Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Churchill, easy choice. Marshall has little sense of community - it's mostly just a bunch of random neighborhoods in Falls Church, Vienna, and Tysons that ended up at a school others didn't want to attend. Churchill, on the other hand, is the main high school for Potomac.

Not hardly

Are you illiterate?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't come to MCPS. It's cooked. Period.

How so?

Equity is the priority here which discriminates against anyone deemed ahead. They are also about to redraw boundaries for 2 new schools and proximity isn't the priority. Add that to lax discipline and falling test scores and it's a recipe for a school district in free fall.

You're either a liar or ignorant. First of all, while equity is a priority, so is proximity. THis is explicitly stated. There are 4 factors in fact. And let's be real, Churchill is not experiencing any falling test scores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't come to MCPS. It's cooked. Period.

How so?

Equity is the priority here which discriminates against anyone deemed ahead. They are also about to redraw boundaries for 2 new schools and proximity isn't the priority. Add that to lax discipline and falling test scores and it's a recipe for a school district in free fall.

You’re asking for comparisons that nobody can make. I don’t think anyone has had kids in both schools in the past couple of years.

Do you want to be in Md or Va?

I had a kid with an IEP in Churchill. Most teachers went out of their way to help, but only if the kids advocate for it. Overall, IEP support for kids in MCPS is weak- but again, can’t compare it to Marshall.

Anonymous wrote:Marshall is in the shadow of Langley, Madison and McLean in FCPS, all stronger schools. While some in MCPS will claim Whitman is better than Churchill, they are peers, whereas Marshall isn’t considered top-tier in FCPS.

Also, IB in FCPS isn’t a magnet program, like it’s been at Richard Montgomery in MCPS. A lot of Marshall parents push their kids to do the full IB diploma, thinking it will be their ticket to a T20 school, only to learn later that’s not how things really work. Churchill parents generally are more sophisticated and less naive.

What happens at Churchill vs the IB diploma at Marshall situation? Also I suspect my student may need an iep for math and extra time on testing. Which school has better iep support?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in moco and live in Va now. There is. No question, Churchill. However, the in state college options in VA are one million times better than in Maryland. Taxes are a lot lower in Va too. Choose wisely. Marshall is a fine school.

If we are just comparing churchill to Marshall and not worrying about colleges or taxes, Churchill wins? Isn't it significantly more stressful and more grindy?

Churchill, hands down. It’s a great school with strong academics, tons of school spirit, and great sports. The community is super active and full of smart, well-rounded kids. Sure, there’s plenty of wealth, but most of the kids are just genuinely good. For some kids, it might feel a bit stressful at times, but it’s not one of those pressure-cooker schools where every kid is expected to chase after straight A’s and load up on APs.

Are the AP options better for college apps and just learning in general , compared to going to an IB program like at Marshall? Daughter needs help honing her research and long format writing skills.

Churchill (and MCPS generally) won't help with that. This is my biggest disappointment-- very little in the way of long form writing, research projects. In fact, I can't think of anything my kids have written that's more than a few pages. It's mostly about short writing tailored to AP testing expectations.

IB is your answer my friend. My kid is an IBDP program (not at RM) and as part of the curriculum, has to submit an extended essay (long form) based on self-directed research. Some AP classes also have these assignments. I can't recall which class exactly but I think my other kid had to do a bunch of long essays for AP Lang.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in moco and live in Va now. There is. No question, Churchill. However, the in state college options in VA are one million times better than in Maryland. Taxes are a lot lower in Va too. Choose wisely. Marshall is a fine school.

If we are just comparing churchill to Marshall and not worrying about colleges or taxes, Churchill wins? Isn't it significantly more stressful and more grindy?

Churchill, hands down. It’s a great school with strong academics, tons of school spirit, and great sports. The community is super active and full of smart, well-rounded kids. Sure, there’s plenty of wealth, but most of the kids are just genuinely good. For some kids, it might feel a bit stressful at times, but it’s not one of those pressure-cooker schools where every kid is expected to chase after straight A’s and load up on APs.

what schools , in comparison, are the pressure-cookers? Also are there any classes at Churchill where kids can work on long-format research and paper-writing? Or does one have to do summer school somewhere for that?

Theoretically, there's a two-year AP sequence that involves a major research project (AP research and AP seminar). I don't know the details, though.

If the child is URM, search this forum for URM and Churchill. Nothing alarming will come up and the environment isn't terrible. But it's heavily a white/Asian (and wealthy) demographic and so the URM cohort is pretty small if that matters to you.

I don't know the meaning of pressure cooker exactly, but I would say that there is an arm's race regarding how many AP classes kids take. I try to discourage my kids from so many APs and they reject my advice because "everybody else" is taking almost all APs and they don't want to look worse than those classmates when it comes to college admissions. (And I'm serious when I say almost all APs... my youngest is a rising junior and has only one course on the schedule that isn't AP and it's an advanced art class.) Frankly, although my kids generally do well in APs, they would be better off at a school that somehow capped the # of APs kids are allowed to take per semester.

My kids only went to Churchill, so I can’t compare it to Marshall, but I can tell you that Churchill was fantastic for both of my kids who have very different learning profiles (both graduated in the past couple of years). One got the support she needed with lots of lunch time visits to very responsive teachers, met great friends, enjoyed her time on an athletics team, and got into many great schools- though not UMD. My son is highly academic and had plenty of rigor and classmates to challenge him. He is off to a competitive college this year.

My kids couldn’t be more different but Churchill was great for both.

Marshall is in the shadow of Langley, Madison and McLean in FCPS, all stronger schools. While some in MCPS will claim Whitman is better than Churchill, they are peers, whereas Marshall isn’t considered top-tier in FCPS.

Also, IB in FCPS isn’t a magnet program, like it’s been at Richard Montgomery in MCPS. A lot of Marshall parents push their kids to do the full IB diploma, thinking it will be their ticket to a T20 school, only to learn later that’s not how things really work. Churchill parents generally are more sophisticated and less naive.

I think these schools are pretty different. Where do you work and what is your housing budget. Honestly that is probably the first consideration. Also, these are weird choices. You have no other areas under consideration?

Marshall has double the FARMS rate and is an IB school. I'd talk to guidance counselors at each school and see if your kid can get the classes they want. You are definitely behind the 8 ball in that sense. What sports and activities is your kid interested in?

I suspect that Marshall has a more laid back vibe academically overall, but, nobody has experience with both of these schools, so, we are just giving you "feelings."

Anonymous wrote:If you want your kid to get good at long format writing and research, have them do IB. It’s an immense amount of both. I have friends whose kids go to Marshall. They have received good educations, and found their people there. It’s a very diverse community.

You’d get access to equally good if not better AP courses and a stronger peer group at Churchill. Also, no real sense of community at Marshall - the Vienna kids hang out with Madison kids and don’t associate much with the Pimmit Hills and Tysons kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of Marshall but my kids have gone to Churchill. I've spoken with quite a number of in my neighborhood here who regret not buying their house in Virginia to take advantage of in-state at UVA and WM. Some seriously considering moving for this reason. UMD is quite good, but not as good as UVA. More than that, Virginia has a number of good universities if you don't like/don't get into UVA but in MD, UMD is pretty much the only one most of my circle would be excited about. My kids have seriously considered William & Mary (I'd prefer that over UMD due to school size) but it comes out being twice as expensive out of state. The other publics in MD are quite a step down from UMD. (Note that UMD is getting quite difficult to get into from Churchill-- I know some kids with 1500+SATs getting rejected because they don't want to fill their whole class with W school kids so the lack of depth makes a difference.).

Most students at Churchill and most people living in Potomac are not aiming for state schools.
Cool story, though.

Oh Jeez if this is what Churchill people are like I would prefer Marshall

Let's be for real. Most NOVA kids aren't aiming for state schools either. THe typical HS UMC or MC kid is looking to go out of state. NOVA kids aren't aspiring to go to JMU.

Marshall is a big feeder to George Mason and JMU.

Anonymous wrote:Don't come to MCPS. It's cooked. Period.

Yes but do you know anything about Marshall specifically or FCPS?

If you want your kid to get good at long format writing and research, have them do IB. It’s an immense amount of both. I have friends whose kids go to Marshall. They have received good educations, and found their people there. It’s a very diverse community.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in moco and live in Va now. There is. No question, Churchill. However, the in state college options in VA are one million times better than in Maryland. Taxes are a lot lower in Va too. Choose wisely. Marshall is a fine school.

If we are just comparing churchill to Marshall and not worrying about colleges or taxes, Churchill wins? Isn't it significantly more stressful and more grindy?

Churchill, hands down. It’s a great school with strong academics, tons of school spirit, and great sports. The community is super active and full of smart, well-rounded kids. Sure, there’s plenty of wealth, but most of the kids are just genuinely good. For some kids, it might feel a bit stressful at times, but it’s not one of those pressure-cooker schools where every kid is expected to chase after straight A’s and load up on APs.

what schools , in comparison, are the pressure-cookers? Also are there any classes at Churchill where kids can work on long-format research and paper-writing? Or does one have to do summer school somewhere for that?