Fairfax or Loudoun County schools??? which is better !! (Alexandria, Mount Vernon: middle-class, houses)

[JD984]

Originally Posted by rrrafael

Herndon scoring higher than WS was a big surprise to me. Could that be because it is a lot easier for the WS students to go Rolling/Braddock to TJ? Personally, I would take WS over Herndon any day of the week. I love tht area around the Springfield CC. Am I missing something?

Herndon's scores were higher than WS's last year as well. People forget there are a lot of nice neighborhoods in North Reston and Herndon that feed into Herndon HS. You can still love the West Springfield area and the Springfield CC even if its test scores are a bit lower than another school's.

I don't know if the ease of commuting to TJ from the WS area has anything to do with WS's scores being a bit lower than one might expect. My sense is that kids in other parts of the county who get into TJ and want to attend generally find a way to get there.

[rrrafael]

Yeah, I would like to hear some other opinions, but it seems like Reston or even Centreville would be a horrific commute to the Alexandria part of Fairfax County. And if you were in the band or football for two-a-days, and Saturday activities.......Schools like that have very little tolerance for tardiness. It ain't like the Federal Gov't where people cruise in at 9:42 because there was a wreck on the Beltway or something. You would have to allow more than an hour from Reston, and don't forget about those tolls.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by rrrafael

Yeah, I would like to hear some other opinions, but it seems like Reston or even Centreville would be a horrific commute to the Alexandria part of Fairfax County. And if you were in the band or football for two-a-days, and Saturday activities.......Schools like that have very little tolerance for tardiness. It ain't like the Federal Gov't where people cruise in at 9:42 because there was a wreck on the Beltway or something. You would have to allow more than an hour from Reston, and don't forget about those tolls.

OTOH, in recent years, one of the middle schools sending the most students on to TJHSST has been Carson - which is located in, you guessed it, Herndon, and is attended by students from the western parts of the county.

But I agree that, as commutes to TJHSST go, Rolling Road to Braddock is pretty good. There was actually even a point many years ago when kids from Kings Park who were then assigned to West Springfield HS (before Lake Braddock SS was built) attended Holmes Middle, which is just a few blocks from TJ.

[TheseGoTo11]

Originally Posted by cheeri0

Herndon High School's average SAT scores(which are not even the highest in ffx county) beat out ALL of Loudoun county's high schools!

Dranesville, Aldrin, Armstrong Elementaries provide half the feed for Herndon Middle and High, and I'll bet anything the average for kids who live in those three elementary districts is over 1700. People in Sterling, I mean Cascades, I mean Potomac Falls, think "Hernandez" is all kids of illegals.

[rrrafael]

Don't forget Flores, Garcia. and Lopez.

[TheseGoTo11]

Originally Posted by rrrafael

Don't forget Flores, Garcia. and Lopez.

Wasn't trying to be insulting earlier, sorry if it came across that way. Just many people in the 20165 zip - Sterling/Cascades/Potomac Falls/Identity Crisis call Herndon "Hernandez".

[rrrafael]

Now, I get it. Pretty funny. Isn't there kind of a good side and a bad side of Herndon. Something about the Herndon Parkway?

[TheseGoTo11]

fwiw, in Arlington

Yorktown 1737
W-L 1623
Wakefield 1406

didn't see George Mason High for Falls Church City, but they were in the 1700s last year, and usually rank high

Prince William county-wide averaged just 1499, didn't see individual scores, but last year top school was Brentsville at 1595

so if I've counted right, that's eight schools in NoVa over 1700 - TJ, Yorktown, Madison, McLean, Oakton, Langley, Woodson, George Mason

[Stephen 81]

Originally Posted by rrrafael

Yeah, I would like to hear some other opinions, but it seems like Reston or even Centreville would be a horrific commute to the Alexandria part of Fairfax County. And if you were in the band or football for two-a-days, and Saturday activities.......Schools like that have very little tolerance for tardiness. It ain't like the Federal Gov't where people cruise in at 9:42 because there was a wreck on the Beltway or something. You would have to allow more than an hour from Reston, and don't forget about those tolls.

I'm sure things have changed since I graduated from TJ ten years ago, but when I was a student there TJ had a lot more students from north Reston and Herndon than Springfield or Burke. At the time, the concentration of students pretty much mirrored the current SAT score rankings, with kids who would have otherwise gone to Langley and McLean the most numerous, and kids who would have gone to Mount Vernon and Hayfield, the least.

People had rough commutes then, and of course they are even worse now, but they did it. I'm not sure how kids in Leesburg do the TJ commute every day, but they are motivated (or at least their parents are). Also, it wasn't unheard of for the school to announce that there had been an accident on 95N, for example, and that a lot of students would be arriving late. Hell, Loudoun County used to get a lot more snow days than Fairfax, and the Loudoun students at TJ weren't required to show up on those days at all!

[Margery]

Originally Posted by TheseGoTo11

Wasn't trying to be insulting earlier, sorry if it came across that way. Just many people in the 20165 zip - Sterling/Cascades/Potomac Falls/Identity Crisis call Herndon "Hernandez".

I don't, my family doesn't, and none of my friends do. In fact, I don't know anyone who does and I have lived in Sterling since 1992.