And, while I’ve heard about a lot of stressed out kids suffering with poor mental health, fortunately I’ve never heard of any suicides in the region due to academic pressure (could be, I just haven’t heard about it).

Anonymous wrote:During AP Exam season, a crowd of kids gathers outside the Rockville Library before it opens to grab spots. It’s intense.

Nice.

Also, I see two very different buckets of academic pressure. The first is high achieving, successful parents who have high expectations for their kids and willing to pay for the best resources. You’re in the private school forum here, so most of the crowd will fall into this bucket. This group is also more likely to be in tune with mental health and have their stressed out kid in therapy for all the academic pressure they surround them with.
Then you have the good old fashioned tiger parents, which are not always but often from academic-focused immigrant groups (see Amy Chua’s book if you need a full explanation!) I think DMV has large pockets but demographically not as much as NY/NJ/CA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:During AP Exam season, a crowd of kids gathers outside the Rockville Library before it opens to grab spots. It’s intense.

Sad

I rather the above than those people who wake up at 5am to claim their chairs at the resort pool. Put their towels down and then leave.

At least these kids are studying!

LOL if the worst things happening in DMV are teens lining up to study and resort chair hogging, then I’d say we’re doing pretty good

Academic pressure is associated with way worse things. I’ve heard about rampant cheating, cutthroat behavior, serious anxiety and depression, all while every affluent kid in the district has extra time approved by their private school with a note from their psychiatrist

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:During AP Exam season, a crowd of kids gathers outside the Rockville Library before it opens to grab spots. It’s intense.

Sad

I rather the above than those people who wake up at 5am to claim their chairs at the resort pool. Put their towels down and then leave.

At least these kids are studying!

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely it’s intense. There are different versions at different schools (test-in public, high performing public, independent private etc.) but definitely there are a lot of highly educated parents investing heavily in their children.

On the whole it’s positive. I have seen some excellent outcomes and never encountered serious issues. I’m sure problems exist, but it’s gone well for the families I know.

I’ve heard of problems at TJ, Whitman and NCS, to name a few

Anonymous wrote:During AP Exam season, a crowd of kids gathers outside the Rockville Library before it opens to grab spots. It’s intense.

Sad

TJ = Thomas Jefferson
W High Schools in MoCo = Walt Whitman, Walter Johnson, Winston Churchill

Whitman was long considered the best but I saw that a student with a loaded gun was arrested there. Wow. There are no high schools in MoCo without some problematic students. It’s a huge county. Private HS was the #1 choice in my Bethesda neighborhood.

Absolutely it’s intense. There are different versions at different schools (test-in public, high performing public, independent private etc.) but definitely there are a lot of highly educated parents investing heavily in their children.

On the whole it’s positive. I have seen some excellent outcomes and never encountered serious issues. I’m sure problems exist, but it’s gone well for the families I know.

During AP Exam season, a crowd of kids gathers outside the Rockville Library before it opens to grab spots. It’s intense.

I have family in the Bay Area and MoCo that both bought their house for what they perceived as top ranking public schools and were equally tiger parents. I also have some in Anne Arundel County family member who was more helicopter private school. I send my kid to a DC private and idk where I fall, but I'm very into knowing my options and giving my kid the most options without creating a pressure cooker feel of constant tutors (maybe that looks tiger parenty from the outside though, but I'm trying not to be)...

Anonymous wrote:In my experience it’s weak sauce here compared to NY/NJ and CA. My impression of DC parents is while they have lofty expectations for their kids and willing to shell out the $, a lot of the academic pressure is actually coming from the kids themselves and their peers (filtered down, of course, from parent expectations). I haven’t met a lot of “tiger parents” putting in the real Tiger parent work, at least not compared to those other states. (And I would describe myself as a weak sauce tiger parent, lol). FWIW we don’t live in a W district and not TJ territory, so it might be different out there in NoVa, I don’t know.
But yes, it’s a problem everywhere.

Thanks for the insights! Pardon my ignorance, but what is a “W” district? And by TJ are you referring to Thomas Jefferson high school?

Anonymous wrote:In my experience it’s weak sauce here compared to NY/NJ and CA. My impression of DC parents is while they have lofty expectations for their kids and willing to shell out the $, a lot of the academic pressure is actually coming from the kids themselves and their peers (filtered down, of course, from parent expectations). I haven’t met a lot of “tiger parents” putting in the real Tiger parent work, at least not compared to those other states. (And I would describe myself as a weak sauce tiger parent, lol). FWIW we don’t live in a W district and not TJ territory, so it might be different out there in NoVa, I don’t know.
But yes, it’s a problem everywhere.

*we do live

In my experience it’s weak sauce here compared to NY/NJ and CA. My impression of DC parents is while they have lofty expectations for their kids and willing to shell out the $, a lot of the academic pressure is actually coming from the kids themselves and their peers (filtered down, of course, from parent expectations). I haven’t met a lot of “tiger parents” putting in the real Tiger parent work, at least not compared to those other states. (And I would describe myself as a weak sauce tiger parent, lol). FWIW we don’t live in a W district and not TJ territory, so it might be different out there in NoVa, I don’t know.
But yes, it’s a problem everywhere.

Hi all. I’ve heard that the DMV area has a lot of academic stress among students. How does this level of academic stress compare to other overall high achieving areas in the US, such as the Bay Area? Is there generally a lot of “tiger parenting” in the DMV area? Are student suicides common in the DMV?