If accepted to Blair Stem and Richard Montgomery IB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

Tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

This is all easy to verify. Although it's not true that there were twice as many RMIB NMSF last year as Blair, it is true there were more. 2024 29 RMIB, 21 Blair. 2025 there were more from Blair. It does vary.

As for college admissions, look at the college commitment websites from last year. You can draw your own conclusions.

Wrong again. Did you actually verify before you posted?
Blair has better college admissions than any school in the state.
Again, tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

Most Blair magnet students don't post their admissions on insta and the school does not release that info unlike at RMIB where their whole open house presentation was about college admissions. If you or your child are obsessed with college admissions RMIB is the right way to go. One of the local magazines puts out a list every year of applications and admissions and enrollment even? I haven't looked at it in a while but I remember both schools did very well. I don't understand the need to put down the other school in this thread. It seems to be mostly 1 or more RMIB parents bashing Blair. Why?

LOL at suggesting Blair parents don't care about elite college outcomes. Fhs. Blair usually has more MIT admits, RMIB has slighly more Ivy+ admits. However, athletic recruiting is a factor. I noticed some Ivy admits are recruits, at both schools. This does mean that a very high number of high stats kids are shut out from T-10s. Both schools do pretty well, but home schools generally do just as well. Go to a magnet because you care about the education and college readiness, not because you think it will improve your college admissions chances. Competing against other magnet kids generally makes it harder not easier.

Where was that suggestion? I'm saying it's hard to compare by looking at the social media postings because so few Blair magnet students post. But RMIB students and families are much more open and aggressive about college being the No. 1 goal and so is the program administration. The Blair magnet admin is the opposite and actively discourages kids from focusing solely on that.

To be fair, Blair Magnet parents are 175% focused on college admissions, so admin has to work harder to push back.

Nope, not true of us or our kid. We are completely focused on our child finally getting challenged and being among peers who share their academic interests. The kid (currently at W feeder) can't wait to start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Some observations after both night sessions and shadow days:

-Blair’s evening session was more informative and organized than RM’s session. It was helpful to see some of the teachers from different subjects at Blair.
-My kid found the opposite to be true for the shadow days. RM was more organized and informative. My kid was excited about Blair’s research class. Yet, the kids spent the double period doing other things such as homework.
Kids seemed overall happier at RM and enthusiastic about the program. (Granted, kids were paired with seniors at RM rather than freshmen at Blair.)
-Both programs have a very high number of NMSF. No other program or school in the county can compare. interestingly, Blair’s medium SAT are 300 higher than RM’s program.

Which grade did your kid shadow? 9th graders and 11th graders can feel quite different. 9th graders are still in the process of fitting into the program, while 11th graders have already adjusted and should be starting to enjoy it.

Not the PP, but my child had the same experience last year. He was deciding between Blair Magnet and RMIB, and the RMIB presentation focused on college admissions while the Blair presentation focused on the experience of being in the program. The real deal-breaker, though, was when the RMIB kids tried to reassure my child that he wouldn't need to interact that much with "Gen pop" at Richard Montgomery, and used racially disparaging language to describe first the rest of the student body at RM (regarding Black and Latino kids) and then to mock the kids in the Blair Magnet (Asian American).

To my kid, it just felt mean. I'm not saying all RMIB kids are racist, but they are weirdly competitive and it felt okay to them to use racial language as part of that competition.

Um.. RMIB is like 80%+ Asian. What you stated is BS.

Also, several of the RMIB kids are RM cluster kids, which included my own Asian kid.

Yeah, PPs post didn’t ring true for me either. My kid went to RMiB and had lots of Asian friends and was friendly with lots of kids from outside the program through her EC activities. There’s a couple posters on this thread who have posted accurate pros and cons of each program but I’m really shocked by the mean, competitive tenor of many of the posts. I don’t think those posts are representative of the community at either school. My kid didn’t apply to Blair but my neighbors kid went there and my younger kid has a friend there. There are lots of nice kids at both schools. The program and physical location are different and you should make your decision based on commute and program specific differences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

No disagreement with the general characterization, but the college outcome results are not correct, can easily google at Bethesda Magazine.

Also not correct, that last year (2023) RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. MCPS announcements on number of NMSF winners have been very consistent in the last 20 years. Blair has always been the majority, typically 40+ NMSF. RMIB has very good results as well, but about 50-75% of Blair's.
Results for 2023 and 2024, you can google previous years results easily.

NMSF 2023 Moco
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?pagetype=showrelease&id=13329

NMSF 2024 Moco
https://www.mymcmedia.org/158-county-students-named-national-merit-semifinalists/

Hope this doesn't become another pissing battle, both magnet programs are excellent, with Blair more focused on STEM, and RMIB more focused on humanitieis and analytical writing. Both schools have all the resources to produced excellent grads going to top colleges. To each their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

Tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

This is all easy to verify. Although it's not true that there were twice as many RMIB NMSF last year as Blair, it is true there were more. 2024 29 RMIB, 21 Blair. 2025 there were more from Blair. It does vary.

As for college admissions, look at the college commitment websites from last year. You can draw your own conclusions.

Wrong again. Did you actually verify before you posted?
Blair has better college admissions than any school in the state.
Again, tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

Most Blair magnet students don't post their admissions on insta and the school does not release that info unlike at RMIB where their whole open house presentation was about college admissions. If you or your child are obsessed with college admissions RMIB is the right way to go. One of the local magazines puts out a list every year of applications and admissions and enrollment even? I haven't looked at it in a while but I remember both schools did very well. I don't understand the need to put down the other school in this thread. It seems to be mostly 1 or more RMIB parents bashing Blair. Why?

LOL at suggesting Blair parents don't care about elite college outcomes. Fhs. Blair usually has more MIT admits, RMIB has slighly more Ivy+ admits. However, athletic recruiting is a factor. I noticed some Ivy admits are recruits, at both schools. This does mean that a very high number of high stats kids are shut out from T-10s. Both schools do pretty well, but home schools generally do just as well. Go to a magnet because you care about the education and college readiness, not because you think it will improve your college admissions chances. Competing against other magnet kids generally makes it harder not easier.

Where was that suggestion? I'm saying it's hard to compare by looking at the social media postings because so few Blair magnet students post. But RMIB students and families are much more open and aggressive about college being the No. 1 goal and so is the program administration. The Blair magnet admin is the opposite and actively discourages kids from focusing solely on that.

To be fair, Blair Magnet parents are 175% focused on college admissions, so admin has to work harder to push back.

Nope, not true of us or our kid. We are completely focused on our child finally getting challenged and being among peers who share their academic interests. The kid (currently at W feeder) can't wait to start.

+1

Parent of two Blair recent alumni

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

Tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

This is all easy to verify. Although it's not true that there were twice as many RMIB NMSF last year as Blair, it is true there were more. 2024 29 RMIB, 21 Blair. 2025 there were more from Blair. It does vary.

As for college admissions, look at the college commitment websites from last year. You can draw your own conclusions.

Wrong again. Did you actually verify before you posted?
Blair has better college admissions than any school in the state.
Again, tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

Most Blair magnet students don't post their admissions on insta and the school does not release that info unlike at RMIB where their whole open house presentation was about college admissions. If you or your child are obsessed with college admissions RMIB is the right way to go. One of the local magazines puts out a list every year of applications and admissions and enrollment even? I haven't looked at it in a while but I remember both schools did very well. I don't understand the need to put down the other school in this thread. It seems to be mostly 1 or more RMIB parents bashing Blair. Why?

LOL at suggesting Blair parents don't care about elite college outcomes. Fhs. Blair usually has more MIT admits, RMIB has slighly more Ivy+ admits. However, athletic recruiting is a factor. I noticed some Ivy admits are recruits, at both schools. This does mean that a very high number of high stats kids are shut out from T-10s. Both schools do pretty well, but home schools generally do just as well. Go to a magnet because you care about the education and college readiness, not because you think it will improve your college admissions chances. Competing against other magnet kids generally makes it harder not easier.

Where was that suggestion? I'm saying it's hard to compare by looking at the social media postings because so few Blair magnet students post. But RMIB students and families are much more open and aggressive about college being the No. 1 goal and so is the program administration. The Blair magnet admin is the opposite and actively discourages kids from focusing solely on that.

To be fair, Blair Magnet parents are 175% focused on college admissions, so admin has to work harder to push back.

That’s not accurate.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]. interestingly, Blair’s medium SAT are 300 higher than RM’s program. [/quote]

This ridiculous claim is obvious false.

RMIB SAT is much higher than RM overall.

RMIB doesn't publish a college profile document for the public, but Blair Magnet does.

Comparing RM whole school vs Blair Magnet ges you "300 points" for that nonsense calculation. [/quote]

It’s not a claim, and I’m not PP. This data comes from the printed materials we received at both schools’ open houses this past weeks. I was surprised by it too. Also, Blair’s open house did not provide any college acceptance information on paper or in the slideshow. RM, however, printed it out and placed it on a table for attendees to take.
[/quote]

What is RMIB's median SAT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:. interestingly, Blair’s medium SAT are 300 higher than RM’s program.

This ridiculous claim is obvious false.

RMIB SAT is much higher than RM overall.

RMIB doesn't publish a college profile document for the public, but Blair Magnet does.

Comparing RM whole school vs Blair Magnet ges you "300 points" for that nonsense calculation.

It’s not a claim, and I’m not PP. This data comes from the printed materials we received at both schools’ open houses this past weeks. I was surprised by it too. Also, Blair’s open house did not provide any college acceptance information on paper or in the slideshow. RM, however, printed it out and placed it on a table for attendees to take.

What is RMIB's median SAT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Some observations after both night sessions and shadow days:

-Blair’s evening session was more informative and organized than RM’s session. It was helpful to see some of the teachers from different subjects at Blair.
-My kid found the opposite to be true for the shadow days. RM was more organized and informative. My kid was excited about Blair’s research class. Yet, the kids spent the double period doing other things such as homework.
Kids seemed overall happier at RM and enthusiastic about the program. (Granted, kids were paired with seniors at RM rather than freshmen at Blair.)
-Both programs have a very high number of NMSF. No other program or school in the county can compare. interestingly, Blair’s medium SAT are 300 higher than RM’s program.

Which grade did your kid shadow? 9th graders and 11th graders can feel quite different. 9th graders are still in the process of fitting into the program, while 11th graders have already adjusted and should be starting to enjoy it.

Not the PP, but my child had the same experience last year. He was deciding between Blair Magnet and RMIB, and the RMIB presentation focused on college admissions while the Blair presentation focused on the experience of being in the program. The real deal-breaker, though, was when the RMIB kids tried to reassure my child that he wouldn't need to interact that much with "Gen pop" at Richard Montgomery, and used racially disparaging language to describe first the rest of the student body at RM (regarding Black and Latino kids) and then to mock the kids in the Blair Magnet (Asian American).

To my kid, it just felt mean. I'm not saying all RMIB kids are racist, but they are weirdly competitive and it felt okay to them to use racial language as part of that competition.

Um.. RMIB is like 80%+ Asian. What you stated is BS.

Also, several of the RMIB kids are RM cluster kids, which included my own Asian kid.

I don't think it's BS because my kid heard similar. It's not everyone but there's an attitude of inferiority that results in finding ways to bash the other school's kids.

Kids from other schools bash other schools. That has nothing to do with RMIB.

FWIW, most of the kids in RMIB don't live in the RM cluster.

[Anonymous]

I think this is the RM profile document that PP misunderstood as being the RMIB profile document.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/high-schools/r-w/rmhs/ib/2021-2022-rm-electronic.clubs--9.30.21.docx.pdf

PP lacks critical thinking skills if they thinking that a competitve selective admissions program has the same ~1280 average SAT as the whole west county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

No disagreement with the general characterization, but the college outcome results are not correct, can easily google at Bethesda Magazine.

Also not correct, that last year (2023) RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. MCPS announcements on number of NMSF winners have been very consistent in the last 20 years. Blair has always been the majority, typically 40+ NMSF. RMIB has very good results as well, but about 50-75% of Blair's.
Results for 2023 and 2024, you can google previous years results easily.

NMSF 2023 Moco
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?pagetype=showrelease&id=13329

NMSF 2024 Moco
https://www.mymcmedia.org/158-county-students-named-national-merit-semifinalists/

Hope this doesn't become another pissing battle, both magnet programs are excellent, with Blair more focused on STEM, and RMIB more focused on humanitieis and analytical writing. Both schools have all the resources to produced excellent grads going to top colleges. To each their own.

Once again, Blair magnets are larger than RMIB.

Think about the math (ironic).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this is the RM profile document that PP misunderstood as being the RMIB profile document.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/high-schools/r-w/rmhs/ib/2021-2022-rm-electronic.clubs--9.30.21.docx.pdf

PP lacks critical thinking skills if they thinking that a competitve selective admissions program has the same ~1280 average SAT as the whole west county.

You really need to stop the put downs. Most people on this board are not stupid.
There's a second profile document just for the RMIB program that lists the exact same average SAT scores as for RM. If you just saw that in isolation you would assume that's the average SAT for the program because the rest of the document is really specific to the IB program.

I am pretty sure it's either an error or something the IB administration did on purpose to avoid breaking out the average SAT score. They might have thought it is pointless to calculate the IB scores, would rile up competitive nature of parents and students, or some other reason. We don't know but it's not unreasonable for people who have seen the RMIB profile letter to make the assumption they did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Some observations after both night sessions and shadow days:

-Blair’s evening session was more informative and organized than RM’s session. It was helpful to see some of the teachers from different subjects at Blair.
-My kid found the opposite to be true for the shadow days. RM was more organized and informative. My kid was excited about Blair’s research class. Yet, the kids spent the double period doing other things such as homework.
Kids seemed overall happier at RM and enthusiastic about the program. (Granted, kids were paired with seniors at RM rather than freshmen at Blair.)
-Both programs have a very high number of NMSF. No other program or school in the county can compare. interestingly, Blair’s medium SAT are 300 higher than RM’s program.

Which grade did your kid shadow? 9th graders and 11th graders can feel quite different. 9th graders are still in the process of fitting into the program, while 11th graders have already adjusted and should be starting to enjoy it.

Not the PP, but my child had the same experience last year. He was deciding between Blair Magnet and RMIB, and the RMIB presentation focused on college admissions while the Blair presentation focused on the experience of being in the program. The real deal-breaker, though, was when the RMIB kids tried to reassure my child that he wouldn't need to interact that much with "Gen pop" at Richard Montgomery, and used racially disparaging language to describe first the rest of the student body at RM (regarding Black and Latino kids) and then to mock the kids in the Blair Magnet (Asian American).

To my kid, it just felt mean. I'm not saying all RMIB kids are racist, but they are weirdly competitive and it felt okay to them to use racial language as part of that competition.

Um.. RMIB is like 80%+ Asian. What you stated is BS.

Also, several of the RMIB kids are RM cluster kids, which included my own Asian kid.

I don't think it's BS because my kid heard similar. It's not everyone but there's an attitude of inferiority that results in finding ways to bash the other school's kids.

Kids from other schools bash other schools. That has nothing to do with RMIB.

FWIW, most of the kids in RMIB don't live in the RM cluster.

No really they don't. It's a one-way competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

No disagreement with the general characterization, but the college outcome results are not correct, can easily google at Bethesda Magazine.

Also not correct, that last year (2023) RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. MCPS announcements on number of NMSF winners have been very consistent in the last 20 years. Blair has always been the majority, typically 40+ NMSF. RMIB has very good results as well, but about 50-75% of Blair's.
Results for 2023 and 2024, you can google previous years results easily.

NMSF 2023 Moco
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?pagetype=showrelease&id=13329

NMSF 2024 Moco
https://www.mymcmedia.org/158-county-students-named-national-merit-semifinalists/

Hope this doesn't become another pissing battle, both magnet programs are excellent, with Blair more focused on STEM, and RMIB more focused on humanitieis and analytical writing. Both schools have all the resources to produced excellent grads going to top colleges. To each their own.

Once again, Blair magnets are larger than RMIB.

Think about the math (ironic).

How does that prove RMIB produced twice as many NMSFs as Blair?

[Anonymous]

Mine chose Blair for these reasons:

1) Commute. This would have been enough on its own, but also…

2) Blair Magnet felt more like part of the larger school community, while RMIB felt more isolated.

3) Liked the course selections at Blair and being able to take unusual courses in an area of interest (neuroscience, genetics, etc. in the Magnet, but also wide range of social sciences)

4) Liked that the Blair curriculum gets more open/flexible in junior & senior years, which felt like good preparation for life beyond high school.

5) DC and both parents were really turned off by the RMIB focus on college admission at the admitted student day, and preferred the philosophy at Blair. (I know a PP said their student had the opposite experience with shadow days. Our DC is a senior, so there were no shadow days when they were in 8th grade. Thanks, Covid!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this is the RM profile document that PP misunderstood as being the RMIB profile document.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/high-schools/r-w/rmhs/ib/2021-2022-rm-electronic.clubs--9.30.21.docx.pdf

PP lacks critical thinking skills if they thinking that a competitve selective admissions program has the same ~1280 average SAT as the whole west county.

You really need to stop the put downs. Most people on this board are not stupid.
There's a second profile document just for the RMIB program that lists the exact same average SAT scores as for RM. If you just saw that in isolation you would assume that's the average SAT for the program because the rest of the document is really specific to the IB program.

I am pretty sure it's either an error or something the IB administration did on purpose to avoid breaking out the average SAT score. They might have thought it is pointless to calculate the IB scores, would rile up competitive nature of parents and students, or some other reason. We don't know but it's not unreasonable for people who have seen the RMIB profile letter to make the assumption they did.

Applause to this understanding and reasonable parent!