Many of my friends children went from Catholic to public, none were behind. One went for 3 years, English in the summer after Junior year, a year at Montgomery College and then off to a 4 year college, with one whole years of credits.

One just took all of Junior year on a student exchange and then, 1 English class in the summer before Senior year and graduated on time.

There seems like lost of room (almost a whole year - except you need 4 year of English) to take extra/advanced classes.

Friend's daughter will be taking advanced math in high school coming from a Bethesda parochial. She's a strong student coming from a school with a strong program. It depends on the quality of the programs the child is coming from and going to as well as the natural ability level of the kid. Some schools are stronger than others.

Your child will not be behind. If your child took algebra in 8th grade, they will be on target with majority of mcps students. If not, mcps schools offer algebra in freshman year. Freshman curriculum is fairly standard for majority of students: math, english, biology, US history, language, pe, elective. Your child will be offered option of honors classes or on-grade level for freshman. Depending on how well your child does, they will be able to take more advanced classes if they desire. In sophomore year and later, students begin to take AP classes and specialize in math/science track or humanities. MCPS is used to students transferring from private schools. We transferred midyear freshman year from a catholic high school and my daughter had no trouble with curriculum.

We did this from a private, but not catholic, MS. No disadvantage for graduation. You can look at the grad requirements on line but obviously they don't require more than 4 years of any subject. Your DC will probably be behind in math since the current middle schoolers are still an accelerated math group. At our school that meant a large group of kids had taken alg 1 in 7th grade, took AP calc in 11th. As long as your DC can take AP calc by 12th grade you will be fine. That means algebra 1 in 8th (which not all catholic schools do). My DC was not tested for languages and we ended up placing her a level too low. So ask questions about language to make the right placement. History and English is not dependent on MS. Ask about the tracks though. At our school you can start AP social studies in 9th grade. BCC has the added complication of IB. Make sure you understand the track for that program.

I know Catholic schools steer kids to Catholic High Schools. If we do not go that route, and rather attend our local public HS (BCC), will my DC have lost out on credits s/he would have earned had s/he stayed in public middle school? Does anyone have experience with this (pre 2.0 since it won't affect older kids until later)? I don't know how the two curriculums compare. Do all MoCo kids have the same graduation requirements regardless of private/public (would think so)? But of course, for competitve college placement, would not aim for minimum requirements. Would DC be able to attain what is needed (assuming hard worker, historically in advanced math\ reading) - does school test kids to see what level is appropriate placement in foreign language, math, science....?