Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 08:47     Subject: Re:Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Which school?


Not naming the school. A northern virginia public high school that is not bad but not one of the fancy ones.


So ridiculous. Not playing your game unless you name the school. Big difference between West Potomac and Madison. This is anonymous. Why would be secretive?


The “NAME THE SCHOOL” people are so annoying. It doesn’t matter. Do you really think what OP is describing is somehow an outlier? No, you just want to tell them their school sucks.
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 08:44     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:Yes I agree the stats are off and obscenely high for this board, just like on the money forum everyone make $800k+ HHI.

Since it’s an anonymous forum, I realize that it’s 1/2 lies and 1/2 not a representative sample of the population.


This, though I would probably say more like 2/3 lies and 1/3 unrepresentative.
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 08:05     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, yes and no. Too many parents won't think outside the box and aren't willing to pay for out of state, or are afraid their children will settle somewhere out of state, or they've spent too much on multiple kitchen renovations and didn't save for college, or never paid for college themselves because they were military, or signed their kid up for too many AP classes and are shocked with the low gpa convinced the kid doesn't deserve and isn't mature enough for a 4 yr college.


Piss off. It's not a matter of "thinking outside the box" or anything else. It's a matter of not obsessing over college admissions and for recognizing the reality that VA has an excellent higher education system that doesn't require anyone to look elsewhere. DCUM strivers consider selecting a college for their kids akin to arranging their marriage. It's not nearly as important as they think.


+2 The purpose of State schools is to educate the masses of that State. VA is lucky to have excellent State schools that VA students can access with in-State tuition and a higher chance of admission. Plus the students can build a network within their own State.

Why would anyone want to encourage their children to go OOS unless it was for something they can get in-State, like a specific program or a T20?
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 08:00     Subject: Re:Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Which school?


Not naming the school. A northern virginia public high school that is not bad but not one of the fancy ones.


So ridiculous. Not playing your game unless you name the school. Big difference between West Potomac and Madison. This is anonymous. Why would be secretive?



Had two kids graduate from West Potomac recently, number for top 15 schools was more like 4 or 5 per year, 30 or so for UVA, 40 for VT, 20 or so for W&M. But yes, what do expect when 50% of the class has a 4.0+ GPA and test optional remains the norm. You will see these numbers everywhere. The only plus VA has is the number of decent state school options available such as JMU, GMU, VCU, etc.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2025 23:11     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, yes and no. Too many parents won't think outside the box and aren't willing to pay for out of state, or are afraid their children will settle somewhere out of state, or they've spent too much on multiple kitchen renovations and didn't save for college, or never paid for college themselves because they were military, or signed their kid up for too many AP classes and are shocked with the low gpa convinced the kid doesn't deserve and isn't mature enough for a 4 yr college.


Piss off. It's not a matter of "thinking outside the box" or anything else. It's a matter of not obsessing over college admissions and for recognizing the reality that VA has an excellent higher education system that doesn't require anyone to look elsewhere. DCUM strivers consider selecting a college for their kids akin to arranging their marriage. It's not nearly as important as they think.


+100
We are so lucky in VA. Takes a lot of the stress and anxiety out of the college search.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2025 23:09     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:no bc we are at a private high school.


Never fails ^^. You just had to respond, didn't you?
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2025 22:45     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Our FCPS school is somewhat similar. We also often have a handful of Questbridge students attending a few Ivys.

Many of the students do not post on the Instagram decision pages.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2025 21:17     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, yes and no. Too many parents won't think outside the box and aren't willing to pay for out of state, or are afraid their children will settle somewhere out of state, or they've spent too much on multiple kitchen renovations and didn't save for college, or never paid for college themselves because they were military, or signed their kid up for too many AP classes and are shocked with the low gpa convinced the kid doesn't deserve and isn't mature enough for a 4 yr college.


Piss off. It's not a matter of "thinking outside the box" or anything else. It's a matter of not obsessing over college admissions and for recognizing the reality that VA has an excellent higher education system that doesn't require anyone to look elsewhere. DCUM strivers consider selecting a college for their kids akin to arranging their marriage. It's not nearly as important as they think.


Lol, you and I could be friends.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2025 20:37     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Only 1-2 to a top 15 sounds really low to me, but I don't know.


Agreed. My kids also go to a middling fcps school and kids going to top 15 are probably more like 5-10


Can we ban the word middling?

Also your 'middling' school is still a good school relative to the rest of the country.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2025 20:32     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:Only 1-2 to a top 15 sounds really low to me, but I don't know.


Agreed. My kids also go to a middling fcps school and kids going to top 15 are probably more like 5-10
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2025 20:31     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:Only 1-2 to a top 15 sounds really low to me, but I don't know.


This is normal for most high schools in the country.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2025 20:30     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:We go to a Virginia public HS that is not Langley/Oakton/McLean/etc.

Top kids are looking at maybe Duke/Cornell/Darmouth but maybe 1-2 kids a year go to a T15 school. Maybe 20 or so kids a class go to UVA, another 40 go to Tech, same for JMU, a sprinkling go to W&M if they want a small school. Then you have the party kids going to big southern state schools. Then you have the kids that didn't get into JMU who are at Longwood, CNU, etc.

Is this what others are seeing?


Similar but half the class either doesn't to go college at all or starts out at CC and much fewer go OOS. This is out of 450ish kids.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2025 20:24     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
PS has super inflated grades. When 50%of graduating class had above a 4.00 then your high achiever is actually just average and is going to struggle to get into any school other than longwood, CNU, and ODU.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2025 20:13     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:OP, yes and no. Too many parents won't think outside the box and aren't willing to pay for out of state, or are afraid their children will settle somewhere out of state, or they've spent too much on multiple kitchen renovations and didn't save for college, or never paid for college themselves because they were military, or signed their kid up for too many AP classes and are shocked with the low gpa convinced the kid doesn't deserve and isn't mature enough for a 4 yr college.


Piss off. It's not a matter of "thinking outside the box" or anything else. It's a matter of not obsessing over college admissions and for recognizing the reality that VA has an excellent higher education system that doesn't require anyone to look elsewhere. DCUM strivers consider selecting a college for their kids akin to arranging their marriage. It's not nearly as important as they think.
Anonymous
Post 09/30/2025 20:08     Subject: Does anyone else feel like this board is nothing like what they are seeing IRL at their kid's public HS?
Anonymous wrote:no bc we are at a private high school.


Hopefully your kids will graduate with better reading comprehension than you have.