Anonymous wrote: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.
“Townies”???? You are really gonna trot out that term? Then that is informative for reading snobbery into the rest of your post.
My kid went to PHS magnet. All of the parents of friends who lived in town had graduate degrees.
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