Reply to Leaving Big 3 (maybe) for MCPS. Hate to say it college admissions matters to me. Where else can we go near MoCo?

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Reply to "Leaving Big 3 (maybe) for MCPS. Hate to say it college admissions matters to me. Where else can we go near MoCo?"

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[quote=Anonymous]My kids are in Bethesda-area MCPS and one graduated and attends college.

It will be helpful to identify clearly what you want out of your children's K-12 experience. Is it:

1. The best academic learning environment: what do you think that is? Is a private full of comforts, emphasis on respect, that selects good students at entry and has good teachers in most every subject, something you value for your children?
Do you consider that publics, who all have great teachers in certain core subjects but maybe not all of them, and where really bad teachers can also stay for long periods of time, are also a good learning environment? Do you consider that publics in safe, wealthy neighborhoods may retain better teachers over time than publics in less-desirable neighborhoods, because parents put pressure on the administration to get rid of bad teachers, and good teachers want to teach and not have to deal with too many side issues?

2. The right socio-economic scene: what is that for you? Do you want your kids surrounded by wealth and comfort and live in that sort of bubble? Do you want your kids exposed to more realistic lifestyles, and how much: there will be a huge difference in school atmosphere between low-income and wealthy neighborhoods, because beyond the usual drugs/DUIs/teen antics, the realities of life are not the same.

3. Cultural exposure: do you want your kids to be exposed to a cosmopolitan group? Are you fine with a school with very little cultural diversity? Culture, in terms of number and provenance of foreign nationals, number of different ethnicities, variety of languages spoken by students, families with different origins, values, professions.
As a multi-ethnic foreigner, that last is quite important to me. I have lived in small rural towns and capital cities around the world. I would never, ever, move my kids to places that do not have a strong international presence.

4. College admissions: the hope that there is a school where your kids could have a college admissions advantage is a myth, unless you want to move to an under-represented state, with a possibly lower quality of all 3 criteria explained above. Admissions offices across the country know very well what value to ascribe to a selective private, an MCPS school or any other school. Schools are required to provide a profile of their demographics, graduations rates and course offerings during the admissions process. Admissions are looking for students who have pushed themselves to get the most out of what was available to them. But a move to a rural part of an empty state with easier courses might be red flag in the application, might not get your kids into the universities you want, and might not prepare your kids well enough for college study.

The moral of this story is that you should never pay for private just for a college admissions advantage. [/quote]

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