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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What I wonder about at BASIS is why they insist on cramming four years of high school academics into three.  Seems like the kids would have a better shot at all these schools if they weren't under suchj pressure to crank out AP results by the end of junior year.  [/quote]

Your premise is wrong and so is your conclusion.[/quote]

I work in admissions at an elite college in this city that you've, um, heard of. No, PP isn't wrong, explaining why private schools and top suburban magnets in the DMV never cram four years of high school academics into several. My impression is that the BASIS senior project, which isn't required, isn't serious. It's clear that few franchise resources go into supporting it. The students would clearly be better off continuing to take AP classes senior year, leaving them with more time for ECs lower down the chain. At some privates and suburban magnets, seniors take one or two Cambridge International subject exams in November, enabling them to enter application season with more standardized test scores they they'd have simply by sticking with AP exams. Unfortunately, BASIS doesn't plan or innovate like that. [/quote]

You think that all kids finish BASIS after junior year and leave?  BASIS seniors are required to take 4 capstones classes in humanities, math, science, and language as well as college admissions.  This includes classes such as multivariable calculus (for those who have taken Cal BC and want to go further).  Plus they can take additional electives and a senior project, if they want (those are not required).  They are free to take multiple AP class electives senior year if they want and take Cambridge exams or whatever else they want.  Some kids do both.

It seems strange that you are comparing BASIS to private schools in the area, which generally don't even offer AP classes, and suggesting that BASIS should be requiring more AP courses senior year.  It also odd that you are bringing up Cambridge exams since no school in the area requires them (except outliers like the British School) and anyone, including students at BASIS, can take them if they wish.

Plus, I doubt that kids anywhere who have already committed to a college early in senior year are killing themselves to take a rigorous senior-year courseload that won't count for college admissions.

Finally, it is also weird to compare BASIS, a free public 100% lottery school, to private schools costing $50,000+ a year and magnets--both of whom handpick their student bodies.
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The above sounds great on paper to the uninitiated, with a kid heading into 5th, but it's inaccurate. Senior year at BASIS really is mostly a waste of time from day one. Seniors goof off with abandon. The mandatory college admissions class is overkill, another example of the franchise's commitment to paternalism. Sure, BASIS gets superior college admissions results overall to other DC public high schools, which doesn't that doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement.

No, it's not weird to compare the BASIS students with a good chance of cracking highly selective colleges to those at top privates or DMV test-in magnets. The strongest DC students would make the grade for those programs in different circumstances.

Not true that BASIS DC students are taking Cambridge Exams in fall of senior year. Families and admins lack familiarity with the exams, and interest in them. A CE language exam was suggested to us by private school friends, who planned to have the kid take a Nov. exam after a summer of immersion abroad. We copied them with  success.

I see BASIS DC as coming under increasing pressure to move with the times in college admissions, mainly by giving kids more breathing room to focus on HS ECs and targeted enrichment.[/quote]

You are just creating strawpeople and knocking them down:

•	No one is saying that there isn’t room for improvement for BASIS.  In contrast, you asserting that senior year at BASIS is “mostly a waste of time” is just your unsupported subjective opinion.  It hardly contradicts the specific points PP makes about the curriculum.  Plus, you offer no evidence for your conclusion.

•	No one is saying that a BASIS senior wouldn’t do just as well at a top private or magnet.  The point PP was making is that claiming that BASIS doesn’t measure up to a top DMV private or magnet ignores the significant differences between types of school, admissions practices, costs, and locations.

•	You said that it is “Not true that BASIS DC students are taking Cambridge Exams in fall of senior year.”  And then you admitted that your BASIS kid took Cambridge Exams at BASIS after a summer of immersion abroad, which any BASIS kid is free to do.  That doesn’t contradict what PP said either.
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