I can’t speak about Madison. My daughter is at Thoreau. Not a good fit if you are not white. We can’t wait for this year to be over. We are mixed race.

Agree with some of the PPs. I am white and I haven’t seen a single south Asian family (there are a couple of black families) in my neighborhood. It’s perhaps not the best given your specs. I would pick Chantilly.

My kids loved the smaller student population, the town of Vienna in their back yard - hard to find small town feel in Nova.
My kids are bi-racial with many diverse friends.

I have a son at Madison and he loves it. He loves sports but is not super athletic himself and not on any madison team but attends quite a few games. DS is white but many (probably the majority) of his friends are asian (east or south). DS hated the idea of the grading system before he started but it has worked out fine and he likes it now.

The criticisms around Madison have related primarily to its grading practices and its sports-first culture. The current principal is considered mid at best.

Nearby Oakton and Chantilly are more diverse and have a larger number of South Asian families.

If you are South Asian I would avoid Madison. My kid goes there and we are white. Second kid is in Thoreau. Your child will not fit in esp if reserved. Honest response.

Anonymous wrote:^ For example, her backpack is a quilted bag. My son has a Nike backpack. Both are fine and fit in at Madison.

Thank you for examples. Helpful.

^ For example, her backpack is a quilted bag. My son has a Nike backpack. Both are fine and fit in at Madison.

Anonymous wrote:What do you all mean by “preppy”? Are you substituting that word for popular or well dressed or what so do you mean when use that to describe?

PP and I simply meant it as a style of clothing. DS, who I did not describe that way, likes almost exclusively athletic gear. DD sometimes wears athletic clothes too but wears styles I think of more as preppy. Both have lots of friends in different groups. I am not referring to the number of friends.

What do you all mean by “preppy”? Are you substituting that word for popular or well dressed or what so do you mean when use that to describe?

*sorry for the multiple typos, adding to the above. They are still there. It’s a good fit for some, not for others. We are not white. One of my kids would probably be more in the preppy side. The other definitely not. Both had no issue meeting all types of friends from diverse groups, ethic and economically diverse. If you read here you think it’s all white and massively wealthy but that has not been our experience.

I’ve had two kids there. My oldest struggled with their grading system. It wasn’t a good for him and I was one of those disgruntled parents. Some teachers are great about posting assignments and communication, others are not. You will find that at any school. He has an IEP and this was a struggle for him because grades were not straightforward with the replacement grades.

My younger kid is not having any issues at all and loves the grading system. I still don’t understand it but she does.

Both kids went/go to all of the football games and loved the school spirit. There was a lot of it. They both had lots of friends from very diverse friend groups, contrary to what you read on here.

The sports teams are very competitive if your kid plays a sports. It’s hard to make most teams. My kids liked how you could go to a game and then walk to one of the many places to go out to eat.

While it is somewhat diverse (not as much as other local schools), I find the dominant culture to be sports centric and also white, tbh. The minority kids tend to be friends with each other. Not always the case of course, but often. Only really outgoing kids tend to go between groups; otherwise, it is fairly segregated.

I don’t like that vibe for my family, so we chose a different district, although I had a great experience working there for many years. If I knew my kids would fit that specific mold, I may have chosen differently.

Madison is MAdison. It is a good school with good faculty. It's more athletics centered than some other FCPS schools, but there is a place for everyone there.

My kid had a diverse set of friends and a thriving social life. He is at NYU right now and attended one football game in four years and did no athletics himself.

I mean, Vienna the town is kind of a bore to be honest, but it was a good place for my kid to grow up in.

Someone posted this in the non FCPS section - "Check the FCPS forum posts on Madison, since there has been quite a bit of student/parent discontent there over the past few years"

I've searched and searched and come up dry. What are these issues?

Also spouse is half-Black, I am Asian. Wondering if we should pick a different area?

Older child is on the reserved side, not 'preppy', academically great. Also any South Asians at Madison?