Oyster Adams versus DCI

[Anonymous]

Honestly, you don't know what parents are actually "planning," you only know what they're saying. Don't be surprised if a bunch of the families "planning to move on to DCI" disappear from your kids' school after 4th grade. They want serious math and science at BASIS and the culling of kids who aren't particularly academic with end of year exams. They want homework. They may simply want a manageable school commute from Capitol Hill to....one of the Latins.

[Anonymous]

Neighbors of ours sent their kids to DCI for MS (one a salutatorian, I think) and they seemed to be doing pretty well and were pretty happy. But this year, they switched both to a WOTP private. One was an eighth grader there last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, you don't know what parents are actually "planning," you only know what they're saying. Don't be surprised if a bunch of the families "planning to move on to DCI" disappear from your kids' school after 4th grade. They want serious math and science at BASIS and the culling of kids who aren't particularly academic with end of year exams. They want homework. They may simply want a manageable school commute from Capitol Hill to....one of the Latins.

PP here, I do know because we are good friends with these families. BTW we and the families we know don’t live in CH. You should know that there are many families EOTP outside of CH with financial means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, you don't know what parents are actually "planning," you only know what they're saying. Don't be surprised if a bunch of the families "planning to move on to DCI" disappear from your kids' school after 4th grade. They want serious math and science at BASIS and the culling of kids who aren't particularly academic with end of year exams. They want homework. They may simply want a manageable school commute from Capitol Hill to....one of the Latins.

PP here, I do know because we are good friends with these families. BTW we and the families we know don’t live in CH. You should know that there are many families EOTP outside of CH with financial means.

NP. We don't live in CH either and are planning to send our child to DCI. In fact, none of the families at our feeder who have older kids at DCI live in CH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, you don't know what parents are actually "planning," you only know what they're saying. Don't be surprised if a bunch of the families "planning to move on to DCI" disappear from your kids' school after 4th grade. They want serious math and science at BASIS and the culling of kids who aren't particularly academic with end of year exams. They want homework. They may simply want a manageable school commute from Capitol Hill to....one of the Latins.

Here is the thing. If academics is all you care about then sure Basis would be a good fit.

But that’s not all that I want for my kid. I want good facilities. I want lots of options for clubs and sports where it’s easy for me and him and he can just stay after school to do. I want my kid to continue with the kids he has known since K and still make new friends with a diverse set of kids. I don’t want a pressure cooker environment where my kid is miserable and his mental health suffers. And with a high achieving kid, I think the IB diploma is a good route and better than AP (I did AP).

Lastly, I’m not aiming for an Ivy like some crazy obsessed parents on here. I went to a state school on a full academic scholarship and turned out more than fine.

[Anonymous]

Come on, crazy obsessed parents? I earned the IB Diploma at one of the first 50 public schools offering it in this country, in the 1980s. My small town high school was ranked in the bottom third in the state. IB Diploma changed my life, and that of a number of my friends. We came from working-class backgrounds but wound up at elite colleges on massive financial aid.

Where is the academic rigor in DCI's middle school, the push for the most capable and determined students? It's just not there and high school is too late to pour on challenge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Come on, crazy obsessed parents? I earned the IB Diploma at one of the first 50 public schools offering it in this country, in the 1980s. My small town high school was ranked in the bottom third in the state. IB Diploma changed my life, and that of a number of my friends. We came from working-class backgrounds but wound up at elite colleges on massive financial aid.

Where is the academic rigor in DCI's middle school, the push for the most capable and determined students? It's just not there and high school is too late to pour on challenge.

1980’s is not now in 2022. The game has changed massively for the Ivy and it’s a total crapshoot. Also going to an elite college doesn’t guarantee success. In fact, most CEO and successful people did not attend elite schools.

Lastly, in 2021, DCI IB averages was low 30 while the average worldwide average was only 1 or 2 points higher. That’s in the context that the majority of IB schools are private schools and the remaining public are test in or self select. So yea, the rigor is there to be comparable to the majority of schools that self select.

Posters like you who don’t have kids at the school and make incorrect statements when data is there are just insufferable. Good luck because no, your kid is not going to get into an elite school.

In fact, what don’t you tell us what school your kid currently goes to. Let me guess, you are the YY mom whose kid is now at JR taking mandarin classes on the weekends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on, crazy obsessed parents? I earned the IB Diploma at one of the first 50 public schools offering it in this country, in the 1980s. My small town high school was ranked in the bottom third in the state. IB Diploma changed my life, and that of a number of my friends. We came from working-class backgrounds but wound up at elite colleges on massive financial aid.

Where is the academic rigor in DCI's middle school, the push for the most capable and determined students? It's just not there and high school is too late to pour on challenge.

1980’s is not now in 2022. The game has changed massively for the Ivy and it’s a total crapshoot. Also going to an elite college doesn’t guarantee success. In fact, most CEO and successful people did not attend elite schools.

Lastly, in 2021, DCI IB averages was low 30 while the average worldwide average was only 1 or 2 points higher. That’s in the context that the majority of IB schools are private schools and the remaining public are test in or self select. So yea, the rigor is there to be comparable to the majority of schools that self select.

Posters like you who don’t have kids at the school and make incorrect statements when data is there are just insufferable. Good luck because no, your kid is not going to get into an elite school.

In fact, what don’t you tell us what school your kid currently goes to. Let me guess, you are the YY mom whose kid is now at JR taking mandarin classes on the weekends.

Not true that the majority of US schools offering IBD are privates or public test-in. Self-select?? We were told that DCI students self-select for Diploma. Low 30s, not bad, but DCI already has the demographics for much better results. Our kids were at MV, now at Latin, where middle school students get a couple hours of HW a night. We got off the DCI track after talking to a bunch of former MV parents with kids there. They complained about lack of rigor/HW. No idea if my children will attend "elite" schools.

[Anonymous]

We were shocked to hear from some current DCI middle school students that they rarely if ever (and some said never) had homework. It’s hard to imagine how the middle school years prepares students for great scores on the IB Diploma. It seemed like those who scored somewhat decent on the diploma did so despite of rather than because of the school. Parents often supplement around here but it’s hard to imagine that kind of supplementation to do well on the diploma. We are also concerned that the lack of AP offerings or encouragement to take AP tests at DCI means that high schoolers apply to college without results of any AP or IB testing which would put them at a disadvantage compared to other students.

[Anonymous]

Same concern. I'm told that my sibling's teens in MoCo are strongly encouraged to double up on IB and AP exams. They started taking AP exams in 9th grade, arranged by their public school.

[Anonymous]

DCi is essentially set up to help first gen college students of color get to good colleges. Just shooting for IB Diploma usually does the trick.

UMC families need to tink about hiring college counselors, doing their own college planning, and supplementing academically all the way up. DCI can still work for these families, but at a cost in time, money, research, hustle. I understand that JR isn't all that different where AP goes.

[Anonymous]

Any recommendations for college counselors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same concern. I'm told that my sibling's teens in MoCo are strongly encouraged to double up on IB and AP exams. They started taking AP exams in 9th grade, arranged by their public school.

Former DCI parent here, now in moco. This is true. My kid is taking her first AP exam in May. She is in 9th and supposedly in the easiest AP course. She was not prepared for the workload and had to learn notetaking as well as study skills. Can't blame it all on dci but middle school seems to be a weak link there as well as here in moco.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on, crazy obsessed parents? I earned the IB Diploma at one of the first 50 public schools offering it in this country, in the 1980s. My small town high school was ranked in the bottom third in the state. IB Diploma changed my life, and that of a number of my friends. We came from working-class backgrounds but wound up at elite colleges on massive financial aid.

Where is the academic rigor in DCI's middle school, the push for the most capable and determined students? It's just not there and high school is too late to pour on challenge.

1980’s is not now in 2022. The game has changed massively for the Ivy and it’s a total crapshoot. Also going to an elite college doesn’t guarantee success. In fact, most CEO and successful people did not attend elite schools.

Lastly, in 2021, DCI IB averages was low 30 while the average worldwide average was only 1 or 2 points higher. That’s in the context that the majority of IB schools are private schools and the remaining public are test in or self select. So yea, the rigor is there to be comparable to the majority of schools that self select.

Posters like you who don’t have kids at the school and make incorrect statements when data is there are just insufferable. Good luck because no, your kid is not going to get into an elite school.

In fact, what don’t you tell us what school your kid currently goes to. Let me guess, you are the YY mom whose kid is now at JR taking mandarin classes on the weekends.

Not true that the majority of US schools offering IBD are privates or public test-in. Self-select?? We were told that DCI students self-select for Diploma. Low 30s, not bad, but DCI already has the demographics for much better results. Our kids were at MV, now at Latin, where middle school students get a couple hours of HW a night. We got off the DCI track after talking to a bunch of former MV parents with kids there. They complained about lack of rigor/HW. No idea if my children will attend "elite" schools.

It amazes me how so many people on this thread make false statements to support whatever agenda they have when the info is all out there. See link below page 5. Yes the majority of IB schools are private and test in. From the info below, 57% schools are private, 43% public and you can bet that at least over 1/2 of the public schools are test in or select candidates for the program. Also average IB score for 2022 worldwide was 32.

DCI does not test in for the IB diploma that I know of. Anyone can go that route. IB diploma is not easy and a lot of work especially with writing and analysis. It’s not for the lazy. Students can choose to do it or not, and I’m not surprised that only the higher performing students want the challenge.

https://ibo.org/globalassets/new-structure/about-the-ib/pdfs/final-statistical-bulletin-dp-cp-may-2022.pdf

[Anonymous]

Pp you’re knocking is correct. The majority of AMERICAN IBD schools are not private. Internationally, they are.