those kinds of financial and family responsibilities" that less fortunate ACPS students have. What nonsense pp. Go drink some more democratic city kool aid. Many Alexandria City private college students and their parents work their collective butts off to pay that college tuition before, during and after matriculation, and yes work two jobs, overtime or longer hours, and do without to pay those "born with a silver spoon in their mouth private college tuitions."

Alexandria City Public School is a mess because Alexandria City is a mess: filled with lame democratic views that are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

PP here - I just have to laugh at the idea that I am an ACPS promoter. Actually, I hope some day to be a parent in your position ie with a kid who gets into a fabulous college that we then work "our butts off" to send her to. If our kid was lucky/smart/hardworking enough to get into a great school, there is nowhere I would rather put my money and I would happily work the extra hours (which we would certainly need to do). But that's because I know enough to value a great education and because I have the education myself to be able to work extra hours and get a second well-paying job if I need to do so. The kids I am talking about who would go to NOVA are in a totally different situation - not only are their parents not able/willing to support them, the kids themselves are often helping to support their own families by watching younger siblings and working to help the family make ends meet. There are kids at TC who are working 30-40 hour jobs to help their families make it month to month. If they were to move out and go to college elsewhere, not only would they have no family support, their families would suffer without the added income. This is a totally different situation from the situation our kids would be in. Again - this is the list of where kids are going to ATTEND college - not where they were ADMITTED to college. I happen to know of a kid at TC who was admitted to five really great colleges - but of course he is only going to attend one of those schools so that is the only school on the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does every post about ACPS end result in such nasty, bitter comments? It is exhausting.

The schools are far from perfect, but my children have had good experiences in their years in ACPS.

They are both at TC now, and I fully expect them to be able to do whatever they want to do when they graduate. They might not be able to get into particular colleges because of grades or selectivity or the arbitrariness of the application process; we may not be able to afford a particular college because we fall in the gray area of not qualifying for financial aid, but not being able to write a big check easily; but in the end, I think they will be well positioned to do whatever they want to do. They have good teachers, challenging classes, and interesting extracurricular activities.

Agreed! It is exhausting. No school is perfect - private or public. I send my kids to ACPS and I'm shocked by the rude comments made to myself and my kids regarding their schools from people who do not send their kids to ACPS. It is appalling. I wish people would just respect each other's decisions. I have a feeling conversations turn nasty due to insecurities and people feeling they need to justify their choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, ACPS published it's class of 2016 "decision day" list of colleges and universities. Link below. 331 students headed to college. Since you mentioned UVA - 31 from the class of 2016 are headed there. TC students are also headed to Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, UC Berkley. Lots going to other Virginia schools too (e.g., 50 to Va Tech, 16 to Radford).

http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=2666

This year's college list isn't really bad, but it's not anywhere near as good as any recent year's list. No Harvard, no Yale, no UPenn, no Chicago, no MIT, not one single service academy (right near the Pentagon -- NONE? No West Point or Annapolis or Colo Springs or New London or King's Point -- not even one kid?), no Duke, etc etc. Only one each for Cornell, Stanford, Emory, and so forth. Colleges that picked up one or two TC seniors every year seem to have moved to zero. This is a very, truly bad result for TC this year. Not a confidence-builder for any parent that looks carefully at the list and compares it to the list for any recent year. One reason might be the SAT performance -- 2d lowest scores in the last decade. The school board had better be ready to deliver an explanation to the parents and voters, because performance has really plummeted, in just one year.

It's a nice list but when you do just a little math:

"A total of 331 students from T.C. Williams are college-bound in the fall"

The total senior class as of April 2016 is 707. So @46% of the entire senior class are headed to college in the fall.

Of that 331 students, 142 students are headed to NOVA - that's @ 42% of the students heading to college

That leaves 189 students heading to other schools.

The reason so many kids go on to NOVA from TC is because it is incredibly inexpensive, they can live at home so have no room and board and they can keep or get jobs. For many at TC, this is the only realistic way of going to college and still supporting their families. And - it is very smart. NOVA has amazing agreements with schools throughout VA and even outside of VA which allow credits to count as such schools as VA Tech, UVA and many other great schools. So students can pay a quarter of what they would pay at those school for their first two years of school and then finish at the more expensive schools. TC actively encourages students to go this route who might otherwise not go to college. It just makes sense and should not be viewed in a negative light when compared to private schools - private school students generally don't have those kinds of financial and family responsibilities.

So a little more math first - @20% of the senior class will head to a 4 yr college/university in the fall

As to why so many kids are encourage to go to NOVA, expense is probably one reason but another is lower expectations. There has been more research and more written on this topic in recent years and how discouraging minority students (which would make up the majority number of students in the senior class) to accept lower ranking schools or community college because of expense instead of reaching for other schools and seeking financial assistance (which would require more help from the school likely) actually hurts students and doesn't provide them enough of a leg up educationally.

Couple that with the fact that community colleges just have abysmal completion rates and students who often are in need of remedial help or are just not that academically inclined and the environment just isn't going to be conducive to a educational experience that is going to keep a marginally engaged kid returning to class each semester. Again, there has been research and writing on this in recent years.