Positive stories of special HS Magnet Programs around county
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Anonymous
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Some of us are trying to help our kids navigate a choice between different application programs in the county (or between one of those programs and the home school) and the decisions have to be made in the next couple of weeks. I was hoping we could start a thread that solicited some testimonials of families who are currently in (or very recently in) some of the special programs.
Any information about teachers, cohort, vibe of school, awesome special courses, what your kids have really loved, etc. is heartily welcome List of programs students might be choosing between (please forgive me if I've left something off or if I've used a nonstandard name for one of the programs I'm less familiar with!): Blair CAP Blair SMaCS RM IB RM Career Related programs Kennedy IB Kennedy LTI Poolesville Global Eco Poolesville Humanities Poolesville SMaCS Wheaton PTLTW Engineering Wheaton BioMed Middle College at MC (Northwood and Northwest) Watkins Mill IB Springbrook IB Clarksburg P-TECH Gaithersburg Biomed Magruder Avi & Aero Einstein HS VAC Let's try to focus on the programs/schools themselves and not get too bogged down in the selection process! 
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Anonymous
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My older DC graduated from Blair CAP in 2022.
Generally quite a positive experience. Had been at Eastern Humanities beforehand so the curriculum really followed on fairly well. They have some great teachers (although some less so, but at least one of those is now gone!) and left HS with some great writing skills that has served them very well in college. The interdisciplinary projects of 9th and 10th grade were really awesome high points of their experience (although the time of Covid meant they missed out on some of the best 10th grade interdisciplinaries). The school is huge. Positive of that is that there are lots of courses offered and lots of clubs. Negative is that the crowd can be a little overwhelming at times. Having the CAP cohort helped with that a bit. Some of my kid's favorite teachers were in classes outside of CAP! AP Human Geography, AP Comparative Government, Forensics, French, Biology... There are some awesome teachers there. The journalism program is awesome...both print Silver Chips and Silver Chips Online. The robotics club was very cool and totally open to kids who weren't gung-ho "STEM-all-the-time" types. |
Anonymous
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Linking a relevant thread on Wheaton Engineering:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1110382.page |
Anonymous
Mine was in magnet and also liked the AP Comp Gov teacher! Mine liked the excellent math teachers she had for Functions, Analysis, etc. There are two really phenomenal math teachers there. Also an amazing physics teacher and great bio too! Really liked that the program was trying to addres bias in STEM (including within the program) with the Equity in STEM class. Really good class. My kid won a competition writing about bias in AI. Fantastic orchestra opportunities. I know there is a new teacher now,, but assuming they are good too. Great admin -- program and principal. Great resource teacher for counseling. |
Anonymous
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Also love the overall school diversity and student community. The students I've met volunteering at One Lunch (before it was regular) and
After Prom have all been great. |
Anonymous
| Also about Blair, had a great experience on Poms. If you kid does any dance, consider trying out. Coach is terrific. |
Anonymous
| My Jr. is loving Wheaton Engineering. The teacher who heads it and teaches the 9th grade engineering classes is fantastic. Math was just OK for Alg2/PreCalc, but Calc BC teacher is outstanding. All other classes have been good in and out of magnet. Strong teaching. Beautiful school (fantastic theatre). New chorus and drama teachers are great. Principal is responsive and pro-active. Good counseling. Good variety of ECs. Society of Women Engineers is excellent. Program is very diverse. Nice group! |
Anonymous
Wow, that sounds awesome! Love to hear that the whole school vibe is good. |
Anonymous
| Great idea for starting this thread. I was hoping to see something more like this than negative energy going on in other threads. Keep it coming people. Mine just got in and we are trying to decide which is a best fit. Thanks in advance to everyone for your feedback. Y'all are awesome! Best of luck to everyone. |
Anonymous
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Negative energy? People are trying to make the right decision for their child and it's misleading if you just hear one side. Glad to hear about positive experiences but I could have just looked on the web site and promotional videos for most of this.
Parents and students want to hear both the good and bad. |
Anonymous
| Blair’s hardest 2 years are 9/10, RMIB are 11/12. Remember, RMIB hardest time when you are also applying to college. 11/12 at Blair is almost entirely magnet elective that you chose based on your interests. |
Anonymous
NP: I think it's fine to have both the positives and the negatives in a thread like this. All info is good to have when making a decision! But those of us who need to make a decision now would love a thread about that versus about the process by which kids were chosen. Anyone have info on the Kennedy IB program? It's so new I feel like it is tough to get a feeling for it. How are the teachers? Thanks |
Anonymous
DP. It's fine for OP to start a thread focusing on positives as there is so much flaming/trolling/judgment that seems to crop up on DCUM. Plenty of negativity out there as will as legit concerns. You're not interested, which is fine, but why criticize people wanting positive experiences? Just move on. |
Anonymous
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I live mid-county, have sent 3 kids to 3 different programs, and have neighbors and friends who have participated in several more. Here is my take:
Wheaton PLTW (either Engineering or Biomed) - small cohort of magnet kids in each program (50 per grade) in an overall school setting where everyone is in one of the programs. Friend's daughter really loved the engineering program, had lots of interesting field trips/opportunities, and it was worth the 50 min daily commute to her (and parents). Gaithersburg PLTW Biomed - well-loved program by neighbors, lots of school spirit in general. Opportunity to get into many sports if you haven't played before. Watkins Mill IB program - friend's daughter did program before they added the regional magnet. Very strong academics and solid teachers. I have a teacher friend there and they said the addition of the magnet cohort is going well and helping the IB diploma be more of a thing school wide (instead of many kids just taking some courses a la carte.) They have strong neighborhood connections and do a "March to the Mill" spring sports thing for ES and MS. Opportunity to get into many sports if you haven't played before. RMIB - DC2 went here. All around strong school - has sports, drama club, a gazillion activities. Great program for an all-around strong kid interested in both humanities and sciences. DC was involved in a ridiculous number of clubs, had several distinct friend groups, and was challenged but not overloaded with classwork (because they are very organized and the program was a great fit for their skills.) Poolesville Global - DC1 went to this program (chose over Wheaton PLTW Eng and SMCS). Very nice cohort of kids, made great friendships, interesting program, frequent fields trips (they have their own bus, so they don't have to coordinate transportation). Overall courseload for Global is equivalent to AP coursework generally at any high school. Not a particularly special curriculum. DC1 also did PLTW there and enjoyed the engineering aspects. Humanities - friend's kid in this one year ahead of DC1. Reported a similar experience to DC1 - good friends, good classes, good experience. SMCS - DC3 in this program. Loved the classes, teachers were okay, cohort isn't. Kids are really competitive, and quite frankly, aloof. Seems to be consistent from DC1's time - that SMCS kids kept themselves separate from the rest of the school. PLTW + AP science and math courses at some schools, or MC Early College programs can also satisfy the STEM itch. I'm not sure the cohort was worth the commute time (50 min) for DC3. After 8 consecutive years at Poolesville overall I am not impressed with it, nor are 3 other neighbors with kids there during that time. The new principal is much better than the old one, but there are still a lot of teachers who are just coasting along with smart kids that can teach themselves (the virtual year really exposed how poor at teaching some of them were - no slides, bad worksheets, tossing kids into breakout rooms for 30 minutes every class). The school feels like 4 small schools - the 3 magnets and the townies. The students really don't mix - not in classes, not in clubs (which aren't many), maybe a little with sports. Depending on how far away you are, it's really hard to get to for evening/weekend activities, and friends are really scattered. My overall favorite is RMIB for the diversity of opportunities at the school. |
Anonymous
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Bumping this thread. The last entry was awesome, thank you!
Anyone have info on the Regional IB programs? Kennedy, Springbrook, Watkins Mill? Thank you! |