Yet another magnet thread. What are the personalities of the students at various magnets?

[Anonymous]

Do your kids who applied to a magnet or multiple magnets not care much about potentially leaving their friends and home school? I think my kid would be perfect for one of the magnets, but I’m having trouble convincing him it’s even worth it to apply because he doesn’t want to leave his friends and home school. The idea that some of his friends might be applying for magnets doesn’t seem to be a motivator either. He’s otherwise smart and driven. I guess I’m curious if the motivation to apply to the magnets is driven by the kids or parents more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do your kids who applied to a magnet or multiple magnets not care much about potentially leaving their friends and home school? I think my kid would be perfect for one of the magnets, but I’m having trouble convincing him it’s even worth it to apply because he doesn’t want to leave his friends and home school. The idea that some of his friends might be applying for magnets doesn’t seem to be a motivator either. He’s otherwise smart and driven. I guess I’m curious if the motivation to apply to the magnets is driven by the kids or parents more.

For my kids and his friends very driven by them, not parents. But his friends were at TPMS so already had experience of leaving their home school, plus our home school is Blair. It would have been a tough decision to go else where, but all the TPMS magnet kids wanted to get in to Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which manget is the most uptight and competitive?

More: which one has the most uptight and competitive helicopter parents?

[Anonymous]

Almost every kid at the Blair magnet we know also got in to RMIB and chose Blair. Many didn't even bother going to the RMIB shadow day because why bother.

The yield at Blair is almost 100%. They accept about 110-115 kids and about 105-110 of those kids go to Blair.

RMIB's yield is much lower, according to their own magnet director. DD does know multiple kids who claimed to have gotten into Blair but actually did not.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if the Blair waitlist ever moves? Never heard of anyone getting off of it but several of DD's friends got waitlist offers for RMIB in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if the Blair waitlist ever moves? Never heard of anyone getting off of it but several of DD's friends got waitlist offers for RMIB in the summer.

We know someone who got into Blair magnet off the waitlist last year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if the Blair waitlist ever moves? Never heard of anyone getting off of it but several of DD's friends got waitlist offers for RMIB in the summer.

At least one person got in right before the start of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if the Blair waitlist ever moves? Never heard of anyone getting off of it but several of DD's friends got waitlist offers for RMIB in the summer.

At least one person got in right before the start of the year.

How odd. When we called we were told they not made any wait list offers and were not expecting to go to the waitlist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if the Blair waitlist ever moves? Never heard of anyone getting off of it but several of DD's friends got waitlist offers for RMIB in the summer.

At least one person got in right before the start of the year.

How odd. When we called we were told they not made any wait list offers and were not expecting to go to the waitlist.

When did you call? They made at least one offer the week before school started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if the Blair waitlist ever moves? Never heard of anyone getting off of it but several of DD's friends got waitlist offers for RMIB in the summer.

Blair is really popular. Seems like everyone wants to go there so the list never moves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Almost every kid at the Blair magnet we know also got in to RMIB and chose Blair. Many didn't even bother going to the RMIB shadow day because why bother.

The yield at Blair is almost 100%. They accept about 110-115 kids and about 105-110 of those kids go to Blair.

RMIB's yield is much lower, according to their own magnet director. DD does know multiple kids who claimed to have gotten into Blair but actually did not.

Because it's a lot more work, and a STEM leaning student would find all that writing not attractive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD received offers from Blair, RMIB, and Poolesville this year. She ultimately chose RMIB. Interestingly, most of her classmates who had multiple offers made the same choice, with only a few opting for Blair. It's important to note that each year, students may make different decisions. Perhaps in previous years, the majority of students chose Blair. Additionally, my daughter mentioned that the math program at RMIB may not be as competitive as she expected. So, while it's not accurate to say that Blair is definitively better than RMIB, individual preferences and program strengths certainly play a role in these choices

Furthermore, it's worth noting that Blair has a larger Asian student population, and this may contribute to their strong performance in competitions like the NMSF. Asian students often have a strong focus on academics, a value instilled by their parents, and this dedication to hard work deserves recognition

DC graduated from RMIB last year, and they said it was like 80%Asian, or some such. So, Blair magnet is 80%+ Asian?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not exactly “personalities” but there are some very obvious demographic differences between CAP (largely upper middle class, white students) and magnet (many from Indian, Chinese, Korean and other Asian backgrounds often children of immigrants including the few who are white) at Blair. Nice kids either way.

Why is this? Why are there so few wealthy white families in SMCS relative to CAP, and why so many in CAP? Are the upper middle class white kids not as good in STEM or are their families less interested?

Both Blair magnet and CAP are predominantly UMC. This is not NYC, where the test-in magnets are dominated by working class first-generation kids whose parents work in restaurants and dry cleaners. The parents of both sets of kids tend to be feds, or journalists, or attorneys, or scientists, or college professors.

I have an upperclassman in CAP who attended the TPMS STEM magnet, so some visibility on both groups and while Blair magnet does have more first and second generation immigrant kids, they are just as wealthy or wealthier than the CAP kids.

Agree only the wealthiest families can afford to prep their kids sufficiently to get into these programs. I'm told it takes years of AoPS or RM to get to where one might have a shot at SMCS.

You were told wrong. Stop trying to create a myth.

Parent of a kid in SMCS who doesn’t even know what AOPS or RM are.

Another Blair magnet parent here. It's not totally a myth. Many kids have done these, and some don't. I think magnet leans Asian because Chinese, Korean and Indian cultures place more value on academic advancement in STEM than Humanities. MC, UMC and immigrant families often sacrifice for additional stem enrichment like aops, A++, Dr. Li, Hopkins cty, etc. I know one mom who did those things while on a postdoc salary here on h1 visa from China. There are communal support networks too. Humanities were not an option for many of my kid's cohort in magnet. Not all of course. And, this is a few years ago.
I also see a lot of white umc lawyers in my neighborhood who will drop lots of money for Humanities enrichment.
My magnet kids had significant enrichment in arts because I am a professional in the arts. I also used to tutor math, so I helped them with that (to a point). Stem magnets liked the arts kids who could hold their own at math.
I do wish there wasn't an emphasis on pre program enrichment. I don't know how we really get around that though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do your kids who applied to a magnet or multiple magnets not care much about potentially leaving their friends and home school? I think my kid would be perfect for one of the magnets, but I’m having trouble convincing him it’s even worth it to apply because he doesn’t want to leave his friends and home school. The idea that some of his friends might be applying for magnets doesn’t seem to be a motivator either. He’s otherwise smart and driven. I guess I’m curious if the motivation to apply to the magnets is driven by the kids or parents more.

For my kids and his friends very driven by them, not parents. But his friends were at TPMS so already had experience of leaving their home school, plus our home school is Blair. It would have been a tough decision to go else where, but all the TPMS magnet kids wanted to get in to Blair.

I had 2 coming out of TPMS. 1 chose Blair over RM for distance and home school reasons but would have liked RM. 2nd chose Wheaton because more hands on kid. Did not want high pressure of Blair and RM. Wheaton is rigorous, don't get me wrong, but feels more collaborative (though things my be different now at RM and Blair). Several kids went from TPMS but also lots from other schools. Very diverse group in terms of ses and race/culture, but my kid's year did not have many girls, but I think that is changing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:29 NMSF from RM and 41 from Blair. I'm not sure it tells you much other than both programs are really strong.

DP. I think all this tells us is that parents at both schools prioritize enrichment or direct test prep to help bright students yield great scores.
I have on NMSF kid. She worked hard with prep book and practiced for a great score. I have one NMC kid who is also bright, but has adhd and took ACT, so didn't want to spend much time on PSAT.
And before people say their kid is just naturally gifted and didn't prep, many of these kids have been doing AOPS and similar enrichment for a long time. Also, lots of kids at TPMS went to specialized classes for Blair/RM exam back when they had a specific one. Testing is its own thang.