Choosing between Blair SMCS and Wheaton Engineering?
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Anonymous
| If your kid is into sports or band/orchestra, Blair has a lot of school spirit, a marching band, and full band and orchestra programs. Wheaton has just a pep band and doesn’t really have a full music program (or at least it didn’t when my kid was there last year). |
Anonymous
Poppycock! I have one who chose Blair over Wheaton and one who chose Wheaton over Blair. Both made the right choices for them. If kid is hands on and very focused on engineering, I highly recommend Wheaton. If kid is more into CS or math or wants to dabble in various mag electives, you can't beat Blair. If collaborative environment is important, then the scales may tip to Wheaton. Wheaton is also more diverse within magnet. Blair is more diverse overall. Blair has an extra period (great for my Blair kid, but would not have been good for my Wheaton kid). Both have excellent robotics. Blair is more competitive there, but maybe kid gets more hands on exposure at Wheaton. (Neither of mine did robotics, so don't know the ins and outs here). Both have excellent teachers, passionate about the kids and programs. Blair was great for my Blair-kid who wanted to do all the math and ended up not really into engineering at all. Wheaton was right for my Wheaton kid who is adhd ad thrives with hands-on, problem solving approach, who is now pursuing an engineering degree when they weren't totally sure at first. Both have great student outcomes. (Both of my kids got into T10 schools). Go to the admitted students days. Get contact info of current students and talk to them. Ask about shadowing. Consider where your interests lie and what is important in a school/program. All of that will help you figure out which is right for you. Good luck w/ your happy dilemma! |
Anonymous
| Congrats OP! Both great choices. At Wheaton your child will be a big fish in a small pond as the program is quite small. Wheaton is much more-hands on. The Blair teachers will tell you a lot of what they do is theoretically other than the one hands-on research class. |
Anonymous
| If your stident wants engineering and robotics, Wheaton is a terrific choice. In my student’s year almost all of the 30 engineeringmagnet students got into Clark at UMD. If they’re interested more broadly in science or math, I recommend Blair. My other student was in the Bio med magnet, he liked it also. Lots of those students are pursuing pre med in college. |
Anonymous
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For engineering or biomedical choose Wheaton
For everything else choose Blair |