Thomas Jefferson vs any of the private schools

[Anonymous]

SAM2 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

SAM2 wrote:If you want an interesting comparison, a better question is TJ vs. Blair.

SAM2, I'd be interested in your views on this. Although since TJ and Blair are in different states, it's not really a practical comparison, but it is an interesting one theoretically.

The numbers I've seen are stronger from Blair than TJ. I suspect the reason Blair has better stats has to do with the smaller class (and higher percentile-scoring student body). Fairfax County in total has about 13,500 students per class year, so TJ has about the top 3% for each class of 450 students. MontCo has about 11,000 students per class year, so Blair is skimming the top 1% with a class of 100 students. Some of that is offset by the fact that Fairfax County is far wealthier, so I'd presume the TJ students have higher SES scores than the Blair students. But in the end I think trying to say one is better than the other is a fool's errand. Both schools are very strong (just like all the top private schools).

I think TJ also draws from Arlington County and Falls Church City.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let me put it this way pp...every elite university has heard of TJ...not all have heard of MB. I count elite universities as top 20 on the US News list.

Can you document this? Are you yourself a guidance counselor at an elite university? Did your kid apply from Blair's program and draw blank looks at an elite university? Or are you speaking as a parent who had never heard of Blair and, if so, do you live in MD or VA?

[Anonymous]

I'm speaking as a university rep. from a top university pp.

[Anonymous]

We were recently talking to a family whose kid applied from the Blair Communication Arts (CAP) program. Apparently a lot of the "2nd tier" universities are well aware of the CAP program, the guidance counselors say as much during the admissions interview, and then they offer money (they did to this kid and some of the kid's friends).

I can't speak about the top tier universities' attitudes towards the CAP program because the kid in question was more a "B" than an "A" student.

[Anonymous]

Here's a question that I'm curious about: how many applicants does TJ accept each year?

Here is a summary of TJ admission statistics: http://www.fcag.org/tjadmits2010.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me put it this way pp...every elite university has heard of TJ...not all have heard of MB. I count elite universities as top 20 on the US News list.

Can you document this? Are you yourself a guidance counselor at an elite university? Did your kid apply from Blair's program and draw blank looks at an elite university? Or are you speaking as a parent who had never heard of Blair and, if so, do you live in MD or VA?

As OP Blair was not in the question. I have a brother who teaches at Blair and can say it is an awesome school and would be verry proud to have my kids go there. The quesiton was about private schools vs Thomas Jefferson.

[Anonymous]

The question became TJ vs. Blair via comments from SAHM2...these threads have a way of winding into different topics. Sure, MB is fine...it's just not as well regarded by the very elite colleges. Most kids from MB go to UMD anyway...so not to worry about the top 20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question became TJ vs. Blair via comments from SAHM2...these threads have a way of winding into different topics. Sure, MB is fine...it's just not as well regarded by the very elite colleges. Most kids from MB go to UMD anyway...so not to worry about the top 20.

and most kids form TJ go to UVa both good schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm speaking as a university rep. from a top university pp.

Do you live in VA, DC or MD?

I'd have to say that you've heard of it, or you wouldn't be posting about it here. Is it that the Blair program just doesn't have the same "wow" factor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question became TJ vs. Blair via comments from SAHM2...these threads have a way of winding into different topics. Sure, MB is fine...it's just not as well regarded by the very elite colleges. Most kids from MB go to UMD anyway...so not to worry about the top 20.

That's how I saw it, too. It sort of morphed into a general discussion of top publics versus top privates. If OP needs to know about TJ, and somebody has something to add about TJ, that would be great, but it doesn't seem to be happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question became TJ vs. Blair via comments from SAHM2...these threads have a way of winding into different topics. Sure, MB is fine...it's just not as well regarded by the very elite colleges. Most kids from MB go to UMD anyway...so not to worry about the top 20.

Most kids from Blair aren't in the magnet, and that's why most kids from Blair go to UMD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, MB is fine...it's just not as well regarded by the very elite colleges. Most kids from MB go to UMD anyway...so not to worry about the top 20.

What do you mean by "well regarded"? Is the program less rigorous? Or does it have something to do with the fact that it's less well-known?

I can think of a few reasons why the Blair program is less well-known. It has fewer kids in each class (100 versus 450), therefore fewer applicants to top schools, and fewer Intel winners et cetera, on an absolute basis. Also, it's a small program within a much larger school (100 out of about 700 kids in the entire Blair graduating class).

[SAM2]

I have no first-hand knowledge, but I'd actually be pretty surprised if admissions people at top colleges are not well aware of Montgomery Blair, and especially of the magnet program there. Even with only 100 students in each class, I suspect they see several applicants from there each year.

Silver Medal from USNews (schoolwide, not just magnet):
http://www.usnews.com/listings/high-schools/maryland/montgomery_blair_high_school

#139 Public School in Nation from Newsweek (schoolwide, not just magnet):
http://www.gazette.net/stories/06162010/montsch180900_32550.php

Recent article about Blair magnet student and college admissions:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/20/AR2010042002068.html

Some Wiki-info on the magnet program:

Wikipedia wrote:Magnet students have been winners of National Science Bowl, National Merit semi-finalists, Montgomery County Science Fair Grand Award Winners, first place winners in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Montgomery County Mathematics League champions for 22 straight years, SuperQuest finalist teams, national winners in the NASA Space Science Student Involvement Project, American Computer Science League National Championship Teams, Grand Winners of the Physics Olympics for the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan Area, and first place winners in the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Prior to the SAT changes, SAT scores consistently fell above 1400. Now, the average SAT score for the Magnet program consistently falls above 2100.

Over the years 2002-2010, Montgomery Blair has had the greatest total number of semi-finalists (108) in the Intel Science Talent Search of any school in the United States; it has also had the most finalists (16).

The program now boasts alumni who are math and science professors and researchers at institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, New York University, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Multiple alumni have also gone on to become Rhodes Scholars.

Two asteroids, 16234 Bosse and 16241 Dvorsky, were named in honor of Magnet teachers Angie Bosse and Mary Ann Dvorsky for mentoring finalists in the 2002 Intel Science Talent Search. A third asteroid, 23014 Walstein, was named in honor of Magnet teacher Eric Walstein for mentoring a 2007 Intel finalist.

Alumni in Academia

* Maneesh Agrawala, Professor of Computer Science at Berkeley, Winner of the 2009 MacArthur Fellowship (aka MacArthur Genius Award)
* Jacob Lurie, professor of mathematics at Harvard University

[Anonymous]

People go on and on about RM, but that National Merit semifinalist stat is really interesting.

I went to a whole-school magnet high school in an otherwise extremely bad school system and out of my graduating class of 110, we had 46 National Merit semifinalists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People go on and on about RM, but that National Merit semifinalist stat is really interesting.

I went to a whole-school magnet high school in an otherwise extremely bad school system and out of my graduating class of 110, we had 46 National Merit semifinalists.

OK, by "interesting" you mean you are about to disparage RM for not having 1/2 of grads get NMSSFs.

But to me, having 1/4 of grads (an IB grade at RM has about 100 kids) be NMSSFs is still fantastic, and far above what you see in even the elite local privates. I don't know anything about the magnet you attended, but 46% is higher than TJ, and also way higher than any local private which in good years average 15%. In which case you'd have to argue that your magnet is better than Sidwell, the cathedral schools, and the rest. This may in fact be the case. But using your magnet to damn RM with the faint praise of "interesting" seems a little unfair.

A caveat that my point about 25% NMSSFs at RM is relevant if we're still comparing public magnets to private schools, which is the title of this thread. But maybe I missed the part where we've moved on to simply trashing the Blair science magnet and RM for fairly spurious reasons like small class size.