Calling all Northern VA BBB-ers

[dcmom2b3]

A dear friend (my first freshman-year roommate at the Well) is moving to the DC area from Indiana and is going to buy in NOVA. Can you help me help her settle in? I know nothing about Fairfax County! Spam me with thoughts, ideas, and information!

She's planning to buy in an area zoned for George Marshall HS, but thinking of Thomas Jefferson or schools with IB curriculums for her 14 yo son. Thoughts on Marshall? On NOVA high schools in general? Any insight on how one gets into a HS that's outside of one's catchment?

She's looking for a good club tennis program for both herself and her son (who's a highly-ranked junior player). A good gym? She's committed to working out daily. She's South Asian Indian and belongs to an Indian singing/dancing group at home. Anyone know of similar groups in NOVA?

She's a CPA who's been doing consulting/contract work while her kids were young. Now that her youngest is going to HS, she's planning to go back to work full time. Any job leads would be welcome.

H is a lovely person, I'll be so happy to have her close.

[egoldber]

Is her son a rising freshman or a rising sophomore?

Marshall is considered a good HS. In the "hierarchy" of Fairfax County, it's not one of the very top, but I would say in the next tier after that.

It is an IB high school. I wonder if you mean Thomas Edison vs. Thomas Jefferson HS? Edison is also an IB high school. Thomas Jefferson (aka "TJ") is the science and technology magnet HS in FCPS. It is extremely competitive to get in. If he is a rising sophomore, it's really too late. If he's a rising freshman, there are a few spots open for rising sophomores, so he could apply for next year. In general, Edison is not considered one of the better high schools, although I say that based simply on things I have read, and not on knowing anyone who has kids there and not living in the pyramid.

In general, one can pupil place into a HS other than your base HS if 1) the other school has room and 2) there is a program there not offered in the base HS. Typical programs people transfer for are AP vs. IB, a particular foreign language, a math program, or an academy program.

http://www.fcps.edu/dss/osp/StudentRegistration/student-transfer/

FWIW, we recently moved from a HS pyramid where people often pupil placed into Marshall vs. our base HS for the IB program at Marshall. Marshall is under enrolled and is relatively easy to place into vs. other programs. But the reality is our base HS was not considered a very good school, so people just wanted to place their kids at Marshall.

If you pupil place, FCPS does not provide tranportation. You're responsible for providing transport.

[TwinFoxes]

Maybe your friend doesn't know that TJ is by application only? You can live anywhere in the county and attend as long as you're accepted. But it'd be a bit like moving to Cambridge so you could get into Harvard. :)

As for gyms, lots of the standard chains. She might also check out the Rec center near wherever she ends up. They have good rates, and awesome facilities. Fairfax County parks and rec department is awesome.

I don't know of a dance troupe. But Fairfax is very diverse, I'm sure something exists.

Fairfax is huge. If she has questions about specific neighborhoods, post and I'm sure we can help.

[dcmom2b3]

Her son is a rising freshman, and she's hoping for TJ for the 14-15 school year, Marshall potentially for this year. Given the number of MIT degrees this family has among them, I doubt her youngest will have a hard time with TJ's admission criteria, more a question of whether there's space for him.

Thanks for your input, mamas! Keep it coming!

[egoldber]

There are hundreds if not thousands of qualified TJ applicants every year who do not get in. It's not a matter of meeting the criteria, it's a matter of luck. It's also much harder to get in as a sophomore than as a freshman. There simply aren't as many slots. Of course it doesn't hurt to apply, but she should move to a high school zone she is happy with.

[Cam&Clay]

There are hundreds if not thousands of qualified TJ applicants every year who do not get in. It's not a matter of meeting the criteria, it's a matter of luck. It's also much harder to get in as a sophomore than as a freshman. There simply aren't as many slots. Of course it doesn't hurt to apply, but she should move to a high school zone she is happy with.

In my son's middle school, ONE student made it into TJ for next fall's freshman class. Just one.

I have friends whose kids went to Marshall. It's a good high school. I still feel that you really can't go wrong anywhere in Fairfax County, though.

[MamaMolly]

We are moving back to the NoVa area and are looking at homes in FFX county, too. While our kids are young we plan to keep the home for a while so we are actually looking at high school pyramids in order to narrow down our search. We have decided against any homes that feed into the Stuart HS pyramid and the Falls Church HS pyramid. This is based on state and county testing scores and percentages of students on free and reduced lunches. They both score a 5 or below I think on the Great Schools website. Marshall is one of the schools I'd love to buy near, though the houses are pretty much out of our price range.