Takoma park magnet worth it?

[Anonymous]

Any feedback from parents of kids who didn’t live close in? We have to make a decision and my kid doesn’t know anyone going.

[Anonymous]

Well we don't live that far away (though TPMS not our home school) but don't let the fact that your kid doesn't know anyone stop you. My kid didn't know anyone either but we reached out and found some kids and he's made new friends too. The commute/bus ride would probably be more of a issue in my opinion

[Anonymous]

They can always try it out, and go back to home school if it doesn’t work out. But you can’t go the other way.

That said, kids starting magnet programs rarely know many other kids. Even pre-lottery, it wasn’t necessarily a straight pipeline from CES to middle school magnets. But by high school, former ES or MS magnet kids tend to know at least a few kids in their grade, no matter where they end up.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it was amazingly worth it. Sets you up early on an advanced path. TPMS magnet is the only place to get higher level math/stem experience and the cohort is pretty incredible. In high school, even if you don’t end up in magnet, you can still design a pretty rigorous curriculum with APs, in middle school you can’t.

[Anonymous]

I think it really depends on your kid. One of mine is very academically focused and not particularly interested in socializing. Magnet is great for them because they get what they need, and the only downside is commute.

The other is much more social and I’m going to encourage them to go to our home high school rather than a magnet so that socializing with friends outside of school is easier. (They’ve had no trouble making friends at school, but their out-of-school socializing is still largely with neighborhood friends.) I’m glad they tried TPMS, and the academics and electives are definitely stronger than our home MS, but I’m not sure the social tradeoffs are worth it.

[Anonymous]

No, not since they went lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any feedback from parents of kids who didn’t live close in? We have to make a decision and my kid doesn’t know anyone going.

Despite the lottery, the program seems to remain intact. If your child is into STEM, they will greatly benefit from the experience.

[Anonymous]

Any feedback from parents of kids who didn’t live close in? We have to make a decision and my kid doesn’t know anyone going.


Despite the lottery, the program seems to remain intact. If your child is into STEM, they will greatly benefit from the experience.

Sure, the program itself is intact but the level of the cohort is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Any feedback from parents of kids who didn’t live close in? We have to make a decision and my kid doesn’t know anyone going.


Despite the lottery, the program seems to remain intact. If your child is into STEM, they will greatly benefit from the experience.

Sure, the program itself is intact but the level of the cohort is not.

The point is there were always more kids who could do the work than they had spots for. I had one kid go through this 3 years ago and another who is in 6th now and overall the experience is the same.

[Anonymous]

Also heads up the word on the street is that they significantly tightened up the lottery for TPMS/Clemente this year (going from some 4,000 kids put into lottery last year, to less than 1,000 this year)... No I do not have confirmation of this from MCPS or in writing so can't be completely sure but it comes from a well-informed source.

[Anonymous]

The school needs your kids to be competitive, it isn't about your kid it is about the school. It is a voluntary bussing program with a carrot just sweet enough to parents so that the desired kids get bussed from far away and voluntarily leave their home school which doesn't need the boost. With that in mind it would be foolish of MoCo to not provide you a sweet carrot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also heads up the word on the street is that they significantly tightened up the lottery for TPMS/Clemente this year (going from some 4,000 kids put into lottery last year, to less than 1,000 this year)... No I do not have confirmation of this from MCPS or in writing so can't be completely sure but it comes from a well-informed source.

I would be surprised if they didn't refine it, and although I'm all for raising the bar, I would be surprised if it were that significant. Wasn't it still the top 15% which is more like 1800 kids from a class of 12k.

[Anonymous]

It's possible it was 1800... I heard 900 but that might have been just for TPMS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's possible it was 1800... I heard 900 but that might have been just for TPMS.

Depends on what it was based on. If you took all the scores of all the kids and the county and ranked them and pulled the top 900 I'm not sure they'd get the diversity they were seeking.
If reweight things dramatically by geography as a proxy for race and weight other life factors really high you might have a different mix.
A lottery with the top 900 is very different from taking the top 100 applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any feedback from parents of kids who didn’t live close in? We have to make a decision and my kid doesn’t know anyone going.

Yes. Worth it. It is not as challenging as Blair STEM but is worth it. Kid got in pre-lottery so can't speak to the strength of the cohort right now.