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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]He will get a better education at a Catholic HS. Much higher expectations for academics, behavior, life skills like promptness, etc. [/quote]

There's going to be a wider range at Marshall, but by hs if you're a high achiever you're in a high track for academics which also has high expectations for behavior.  O'Connell's AP courses are no higher than Marshall's IB courses.  And IB has external examination and standard assessments throughout, so there is even more "quality control" on academics than AP.

I think though OP it comes down to your finances and your DC's preference.  I don't think his chances for college admission will be greater at Marshall though--the average SAT there is consistently around the 75th national percentile but there are lots of high achievers in the top 10% of students.  Marshall and O'Connell have about the same number of NMSF per capita (Marshall has 6, O'Connell has 3).   If you want to go to UVA/VT/WM in state, it's pretty competitive to get in from any solid FCPS HS.[/quote]

AP is miles better than IB.

For an IP school vs AP school, pick AP every time.[/quote]

New poster. OP, be aware, there are IB bashers on DCUM who post ill-informed things like this post above, and who have no real experience with kids in IB. If your son might be interested in IB at Marshall, go there with him and talk with the school's IB coordinator to find out how the program actually operates. I'm not saying it's better than AP, but both AP and IB have their strengths, and some students thrive in IB while others thrive in AP. But please operate from a position of actual information, not knee-jerk "this is better because I say so anonymously online" posts.

That goes for everything about both schools, actually. I agree with an early poster here who said to see if you can get your son a tour at Marshall. And I'd be sure he finds out about and compares things like each school's extracurriculars, clubs, etc. Have your son work on a pros and cons list for each school, but pros and cons rooted in actual details of what they offer now -- not based on strangers' personal biases about IB, AP, Catholic education,public education etc.

And the financial aspect is key. Have you been frank with him about how much private HS will cost and how that will affect his college fund?

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