Contingency plans if not admitted to HGC?

[Anonymous]

Our older dc was not admitted to the hgc several years ago, and we thought seriously about private for him but let it roll at our home school. It was a mistake - he loved staying there from a social perspective, but he was not at all challenged and I think he started middle school at a disadvantage because he had been coasting the past two years versus all the kids who returned from the hgc. Our younger is currently at an hgc and her experience is wildly different than his non-hgc one - she loves school, has engaging projects and debates/discussions, her reading has blossomed because she is actually given great material and challenged to analyze it.

Ps to those who said above that the kids not admitted are not hgc "material," my spouse and I believe that our older dc has the greater intellectual curiousity of our two kids (and he also had higher wisc scores than his sibling), despite not having been admitted to the hgc. He is a slower worker and has anxiety so I suspect that is why he didn't score as well on the test, but I have no doubt that his teacher rec's were just as positive if not more so than younger dc's and he would have thrived there just as much as she does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our older dc was not admitted to the hgc several years ago, and we thought seriously about private for him but let it roll at our home school. It was a mistake - he loved staying there from a social perspective, but he was not at all challenged and I think he started middle school at a disadvantage because he had been coasting the past two years versus all the kids who returned from the hgc. Our younger is currently at an hgc and her experience is wildly different than his non-hgc one - she loves school, has engaging projects and debates/discussions, her reading has blossomed because she is actually given great material and challenged to analyze it.

Ps to those who said above that the kids not admitted are not hgc "material," my spouse and I believe that our older dc has the greater intellectual curiousity of our two kids (and he also had higher wisc scores than his sibling), despite not having been admitted to the hgc. He is a slower worker and has anxiety so I suspect that is why he didn't score as well on the test, but I have no doubt that his teacher rec's were just as positive if not more so than younger dc's and he would have thrived there just as much as she does.

Honestly you wrap up this in such a blame-the-school way. there are plenty of kids who thrive and excel in public school. Your son chose to be bored, he obviously wasn't intellectually up for anything more.

[Anonymous]

Local school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our older dc was not admitted to the hgc several years ago, and we thought seriously about private for him but let it roll at our home school. It was a mistake - he loved staying there from a social perspective, but he was not at all challenged and I think he started middle school at a disadvantage because he had been coasting the past two years versus all the kids who returned from the hgc. Our younger is currently at an hgc and her experience is wildly different than his non-hgc one - she loves school, has engaging projects and debates/discussions, her reading has blossomed because she is actually given great material and challenged to analyze it.

Ps to those who said above that the kids not admitted are not hgc "material," my spouse and I believe that our older dc has the greater intellectual curiousity of our two kids (and he also had higher wisc scores than his sibling), despite not having been admitted to the hgc. He is a slower worker and has anxiety so I suspect that is why he didn't score as well on the test, but I have no doubt that his teacher rec's were just as positive if not more so than younger dc's and he would have thrived there just as much as she does.

PP, that must have been hard to have a worthy kid overlooked, especially when his sibling got in. How is he doing now?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for asking, and he's doing well in middle school which is where his sister will be next year, too! It was disappointing but wasn't a huge deal at the time, I was just trying to respond to the op's question about alternate plans if a child isn't admitted to an hgc. I regret not sending him to private where I believe he would have been more challenged - fourth and fifthgrades were a waste of time at our W cluster home elem school. Thankfully middle school has proved better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for asking, and he's doing well in middle school which is where his sister will be next year, too! It was disappointing but wasn't a huge deal at the time, I was just trying to respond to the op's question about alternate plans if a child isn't admitted to an hgc. I regret not sending him to private where I believe he would have been more challenged - fourth and fifthgrades were a waste of time at our W cluster home elem school. Thankfully middle school has proved better.

Glad to hear it.

[Anonymous]

Getting into the HGC programs doesn't mean your kids will get into the Harvard, Yale and Princeton in the future. I have 2 kids all went into the HGC program and magnet MS and HS and were the top in the class. Only got into non-HYP universities but other kids from non-HGC and home HS got into HYP. Academic achievement counts only about 60-70% in the college admission. Your kids have better chance to get into top universities if they stay at home school with no competition.

[Anonymous]

I would rather my kid be surrounded with high achieving kids. We didn't apply to any public school magnet, but we did opt for private school. He is smart, but not the most driven. Since we have moved him to private, he has taken school much more seriously and is working a lot harder...improved his writing skills immensely. So I would recommend private to anyone interested in getting an exceptional education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would rather my kid be surrounded with high achieving kids. We didn't apply to any public school magnet, but we did opt for private school. He is smart, but not the most driven. Since we have moved him to private, he has taken school much more seriously and is working a lot harder...improved his writing skills immensely. So I would recommend private to anyone interested in getting an exceptional education.

So you have no experience with public-school magnets, but nonetheless you recommend going to private school instead (any private school, all private schools, they all provide exceptional educations...).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would rather my kid be surrounded with high achieving kids. We didn't apply to any public school magnet, but we did opt for private school. He is smart, but not the most driven. Since we have moved him to private, he has taken school much more seriously and is working a lot harder...improved his writing skills immensely. So I would recommend private to anyone interested in getting an exceptional education.

So you have no experience with public-school magnets, but nonetheless you recommend going to private school instead (any private school, all private schools, they all provide exceptional educations...).

That is not what I am saying. I recommend it to those who were not accepted to magnets as opposed to settling for local public school.

[Anonymous]

Ah. You are saying that all private schools are better than the local public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think practically all of the local privates can compare favorably to HGC. I'm speaking of DC and Potomac/Bethesda area schools - not sure about others. I've toured some and the quality of curriculum and student work (especially in English and social studies as well as foreign language) far outshines MCPS. Would definitely be a huge step up from regular elementary in terms of curriculum as well as opportunity to participate in class. Students are encouraged to excel in private - that in and of itself is HUGE.

But the kids are not ALL on the level of the top 2-5% of MCPS kids...you're kidding yourself if you think so..

Why would that be a bad thing?

Intelligence isn't contagious. I can understand wanting your child to have enough peers to challenge him, but I don't understand why having ALL the kids on the same level is desirable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Getting into the HGC programs doesn't mean your kids will get into the Harvard, Yale and Princeton in the future. I have 2 kids all went into the HGC program and magnet MS and HS and were the top in the class. Only got into non-HYP universities but other kids from non-HGC and home HS got into HYP. Academic achievement counts only about 60-70% in the college admission. Your kids have better chance to get into top universities if they stay at home school with no competition.

Is that what you think the goal of sending a child to the HGC is?

Also, FYI: There are many upper middle-class students who may be qualified for HYP, but do not even apply because their families have HHIs of $200K+ and therefore do not qualify for need-based financial aid, yet cannot pay full price at such schools. I imagine this is the reason that a huge number of Blair Math Magnet students go to UMD-CP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ah. You are saying that all private schools are better than the local public school.

Yes...and I know from experience...from a W cluster and was in public for 7 years. Now in private. A world of difference on many levels.

[Anonymous]

DC did not get selected to HGC because of some reason (will come to know once we get the scores)..but we know that DC a math whiz and HGC is more of a humanities program.So again assuming they do not have compacted math next year at the local school (as per some rumors floating around) what happens then?