Anonymous
06/05/2026 21:33
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Op here, I’m finally back! I was just genuinely curious about the factors that might explain the different trends. It seems like most of the more reasonable people who actually responded to my question think that is it is more SES than anything. My memory is fuzzy in comparing Marshall to even more economically diverse high schools like justice, Fairfax, and South Lakes, but I vaguely recall also thinking that the number of UVA from Marshall seemed relatively low, even compared to lower SES high schools in fcps. Some of you may think I’m creepy, but just a parent who is curious about college trends from high schools within the district, and finding the Marshall pattern to be kind of interesting considering that Marshall has some economic diversity, but also has a good number of affluent families, and is supposed to be one of the stronger IB high schools in the county. I agree that there are some strong schools represented, but the vibe is definitely different than say the pages for McLean high, Oakton, and Madison. some of that might be too non-reporting or under reporting, so I was just curious to hear from anyone who might have a more insider perspective.
Anonymous
06/03/2026 19:47
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
I just looked at the page. It seems like there are a range of schools like Villanova, Vassar, Cal Tech, RPI and Chicago. All of these are solid schools. People have their reasons for choosing the college they attend.
Madison did seem to have more Ivies and name brand SLACs as did McLean and Langley. this could be a function of wealth or parents who have connections to these schools.
Madison did seem to have more Ivies and name brand SLACs as did McLean and Langley. this could be a function of wealth or parents who have connections to these schools.
Anonymous
06/03/2026 19:33
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
It looks like 55 Marshall kids transferred to Madison this year but only 15 transferred from Madison to Marshall.
Anonymous
06/03/2026 13:32
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
So much copium.
Anonymous
06/03/2026 13:27
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Why do people stalk those Instagram pages? I wish they did away with them.
Anonymous
06/03/2026 12:26
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So I did some rough unscientific counting on the FCPS hs instagrams. Marshall had about 180 kids report, about 6 are headed to uva. Madison had 14 uva, I didn’t count the # reporting. McLean high has about 36, with 345 reporting.
Obviously the # of kids affects results, as does the economic diversity of the hs. Marshall has some impressive destinations like Caltech, Hopkins, Vanderbilt but those seem more outliers than the norm. McLean has many more top tier as well as general name brand. A lot of that is reflects who moves to McLean and why.
The uva thing is a little surprising to me bc dcum conventional wisdom is that uva seeks to distribute acceptances roughly equally between low, middle, and high Ses high schools—which roughly works out to 5% per school, to the point where people on this site often moan how it’s “easier” to get to uva from a lower Ses high school than a richer public.
Still, the Marshall #s for both uva and namebrand/top schools is noticeably lower. I believe Marshall high has about high # of kids who do the full ib diploma, so it had many bright and strong students. Do people think the differences reflect social class, a ton of Marshall kids just not reporting that they’re going to UVa or not being into bragging about their results, more Marshall kids turning down uva for cheaper options, Marshall students not doing as well in admissions bc of IB (seems unlikely?), Marshall kids being less likely to have college consultants than mclean kids (also related to social class)…?
Curious to hear any theories!
One can only imagine what else this parent is doing! Counting individual Instagram posts of multiple high schools and tabulating the results?
This is the parent you have to worry about and be careful.
This is why most highschoolers wouldn’t be caught dead posting on Instagram…its where their parents are embarrassing them
Anonymous
06/03/2026 11:19
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:While it's an incomplete data set, I do believe the IB curriculum is holding back some of the top kids at Marshall (I'm a Marshall parent). The way math and science classes are taught within IB puts them at a disadvantage compared to AP.
That said, the IG is a subset of kids that report. Looking at Marshall's Naviance, there's a pretty clear line at a WGPA of 4.40 where it's almost all green checks for UVA.
My friend at another IB school feels the exact opposite- that IB made her kid stand out (kid went TO). I guess we'll never know!
At W&L IB is a boost for UVA. I just counted and they have 29 going from this year's class who have posted.
A fair number of those W-L admits to UVA were not IB students, so likely AP. A parent posted earlier there are about 10 or so other UVA bound students that did not post to instagram. It's hard to compare W-L to other schools when they offer both IB and AP.
Anonymous
06/03/2026 04:11
Subject: Re:Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Typical clueless affluence bubble-think, OP. It's very simple. 4 years of college, even state college is unaffordable for middle classes (except maybe UMC), not everyone has 529 accounts for their kids even in the most affluent pyramids. The number of people who cannot afford a 4 year college without significant FA is going to be higher in lower SES districts. A lot of these kids are going to end up in community colleges and/or in state schools that would give them better FA. UVA doesn't give good FA from what I understood from my relative whose kid had to follow this route, so the kid ended up in VT that provided generous FA.
Anonymous
06/03/2026 03:58
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:UVA is not a good deal so if cost is a factor, kids might be opting for merit elsewhere.
UVA is a great deal. What better deal are you finding in VA?
NP but my senior didn’t apply to any schools in VA and his OOS school ended up costing less than UVA. He had no interest in applying there. It’s not a good fit for everyone.
It’s not true, but some feel like the VA schools will be a continuation of HS and this area. He didn’t even want to visit them and only looked OOS.
I could've written the same thing. My DS is graduating from Marshall and did not want to go to any DMV schools.
If you look at the Instagram pages the percentage of Marshall kids staying in-state is higher than at some nearby schools. It’s just that the more common state schools are VT, JMU, VCU, and GMU rather than UVA.
Plus plenty of Marshall kiddos go to Northern Virginia Community College too.
This. They may eventually end up at UVA, just not as freshmen. OP and others here are so delusional and unaware of the fact that a lot of parents (especially in lower SES school districts) do not have massive 529 accounts if any at all. And they also don't qualify for financial aid. Your typical lower middle class or middle class family would find paying all 4 years of state school to be a huge financial hardship.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 19:21
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So I did some rough unscientific counting on the FCPS hs instagrams. Marshall had about 180 kids report, about 6 are headed to uva. Madison had 14 uva, I didn’t count the # reporting. McLean high has about 36, with 345 reporting.
Obviously the # of kids affects results, as does the economic diversity of the hs. Marshall has some impressive destinations like Caltech, Hopkins, Vanderbilt but those seem more outliers than the norm. McLean has many more top tier as well as general name brand. A lot of that is reflects who moves to McLean and why.
The uva thing is a little surprising to me bc dcum conventional wisdom is that uva seeks to distribute acceptances roughly equally between low, middle, and high Ses high schools—which roughly works out to 5% per school, to the point where people on this site often moan how it’s “easier” to get to uva from a lower Ses high school than a richer public.
Still, the Marshall #s for both uva and namebrand/top schools is noticeably lower. I believe Marshall high has about high # of kids who do the full ib diploma, so it had many bright and strong students. Do people think the differences reflect social class, a ton of Marshall kids just not reporting that they’re going to UVa or not being into bragging about their results, more Marshall kids turning down uva for cheaper options, Marshall students not doing as well in admissions bc of IB (seems unlikely?), Marshall kids being less likely to have college consultants than mclean kids (also related to social class)…?
Curious to hear any theories!
One can only imagine what else this parent is doing! Counting individual Instagram posts of multiple high schools and tabulating the results?
This is the parent you have to worry about and be careful.
+1 I love how only a couple of people are like OP you are bananas. Everyone else like yeah anyway, here’s what I think. Not addressing that a parent is stalking Insta pages and spending tons of time of this BS.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 17:49
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So I did some rough unscientific counting on the FCPS hs instagrams. Marshall had about 180 kids report, about 6 are headed to uva. Madison had 14 uva, I didn’t count the # reporting. McLean high has about 36, with 345 reporting.
Obviously the # of kids affects results, as does the economic diversity of the hs. Marshall has some impressive destinations like Caltech, Hopkins, Vanderbilt but those seem more outliers than the norm. McLean has many more top tier as well as general name brand. A lot of that is reflects who moves to McLean and why.
The uva thing is a little surprising to me bc dcum conventional wisdom is that uva seeks to distribute acceptances roughly equally between low, middle, and high Ses high schools—which roughly works out to 5% per school, to the point where people on this site often moan how it’s “easier” to get to uva from a lower Ses high school than a richer public.
Still, the Marshall #s for both uva and namebrand/top schools is noticeably lower. I believe Marshall high has about high # of kids who do the full ib diploma, so it had many bright and strong students. Do people think the differences reflect social class, a ton of Marshall kids just not reporting that they’re going to UVa or not being into bragging about their results, more Marshall kids turning down uva for cheaper options, Marshall students not doing as well in admissions bc of IB (seems unlikely?), Marshall kids being less likely to have college consultants than mclean kids (also related to social class)…?
Curious to hear any theories!
One can only imagine what else this parent is doing! Counting individual Instagram posts of multiple high schools and tabulating the results?
This is the parent you have to worry about and be careful.
Not OP, but why?
There are multiple threads on the college forum where posters went to greater lengths than OP to flag the Instagram pages for schools in the DC and NYC areas.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 16:44
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Anonymous wrote:So I did some rough unscientific counting on the FCPS hs instagrams. Marshall had about 180 kids report, about 6 are headed to uva. Madison had 14 uva, I didn’t count the # reporting. McLean high has about 36, with 345 reporting.
Obviously the # of kids affects results, as does the economic diversity of the hs. Marshall has some impressive destinations like Caltech, Hopkins, Vanderbilt but those seem more outliers than the norm. McLean has many more top tier as well as general name brand. A lot of that is reflects who moves to McLean and why.
The uva thing is a little surprising to me bc dcum conventional wisdom is that uva seeks to distribute acceptances roughly equally between low, middle, and high Ses high schools—which roughly works out to 5% per school, to the point where people on this site often moan how it’s “easier” to get to uva from a lower Ses high school than a richer public.
Still, the Marshall #s for both uva and namebrand/top schools is noticeably lower. I believe Marshall high has about high # of kids who do the full ib diploma, so it had many bright and strong students. Do people think the differences reflect social class, a ton of Marshall kids just not reporting that they’re going to UVa or not being into bragging about their results, more Marshall kids turning down uva for cheaper options, Marshall students not doing as well in admissions bc of IB (seems unlikely?), Marshall kids being less likely to have college consultants than mclean kids (also related to social class)…?
Curious to hear any theories!
One can only imagine what else this parent is doing! Counting individual Instagram posts of multiple high schools and tabulating the results?
This is the parent you have to worry about and be careful.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 16:35
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:UVA is not a good deal so if cost is a factor, kids might be opting for merit elsewhere.
UVA is a great deal. What better deal are you finding in VA?
NP but my senior didn’t apply to any schools in VA and his OOS school ended up costing less than UVA. He had no interest in applying there. It’s not a good fit for everyone.
It’s not true, but some feel like the VA schools will be a continuation of HS and this area. He didn’t even want to visit them and only looked OOS.
I could've written the same thing. My DS is graduating from Marshall and did not want to go to any DMV schools.
If you look at the Instagram pages the percentage of Marshall kids staying in-state is higher than at some nearby schools. It’s just that the more common state schools are VT, JMU, VCU, and GMU rather than UVA.
Plus plenty of Marshall kiddos go to Northern Virginia Community College too.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 16:34
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:UVA is not a good deal so if cost is a factor, kids might be opting for merit elsewhere.
UVA is a great deal. What better deal are you finding in VA?
NP but my senior didn’t apply to any schools in VA and his OOS school ended up costing less than UVA. He had no interest in applying there. It’s not a good fit for everyone.
It’s not true, but some feel like the VA schools will be a continuation of HS and this area. He didn’t even want to visit them and only looked OOS.
I could've written the same thing. My DS is graduating from Marshall and did not want to go to any DMV schools.
If you look at the Instagram pages the percentage of Marshall kids staying in-state is higher than at some nearby schools. It’s just that the more common state schools are VT, JMU, VCU, and GMU rather than UVA.
Yea this. Marshall grads aren’t fleeing the state any more than any other NOVA public. Parents are grasping at straws. Plus I always laugh at the “my kid didn’t even apply” responses. We all know why the kid didn’t apply.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 16:30
Subject: Marshall high, college results/uva vs other FCPS— theories?
Anonymous wrote:So I did some rough unscientific counting on the FCPS hs instagrams. Marshall had about 180 kids report, about 6 are headed to uva. Madison had 14 uva, I didn’t count the # reporting. McLean high has about 36, with 345 reporting.
Obviously the # of kids affects results, as does the economic diversity of the hs. Marshall has some impressive destinations like Caltech, Hopkins, Vanderbilt but those seem more outliers than the norm. McLean has many more top tier as well as general name brand. A lot of that is reflects who moves to McLean and why.
The uva thing is a little surprising to me bc dcum conventional wisdom is that uva seeks to distribute acceptances roughly equally between low, middle, and high Ses high schools—which roughly works out to 5% per school, to the point where people on this site often moan how it’s “easier” to get to uva from a lower Ses high school than a richer public.
Still, the Marshall #s for both uva and namebrand/top schools is noticeably lower. I believe Marshall high has about high # of kids who do the full ib diploma, so it had many bright and strong students. Do people think the differences reflect social class, a ton of Marshall kids just not reporting that they’re going to UVa or not being into bragging about their results, more Marshall kids turning down uva for cheaper options, Marshall students not doing as well in admissions bc of IB (seems unlikely?), Marshall kids being less likely to have college consultants than mclean kids (also related to social class)…?
Curious to hear any theories!
OP-I’m genuinely curious. Why do you care? What brought this whole thing about? Are you curious about the impact of SES? AP vs IB?