If you could choose any pyramid…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robinson, Lake Braddock or Hayfield.

Robinson and Lake Braddock are both filled with thugs, vaping, and fights. No discipline, terrible administrators.

I'd be happy with either pyramid (and have kids in one of them, and this take does not match their experience).

Would avoid Langley, contrary to many.

What's your beef with Langley?

Too many rich white kids. Those families are the worst.

I always laugh when I see people claim Langley is overrun with white kids when it is in fact a majority minority school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robinson, Lake Braddock or Hayfield.

Robinson and Lake Braddock are both filled with thugs, vaping, and fights. No discipline, terrible administrators.

I'd be happy with either pyramid (and have kids in one of them, and this take does not match their experience).

Would avoid Langley, contrary to many.

What's your beef with Langley?

Too many rich white kids. Those families are the worst.

I always laugh when I see people claim Langley is overrun with white kids when it is in fact a majority minority school.

+1
It's funny, isn't it? But of course, not the "right" kinds of minorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCs went to a pyramid that would be looked down upon by the typical DCUMer and thrived at very prestigious universities. One DC now pursuing a masters degree at the number one ranked school in the world for their major.

Both thrived at university and were very well prepared, but did not have to compete in high school with strivers for college admission as they would have needed to do in other pyramids.

There's a difference between anecdotes and data, no matter how many times you trot out the same anecdote.

DP - there’s a delicate balance when you live in one of the less desirable areas. I know quite a few middle and UMC and even high income families at Annandale, Falls Church, and Herndon, as well as Alexandria City HS. I don’t know any at Lewis or Mount Vernon. Some people also like to claim that their kid really roughed it in HS but it was great in the end and they had less competition for college admissions and were a standout and blah blah when the kid really graduated from like, South Lakes or Hayfield. Which is totally stolen valor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daniels Run - Katherine Johnson - Fairfax High School

This pyramid has a great sense of community, especially as a Fairfax City resident. Daniels Run is 99% city residents (as opposed to Providence Elementary, which has a larger percentage of county kids). The city is able to supplement some of the offerings, like having a STEAM lab and Spanish class in elementary school. And, since all city residents go to city schools, we never have to worry about redistricting and boundary changes.

Ha. Without Willow Springs and Powell ES families in the county propping up Johnson MS and Fairfax HS, it would be a bottom tier pyramid.

I'm not familiar with Willow Springs or Powell. What is it about those kids?

The Fairfax kids from those schools are higher performing than the kids from Providence and Daniels Run living in Fairfax City.

I would love to know where people thing "poor kids" live in the City of Fairfax- is it the 1 million townhouses or the houses on the Army Navy Country Club golf course?

In addition to the 1M+ houses around Army-Navy Country Club and in Farrcroft, there are also a decent number of lower-income/cheaper townhomes (on Courthouse near Ratcliffe Park, across from Woodson on the city border, older mews townhomes off Layton Hall near downtown), duplexes (surrounding Providence Park), and apartments (behind Chick-fil-A and near Providence Park), and smaller SFHs in Fairfax City. Those kids aren't all necessarily "poor," but the socioeconomic diversity is a selling point for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We would choose one where the HS is NOT high performing (e.g., not Oakton, Langley, Mclean). Our kids will do well in any HS. They likely will be closer to top of the class at a mundane HS (because less competition) and that will help with college admissions.

Most people on DCUM will disagree with this.

100% with you here. And that is exactly how it panned out. The group of high performing kids at our low performing HS all got into Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, Columbia, Duke, Penn, UVA, etc. They had a huge advantage.

But will they do well once they are there? Are they well prepared?

Yep, this exactly. I was this kid. Freshman year was HARD, both in terms of the level of content and having to reorient my brain to understand I wasn't as hot as I thought I was. Similar friends had to switch to easier majors and one transferred to an easier school. I picked a high performing school for my kids. Maybe they won't get to a top 20 college, but they will be well prepared wherever they go.

This mirrors our experience. We moved from a lower-performing FCPS HS pyramid to one of the top 4 mentioned, during middle school. A lot of DD's friends experienced a more difficult academic transition to college than she (and her friends at the new school) did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daniels Run - Katherine Johnson - Fairfax High School

This pyramid has a great sense of community, especially as a Fairfax City resident. Daniels Run is 99% city residents (as opposed to Providence Elementary, which has a larger percentage of county kids). The city is able to supplement some of the offerings, like having a STEAM lab and Spanish class in elementary school. And, since all city residents go to city schools, we never have to worry about redistricting and boundary changes.

Ha. Without Willow Springs and Powell ES families in the county propping up Johnson MS and Fairfax HS, it would be a bottom tier pyramid.

I'm not familiar with Willow Springs or Powell. What is it about those kids?

The Fairfax kids from those schools are higher performing than the kids from Providence and Daniels Run living in Fairfax City.

I would love to know where people thing "poor kids" live in the City of Fairfax- is it the 1 million townhouses or the houses on the Army Navy Country Club golf course?

In addition to the 1M+ houses around Army-Navy Country Club and in Farrcroft, there are also a decent number of lower-income/cheaper townhomes (on Courthouse near Ratcliffe Park, across from Woodson on the city border, older mews townhomes off Layton Hall near downtown), duplexes (surrounding Providence Park), and apartments (behind Chick-fil-A and near Providence Park), and smaller SFHs in Fairfax City. Those kids aren't all necessarily "poor," but the socioeconomic diversity is a selling point for us.

There's some expensive real estate in every FCPS pyramid, but Fairfax HS has always seemed a bit rough when it comes to both the students and the parents. Woodson is a better choice in that general area.