Yorktown vs WL — Ranking vs word on street

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A kid w a 4.3 at Yorktown can’t get into uva anymore?

I'd think that's borderline, depend on what class are in that, ECs, , applying ED or not, etc but my 4.2 GPA kid didn't get in two years ago (and I did not expect him to).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A kid w a 4.3 at Yorktown can’t get into uva anymore?

That is not unique to Yorktown.

[Anonymous]

Confused - how many AP/IB classes do these kids take?
Do they take a bunch sophomore and freshman year? How do you even possibly have a 4.3 at the end of junior year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Capstone is to bolster Yorktown and reduce transfer to WL. They need more seats at WL to accommodate flow from Wakefield.

Yes, or many more W-L neighborhoods along the Yorktown border would likely have to be redistricted to Yorktown like Cherrydale, Waycroft Woodlawn, etc. Population growth is in South Arlington and not in the B
North. So makes sense to reduce transfers from Yorktown to W-L and encourage transfers from
Wakefield into W-L

Would neighbors accept moving to Yorktown?

I’m in Cherrydale, and live close enough to WL to hear the marching band practice and the PA system during athletic events at the stadium. Hell yes I’d put up a fight if my neighborhood was redistricted to Yorktown so that some kids who live 3 miles away can be bused to WL. If Arlington gets to that point, just get rid of zoned HS and make it all lottery.

Another Cherrydale resident here-- my kids are out of high school now, but I felt exactly the same. This topic used to make very angry, lol. If kids can't go to the high school that is less than 4 blocks from their home, then forget about zoned schools and go to a county- wide lottery.

I like the idea of a county wide lottery for high school. but it would never get enough support

If schools went full lottery, the UMC and MC families would all to Fairfax. That’s what always happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Confused - how many AP/IB classes do these kids take?
Do they take a bunch sophomore and freshman year? How do you even possibly have a 4.3 at the end of junior year

My kids are at W-L and took

Kid 1
9th - 0
10th - 2
11th - 3
12th -5
GPA end of junior year = 4.1 (end of 12th= 4.2)

Kid 2
9th - 1
10th - 2
11th - 3
12th - 5
GPA end of junior year = 4.0

Another class or two in 9th-10th, 4 instead of 3 in 11th and mainly As (mine got a mix of As and Bs) makes a 4.3 very possible.

Their schedules, especially for 11th were on the lighter side among their friends, which seems ridiculous to me, but I insisted that they limit to "only" 3 AP/IB classes. Our counselor said this schedule would be marked "very demanding", a step below the top rating of "most rigorous." Both have ADHD and DD has a time-consuming EC so I didn't want them to overload themselves in junior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The high profile college acceptances (T10, ivies) at W-L are driven by the hooks you mentioned (URM, first gen). At Yorktown, they are driven by athletic recruitment.

Bottom line: neither school will increase your chances at a T10 unless you’ve got one of the aforementioned hooks.

Yep. If you’re a white female it doesn’t matter which school for college acceptance.

Excuse my ignorance (kids are young and was in college overseas), but what does that mean? White females get a lot of acceptances or rejections? Also, what is URM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is important to remember: transferring into IB (supposedly) requires you to take full IB. No picky-choosey like kids zoned for WL. This is a policy, IMO, APS needs to change.

NP whose Yorktown-zoned child wants to apply for IB next year. How would you change it? Either let the YT/Wakefield kids stay even if they don't do full IB, or make it so W-L kids can't dabble in IB, they either do it or not?

I would change it so they either do it or don't, same as everyone, since it's a program within a school. Letting everyone dabble in it, just defeats the purpose. But who will make this change?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is important to remember: transferring into IB (supposedly) requires you to take full IB. No picky-choosey like kids zoned for WL. This is a policy, IMO, APS needs to change.

NP whose Yorktown-zoned child wants to apply for IB next year. How would you change it? Either let the YT/Wakefield kids stay even if they don't do full IB, or make it so W-L kids can't dabble in IB, they either do it or not?

I would change it so they either do it or don't, same as everyone, since it's a program within a school. Letting everyone dabble in it, just defeats the purpose. [b] But who will make this change?

Letting people "dabble" actually helps the program because they can offer a wider range of IB electives. If they limited access to only diploma students they would have electives with only a few students signing up and then they wouldn't offer them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Capstone is to bolster Yorktown and reduce transfer to WL. They need more seats at WL to accommodate flow from Wakefield.

Yes, or many more W-L neighborhoods along the Yorktown border would likely have to be redistricted to Yorktown like Cherrydale, Waycroft Woodlawn, etc. Population growth is in South Arlington and not in the B
North. So makes sense to reduce transfers from Yorktown to W-L and encourage transfers from
Wakefield into W-L

Would neighbors accept moving to Yorktown?

I’m in Cherrydale, and live close enough to WL to hear the marching band practice and the PA system during athletic events at the stadium. Hell yes I’d put up a fight if my neighborhood was redistricted to Yorktown so that some kids who live 3 miles away can be bused to WL. If Arlington gets to that point, just get rid of zoned HS and make it all lottery.

About 1/4 of Cherrydale is already zoned to Yorktown and has been since the 90s when Yorktown was under enrolled. (This is the part of Cherrydale near Dorothy Hamm MS.) The part of Cherrydale adjacent to W-L was also in a number of boundary scenarios where it moved to Yorktown in the last boundary change public engagement process 5 years ago. The school board eventually decided on keeping Cherrydale and Waverly Hills at W-L while moving neighborhoods further north and west to Yorktown.

Re PP’s comment, the kids who live “three miles away” from W-L provide the socio economic diversity. Those kids are not moving back to overcrowded Wakefield.

Maybe the future Arlington Tech school building will solve the South Arlington overcrowding once and for all, but the new building is at least 5-6 years away from completion. I’m cautiously optimistic.

Um....how? AT is not a south Arlington neighborhood school. It is a countywide option program taking students from all of the high schools. It will continue to be a smaller program. You expect Wakefield's portion of those students to compensate for all the increasing residential density in all of south Arlington?

Agree, the expansion of Arlington Tech will not relieve the massive influx of new residents (by the County's design) into South and Central Arlington. There are new 10 story residential buildings going up in so many places. And Arlington Tech is a county wide lottery program, like HB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is important to remember: transferring into IB (supposedly) requires you to take full IB. No picky-choosey like kids zoned for WL. This is a policy, IMO, APS needs to change.

NP whose Yorktown-zoned child wants to apply for IB next year. How would you change it? Either let the YT/Wakefield kids stay even if they don't do full IB, or make it so W-L kids can't dabble in IB, they either do it or not?

I would change it so they either do it or don't, same as everyone, since it's a program within a school. Letting everyone dabble in it, just defeats the purpose. [b] But who will make this change?

Letting people "dabble" actually helps the program because they can offer a wider range of IB electives. If they limited access to only diploma students they would have electives with only a few students signing up and then they wouldn't offer them.

I believe that due to the extremely large number of high school students in this county, and the popularity of the IB program, they would easily fill, if they asked students to fully commit (perhaps at the latest by the start of grade 10) and decide to be "in or out".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Capstone is to bolster Yorktown and reduce transfer to WL. They need more seats at WL to accommodate flow from Wakefield.

Yes, or many more W-L neighborhoods along the Yorktown border would likely have to be redistricted to Yorktown like Cherrydale, Waycroft Woodlawn, etc. Population growth is in South Arlington and not in the B
North. So makes sense to reduce transfers from Yorktown to W-L and encourage transfers from
Wakefield into W-L

Would neighbors accept moving to Yorktown?

Grudgingly I suppose. W-L zoned neighborhoods that supported increasing W-L’s capacity ended up being redistricted to Yorktown anyways. Some are still upset. The problem is that the current Yorktown boundary is now so close to W-L. Any remaining W-L zoned North Arlington neighborhoods that border the Yorktown zone like Lyon Village or those west of N Glebe Rd may put up a fight to stay at W-L.

But the problem is the uneven growth across the county. South Arlington schools are the ones that are growing.

All those WL neighborhoods upset about having to go to YHS should be pushing for missing middle upzoning housing north of Langston Blvd. As long as the density remains central and south, YHS will remain least crowded and more neighborhoods will need to be redistricted away from their beloved WL.

PP from Cherrydale. Yep, I'm a big supporter of missing middle housing being strategically placed for this very reason-- you want more diversity in your schools (and I do), this is the way to get it.

Being strategically placed would mean exclusively in the northernmost part of the county, period. However, correct me if I'm wrong, nowhere in the missing middle legislation does it actually provide/incentivize, or otherwise force this to happen.
It's more likely to speed up overcrowding in central and southern Arlington instead, since the turnover is much higher in those parts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is important to remember: transferring into IB (supposedly) requires you to take full IB. No picky-choosey like kids zoned for WL. This is a policy, IMO, APS needs to change.

NP whose Yorktown-zoned child wants to apply for IB next year. How would you change it? Either let the YT/Wakefield kids stay even if they don't do full IB, or make it so W-L kids can't dabble in IB, they either do it or not?

I would change it so they either do it or don't, same as everyone, since it's a program within a school. Letting everyone dabble in it, just defeats the purpose. [b] But who will make this change?

Letting people "dabble" actually helps the program because they can offer a wider range of IB electives. If they limited access to only diploma students they would have electives with only a few students signing up and then they wouldn't offer them.

I believe that due to the extremely large number of high school students in this county, and the popularity of the IB program, they would easily fill, if they asked students to fully commit (perhaps at the latest by the start of grade 10) and decide to be "in or out".

I agree. If IB were established as its own option program, the typical high-pressure-expectations Arlington parents would be all over it like they are HBW. It would become an elite option school. But on second thought as I write this, the major obstacle to that happening would be the lack of extracurriculars. Parents expect their kids to be able to do and have it all. Separating IB from WL per se would disconnect their students from WL athletics. That's one of the problems Arlington Tech has now - students want to do activities AT doesn't offer (band) and it's too much of a hassle to go back to the home school for sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is important to remember: transferring into IB (supposedly) requires you to take full IB. No picky-choosey like kids zoned for WL. This is a policy, IMO, APS needs to change.

NP whose Yorktown-zoned child wants to apply for IB next year. How would you change it? Either let the YT/Wakefield kids stay even if they don't do full IB, or make it so W-L kids can't dabble in IB, they either do it or not?

I would change it so they either do it or don't, same as everyone, since it's a program within a school. Letting everyone dabble in it, just defeats the purpose. [b] But who will make this change?

Letting people "dabble" actually helps the program because they can offer a wider range of IB electives. If they limited access to only diploma students they would have electives with only a few students signing up and then they wouldn't offer them.

I believe that due to the extremely large number of high school students in this county, and the popularity of the IB program, they would easily fill, if they asked students to fully commit (perhaps at the latest by the start of grade 10) and decide to be "in or out".

I agree. If IB were established as its own option program, the typical high-pressure-expectations Arlington parents would be all over it like they are HBW. It would become an elite option school. But on second thought as I write this, the major obstacle to that happening would be the lack of extracurriculars. Parents expect their kids to be able to do and have it all. Separating IB from WL per se would disconnect their students from WL athletics. That's one of the problems Arlington Tech has now - students want to do activities AT doesn't offer (band) and it's too much of a hassle to go back to the home school for sports.

I don’t think APS is too keen on creating elite option schools. HBW became one due to its small size, but that wasn’t on purpose. Arlington Tech was purposefully not designed as an elite STEM school with admissions testing. A small elite IB option school would likely create division between the “dregs of humanity” at the neighborhood schools and the highly motivated academic stars at the elite IB option school. Also, would a small IB option school be able to offer the same number of IB electives?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is important to remember: transferring into IB (supposedly) requires you to take full IB. No picky-choosey like kids zoned for WL. This is a policy, IMO, APS needs to change.

NP whose Yorktown-zoned child wants to apply for IB next year. How would you change it? Either let the YT/Wakefield kids stay even if they don't do full IB, or make it so W-L kids can't dabble in IB, they either do it or not?

I would change it so they either do it or don't, same as everyone, since it's a program within a school. Letting everyone dabble in it, just defeats the purpose. [b] But who will make this change?

Letting people "dabble" actually helps the program because they can offer a wider range of IB electives. If they limited access to only diploma students they would have electives with only a few students signing up and then they wouldn't offer them.

I believe that due to the extremely large number of high school students in this county, and the popularity of the IB program, they would easily fill, if they asked students to fully commit (perhaps at the latest by the start of grade 10) and decide to be "in or out".

I agree. If IB were established as its own option program, the typical high-pressure-expectations Arlington parents would be all over it like they are HBW. It would become an elite option school. But on second thought as I write this, the major obstacle to that happening would be the lack of extracurriculars. Parents expect their kids to be able to do and have it all. Separating IB from WL per se would disconnect their students from WL athletics. That's one of the problems Arlington Tech has now - students want to do activities AT doesn't offer (band) and it's too much of a hassle to go back to the home school for sports.

I don’t think APS is too keen on creating elite option schools. HBW became one due to its small size, but that wasn’t on purpose. Arlington Tech was purposefully not designed as an elite STEM school with admissions testing. A small elite IB option school would likely create division between the “dregs of humanity” at the neighborhood schools and the highly motivated academic stars at the elite IB option school. Also, would a small IB option school be able to offer the same number of IB electives?

Don't know and don't care. So what if the # of electives goes down? They still have their IB program and diploma. Option programs are choices and choices just might mean "choosing" to do without something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is important to remember: transferring into IB (supposedly) requires you to take full IB. No picky-choosey like kids zoned for WL. This is a policy, IMO, APS needs to change.

NP whose Yorktown-zoned child wants to apply for IB next year. How would you change it? Either let the YT/Wakefield kids stay even if they don't do full IB, or make it so W-L kids can't dabble in IB, they either do it or not?

I would change it so they either do it or don't, same as everyone, since it's a program within a school. Letting everyone dabble in it, just defeats the purpose. [b] But who will make this change?

Letting people "dabble" actually helps the program because they can offer a wider range of IB electives. If they limited access to only diploma students they would have electives with only a few students signing up and then they wouldn't offer them.

I believe that due to the extremely large number of high school students in this county, and the popularity of the IB program, they would easily fill, if they asked students to fully commit (perhaps at the latest by the start of grade 10) and decide to be "in or out".

I agree. If IB were established as its own option program, the typical high-pressure-expectations Arlington parents would be all over it like they are HBW. It would become an elite option school. But on second thought as I write this, the major obstacle to that happening would be the lack of extracurriculars. Parents expect their kids to be able to do and have it all. Separating IB from WL per se would disconnect their students from WL athletics. That's one of the problems Arlington Tech has now - students want to do activities AT doesn't offer (band) and it's too much of a hassle to go back to the home school for sports.

I don’t think APS is too keen on creating elite option schools. HBW became one due to its small size, but that wasn’t on purpose. Arlington Tech was purposefully not designed as an elite STEM school with admissions testing. A small elite IB option school would likely create division between the “dregs of humanity” at the neighborhood schools and the highly motivated academic stars at the elite IB option school. Also, would a small IB option school be able to offer the same number of IB electives?

Don't know and don't care. So what if the # of electives goes down? They still have their IB program and diploma. Option programs are choices and choices just might mean "choosing" to do without something else.

Presumably the program requires a certain number of electives be offered. Additional complications to IB becoming a small school of its own include the fact that the W-L teachers who teach the IB classes also teach non-IB classes and the diploma requires a significant amount of hours outside the classroom spent on activities that include drama, sports and musical performance, all of which would be much more difficult to do at a small, IB only school.