Tell me about your non-STEM kid in a STEM magnet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God, I was that kid and went to Stuyvesant in NYC. So painfully boring. I could keep up—barely—but it was so hard because I just wasn’t interested in all the STEM requirements. All the electives were STEM related for the most part.

I ran to a college with no distribution requirements and haven’t touched physics since.

But, I bet college was a breeze for you after Stuyvesant!

Is that a goal?

How did the goalpost change from avoiding boredom and forcing challenge at all cost (which is what I hear from a lot of parents in K-12) to “I want them to be bored and coast in college!”?

Uhmm...I'd rather them not have a mental health crisis away from a trusted support network at college all in the name of "challenge"! I want them to have a balanced college life without sacrificing their future professional goals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God, I was that kid and went to Stuyvesant in NYC. So painfully boring. I could keep up—barely—but it was so hard because I just wasn’t interested in all the STEM requirements. All the electives were STEM related for the most part.

I ran to a college with no distribution requirements and haven’t touched physics since.

But, I bet college was a breeze for you after Stuyvesant!

Is that a goal?

How did the goalpost change from avoiding boredom and forcing challenge at all cost (which is what I hear from a lot of parents in K-12) to “I want them to be bored and coast in college!”?

Uhmm...I'd rather them not have a mental health crisis away from a trusted support network at college all in the name of "challenge"! I want them to have a balanced college life without sacrificing their future professional goals.

Which is more than achieveable from a normal public school and not a STEM high school

[Anonymous]

Can the kid withdraw from the program if they find it too challenging?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can the kid withdraw from the program if they find it too challenging?

Kids withdraw every year from the magnets. Academics is just one reason. The commute is hard for some students and being away from their home school friends can be difficult socially. My child has to wake up one hour earlier than she would have to for her neighborhood school and I would not be upset if she left just because of that. It's a lot of time if you add that up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God, I was that kid and went to Stuyvesant in NYC. So painfully boring. I could keep up—barely—but it was so hard because I just wasn’t interested in all the STEM requirements. All the electives were STEM related for the most part.

I ran to a college with no distribution requirements and haven’t touched physics since.

But, I bet college was a breeze for you after Stuyvesant!

Is that a goal?

How did the goalpost change from avoiding boredom and forcing challenge at all cost (which is what I hear from a lot of parents in K-12) to “I want them to be bored and coast in college!”?

Uhmm...I'd rather them not have a mental health crisis away from a trusted support network at college all in the name of "challenge"! I want them to have a balanced college life without sacrificing their future professional goals.

Which is more than achieveable from a normal public school and not a STEM high school

But far slower and more boring to get there.

[Anonymous]

Did you know before you went to Stuy what subjects you were interested in or did you discover at Stuy that this was boring for you? DC's friend is having the opposite experience. Not really into STEM before the magnet but went anyway and then began to love STEM.

I never was into STEM, and I guess I chose it over a performing arts school because of the perceived prestige. I had thought I might develop an interest in it but that didn’t pan out. It wasn’t the most encouraging place because so many kids were operating at such a high level with math and science, I kind of just opted out. I did the work but it wasn’t stimulating for me at all.

As for college, yes I was ready to work hard so I did well. But small class discussions about literature and history were definitely a learning curve. I noticed that kids with a more well-rounded education were more comfortable with that because they had the experience of discussing things in depth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
I'm not sure my child would know if they "enjoy" science at this age because the MCPS science curriculum is not very strong in elementary and MS.

+1

I don't understand this.

I have two kids. I could have told you from early on that my kid who spent every minute trying to build things, and chooses the science shows on TV and the science books at the library, was more likely to enjoy a STEM magnet than his brother.

[Anonymous]

My DS used to always apply to all the magnets he was eligible for in MS and HS and got into them. At heart he is a kid who loves writing, literature, politics, history, sociology, However, Science is also not hard and his buddies all chose STEM.

Now in college, he is doing double major in CS and Sociology. And again, he has tons of time to play video games too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS used to always apply to all the magnets he was eligible for in MS and HS and got into them. At heart he is a kid who loves writing, literature, politics, history, sociology, However, Science is also not hard and his buddies all chose STEM.

Now in college, he is doing double major in CS and Sociology. And again, he has tons of time to play video games too.

+1 to applying to every magnet. Every 8th grader DC knew applied to every magnet they were eligible to apply for.
Just because some kids know early on that they like science and math does not mean all kids know.

[Anonymous]

DS is in SMCS at Poolesville. What we hadn't expected going in was the grind of the commute and 8-period day. He had to catch the bus at 6:30 each morning and was dropped off after 5 each day. Then there's the homework. I'm not sure he would have made it through the first year, with compressed physics and chem, had it not been the COVID year that eliminated the commute. Having to follow up such a long day at school with a bunch of homework would have been a lot. It seemed to ease up after freshman year (or he had stepped up his game), and now that he can drive himself to school, it's even better.

[Anonymous]

The extra period on top of an already demanding schedule is really hard.

[Anonymous]

I think your child would need to really like at least one aspect of the stem classes - the science, the math, or the computer science, or be really into engineering. Otherwise, the magnets might feel like a heavy grind. My somewhat-STEM DC (who is really strong in humanities, too) is in the Poolesville SMCS this year and loves one of those stem elements a lot, and really likes the program and teachers. DC has time for activities and an average of 90 minutes of homework on weeknights. The extra period is great so they have the choice to try something outside of STEM. Very little homework on the weekends. Feels like a good fit.

[Anonymous]

We've heard the Poolesville experience is really different from the Blair experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have a bright, curious kid who has the stamina for compressed science classes and is creative and expressive, you are golden. Blair has space for kids who are intelligent and curious but not necessarily want to take all of the most advanced math/science/comp sci classes. I have seen this. There are some classes that will seem tedious if the kids are not into it -- even STEM kids who like just one particular branch of science (e.g. Bio. ) may not care for most advanced branch of another science (e.g., math or physics). But, the key is to be curious, intelligent, and have stamina (quick processing). The magnet teachers are a treasure (for the most part) and seem to make the subjects come alive!

If your non-STEM kid gets into a STEM-magnet (assuming the stats are there), the kid should go in with an open mind. Investigate the upper-level magnet courses and see if any of those topics spark joy. If not, pass. You will simply be putting a square peg in a round hole.

This. 100% This is my kid. All around gifted so curious. Would have loved a more all around gifted school experience but they make you choose STEM or Humanities. He is not in love with STEM but he likes it enough. He's not like some of his buddies who spend their free time coding and LOVE math. He feels a little left out sometimes because his classmates are in the Robotics and computer science clubs and he is not.

He has taken the lower tracks for the options given because he's not passionate about STEM. Now he's applying for college and I realized that all of electives in school are STEM but all of his extra curriculars are non-STEM. I'm not sure how that's going to look to admissions. There are other benefits to being in a magnet program for a smart kid - many of the clubs are at a higher level, even the non-STEM clubs (i.e. most of the academic teams are highly competitive and winning so that's fun for those who like that).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is in 8th and thinking ahead to high school with applications coming up. Has all As and high scores. Setting aside the question of whether they have a chance of getting in we would like to hear from some parents who have a child who went to a STEM magnet program at places like Blair, Wheaton, Poolesville.

How did you or your child make your decision and why? How did it go? Did your child find the classes too challenging? Are you happy your child went? Any regrets?

Mine was more of an IB kid, but worried about the commute (Blair is closer) and didn't like the RM math progression. Came out of TPMS magnet but very humanities interested. (Chose TPMS over Eastern for proximity and augmentation as had EC humanities opps). Was not big into science but loved math and ok with CS. CS teacher (was a student teacher, so not at Blair now) killed any interest in CS. Kid felt over STEMed, but still loved the depth of math and appreciated the flexibility of the program. No regrets in the end, except maybe would have taken study hall for both semesters sr year.