BASIS Independent McLean ranked 15th on Niche?
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Anonymous
| All I ever read about BIM on DCUM is extremely negative. I just looked at the Niche rankings of private high schools in the Washington DC area, and was surprised to see it ranked at 15! Do you think Niche is correct in this ranking? I am starting to doubt the other rankings. |
Anonymous
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The Niche info on BASIS Independent McLean:
38% of students feel safe at school 38% of students like their school and feel happy there 75% say students are competitive 13% say students are creative and artsy 25% say students are athletic Clubs got a C- rating Niche isn’t reliable but these are very low ratings, even for a small sample size. |
Anonymous
| Clubs for a lot of the Basis schools I’ve looked up seem to have a C-. I’m not familiar with the school but my impression is that this company of schools is like a factory that gets good test scores but doesn’t have other attributes of a school |
Anonymous
Niche is more reliable than this board |
Anonymous
Faint praise. |
Anonymous
The majority of the rankings for Niche is based on self-reporting by students and parents. https://www.niche.com/about/methodology/best-private-high-schools/ The only two objective criteria they use are percentage of kids attending four year colleges and teacher-student ratio, neither of which are very helpful in ranking private schools, which have 100% attending four year colleges and low teacher-student ratios. Self-reporting constitutes the majority of the Niche score. |
Anonymous
| This board unfortunately is filled with misinformation. I relied on it while researching privates and have regretted that decision. I thought I would be able to get the “untold truth” behind the marketing. But actually what I found were many instances of outright lies regarding info that I was able to fact check. I actually ended up pulling my child out of her school, and much of it was due to my trusting inaccuracies posted on this board. OP, I would try to find info first hand. |
Anonymous
PP, I agree there is a lot of misinformation, but no one should rely on anonymous sources 100% doe a decision as big as where to send a child to school. I found DCUM helpful, but I read prodigiously and looked for trends and themes to check out with real people. Even admissions officers and parents at school open houses lie, by omission or because they truly believe what they’re saying. People come with biases. DCUM was just one point of information. It helped me make the right decision for all three kids. There are aspects of DD’s school I am not fond of, but DCUM was eloquent about them so I can’t say I wasn’t warned. |
Anonymous
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I would visit the school and see how I feel.
I went for a tour and couldn't get out of there fast enough. |
Anonymous
| I am 9:30 poster. The thing about these boards is that once you read it, you can’t unread it. It stays in your mind’s background and subliminally colors what you think about said school. The more you check what the “board” says, the harder it becomes to think differently; and you never know if it’s a small number of people, or even a single person repeatedly posting things about schools that are untrue. |
Anonymous
| With info and opinions laid out on a scatter-shot way, no way to control for confirmation bias |
Anonymous
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You can also turn to GreatSchools.Org with 54 reviews of BIM, perhaps a better data set:
2.5 stars (out of 5) 54 Reviews 2.6 Bullying (51) 2.9 Character (54) 2.6 Homework (53) 2.1 Leadership (51) 2.3 Learning Differences (53) 3.6 Teachers (53) The teachers get the highest marks, because they are really the only sterling asset at the school. The rest shows up in the data. Mediocre at best. |
Anonymous
| There are a lot of great teachers, particularly in math and the sciences. The school is filled with a lot of smart kids. There is zero community or culture and the administration is a complete nightmare. |
Anonymous
| Were only 15 schools ranked? |
Anonymous
| So, is Niche right or wrong? |