Why don’t more parents send their kids to Basis McLean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS McLean has a pretty decent rejection rate -- in other words, it knows what size it wants to be and it only admits the kids it believes will be good fits. So it's not that more parents don't send their kids there; the school decides what size it wants to be.

HA! This is hilarious. From an employee's perspective--we used to be able to reject students who weren't a good fit. Then the school got desperate to increase enrollment and we were no longer allowed to reject anyone. Students who were so obviously not a fit were forced to be admitted just to fail. If we tried to reject anyone, we would hear from the higher ups (remember, this school is owned by a Chinese-based private equity group who only cares about $$$), and the decision was no longer ours to make. The rejection rate is close to none at this point.

That’s near sighted. Strategically wrong.
A good school will attract more students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS McLean has a pretty decent rejection rate -- in other words, it knows what size it wants to be and it only admits the kids it believes will be good fits. So it's not that more parents don't send their kids there; the school decides what size it wants to be.

HA! This is hilarious. From an employee's perspective--we used to be able to reject students who weren't a good fit. Then the school got desperate to increase enrollment and we were no longer allowed to reject anyone. Students who were so obviously not a fit were forced to be admitted just to fail. If we tried to reject anyone, we would hear from the higher ups (remember, this school is owned by a Chinese-based private equity group who only cares about $$$), and the decision was no longer ours to make. The rejection rate is close to none at this point.

That’s near sighted. Strategically wrong.
A good school will attract more students.

I rather donate money to the school to see it make wrong decisions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because it's yucky that it's owned by a hedge fund.

Well, it is owned by a Chinese hedge fund, and the HoS came from China. He is an American, who spent long time there. Did he bring the the flavor of CCP educational policies with him? You should find that out...

[Anonymous]

No one cares about the school give it a rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its common knowledge backed up by a lot of research that living that close to an enormous highway is terrible for children's health.

Living there is not the same as going to school there.

[Anonymous]

I think enrollment is up because all private schools are up due to COVID. Also, BASIS has a lot of higher math classes, so VMPI would have pushed a number of parents to pick BASIS instead of public school. Not sure about Fairfax, but Loudoun has backtracked from their quick implementation of VMPI, now that the governor has announced the end of VMPI. So instead of algebra in 9th grade, algebra in 7th grade is possible in Loudoun, and even 6th but not as much as before. I would expect BASIS numbers to drop next year.

[Anonymous]

My kid went to BASIS for a MathLeague contest, and it looked nice, not particularly office-like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think enrollment is up because all private schools are up due to COVID. Also, BASIS has a lot of higher math classes, so VMPI would have pushed a number of parents to pick BASIS instead of public school. Not sure about Fairfax, but Loudoun has backtracked from their quick implementation of VMPI, now that the governor has announced the end of VMPI. So instead of algebra in 9th grade, algebra in 7th grade is possible in Loudoun, and even 6th but not as much as before. I would expect BASIS numbers to drop next year.

Once it reaches certain number, it will exceed the curve and accelerate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think enrollment is up because all private schools are up due to COVID. Also, BASIS has a lot of higher math classes, so VMPI would have pushed a number of parents to pick BASIS instead of public school. Not sure about Fairfax, but Loudoun has backtracked from their quick implementation of VMPI, now that the governor has announced the end of VMPI. So instead of algebra in 9th grade, algebra in 7th grade is possible in Loudoun, and even 6th but not as much as before. I would expect BASIS numbers to drop next year.

Once it reaches certain number, it will exceed the curve and accelerate.

Their only job openings are two elementary teachers and an early education teaching fellow. Doesn't look like the growth is exponential yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think enrollment is up because all private schools are up due to COVID. Also, BASIS has a lot of higher math classes, so VMPI would have pushed a number of parents to pick BASIS instead of public school. Not sure about Fairfax, but Loudoun has backtracked from their quick implementation of VMPI, now that the governor has announced the end of VMPI. So instead of algebra in 9th grade, algebra in 7th grade is possible in Loudoun, and even 6th but not as much as before. I would expect BASIS numbers to drop next year.

Once it reaches certain number, it will exceed the curve and accelerate.

Their only job openings are two elementary teachers and an early education teaching fellow. Doesn't look like the growth is exponential yet.

the lower and middle schools are doing better in terms of enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think enrollment is up because all private schools are up due to COVID. Also, BASIS has a lot of higher math classes, so VMPI would have pushed a number of parents to pick BASIS instead of public school. Not sure about Fairfax, but Loudoun has backtracked from their quick implementation of VMPI, now that the governor has announced the end of VMPI. So instead of algebra in 9th grade, algebra in 7th grade is possible in Loudoun, and even 6th but not as much as before. I would expect BASIS numbers to drop next year.

Once it reaches certain number, it will exceed the curve and accelerate.

Their only job openings are two elementary teachers and an early education teaching fellow. Doesn't look like the growth is exponential yet.

the lower and middle schools are doing better in terms of enrollment.

Between the nonexistent facilities for real HS activities (arts and sports) and knowing that their HS years will be nothing more than a pile of AP tests, plenty opt for HS elsewhere. The facility is much more suited to growing the K-8 contingent.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations to the grads and I wish them all the best. https://blog.basisindependent.com/mclean/basis-independent-mcleans-class-of-2022-college-acceptances

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Congratulations to the grads and I wish them all the best. https://blog.basisindependent.com/mclean/basis-independent-mcleans-class-of-2022-college-acceptances

Congrats to the class of 2022 and their families!

[Anonymous]

Besides academy, child self esteem is more important. At Basis, my kids feel respectful and confident. It’s good for their self esteem. as first generation immigrants, I value this a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from NYC where Basis is well regarded. I attended the open house before Basis opened and there seemed to be a lot of interest back then. We are interested again due to pandemic. What turned me off was that the graduating class was tiny, like 30 kids. It made me think that more people didn’t want to send their kids there.

How is the culture? College admissions?
Do they even have enough kids for sport teams?

The culture is heavy on testing and APs and more testing. It's the core of the curriculum. Works really well for some, but many others have left. The problem with sports is tiny, limited facilities and space.

If the enrollment really is headed to 600+ next year like they targeted for a few years ago, that could change the character of the school away from the tiny grades, tiny clubs, no upper school performing arts, etc.

You really need to talk to current parents to see if it's a fit. For most, it clearly is or isn't. Then go see it up close and decide if those facilities are enough.

see my post above. Now we have 640 students.

Do you have a link to that somewhere? They used to treat the enrollment numbers like a state secret, especially when they were crashing in spring 2020. I think I saw a number 478 on their website in the past, but I don't see it on there now.

What is your source?

I saw 640 students from ParentSquare. All have names. The website may not up to date.

According to my parent square that includes the 114 incoming students to basis in the fall - it does not include the students leaving this year