We love iPrep! Such a wonderful work environment for Pre-K. I cannot say enough about Ms. Barge. She is the most amazing teacher and person that we ever have encountered. Such love and patience!!! And the work is just brilliant.
In elementary school, feels well organized with quality teachers.
Iprep rant:
Oh god where do I begin? The school is absolutely awful. At first the scenery fools you with its colorful walls, nice lounges and the Mac book air laptops but that is just a show. I'm currently a freshman and know that a teacher will track me down trying to figure out who wrote this review and will probably have a talk with me but I'm protected under freedom of speach and tell the truth. One of the things I need to say is if you go to iprep with no friends you might not make friends because everyone who knows each other talks to everyone they know so good luck trying to fit in. The food is cold and is literally like every public school that sells those bag mini burgers and lasagna. Now, I don't know how you mess up those mini microwavable burgers but they burnt them and that lasagna that was cold had me after school feeling like I ate spoiled milk. Another thing if you come there thinking you don't really need to do the summer homework, think again. That summer homework is your main priority in the summer and if you don't do it I swear your grade is going to be a F or Z in 0.01 seconds. The school has a 110% no bully, no cheating rule which if you break they get in touch with your parents and they'll honestly loose all trust in you (that's what they said). A little note if you don't look like a generic person and seem weird you might not get a friend til sophomore year. Anyway, showing indication that you're smart and know more information than other people might be bad because the students will take that as a threat. The classes are boring and the teachers try to make class seem fun in the beginning of the year but once you get that Mac all hopes on fun is gone. I'll make a part 2 of this later on in the year but this is quick things I instantly noticed. Quick note: if you chose ap world history SWITCH AS FAST AS YOU CAN! You can hear your GPA dropping in that class.
Part 1 with no grammar check
No care for students as all psychological problems are swept under the rug, the new principal is awful with not doing much at all but instead of tackling school problems worries more about tardies and ID's than anything. The school provide no sort of transportation arrangements such as metro passes or bus passes like MAST and New World do. The funding is horrible as there are no end of year field trips and no college trips. Students here are not set up to succeed
While many people might assume that since the superintendent of the district is our principal, it has a STEM-based curriculum, and it is relatively high-tech, it is a good choice for your child, but it has its downsides. The amount of interactive trips are scarce, for there is less than one per grading period.The other teachers are well-rounded, but they were not hired on time, which was bothersome to many of the parents as well as us students, and is a repetitive occurrence. And like one other student has stated, the superintendent only comes along whilst there are cameras, which implies that he cares more about publicity then the students themselves. However, the experience so far was tolerable, and it is far better than other public schools, so it is worthwhile to attend.
iPrep rant:
When I was first entering high school, iPrep seemed like a good place for me. It had a nice lounge area, and it lured you in with a brand-new MacBook Air. It sounded like something amazing to me, I imagined it to be very computer centered and I thought the education would be better than the regular program at my school. I was wrong. I am currently a sophomore and have been in iPrep since I started high school. It started off as a generally positive experience, as the teachers seemed friendly and I got along well with my peers. Freshman year was filled with struggle in my household due to my grades being sub-par. I tried and tried to tell my parents that it was the teacher's fault and that I was trying as hard as I could, but they did not believe me. I have been grounded since the beginning of Freshman year due to my grades. It seemed that no matter how hard I try, I cannot get anywhere. People looks at my grades and say that I'm a "failure" and that "I don't care." This couldn't be further from the truth. I am a smart student that genuinely cares about his grades, but I cannot be shamed for getting bad grades due to an extremely flawed "educational program." To prove that I care about my grades, I will be dropping out of iPrep and getting better grades than all of the people still in that program.
To all incoming freshmen:
Do not go to iPrep! You will be worked to death. Do not let the free MacBook reel you in. To be 100% honest, I joined iPrep just for the computer, and as you can tell from my rant, it was clearly not worth it. If this is truly what you want, I can't force you to go somewhere else, but I leave you with a very clear warning: It is not where you want to be. You can take AP classes in a regular school program. There is nothing special about iPrep. Don't be fooled.
Iprep Academy is a magnet school focused on helping students find a career they would like to pursue while working with technology to help them better accommodate to the 21st century. Although the school may promote growth within the student body, the students grow lazy every year, find way s around the "system" to cheat, and eventually show enthusiasm as they are allowed to leave this school at the end of their senior year. Through the underactive faculty and "lack of funding", this school proves to be a disaster.
As a student of this high school, my honest opinion is that, although a child may find an accepting environment with a big diversity of people, the education, faculty, and atmosphere leaves a bad taste in my mouth as I eagerly await to leave. This school is filled with people of many different races, religions, sexualities, and opinions, which leads to much controversy between the students. There may not be fist fights, but the online hatred towards each other is unbearable. Furthermore, when trying to bring attention to this, the faculty quickly dismisses the issue without offering a solution. In example, there are some students who must deal with depression and other mental illness, yet when the faculty is told about these issues, they do not help offer an issue, as a guidance counselor should. Some have even talked of committing suicide, a major concern for the student body, and yet again, the issue is brushed under the rug by the faculty. Although the faculty is not up to the standards the students would like, some of the teachers have proved to be exceptional at their skill, along with helping the students reach their full potential. Teachers like Mr. Sultz, Mrs. Keller, Mrs. Hauser, Mr. Arrison, and Mr. Vancol have tried to help their students to their best ability. The other teachers do not influence the students much and are not good at teaching the subjects they assign.
In addition, the school has frequently cancelled events and denied support for events because of a lack of funding. This has been a persistent issue during the years in which I have been here. The school opts for field trips to places very close to the school, sometimes being free events, to "save money", but these occur once a year, if that. Along with events being denied, the school provides unhealthy lunches for the students due to this "lack of funding". The cafeteria has served spoiled milk and pizza that has been cooked without removing the plastic. This could lead to serious health issue with the students. Many students have complained about this issue to the school, along with our principal Alberto Carvalho, and yet he dismisses our issues. Although Carvalho is our principal and is constantly promoting us, he only visits the school when he has publicists with him. He does this for his own benefit and really doesn't see the daily life of a student here. In addition, the lack of funding has left the students scraping their wallets for money to use to arrive to school. Many schools that understand the importance of public transportation for their students will offer bus or metro passes monthly. Our school is located in the heart of downtown, where many of the students will need to take the metro rail home. Seeing as many students do not have the finances to afford to spend almost $30 monthly (ONLY for the metro rail. many students must take the bus and metro rail), the students have to find ways to get home without the help of the school.
In contradiction, there are some benefits that the school offers. The laptops and internships have proved beneficial to the student body, providing us with new knowledge and innovative skills. I must be grateful for this allowance of freedom to pursue my career choice and learn technology.
In conclusion, this school has proved to be an overall nuisance to the student who attend it. The funding, food, and faculty leave me to give the school an F rating.
I was part of the inaugural class in 2012 and I couldn't have asked for a better high school experience. The Administrative Staff is great, it is such a great environment filled with friendly people. The Teachers are phenomenal and help each student to reach their goals. Would highly recommend this school for any parent looking to enroll their teen in a high school.