Reply to Reassure me about Walter Johnson / explain the DCC

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
BCC is the W schools' middle class cousin, OP. I think people mistakenly assume it's excellent because it has IB (which isn't that great when you're applying to US colleges) and there's "Bethesda" right in the name. The schools offering the most AP courses (which ARE useful for applications to US colleges because they match college classes better), the most academically-oriented student bodies, and the best teachers, are: Walt Whitman, Wooton, Winston Churchill, and Walter Johnson.

The other side of the coin is that these W schools are all pressure cookers. Your kid needs 15 APs to distinguish himself from the rest of the pack. He is competing for college spots with seriously high-achieving peers that have a support system of wealthy parents with internship connections, private tutors and possibly private college counselors. [b]At BCC, there's a little more room to breathe... and fewer APs, and hardly any post-AP math classes. [/b]Maybe your kid won't need 15 APs to stand out. Maybe just 10-12.  It won't be impossible to be one of the top students, just very difficult. BCC is a little more socio-economically diverse than some of these other W schools (there are rent-controlled apartments in downtown Bethesda, which is otherwise pretty wealthy).

That's it in a nutshell. [/quote]

That's because BCC has a lot of IB classes. Whereas Whitman, Wootton (double u, double o, double t, o n), Churchill, and WJ don't have any IB classes.[/quote]

That's the problem! The IB is a load of horseshite. IB math, for example, doesn't reach the depth and challenge of AP Calc BC, not by a long shot. Replacing AP courses with IB is really not an intelligent choice, because college admissions counselors are aware of the differences in content. It's a shame, because otherwise BCC has a lot going for it. And don't talk to me about the Middle Years Programme at Westland MS. The kids spent this year's MYP time (which is a handful of hours a year, tops) reading feel-good stuff about LGBTQ+ gender roles. Yippee. 
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I have seen this comment about IB not being “as good” as AP a couple times and I think it’s nonsense.

AP and IB are somewhat different and I do think IB might work better for writing/humanities-focused kids than STEM-focused kids, but the suggestion that IB is not worthwhile, demanding or given credit by college counselors is just not true in our experience. 
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