Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WL pre IB essentially wants to see at least a B+ in each 8th grade intensified subject for a kid to qualify. Any less academically and the kid may struggle on the IB track at WL. You want to go the extra mile on language study if you’re serious about IB, e.g. summer immersion camps. Advanced language skills are common for pre IB students at WL. Good luck making your choice.

There is no grade requirement for IB. Every kid zoned for WL who has taken the qualifying classes (2 years of language in middle school and continuing in high school) is considered pre-IB. Anyone who thinks they want to continue with IB needs to take AP government in 10th grade. Those are the only requirements in 9th and 10th grade. The IB classes start in 11th grade.

I have not known a single kid to do a summer immersion program to prepare for IB and I've known a lot of IB kids. I'm not sure what this PP is talking about.

OP as to your question about making the school feel smaller for 9th graders, they use small learning communities (SLCs). There are 5 or 6 and all the core teachers in a SLC are the same. They coordinate planning so there isn't a biology and a history test on the same day, for example. Also, this means a lot of the same kids will be your kids classes because they are only pulling from a group of 100 or so. One of my kids had the exact same kids in both her English and history class, for example.

You may be able to go to the school website and find the presentation they do for incoming 9th graders and for IB to get more info. Check the IB page and also the counseling page.

Our DHMS guidance counselor announced this past spring that they changed the rule and you only need one year of language in middle school for IB.

Here’s a link to the Grace Hopper Center:
https://arlingtontech.apsva.us/arlington-career-center/grace-hopper-center/

Falls Church City Public Schools provides transport to/from Meridian HS. Ask FCCPS what Grace Hopper STEM/Arlington Tech classes are available to Falls Church City students.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks! Putting aside TJ and Meridian, which schools (public and private) are best for a STEM kid who lives in Falls Church City? Is there a program or some way for such a kiddo to attend one of those Fairfax County public high schools with more advanced STEM offerings? We love the size of Meridian but IB may just be way too much for our STEM kid.

You can pay tuition to attend any Fairfax County public school, but it may depend on capacity. There are no STEM focused programs apart from TJ but the larger and/or wealthier schools tend to have better availability of the most advanced AP offerings.

Arlington County has the STEM focused Arlington Tech and the new Grace Hopper Center. While Falls Church City students can take courses at the Grace Hopper Center, I’m not certain if that extends to the Arlington Tech program itself.

A number of Arlington Tech grads are accepted to top colleges like MIT every year.

Thanks! Putting aside TJ and Meridian, which schools (public and private) are best for a STEM kid who lives in Falls Church City? Is there a program or some way for such a kiddo to attend one of those Fairfax County public high schools with more advanced STEM offerings? We love the size of Meridian but IB may just be way too much for our STEM kid.

FCC does not have many slots for TJ (it’s based on school population) but also has few students who apply, so if your student is very strong compared to the cohort they will have a decent chance. Regardless, you can’t count on it from FCC or any school. (My child was accepted to TJ but turned it down for a rigorous private school). Some of the Fairfax county public schools have more advanced stem offerings than Meridian so you may want to look into those as well. Those schools (and TJ) are much larger than Meridian, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello! In response to 19:35, wow. Thank you for this. We have a STEM-focused kid who is a rising 8th, and we are thinking of moving to Falls Church City for Meridian HS. Do most STEM-focused kids in FCC avoid Meridian and try for TJ? Where do they go if they do not make it into TJ? And if we try to move into FCC for 8th, is it too late to try for TJ from FCC's middle school? Have FCC kids been preparing for ages to get into TJ? Thanks in avdance.

You need to live in the district when applying for TJ in 8th grade. If you already live in Arlington or Fairfax Counties you can apply for TJ from there before moving. But double check, since all participating jurisdictions have strict TJ quotas.

A very, very tiny number of kids get into TJ each year from FCC (& from any APS middle school). I wouldn't count on TJ.

Anonymous wrote:Hello! In response to 19:35, wow. Thank you for this. We have a STEM-focused kid who is a rising 8th, and we are thinking of moving to Falls Church City for Meridian HS. Do most STEM-focused kids in FCC avoid Meridian and try for TJ? Where do they go if they do not make it into TJ? And if we try to move into FCC for 8th, is it too late to try for TJ from FCC's middle school? Have FCC kids been preparing for ages to get into TJ? Thanks in avdance.

You need to live in the district when applying for TJ in 8th grade. If you already live in Arlington or Fairfax Counties you can apply for TJ from there before moving. But double check, since all participating jurisdictions have strict TJ quotas.

Hello! In response to 19:35, wow. Thank you for this. We have a STEM-focused kid who is a rising 8th, and we are thinking of moving to Falls Church City for Meridian HS. Do most STEM-focused kids in FCC avoid Meridian and try for TJ? Where do they go if they do not make it into TJ? And if we try to move into FCC for 8th, is it too late to try for TJ from FCC's middle school? Have FCC kids been preparing for ages to get into TJ? Thanks in avdance.

I have a student at Meridian. I would make sure your kid’s interests align with the IB curriculum because if not interested in the IB diploma, it’s not possible to do an AP track. It’s too small a school to offer robust AP options in addition to IB. IB humanities and social science courses have been very good but science and math less so. For a more STEM focused kid, I wouldn’t recommend Meridian.

There was a mob attack outside W-L.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WL pre IB essentially wants to see at least a B+ in each 8th grade intensified subject for a kid to qualify. Any less academically and the kid may struggle on the IB track at WL. You want to go the extra mile on language study if you’re serious about IB, e.g. summer immersion camps. Advanced language skills are common for pre IB students at WL. Good luck making your choice.

There is no grade requirement for IB. Every kid zoned for WL who has taken the qualifying classes (2 years of language in middle school and continuing in high school) is considered pre-IB. Anyone who thinks they want to continue with IB needs to take AP government in 10th grade. Those are the only requirements in 9th and 10th grade. The IB classes start in 11th grade.

I have not known a single kid to do a summer immersion program to prepare for IB and I've known a lot of IB kids. I'm not sure what this PP is talking about.

OP as to your question about making the school feel smaller for 9th graders, they use small learning communities (SLCs). There are 5 or 6 and all the core teachers in a SLC are the same. They coordinate planning so there isn't a biology and a history test on the same day, for example. Also, this means a lot of the same kids will be your kids classes because they are only pulling from a group of 100 or so. One of my kids had the exact same kids in both her English and history class, for example.

You may be able to go to the school website and find the presentation they do for incoming 9th graders and for IB to get more info. Check the IB page and also the counseling page.

thank you, this is helpful! so the “SLC” are for all 9th graders, not just pre-IB? do they have the same lunch schedule together?

Meridian teaches French, Spanish and Mandarin as IB languages. W-L teaches those plus German, Japanese and Arabic.

True, but few families at both schools are going to care about IB Diploma language exam scores, or scores in most other IB subjects. At least four of the IBD exams are taken AFTER most kids apply to colleges and are admitted, in June of senior year/Diploma Year 2. But there is a subset of students, particularly at W-L, who care because their applying to bargain Canadian, UK and maybe European universities where the scores matter.

17:40 posted that is no grade requirement for IB because IB classes start in 11th grade. Technically, this is true, but the reality is that IB Diploma studies in 11th and 12th grade are pitched at such an advanced level that kids who mostly get Bs and Cs in pre IB classes aren't going to cut it later. The grown-ups in charge at W-L know this and start to counsel weaker students out of full IB studies early. As for nobody bothering with language immersion studies, another claim this PP makes, for IB, nonsense. My kid met other IB W-L students at a month-long Concordia language camp for HS credit in MN last summer. Some W-L full IB Diploma studies bound families are indeed doing immersion camps but aren't necessarily advertising it. If you know how IB language study works, you know that kids can't do well on IB language exams if they can't speak and understand decently. This isn't the case for AP language exams. Chinese is particularly tough at W-L, with a very demanding teacher. We're making plans for immersion language study in Taiwan next summer with another native-speaking family at W-L heading into IB classes next year. 17:40 hasn't talked to us. I'd be surprised if things were any different at Meridian. IB Diploma language studies are the same the world over. Particularly rigorous for speaking and listening.

Hi OP,

One other thing to consider. If you are focused on IB programs, Marshall is also an IB HS and the boundary adjoins FCCPS. Unlike APS, there are no AP classes at Marshall. If you want AP, you would need to transfer to a different FCPS HS.

Marshall's boundaries include much of Tysons, so lots of apartment options.