Best/worst for high schools is a crapshoot. And if you look at rankings, the less diverse (and more white) a school is, the higher it’ll rank. It has nothing to do with the quality of the school, it’s just that wealthy children do better and therefore their high school ranks higher.

Find yourself a good community, trust that a HCPSS education will empower your kid to reach whatever their next level is, and worry more about what kind of kid you raise than how prestigious their HS is.

My wife and I were in the same position while buying a house and finally decided to quit looking at HS rankings when we noticed the “good” ones were not in communities we really wanted to be in (no mix of housing types). We love our community in KC and are sure that our daughter will get a fantastic education when she gets there. Plus, who knows what the schools will look like when it comes time (in 16 years for us). The new HS is gonna throw a wrench in everything and who knows what other changes are going to occur.

My bias opinion is that River Hill, Centennial, Marriott ridge, Mt Hebron (Western Hoco) will likely to stay at the top for years. That being say every high school in Howard county are good. The dropouts rate is very low.

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As a WLHS alum I deny your claim as the least worst of the worst, and I would like to propose WL as the least worst of the worst 😂

But honestly I’d rather Hammond or WL over river hill any day… based off diversity, work ethic, racism, drug use, etc. from what I’ve heard from friends that went there… no amount of money or good grades makes it more appealing to me. I’d probably root for centennial or atholton maybe.

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Hahaha touché. That’s actually something I ended up being really proud of them for though because when kids got pregnant at other schools and had to drop out they were able to come to WL and finish their education which I thought was 🔥🔥🔥

Plus those babies were real cute… 🤷🏻‍♀️

River Hill is hot garbage

Please elaborate 🫣

I graduated from Atholton...class of 96...it was ok. Then again, I wasn't too keen on HS back then. Lol. But it was a blue ribbon school back in those days...

I was gonna say essentially the same. I graduated from Hammond like 10 years ago. I'm sure the demographic information is archived somewhere but our school was well diversified and it made my time there as a minority way better academically and socially than if it was any other way. During my 4 years a fight would break out once every week in the first year, once a month the year after, and then once a quarter the years after. My grades went from really great to good enough over the years. Correlation does not equal causation.

At the end of the day every student made their own success. My graduating class had 2 students accepted to MIT (one declined due to cost but still works for NASA), 1 Stanford, a dozen or more Ivy leaguers, and a ton of UMD, UMBC, and Towson grads in that order. A lot of students also ended up in HCC and transferred to other schools later to save on costs which is a great choice and one I wish I took.

My advice would be don't sweat the details. Be involved with your kid. Get to know their friends. They have the most influence on who they'll turn out to be.

People are rude and stuck up (teachers and students), workload is incredibly heavy, and it’s really nothing “special”, they don’t provide a unique experience that gives people advantages. Its only prestigious because it’s mostly populated by wealthy people.

We’re actually zoned to Hammond and I work with another graduate, who’s a very accomplished professional. Their experience and your experience reinforce what we’re trying for - we’re gonna focus on raising a good kid and let HCPSS turn her into a smart one. Are there things we can do to help? Absolutely. But that’s independent of whatever high school she’s going to.

I went to Hammond too (over 20 years ago), let's just agree that Oakland Mills or Wilde Lake is actually the worst.

All things said and done though all Hoco schools are decent, even the worst ones. I'd take Wilde Lake over a middle of the pack AA or BC school.

My friend taught at Hammond High School and later switched to Broadneck High School in Anne Arundel County, which is one of the “best” schools there.

When I asked her how she liked teaching at Broadneck, she told me she liked it but that she was shocked by how behind the curriculum in Anne Arundel County was compared to HCPSS schools. She said she was used to students in the grade levels she was teaching having already been through more advanced content than she was teaching them.

HCPSS schools set their students up to be geniuses. Some of the schools serve more disadvantaged students, and you may see lower test scores at those schools compared to test scores at River Hill, Marriotts Ridge, Atholton, and Centennial, but all the schools are equipped with some of the best teachers, the best resources, and numerous opportunities to exceed. The curriculum has very high expectations for students. There are equity and access issues in HCPSS, like any other school district in the country, and they do need to make strides in those areas, but you really can’t beat out HoCo’s quality of life.

Columbia is proof that people with different income levels can live in a thriving area together, rich with opportunities, amenities, and still have safety and top schools. It accomplished something people in other MD counties think is impossible.

Didn’t a kid just get stabbed at Hammond? I don’t mean to suggest that this occurrence is emblematic of anything - I think Hammond is a fine school - but to suggest that Wilde Lake is worse is just incorrect. Wilde Lake is a great school surrounded by a great community in a thriving part of Columbia. You’ll never meet a person or family that attended Wilde Lake speak negatively of their experience. It always seems to be others that have no connection to Wilde Lake that trash it. That should tell you something.

To be completely honest, I’d focus on elementary and middle school more than high school. Since they are smaller, the local elementary school is a better representation of your community (for the most part).

River hill, Marriotts ridge, Glenelg if you can afford to live out in west county, less risk of redistricting due to those schools being less crowded. Centennial/hebron are also great schools. Below that I would say Atholton/Howard are also nice. In Howard county it’s all about wealth when it comes to schools, the better the schools rank the more expensive it is to live in the district and less affordable housing (apartments) or none at all.

My sister went to River Hill and by the time I went to high school, we were redistricted to Atholton. Pretty much what everyone else has said is true: there are the top top schools, but it’s all about wealth and those schools tend not to be very diverse. Comparing academic rigor, extra curriculars, etc, my sister and I had super similar experiences. HCPSS is great overall, so I wouldn’t focus too much on each school’s ranking tbh. I think the major differences were in our social experiences. There was less of an academic competitive environment at AHS and there were more walks of life represented in the student body and staff. All HoCo schools do a good job of setting up high school kids for success, but a healthy environment really helps kids take advantage of that better.

Yes, it was a lovers quarrel. A little better than random, but only just.