Moving - Possibly to Loudoun County. Middle and High Schools (Fairfax: 2015, apartment)

[hikarukun]

We have a middle schooler and need to move to northern VA / MD area. We are thinking of targeting Loudoun County - Ashburn and Starling area. I see some good rated high schools in Loudoun County and one high school (Briar Woods) gets better rating than others. We live in comparatively laid-back place in South and things are not that competitive academically even in my son's current school which is supposed to be the best in the county (in great school site it's 8). And my son is doing OK there - not straight A student... What I am afraid is that he gets "cultural shock" in his new environment. Are the schools in Loudoun county severely competitive? How about parents's involvement? I don't have any idea about that area and at a loss.

[JD984]

The Loudoun posters should chime in eventually, but one thing to be aware of is that there are frequent boundary changes in Loudoun, and I'm reasonably sure (we're in Fairfax) that some of the ones expected to take place shortly impact areas that have fed into Briar Woods.

You can find information about some of these developments at these pages:

Planning & Legislative Services / Overview

http://www.lcps.org/Page/126815

[mikebnllnb]

My kids go to Briar Woods. It's a great school but be warned it is SUPER competitive academically and in athletics. My 11th grader has a 3.6 GPA and feels like a slacker compared to most of her friends.

The only school I'd stay away from in Eastern Loudoun is Park View.

[cdmurphy]

Briar Woods is very competitive. The other high schools in the Ashburn/Dulles North area (Broad Run and Stone Bridge) are fairly similar.

Check out that second link JEB77 posted. It has the new boundary maps that kick in over the next few years. The new schools opening are Rock Ridge (in Loudoun Valley Estates) in Fall 2014, and Riverside (in Lansdowne) in Fall 2015. (These boundaries shouldn't shift again until another high school opens in the Brambleton area, currently in the capital improvement plan to open fall 2020.) There are parts of Brambleton which are in walking distance to Briar Woods but have been redistricted to Rock Ridge, so be sure to check the boundaries carefully if Briar Woods is definitely where you want to be.

[hikarukun]

The area I am looking into townhomes is Potomac Falls high school. Is it a good school? How about the area?

[mikebnllnb]

Originally Posted by hikarukun

The area I am looking into townhomes is Potomac Falls high school. Is it a good school? How about the area?

Most of the area is nice. Some parts of Countryside are dicey but overall it's a nice area and school.

[stpickrell]

Plus things are pretty stable out there with Potomac Falls, Park View, and Dominion, right?

[v2a66]

The schools in the Dulles and Ashburn area are very competitive. My daughter is graduating from Stone Bridge High School this year. Excellent school. Teachers who care and will follow up with you if they think there is a cause for concern. If you have a child in sports especially football you could not do better than SBHS in the area.

My daughter is a 4.4 GPA weighted GPA and she barely scraped into the top 10%.

On the housing front - the SBHS address zone is small. I believe there is just one apartment community (Camden Ashburn Farm) in the SBHS school zone. You would be better off finding a town home.

Nice area, safe neighborhood.

If you have to commute from Ashburn for work, be warned, both Route 7 and Waxpool/28 are a nightmare. Traffic runs both ways as we have a Verizon, AOL, Raytheon, Amazon etc right here in Ashburn.

[snowdenscold]

Originally Posted by v2a66

My daughter is a 4.4 GPA weighted GPA and she barely scraped into the top 10%.

I don't mean to single you out, but rather to use this comment as a launching point - but how crazy has GPA grade inflation become? A 4.4? Really?

I have to assume that means you get a 5.0 for something along the way, otherwise you can't arrive at that number without taking 22 AP classes out of total 28* (assuming 7 classes per year), which is impossible. Oh, and getting in A in all 28 classes.

And if we're handing out 5.0's for stuff, then the actual GPA # is fairly meaningless. Merely a bragging point among parent. The transcript still matters significantly as far as college applications are concerned, but the # at the top of the transcript has become irrelevant (both to me, and actual college admissions officers). Unfortunately it remains the only easy/quick way to convey a child's academic performance to other people, silly as it has become.



And speaking of academic performance inflation, I believe the SAT is going back to a 1600 scoring system, meaning there will be about a decade of students, who, if they happen to drop their SAT score into conversation (since I hear that's a really popular thing to do after high school, haha), will appear extremely impressive to the rest of us.



* Here's my algebra in case anyone wonders how I arrived at it:
[ (28 - X )*4 + X*4.5 ] / 28 = 4.4, solve for X

[mikebnllnb]

Originally Posted by stpickrell

Plus things are pretty stable out there with Potomac Falls, Park View, and Dominion, right?

Yes those three school zones are well established. Stay away from Park View! It's the worst school in the county.