it’s puzzling that you don’t think STEM kids want the honors level engineering, teachnology and robotics classes. They are in such high demand at Chantilly that DS, who is at TJ, has friends who apply for these classes sophomore year, so that they can waitlist to take them junior and/ or senior year. Not kids on a voc-tech track. Kids who are interested in T10 engineering programs. Many of these classes line up curriculum with the TJ lab pre- refs. Like robotics and some of the engineering design classes . Also the reason that Chantilly’s robotics team beats even TJs. If your kid does not want the engineering and tech pieces, fine. But they are still honors level STEM classes. It is also the reason that some many Westfield zoned Carson AAP kids apply to pupil place to Chantilly “for the Academy”.

As for the white kids can’t take the SAT thing, I’m puzzled. It’s not like college bound white kids are sitting in different honors and AP classes than the Asian students and getting an inferior education. And across the board, the results are that Oakton is a wealthier school with lower SATs than Chantilly.

Op asked about STEM. She should be aware that on most metrics, academics at Chantilly are on par with Oakton. In some cases they exceed them. And that Chantilly offers honors level classes for college bound STEM kids in the areas of engineering and technology that Oakton does not.

^ covet.

Anonymous wrote:The problem with Chantilly is that its white students lag in performance, especially on the SATs. If you look at the FCPS profiles, Chantilly's SAT scores for white students are in the middle of the pack for FCPS high schools, almost the same as Centreville's and Westfield's. Other top FCPS schools, including Oakton, had scores for white students that matched their overall ranking. (Although Oakton's scores for black students were absolutely terrible.)

So for OP, if you are white, Oakton is a much better bet. If you are black, Chantilly is better. For other groups the scores are similar.

+1. Can’t believe PP is trying to make Chantilly sound better than it is. Having an Academy with mostly vocational courses is not something schools with more kids on an academic track cover.