Got into both CAP and Blair Magnet, but...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to consider is the level of instruction in the humanities and social studies in Blair HS.
The SMAC program is head and shoulders above anything your child would get in any other high school in Mont. County.
CAP might be better than the regular high school experience in Blair but I am not sure that is a good enough reason to pick it over SMAC. Your SMAC kid will get to take a lot of AP classes in history, english etc. and will probably get the same educational experience he or she would get in any good Mont. County high school in the humanities and social studies.

This is just ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best engineering schools look for well-rounded, problem-solving kids. As long as your child gets through AP physics and (hopefully) MV he/she will well positioned to do well in an engineering major.

I have to disagree. You do NOT have to do well in those courses to do well in an engineering school. I'd hate to see parents pushing kids thinking those courses are "required" in HS to become successful engineers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to consider is the level of instruction in the humanities and social studies in Blair HS.
The SMAC program is head and shoulders above anything your child would get in any other high school in Mont. County.
CAP might be better than the regular high school experience in Blair but I am not sure that is a good enough reason to pick it over SMAC. Your SMAC kid will get to take a lot of AP classes in history, english etc. and will probably get the same educational experience he or she would get in any good Mont. County high school in the humanities and social studies.

You see the world as boxes to be ticked off but HS is not just accumulating as many AP credits as possible, all classes are not interchangeable.

OP, CAP is more than the sum of the credits it really is a great collection of people and just asks HS students to be really good HS students (if that's not too vacuous). When I was in college I managed to take more math credits than could be applied to a degree. Yet when I ask myself, would it have better to have taken linear algebra or dif eq in HS? I say no. Would I have liked my HS physics class to have been compressed into a semester or to have done self-study AP? No, wtf? Do I wish my college survey lit class was half as good as my HS English class? Yes. As someone who was always math focused it took a little soul searching but I realized that for me humanities were the most important part of HS. I would never discourage someone from SMAC but also don't believe CAP could derail an engineering career. If your DC is excited about either program, that's the most important thing. CAP strikes me as healthy balanced HS experience, that being at Blair gives access to great science and math classes at the same time, all the better. I know if I'd had that choice I'd have gone with SMAC but older wiser me sees the value in CAP. Obviously a HS decision is not about the parent but that was my advice. Maybe somewhere all the now attorney's I took HS Calc with are pushing their kids into a STEM frenzy...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to consider is the level of instruction in the humanities and social studies in Blair HS.
The SMAC program is head and shoulders above anything your child would get in any other high school in Mont. County.
CAP might be better than the regular high school experience in Blair but I am not sure that is a good enough reason to pick it over SMAC. Your SMAC kid will get to take a lot of AP classes in history, english etc. and will probably get the same educational experience he or she would get in any good Mont. County high school in the humanities and social studies.

You see the world as boxes to be ticked off but HS is not just accumulating as many AP credits as possible, all classes are not interchangeable.

OP, CAP is more than the sum of the credits it really is a great collection of people and just asks HS students to be really good HS students (if that's not too vacuous). When I was in college I managed to take more math credits than could be applied to a degree. Yet when I ask myself, would it have better to have taken linear algebra or dif eq in HS? I say no. Would I have liked my HS physics class to have been compressed into a semester or to have done self-study AP? No, wtf? Do I wish my college survey lit class was half as good as my HS English class? Yes. As someone who was always math focused it took a little soul searching but I realized that for me humanities were the most important part of HS. I would never discourage someone from SMAC but also don't believe CAP could derail an engineering career. If your DC is excited about either program, that's the most important thing. CAP strikes me as healthy balanced HS experience, that being at Blair gives access to great science and math classes at the same time, all the better. I know if I'd had that choice I'd have gone with SMAC but older wiser me sees the value in CAP. Obviously a HS decision is not about the parent but that was my advice. Maybe somewhere all the now attorney's I took HS Calc with are pushing their kids into a STEM frenzy...

I think this is very true. My CAP kid can discuss history and current events at a really amazingly in-depth level, and can synthesize things and draw conclusions in a very sophisticated way. CAP isn't a learn-all-the-facts kind of approach; it's an integrated and enriched approach to the humanities, with a good dose of media and media technology thrown in.

[Anonymous]

"CAP strikes me as healthy balanced HS experience,"

This sounds right to me, but if it isn't, a CAP kid can just add as much Blair SMAC as they want until they are happy. They can also cut the full CAP diploma schedule to allow a work/life balance.
When they apply to college, they may not have a CAP diploma or a SMAC diploma but my guess is they could include both the CAP and the SMAC descriptions in their application to explain the difficulty of their HS schedule.

[Anonymous]

CAP classes are weighted and show up as honors on the transcript, as do magnet classes.

[Anonymous]

Can SMAC kids take CAP classes too?
My daughter is good at math and languages but not so much into science. I am worried about the quality of non-science classes at Blair.

We haven't received RM letter yet but the workload at RM thread scares me and makes me think Blair may be a better option. She didn't go to a magnet for MS.

[Anonymous]

PP..we are in the same place!

[Anonymous]

Yes, SMAC kids can take CAP but we need to make sure we are comparing apples to apples.

Both the CAP and the SMAC have a central set of classes that mix several classes to create the scaffolding for their rigorous programs. You can't mix those, it would kill Einstein, and I doubt there is space or they would admit more to each program.

The trick is you can mix in the classes that are set up for the CAP and the SMAC kids but that not all of them take. So foreign languages or mathematical physics, things like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can SMAC kids take CAP classes too?
My daughter is good at math and languages but not so much into science. I am worried about the quality of non-science classes at Blair.

We haven't received RM letter yet but the workload at RM thread scares me and makes me think Blair may be a better option. She didn't go to a magnet for MS.

No, that's not possible. The CAP classes, particularly in freshman and sophomore year, do not operate as single, individual classes. It is an integrated program and the four CAP classes (English, US History, Theater and Photo/Film) are inextricably linked. It's not possible to take CAP classes on an a la carte basis.

[Anonymous]

OP here. This is a great discussion, thank you all. My husband and I both have humanities backgrounds and know very little of the path forward for science majors. So I really appreciate the feedback from those of you who do science/math/engineering for a living. I hate being "that parent" but don't want my DC to miss out on the science/math opportunity if it's a super big deal. Thanks for the perspective!

[Anonymous]

Can any one talk about the quality of Blair's classes for SMAC kids outside the magnet. English, SS? If we are leaving a W cluster will we be disappointed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can any one talk about the quality of Blair's classes for SMAC kids outside the magnet. English, SS? If we are leaving a W cluster will we be disappointed?

I'm going to guess that the fact you ask that question "If we are leaving a W cluster will we be disappointed?" means you will be disappointed -- but not for a good reason. You are presuming there are differences in AP NSL or AP English when the curriculum is set by the county.

Being in a W school has to do with the accumulated wealth of the parents and little to do with the abilities of the students or the rigor of the class. You are conflating the two.

Blair Parent - yes, it's our home school, too.

[Anonymous]

The same curriculum can presented many different ways and at different levels. I agree that test scores are very correlated to family wealth and less correlated to quality of education..but I do not agree that Honor English 9a/b is taught the same way with the same books and projects across the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can any one talk about the quality of Blair's classes for SMAC kids outside the magnet. English, SS? If we are leaving a W cluster will we be disappointed?

I'm going to guess that the fact you ask that question "If we are leaving a W cluster will we be disappointed?" means you will be disappointed -- but not for a good reason. You are presuming there are differences in AP NSL or AP English when the curriculum is set by the county.

Being in a W school has to do with the accumulated wealth of the parents and little to do with the abilities of the students or the rigor of the class. You are conflating the two.

Blair Parent - yes, it's our home school, too.

Do you have kids at more than one MCPS HS? It would be difficult to know the answer if you don't. My kid does really well at her school..but I assume she would be run of the mill at another school..and that school would teach to a higher level than her current one.