Mclean parent here. One thing that I never hear mentioned is the location of the two schools. I feel like McLean is pretty accessible where there is only one way to get to Langley really. I also like the fact that during non-Covid times it is feasible for my kids to walk from school to downtown McLean and hang out with their friends a little bit. Is there anywhere that Langley kids can walk to? My kids play basketball at Langley sometimes and I am envious of the newness for sure. I believe both schools offer excellent academics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, you’re basically asking which highly-ranked UMC HS is best? These are DCUM’s public darlings, if you’re rich and your kid’s smart, either will be fine. McLean has a better band, Langley has higher HHIs.

Where do you see this data? I would assume the opposite is true. Langley pulls from a large area that includes homes that border sterling and most of the truly wealthy in that area send their kids to private rather than public.

DP. Average single-family house zoned to Langley costs about $200K more than one zoned to McLean, plus McLean has a bunch of less expensive townhouses and apartments. Langley has no apartments and very few townhouses.

Langley appeals more to people who want to be surrounded by other rich people. All the other high schools in FCPS, including McLean, have at least some economic diversity.

OMG. The chip on your shoulder is a mile wide. Are you the same poster who is absolutely *obsessed* with HHI at Langley? You need a hobby.

Anonymous wrote:So, you’re basically asking which highly-ranked UMC HS is best? These are DCUM’s public darlings, if you’re rich and your kid’s smart, either will be fine. McLean has a better band, Langley has higher HHIs.

Wow, there are some really insecure McLean parents trolling this thread.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, you’re basically asking which highly-ranked UMC HS is best? These are DCUM’s public darlings, if you’re rich and your kid’s smart, either will be fine. McLean has a better band, Langley has higher HHIs.

Where do you see this data? I would assume the opposite is true. Langley pulls from a large area that includes homes that border sterling and most of the truly wealthy in that area send their kids to private rather than public.

DP. Average single-family house zoned to Langley costs about $200K more than one zoned to McLean, plus McLean has a bunch of less expensive townhouses and apartments. Langley has no apartments and very few townhouses.

Langley appeals more to people who want to be surrounded by other rich people. All the other high schools in FCPS, including McLean, have at least some economic diversity.

Anonymous wrote:So, you’re basically asking which highly-ranked UMC HS is best? These are DCUM’s public darlings, if you’re rich and your kid’s smart, either will be fine. McLean has a better band, Langley has higher HHIs.

Where do you see this data? I would assume the opposite is true. Langley pulls from a large area that includes homes that border sterling and most of the truly wealthy in that area send their kids to private rather than public.

Anonymous wrote:

FCPS doesn't have class rankings.

But colleges keep records of kids GPAs for many years and rank the kids internally. The bigger schools and even many of the smaller ones do rank them secretly during admissions and they know who is falling out in the top 5%, 10%, top 25%, etc.

The ones who'd go to that degree of reverse engineering would also know that being in the top 10% means one thing at Langley and another thing at Annandale.

FCPS doesn't have class rankings.

But colleges keep records of kids GPAs for many years and rank the kids internally. The bigger schools and even many of the smaller ones do rank them secretly during admissions and they know who is falling out in the top 5%, 10%, top 25%, etc.

So, you’re basically asking which highly-ranked UMC HS is best? These are DCUM’s public darlings, if you’re rich and your kid’s smart, either will be fine. McLean has a better band, Langley has higher HHIs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Say if you have a pretty smart kid, e.g., 4th grade but learning middle school stuff and is motivated for math (AMC/AIME/USIMO) and science olympiad, which one is better? The Longfellow - McLean route or the Cooper - Langley route?

The Longfellow Science Olympian team is amazing

Do they allow walks ons? Rumor at our feeder ES is that they need SO, MO, etc at the elementary level to even have a chance of being able to participate at Longfellow. But my info might be inaccurate because the groups at our school are pretty secretive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to mclean 2 years ago. I had preferred to buy in the mclean high zone afraid everyone at Langley was rich. We liked the homes and lots better on the Langley side even though our home search started on the mclean high side.

All the people we have met are so nice and normal. I am also glad that my kids will be able to go to a brand new high school. I’m not so happy that my oldest child Wil probably attend cooper middle during construction but it is only 2 years. My 2 younger kids will also attend a brand new middle school.

I guess you mean "renovated" when you refer to "brand new"?

McLean was renovated about 15 years ago, and its feeder middle school (Longfellow) was renovated about 6 years ago. Langley was built after McLean so it wasn't renovated until a few years ago. Now Cooper MS, the feeder to Langley, is about to start a multi-year renovation.

On top of the fact that it was longer ago, that McLean renovation wasn't as robust as most other FCPS renovations, so there's definitely a greater sense of age to the facilities. That said, I don't think this has major bearing on the quality of education taking place inside... it's not like the students don't have access to similar quality chemistry, computer, etc. academic resources... primarily it's just less aesthetically pleasing (and also a bit overcrowded, but that's a separate issue from the age, and at least being somewhat mitigated with the modular and boundary change... though hopefully that modular doesn't last more than a few years and McLean gets a true reno/expansion soon)

Anonymous wrote:Say if you have a pretty smart kid, e.g., 4th grade but learning middle school stuff and is motivated for math (AMC/AIME/USIMO) and science olympiad, which one is better? The Longfellow - McLean route or the Cooper - Langley route?

It’s really kind of a coin flip. Longfellow was an AAP center before Cooper was, so some of its extra-curricular programs are better known than their counterparts at Cooper, but the perceived differences likely will diminish by the time a 4th grader is in middle school.

Anonymous wrote:Say if you have a pretty smart kid, e.g., 4th grade but learning middle school stuff and is motivated for math (AMC/AIME/USIMO) and science olympiad, which one is better? The Longfellow - McLean route or the Cooper - Langley route?

The Longfellow Science Olympian team is amazing

Say if you have a pretty smart kid, e.g., 4th grade but learning middle school stuff and is motivated for math (AMC/AIME/USIMO) and science olympiad, which one is better? The Longfellow - McLean route or the Cooper - Langley route?

Anonymous wrote:Chantilly is excellent as well. Many won't consider other publics than McLean or Langley.

Not many. Statistically very, very few. This board is not representative of the population.

Anonymous wrote:We moved to mclean 2 years ago. I had preferred to buy in the mclean high zone afraid everyone at Langley was rich. We liked the homes and lots better on the Langley side even though our home search started on the mclean high side.

All the people we have met are so nice and normal. I am also glad that my kids will be able to go to a brand new high school. I’m not so happy that my oldest child Wil probably attend cooper middle during construction but it is only 2 years. My 2 younger kids will also attend a brand new middle school.

I guess you mean "renovated" when you refer to "brand new"?

McLean was renovated about 15 years ago, and its feeder middle school (Longfellow) was renovated about 6 years ago. Langley was built after McLean so it wasn't renovated until a few years ago. Now Cooper MS, the feeder to Langley, is about to start a multi-year renovation.