Feedback on Yorktown HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh. I just sent my kids to TJ. I didn't want to have them deal with the douchebags in privates.

This is ironic given the culture at TJ.

What's so ironic about it? Most kids there value academics and learning (over sports, parties, etc) and work really hard.

The kids at are private school are intensely academic. That is why it’s ironic.

Your general assumption that private kids are douchebags says a lot about you.

I am a TJ alum and would not send my kids there. It’s a soulless place.

To each their own.

Sure academics may be good in private, but sports plays the biggest role. It's laughable that you're actually comparing private academics with TJ. And sad that you think working hard is soulless.. then why did you even go there in the first place?

[Anonymous]

So many of you parents are so weird. The obsession with your kid's education is ridiculous. Someday you'll look back at how you're acting with embarrassment.

[Anonymous]

This entire thread is kind of insane to me. Am I the only one who worries about the downside of making Larla/Larlo the center of the universe? I grew up in an affluent area, rigorous HS, 90%+ of our graduating class went straight to college, lots of Ivy League, etc. My husband grew up in a mediocre school district in a poor family, got a scholarship to UCLA and is much more driven as he had to work for everything he has. We picked our house because we liked it even though it has a “worse” school district than some others we looked at. My kid will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many of you parents are so weird. The obsession with your kid's education is ridiculous. Someday you'll look back at how you're acting with embarrassment.

+1. I just posted below. I care about my kids’ educations but I also care about a million other things than where they go to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to those providing feedback on Yorktown experiences. Perhaps most shocking is that the school has no bathroom doors! What? Is that true?
And, no outdoor time?
Does the size of the school prevent students from trying new activities/sports? Only the exceptional on sports teams, in art, etc?

Truth on bathroom doors...had a vaping problem

My kids are in elementary, but I went to the yorktown basketball game the other night and there were doors on the bathroom stalls. The door might have been propped open to the bathroom.

The stalls have doors IIRC, but the main doors to the bathrooms were removed or kept propped open.

Yorktown alum here. Used to smoke in the bathrooms. It’s kind of a right of passage. Poor kids.

FYI the doors came off after a student committed suicide in the bathroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to those providing feedback on Yorktown experiences. Perhaps most shocking is that the school has no bathroom doors! What? Is that true?
And, no outdoor time?
Does the size of the school prevent students from trying new activities/sports? Only the exceptional on sports teams, in art, etc?

Truth on bathroom doors...had a vaping problem

My kids are in elementary, but I went to the yorktown basketball game the other night and there were doors on the bathroom stalls. The door might have been propped open to the bathroom.

The stalls have doors IIRC, but the main doors to the bathrooms were removed or kept propped open.

Yorktown alum here. Used to smoke in the bathrooms. It’s kind of a right of passage. Poor kids.

FYI the doors came off after a student committed suicide in the bathroom.

This is not true at all. The doors came off for vaping 100%. There was a bathroom incident that happens many months later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to those providing feedback on Yorktown experiences. Perhaps most shocking is that the school has no bathroom doors! What? Is that true?
And, no outdoor time?
Does the size of the school prevent students from trying new activities/sports? Only the exceptional on sports teams, in art, etc?

Truth on bathroom doors...had a vaping problem

I went to Langley high school in the 90s and we had no bathroom doors. This isn’t a new or unique thing.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone speak to the quality of education at Yorktown and whether meaningful college counseling is offered?

Is it a pressure cooker among the high achievers (which I've heard accounts for nearly 25% of the class!)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone speak to the quality of education at Yorktown and whether meaningful college counseling is offered?

Is it a pressure cooker among the high achievers (which I've heard accounts for nearly 25% of the class!)?

Yorktown senior parent here- College Counseling was not beneficial at all in my opinion. But, this could be counselor dependent. The counselors help you organize your letters of rec, etc., but in terms of helping you select colleges, they will direct you to Naviance. The counselors are literally managing hundreds of kids... hard to get a personal feel.

As for pressure cooker, yes, it can be if your child decides to take many AP classes along with advanced courses. You can control, to some extent, the level of pressure.... If you are concerned about *rigor* which is a key word for college admissions, then yes, it will be a pressure cooker. But, some of that is also teacher and class dependent. Some classes (AP US History, AP Chem, high level Math, etc.) will be much harder than say AP Economics.

There is a lot of bad press on this feed for this school and WMS. Not sure it is any different than other Arlington schools or Fairfax schools for that matter. It is a large school in an affluent area....good teachers/bad teachers, overachievers and underachievers, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone speak to the quality of education at Yorktown and whether meaningful college counseling is offered?

Is it a pressure cooker among the high achievers (which I've heard accounts for nearly 25% of the class!)?

Yorktown senior parent here- College Counseling was not beneficial at all in my opinion. But, this could be counselor dependent. The counselors help you organize your letters of rec, etc., but in terms of helping you select colleges, they will direct you to Naviance. The counselors are literally managing hundreds of kids... hard to get a personal feel.

As for pressure cooker, yes, it can be if your child decides to take many AP classes along with advanced courses. You can control, to some extent, the level of pressure.... If you are concerned about *rigor* which is a key word for college admissions, then yes, it will be a pressure cooker. But, some of that is also teacher and class dependent. Some classes (AP US History, AP Chem, high level Math, etc.) will be much harder than say AP Economics.

There is a lot of bad press on this feed for this school and WMS. Not sure it is any different than other Arlington schools or Fairfax schools for that matter. It is a large school in an affluent area....good teachers/bad teachers, overachievers and underachievers, etc.

It is very different from other Arlington schools. Other than diversity, similar to W-L; but definitely not the same feel or atmosphere as Arlington Tech, HB Woodlawn, or Wakefield. Many people think Wakefield isn't academic enough; but it has the usual AP classes and the AP Capstone which actually teaches students how to write a real research paper -- that's a huge plus IMO. And Wakefield does it without the pressure cooker feel. Most of the college stuff seems focused more on specific minority groups; but that just contributes to the less stressed atmosphere for the UMC white families. I don't know, but I suspect there's more "coddling" at Wakefield. Good or bad, the point is that it's not the same as Yorktown.

[Anonymous]

Considered private school for DC, wound up at Yorktown, very glad. DC is in the accelerated classes, is learning a ton--much more than I ever did at my private school, considered one of the best in NYC--in math and science, has made cool friends, has great relationships with teachers, is just generally thriving. Save us 45K a year plus transportation hassles. Don't know if we'd be as happy if DC was in regular classes and/or needed to work much harder, DC gets better grades than peers on tests with less effort, so stress is low. Not bragging, just don't know how things would have played out with a different kid who had different peers or needed more hand-holding. Not sure YT will be right for sibling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Considered private school for DC, wound up at Yorktown, very glad. DC is in the accelerated classes, is learning a ton--much more than I ever did at my private school, considered one of the best in NYC--in math and science, has made cool friends, has great relationships with teachers, is just generally thriving. Save us 45K a year plus transportation hassles. Don't know if we'd be as happy if DC was in regular classes and/or needed to work much harder, DC gets better grades than peers on tests with less effort, so stress is low. Not bragging, just don't know how things would have played out with a different kid who had different peers or needed more hand-holding. Not sure YT will be right for sibling.

We're actually considering pulling our kid from private bc it's too rigorous and there is no fun. Too many term papers, too much checking in from the teachers, the class sizes are so small my kid feels like they're in a "bubble" being observed all the time. Doesn't anyone just want their kid to be a regular kid, learn a regular amount of standard stuff, and have a happy childhood? Arlington is so freaking competitive. The people on here talking about how Yorktown is dumbed down and it's easy to pass with straight A's make me want this for my kiddo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a good high school. You do have to understand that, for college admissions today, a place like Yorktown can actually be a disadvantage (see heavily URM white high school). So if you're looking to maximize your kid's chances of admission at a good school you might consider alternatives.

Having just gone through the college admissions process, I second this. My other DC (YHS student) has ADHD, and YHS is terrible for them. If you can swing private, I would go private.

[Anonymous]

It is very different from other Arlington schools. Other than diversity, similar to W-L; but definitely not the same feel or atmosphere as Arlington Tech, HB Woodlawn, or Wakefield. Many people think Wakefield isn't academic enough; but it has the usual AP classes and the AP Capstone which actually teaches students how to write a real research paper -- that's a huge plus IMO. And Wakefield does it without the pressure cooker feel. Most of the college stuff seems focused more on specific minority groups; but that just contributes to the less stressed atmosphere for the UMC white families. I don't know, but I suspect there's more "coddling" at Wakefield. Good or bad, the point is that it's not the same as Yorktown.

First off you can’t compare YHS to HBW (125/class) or Arlington Tech (250/class). have you had students at all these schools to compare? My High Schooler just did a yearlong research paper as part of AP Language. It’s not unique to Wakefield to learn to do that. Most of your post is just a bunch of DCUM opinions of Arlington schools.

At most large high schools there aren’t enough counselors. You need to do most of the college stuff on your own or your kid needs to be a squeaky wheel to get more help. Or, you hire someone to help.