Are magnets worth it for college admission?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In terms of college admissions, it will depend on what the home school option is. Bright kids need a peer group to really get it going. And if that's not available at the local school, magnet is definitely the better option.

But if you are zoned in a high performing district with all the tracked and AP options, I don't see why anyone would chose a magnet. MIT and Stanford aren't taking more than a handful of students at best from any school, even the magnets.

As a parent, I would focus on peer group when deciding.

MIT accepted at least 8 from Blair and 3 from RMIB this past cycle. 0-1 students at other MCPS schools (mostly 0). I think for students gunning for MIT/CalTech/Harvey Mudd/CMU, the magnets do give a significant admissions advantage. Yale, Harvard, Penn, Duke, and Hopkins seem to favor the magnet programs, too. Stanford, Princeton, and Brown, less so. Not sure about Cornell, seems to vary by year.

It isn't easy to stand out with so many high-stats, competitive peers. I do consistently hear RMIB's focus on analytical writing is excellent preparation for college, but it is a very tough workload that typically doesn't allow the time for competitions etc. that Blair does so well.

I'm not sure you can attribute that to Blair. It's possible those kids would have been accepted at those schools had they stayed at their home schools. Blair's program drew those kids. I'm not seeing evidence that Blair turned what otherwise would have been UMD students into MIT students.

If you have a kid at Blair, you know their peers push each other well beyond what goes on elsewhere even if the elsewhere is intense. That makes a big difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In terms of college admissions, it will depend on what the home school option is. Bright kids need a peer group to really get it going. And if that's not available at the local school, magnet is definitely the better option.

But if you are zoned in a high performing district with all the tracked and AP options, I don't see why anyone would chose a magnet. MIT and Stanford aren't taking more than a handful of students at best from any school, even the magnets.

As a parent, I would focus on peer group when deciding.

MIT accepted at least 8 from Blair and 3 from RMIB this past cycle. 0-1 students at other MCPS schools (mostly 0). I think for students gunning for MIT/CalTech/Harvey Mudd/CMU, the magnets do give a significant admissions advantage. Yale, Harvard, Penn, Duke, and Hopkins seem to favor the magnet programs, too. Stanford, Princeton, and Brown, less so. Not sure about Cornell, seems to vary by year.

It isn't easy to stand out with so many high-stats, competitive peers. I do consistently hear RMIB's focus on analytical writing is excellent preparation for college, but it is a very tough workload that typically doesn't allow the time for competitions etc. that Blair does so well.

I'm not sure you can attribute that to Blair. It's possible those kids would have been accepted at those schools had they stayed at their home schools. Blair's program drew those kids. I'm not seeing evidence that Blair turned what otherwise would have been UMD students into MIT students.

No, they wouldn't have been

[Anonymous]

MIT admitted 11 from Blair last year.. and all 11 accepted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In terms of college admissions, it will depend on what the home school option is. Bright kids need a peer group to really get it going. And if that's not available at the local school, magnet is definitely the better option.

But if you are zoned in a high performing district with all the tracked and AP options, I don't see why anyone would chose a magnet. MIT and Stanford aren't taking more than a handful of students at best from any school, even the magnets.

As a parent, I would focus on peer group when deciding.

MIT accepted at least 8 from Blair and 3 from RMIB this past cycle. 0-1 students at other MCPS schools (mostly 0). I think for students gunning for MIT/CalTech/Harvey Mudd/CMU, the magnets do give a significant admissions advantage. Yale, Harvard, Penn, Duke, and Hopkins seem to favor the magnet programs, too. Stanford, Princeton, and Brown, less so. Not sure about Cornell, seems to vary by year.

It isn't easy to stand out with so many high-stats, competitive peers. I do consistently hear RMIB's focus on analytical writing is excellent preparation for college, but it is a very tough workload that typically doesn't allow the time for competitions etc. that Blair does so well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In terms of college admissions, it will depend on what the home school option is. Bright kids need a peer group to really get it going. And if that's not available at the local school, magnet is definitely the better option.

But if you are zoned in a high performing district with all the tracked and AP options, I don't see why anyone would chose a magnet. MIT and Stanford aren't taking more than a handful of students at best from any school, even the magnets.

As a parent, I would focus on peer group when deciding.

MIT accepted at least 8 from Blair and 3 from RMIB this past cycle. 0-1 students at other MCPS schools (mostly 0). I think for students gunning for MIT/CalTech/Harvey Mudd/CMU, the magnets do give a significant admissions advantage. Yale, Harvard, Penn, Duke, and Hopkins seem to favor the magnet programs, too. Stanford, Princeton, and Brown, less so. Not sure about Cornell, seems to vary by year.

It isn't easy to stand out with so many high-stats, competitive peers. I do consistently hear RMIB's focus on analytical writing is excellent preparation for college, but it is a very tough workload that typically doesn't allow the time for competitions etc. that Blair does so well.

I'm not sure you can attribute that to Blair. It's possible those kids would have been accepted at those schools had they stayed at their home schools. Blair's program drew those kids. I'm not seeing evidence that Blair turned what otherwise would have been UMD students into MIT students.

The problem is the home school turning a MIT student into a UMD student.

You can see the effect, ironically, at Blair SMCS, which is half magnet and half the standard low quality MCPS courses.