Anonymous wrote:I never advocate willingly crossing the river daily for school or work.

For the benefit of readers in VA, Potomac has a very good and award-winning Robotics team. They have solid STEM academic offerings, including a good but quirky US math department. They also have an additional tiny special STEM program that is unlike offerings at most schools (and that ought to be expanded because it is so insanely competitive for well qualified students to be accepted into it).

Have a kid doing debate at another school, and will state Potomac consistently has one of the best debate teams. They offer policy, public forum and speach with actual debate coaches. Some programs at other schools are more student run and have a faculty advisor who may or may not have much debate experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never advocate willingly crossing the river daily for school or work.

For the benefit of readers in VA, Potomac has a very good and award-winning Robotics team. They have solid STEM academic offerings, including a good but quirky US math department. They also have an additional tiny special STEM program that is unlike offerings at most schools (and that ought to be expanded because it is so insanely competitive for well qualified students to be accepted into it).

OP here, this is helpful. Could you share more about the STEM program at Potomac if you have additional information. Is it very limited in numbers or that the selection criteria is unclear?

NP but it is limited to a certain number of spots each year (10?). Some years only a handful don’t get in and other years many more students apply, so competitiveness varies. The selection criteria are not incredibly transparent, but they lean toward accepting students who have a very clear research interest outlined. It isn’t a situation where a kid who is generally interested in math and science has a great application. They need to have an idea for a rigorous research project (see the website for examples of previous projects). There are also many excellent science students who do not pursue SERC.

My kids do robotics at a public school but have competed against kids from Potomac and they often have several teams at the competitions. Some Potomac teams do better than others but the kids competing seem like great kids (good sportsmanship etc).

If your kid is serious about robotics ask how often the schools teams make states/worlds.

Also robotics at a serious level is crazy time consuming. Same with debate so eventually your kid will have to choose if they want to compete at a high level.

Thanks for helpful answers in this thread.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never advocate willingly crossing the river daily for school or work.

For the benefit of readers in VA, Potomac has a very good and award-winning Robotics team. They have solid STEM academic offerings, including a good but quirky US math department. They also have an additional tiny special STEM program that is unlike offerings at most schools (and that ought to be expanded because it is so insanely competitive for well qualified students to be accepted into it).

OP here, this is helpful. Could you share more about the STEM program at Potomac if you have additional information. Is it very limited in numbers or that the selection criteria is unclear?

New poster here. I believe the program mentioned is this one: https://www.potomacschool.org/academics/concentration-programs/science-engineering-research-center

I heard that it is a good but very small program, so admission is tough.

Potomac also has a nationally recognized Speech & Debate program. It may be the top ranked local school? I will say just because both robotics and speech & debate count as sports credits and the kids spend a ton of time on them, it’s not really possible to do both speech/debate and robotics. You can do both in 7th & 8th, so a lot of kids who are already there do that and then select one for high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never advocate willingly crossing the river daily for school or work.

For the benefit of readers in VA, Potomac has a very good and award-winning Robotics team. They have solid STEM academic offerings, including a good but quirky US math department. They also have an additional tiny special STEM program that is unlike offerings at most schools (and that ought to be expanded because it is so insanely competitive for well qualified students to be accepted into it).

OP here, this is helpful. Could you share more about the STEM program at Potomac if you have additional information. Is it very limited in numbers or that the selection criteria is unclear?

New poster here. I believe the program mentioned is this one: https://www.potomacschool.org/academics/concentration-programs/science-engineering-research-center

I heard that it is a good but very small program, so admission is tough.

Anonymous wrote:I never advocate willingly crossing the river daily for school or work.

For the benefit of readers in VA, Potomac has a very good and award-winning Robotics team. They have solid STEM academic offerings, including a good but quirky US math department. They also have an additional tiny special STEM program that is unlike offerings at most schools (and that ought to be expanded because it is so insanely competitive for well qualified students to be accepted into it).

OP here, this is helpful. Could you share more about the STEM program at Potomac if you have additional information. Is it very limited in numbers or that the selection criteria is unclear?

Field! And their stem program is expanding with the current upgrades/buildout. 15,000-square-foot Innovation Center for stem and arts.

I never advocate willingly crossing the river daily for school or work.

For the benefit of readers in VA, Potomac has a very good and award-winning Robotics team. They have solid STEM academic offerings, including a good but quirky US math department. They also have an additional tiny special STEM program that is unlike offerings at most schools (and that ought to be expanded because it is so insanely competitive for well qualified students to be accepted into it).

Sidwell's debate and robotics teams are mostly student driven. The robotics facility in the new building will be pretty incredible. The successes of the teams fluctuate from year to year.

Basis Mclean. They have strong science Olympiad teams and debate/model UN.

We are only looking now, not attending, so can't say how competitive they are, but Good Counsel has STEM, robotics and debate.

Also Wheaton has a STEM academy and magnet with a good robotics team.

GDS has excellent debate and math classes and a mediocre robotics team (but anyone can participate). I don't know how science compares.

* there

We have a 7th grader and we are starting to think about high schools. They are really interested in STEM (including robotics) and debate / Model UN. Public option includes applying for the new regional model of magnet program at Blair. We are considering switching to private as well. Which privates have good STEM / math programs with the ability to join robotics / debate as extracurriculars. Or are their programs outside of school (within DMV) to do debate / robotics and compete in events?