Reply to Basis Independence McLean vs Bishop O’Connell

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[quote=Anonymous]Our kid looked at both, so it isn't crazy. Not everyone who lives in Virginia wants the daily commute to DC or Maryland privates, especially if both parents work in Virginia. The schools are totally different though. O'Connell is a typical high school with sports and a much larger student body. The kids also take religion as a required class. They offer a full range of AP classes and generous scholarships if your kid scores high enough on the entrance exam. We felt like our kid would be challenged academically if he went there.

That said, our kid ended up choosing BIM, which I know many people on DCUM will think is crazy. However, our kid loved the small student body and the chance to do independent and accelerated study. The advantage to the smaller class size is that the teachers just move on once the kids have mastered the content. I don't understand the comments that I always see on here about BIM just teaching to the AP exam, because that has not been our experience. Our kid is going way deeper into the content than he ever did in public school. Many of the high school kids stay after school to do passion projects with the teachers, which the teachers seem to enjoy as much as the kids. It has more of a PhD program vibe than a high school vibe, which isn't for everyone, but certain types of kids will love it. A lot of people on this board criticize BASIS for the lack of a sports program (which it doesn't have). However, the kids who go there were never going to be varsity recruited athletes in their public schools, so I don't think they care. It is sort of a nerdy school. There are plenty of other more cerebral clubs available, and BIM has been doing extremely well in competitions like debate, quiz bowl, computer programming, Science Olympiad, etc. The debate team was just on the front page of the Sun Gazette after placing 1st in the entire Washington region (over public and private schools) and advancing to the national level.

You know your kid best, and your kid should be able to quickly figure out which school is the best fit (they really are very different!). Good luck![/quote]

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