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[quote=Anonymous]Burke is an interesting school. If I had to do private school applications all over again, I would ask completely different questions and pick a completely different school than where either of my kids ended up, but I didn't know then what I know now. Here are some things that might be of interest (or not):
1. Burke has a rotating schedule of color days. Meaning that the schedule is not the same, say, every Monday. This week, my kid starts late two days (Monday is always a late start) and finishes early one day. For some extra-curriculars (especially when my kid was younger), I liked to pick a day for an activity that took a while (like horseback riding) on a day when she wasn't likely to have a ton of homework that night. Can't do that with the rotating schedule. Drs appts also hard to plan.
2. There is NO mastery/make-up work in math. Overall mastery make-up in other subjects is at teacher's discretion and is only up to 70%. At my other kids' schools (Big 3 for one), one allowed mastery on any test to early points back up to a 79%. The other allowed issue-specific mastery (meaning if you bombed a part of a test you could retake that part). Field, Bullis, St. Andrews all allow mastery in math. If your kid is bad at math, this should be a consideration. For a school that seems to be progressive, it's weird that they are so strict on the academic piece.
3. There is no campus. This bothers some, but not others. My kid likes going out to lunch every day. I would have preferred a campus. 
4. Clubs (except for newspaper) are built into the school day. Every kid is required to do one club but also is only allowed to do one club. That's annoying.
5. Communication is NOT GOOD. I appreciate that the school wants the kids to be independent, but if there is an issue that requires parental involvement (like community service, sports), then I would expect the school to give parents advance notice of policies/requirements. Sending them home through my child is not efficient. 
6. There is NO parking, so plan ahead for in-person events. 
7. The academics are fine. The homework is fine. There is no bump given for AP classes. Teachers are fine (better than at one of the other top schools mentioned here).
8. There is a wide range of students here. This was a challenge for my kid at first b/c she needs a best friend who is "better" than she is to motivate her and with whom to compete. Ok, so yeah, not a great quality for my kid, but sort of like playing tennis - you do better when your opponent is better. There are a bunch of group projects, and my kid felt like she was carrying the group and/or wasn't comfortable telling her classmates that their parts sucked, and it was a group grade. I guess it teaches self-advocacy.[/quote]

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