Magnet/IB MCPS public schools and admission into top colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

I disagree. My kid went to Blair, and that magnet is relatively small (100 per class), and it offers unique classes and a means to stand out through the variety of rigorous courses. So, instead of the typical array of APs, kids may have Complex Analysis, AI, and/or Thermodynamics mixed in. The transcript also comes with a program description, and the program is recognized by top schools because of its national prominence. It is also intense, and the level of organization and investment kids make in the program may also show in the way they approach college apps. The same is probably true of IB kids.

I do think this could be an issue with large program like TJ, and may be true in high frequency majors like CS or Bio when it comes to Blair. But, overall, I'd say a magnet is a really good thing for college prep.

and that's resulted in how many Blair students going to MIT? CalTech?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

I disagree. My kid went to Blair, and that magnet is relatively small (100 per class), and it offers unique classes and a means to stand out through the variety of rigorous courses. So, instead of the typical array of APs, kids may have Complex Analysis, AI, and/or Thermodynamics mixed in. The transcript also comes with a program description, and the program is recognized by top schools because of its national prominence. It is also intense, and the level of organization and investment kids make in the program may also show in the way they approach college apps. The same is probably true of IB kids.

I do think this could be an issue with large program like TJ, and may be true in high frequency majors like CS or Bio when it comes to Blair. But, overall, I'd say a magnet is a really good thing for college prep.

and that's resulted in how many Blair students going to MIT? CalTech?

My DS went to Blair (class of 2025) and have a DC currently. Have to say that my DS was not in the top 20 of the 100 magnet students. he had high GPA and academic stats, but the top 20 or so have several other very high level national accomplishments (competitions-STEM, arts, music etc) and these students get picked by the top schools. DS was captain of some schools clubs and honor society but these school leadership roles do not mean much atleast at Blair. My DS is now at UMD in a premed program and doing well with no regrets. However for my other DC who is now in the magnet, we have realized that just excelling academically at Blair is not sufficient, they have to get more recognition for top schools. I would lead her differently based on our past experiences

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I compared the destinations for Walt Whitman (our home school) and RMIB when my kid was thinking of applying for that program. Their results were pretty comparable in terms of results and college acceptances.

Remember RMIB is only about 100 kids.

Right. If 4 kids from WW and 4 kids from RMIB were accepted for a certain school, that means that the RMIB kid had a MUCH greater chance of getting in than the WW kid.

Sure, - I said the end results were comparable not skewed in order to be mis-interpreted as comparable. I'm sorry I don't have the links to hand. I expect they were published in the Bethesda Magazine and those were TOTALS from each school, not differentiating between the IB and the Non-IB students at RM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I compared the destinations for Walt Whitman (our home school) and RMIB when my kid was thinking of applying for that program. Their results were pretty comparable in terms of results and college acceptances.

Remember RMIB is only about 100 kids.

Right. If 4 kids from WW and 4 kids from RMIB were accepted for a certain school, that means that the RMIB kid had a MUCH greater chance of getting in than the WW kid.

Sure, - I said the end results were comparable not skewed in order to be mis-interpreted as comparable. I'm sorry I don't have the links to hand. I expect they were published in the Bethesda Magazine and those were TOTALS from each school, not differentiating between the IB and the Non-IB students at RM.

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying in your first sentence. WW has a senior class of roughly 500. RMIB has a senior class of roughly 110.

For 2021:
CalTech: 3 accepted from WW, 1 accepted from RMIB
Harvard: 2 accepted from WW, 1 accepted from RMIB
Brown: 3 accepted from WW, 6 accepted from RMIB

So acceptance rates are not really comparable.


https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-magazine/september-october-2021/college-bound-6/
https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/high-schools/r-w/rmhs/ib/ib-college-list-classes-2021-2020-2019.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

I disagree. My kid went to Blair, and that magnet is relatively small (100 per class), and it offers unique classes and a means to stand out through the variety of rigorous courses. So, instead of the typical array of APs, kids may have Complex Analysis, AI, and/or Thermodynamics mixed in. The transcript also comes with a program description, and the program is recognized by top schools because of its national prominence. It is also intense, and the level of organization and investment kids make in the program may also show in the way they approach college apps. The same is probably true of IB kids.

I do think this could be an issue with large program like TJ, and may be true in high frequency majors like CS or Bio when it comes to Blair. But, overall, I'd say a magnet is a really good thing for college prep.

Thank you for this advice. My DD will be trying for magnet or IB program for next year. She is a good student. Assuming she gets into the magnet program (her first choice), will she have a harder time standing out amongst the 100 kids who are all very bright and talented. Will she have better college admissions in her home school?

I would venture it could be hard to stand out if certain majors CS or Bio, which seem (anecdotally) to be the hottest majors among the STEM set, or high app schools. But, in Blair/Poolesville and w/IB, there is a lot of room to create a unique profile. Mine focused more on math and actually applied for more arts related fields in the end. If the kid is in Wheaton Engineering or Bio, those programs are only 30 students each, so, knowing kids apply all over, they should stand out too.

[Anonymous]

The Blair kids who get into the top schools have more than just good grades and leadership roles on school teams. They also have competed and won in regional, national and international competitions in STEM as well as athletics, music, ice skating, etc. They all stand out in some way. I suggest that your DD apply to more schools such as Berkeley, CMU and Georgia Tech which are all very strong in computer science along with UMD which is a safety and where she may get scholarship money. Girls do have an advantage over guys in tech because there are fewer of them but it is certainly not a large advantage. Just know that all of these students such as your daughter do very well wherever they go to university and have many wonderful options when they graduate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

Where can I find prior years college destinations from the magnet programs? Is it in a separate thread on this forum?

If you are in the program the information is available to students. I remember one year 8 students went to MIT and a couple of years later only 2 went.
In a typical year, Blair sends around 40% of its students to UMD. The rest are equally divided between top 20 type schools on the one hand and top publics or tech institutions (such as Georgia Tech) or a handful of slacs. IMO the kids getting into the top 20 schools have something that sets them apart from the other students taking rigorous classes and achieving high stats. It might be a top science award, or maybe they play a sport or an instrument at a very high level.
High stats are great but they don’t help you stand out that much in a program where nearly half of the students are NMSFs. Earning straight As is a real achievement and might help a student stand out a little but I still think you need something extra for the top places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

Where can I find prior years college destinations from the magnet programs? Is it in a separate thread on this forum?

I do not believe they officially release that info. The year my kid graduated, within my kid's close friends of a dozen or so, 1 to P, 2 to MIT, 1 Brown, a few to Cornell, 1 to Yale, and a few to UMD w/ merit. I don't remember anyone to H or Caltech but again this is only about dozen kids or so. I know it's just a data point, nothing more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

Where can I find prior years college destinations from the magnet programs? Is it in a separate thread on this forum?

I do not believe they officially release that info. The year my kid graduated, within my kid's close friends of a dozen or so, 1 to P, 2 to MIT, 1 Brown, a few to Cornell, 1 to Yale, and a few to UMD w/ merit. I don't remember anyone to H or Caltech but again this is only about dozen kids or so. I know it's just a data point, nothing more.

My DD and DS graduated from Blair in 2018 and 2016, and have a freshman currently at Blair. DD is a top Ivy doing economics and applied math, DS in Ivy doing finance. I would say that approx 20-30 from the magnet class for both kids went to top schools. and about a half went to UMD (many got great scholarship money). In order to stand out at Blair, agree with OP, high GPA, near perfect SAT/ACT, AP's with 4 and 5's, some leadership in school clubs (though does not matter much), national level awards whether it is USACO, USAMO, USAPhO, quiz bowls and many others. Individual awards are considered more prestigious than team awards for obvious reasons. If kid in research, then Science fair awards going to ISEF and conference presentations/ peer reviewed publications. Service/ volunteering is also big for top schools. I remember my DC was asked in interviews about what they did, as they also included anecdotes about volunteering in essays. All in all, it is certainly more difficult to stand out at Blair as many kids have top academic grades. You have to stand out in many more extracurriculars to be clearly noticed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

Where can I find prior years college destinations from the magnet programs? Is it in a separate thread on this forum?

I do not believe they officially release that info. The year my kid graduated, within my kid's close friends of a dozen or so, 1 to P, 2 to MIT, 1 Brown, a few to Cornell, 1 to Yale, and a few to UMD w/ merit. I don't remember anyone to H or Caltech but again this is only about dozen kids or so. I know it's just a data point, nothing more.

My DD and DS graduated from Blair in 2018 and 2016, and have a freshman currently at Blair. DD is a top Ivy doing economics and applied math, DS in Ivy doing finance. I would say that approx 20-30 from the magnet class for both kids went to top schools. and about a half went to UMD (many got great scholarship money). In order to stand out at Blair, agree with OP, high GPA, near perfect SAT/ACT, AP's with 4 and 5's, some leadership in school clubs (though does not matter much), national level awards whether it is USACO, USAMO, USAPhO, quiz bowls and many others. Individual awards are considered more prestigious than team awards for obvious reasons. If kid in research, then Science fair awards going to ISEF and conference presentations/ peer reviewed publications. Service/ volunteering is also big for top schools. I remember my DC was asked in interviews about what they did, as they also included anecdotes about volunteering in essays. All in all, it is certainly more difficult to stand out at Blair as many kids have top academic grades. You have to stand out in many more extracurriculars to be clearly noticed.

That is very impressive, congrats to both your kids. Would you mind giving some advice on when your kids started training for these competitions and how do you decide which one is better suited to them. I have an 8th grader who wants to go to magnet next year. Not sure where to start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

Where can I find prior years college destinations from the magnet programs? Is it in a separate thread on this forum?

I do not believe they officially release that info. The year my kid graduated, within my kid's close friends of a dozen or so, 1 to P, 2 to MIT, 1 Brown, a few to Cornell, 1 to Yale, and a few to UMD w/ merit. I don't remember anyone to H or Caltech but again this is only about dozen kids or so. I know it's just a data point, nothing more.

My DD and DS graduated from Blair in 2018 and 2016, and have a freshman currently at Blair. DD is a top Ivy doing economics and applied math, DS in Ivy doing finance. I would say that approx 20-30 from the magnet class for both kids went to top schools. and about a half went to UMD (many got great scholarship money). In order to stand out at Blair, agree with OP, high GPA, near perfect SAT/ACT, AP's with 4 and 5's, some leadership in school clubs (though does not matter much), national level awards whether it is USACO, USAMO, USAPhO, quiz bowls and many others. Individual awards are considered more prestigious than team awards for obvious reasons. If kid in research, then Science fair awards going to ISEF and conference presentations/ peer reviewed publications. Service/ volunteering is also big for top schools. I remember my DC was asked in interviews about what they did, as they also included anecdotes about volunteering in essays. All in all, it is certainly more difficult to stand out at Blair as many kids have top academic grades. You have to stand out in many more extracurriculars to be clearly noticed.

This is spot on. High stats are necessary but not sufficient. You also need top notch extracurricular accomplishments- national awards etc. to get into a top 20 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

Where can I find prior years college destinations from the magnet programs? Is it in a separate thread on this forum?

I do not believe they officially release that info. The year my kid graduated, within my kid's close friends of a dozen or so, 1 to P, 2 to MIT, 1 Brown, a few to Cornell, 1 to Yale, and a few to UMD w/ merit. I don't remember anyone to H or Caltech but again this is only about dozen kids or so. I know it's just a data point, nothing more.

My DD and DS graduated from Blair in 2018 and 2016, and have a freshman currently at Blair. DD is a top Ivy doing economics and applied math, DS in Ivy doing finance. I would say that approx 20-30 from the magnet class for both kids went to top schools. and about a half went to UMD (many got great scholarship money). In order to stand out at Blair, agree with OP, high GPA, near perfect SAT/ACT, AP's with 4 and 5's, some leadership in school clubs (though does not matter much), national level awards whether it is USACO, USAMO, USAPhO, quiz bowls and many others. Individual awards are considered more prestigious than team awards for obvious reasons. If kid in research, then Science fair awards going to ISEF and conference presentations/ peer reviewed publications. Service/ volunteering is also big for top schools. I remember my DC was asked in interviews about what they did, as they also included anecdotes about volunteering in essays. All in all, it is certainly more difficult to stand out at Blair as many kids have top academic grades. You have to stand out in many more extracurriculars to be clearly noticed.

This is spot on. High stats are necessary but not sufficient. You also need top notch extracurricular accomplishments- national awards etc. to get into a top 20 school.

Seems right. But this is the rule everywhere, it may feel like the direct competition is other Blair students, but really it's that there are many other Blairs out there, and many other talented students who aren't at magnets. Being at a magnet isn't necessary. Personal accomplishment will trump magnet coursework, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

Where can I find prior years college destinations from the magnet programs? Is it in a separate thread on this forum?

I do not believe they officially release that info. The year my kid graduated, within my kid's close friends of a dozen or so, 1 to P, 2 to MIT, 1 Brown, a few to Cornell, 1 to Yale, and a few to UMD w/ merit. I don't remember anyone to H or Caltech but again this is only about dozen kids or so. I know it's just a data point, nothing more.

My DD and DS graduated from Blair in 2018 and 2016, and have a freshman currently at Blair. DD is a top Ivy doing economics and applied math, DS in Ivy doing finance. I would say that approx 20-30 from the magnet class for both kids went to top schools. and about a half went to UMD (many got great scholarship money). In order to stand out at Blair, agree with OP, high GPA, near perfect SAT/ACT, AP's with 4 and 5's, some leadership in school clubs (though does not matter much), national level awards whether it is USACO, USAMO, USAPhO, quiz bowls and many others. Individual awards are considered more prestigious than team awards for obvious reasons. If kid in research, then Science fair awards going to ISEF and conference presentations/ peer reviewed publications. Service/ volunteering is also big for top schools. I remember my DC was asked in interviews about what they did, as they also included anecdotes about volunteering in essays. All in all, it is certainly more difficult to stand out at Blair as many kids have top academic grades. You have to stand out in many more extracurriculars to be clearly noticed.

This is spot on. High stats are necessary but not sufficient. You also need top notch extracurricular accomplishments- national awards etc. to get into a top 20 school.

Seems right. But this is the rule everywhere, it may feel like the direct competition is other Blair students, but really it's that there are many other Blairs out there, and many other talented students who aren't at magnets. Being at a magnet isn't necessary. Personal accomplishment will trump magnet coursework, too.

I agree with the first sentence of the bolded and disagree with the second. Can't we all just agree that admissions offices look at the whole picture?

A kid who has slightly less "personal accomplishment" at a magnet than a kid with slightly more "personal accomplishment" at a non-magnet has roughly even odds of admission (all else being equal). But it is the combination of rigor, GPA, test scores, extras, and accomplishments. You increase your odds by increasing as many of those as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

Where can I find prior years college destinations from the magnet programs? Is it in a separate thread on this forum?

I do not believe they officially release that info. The year my kid graduated, within my kid's close friends of a dozen or so, 1 to P, 2 to MIT, 1 Brown, a few to Cornell, 1 to Yale, and a few to UMD w/ merit. I don't remember anyone to H or Caltech but again this is only about dozen kids or so. I know it's just a data point, nothing more.

My DD and DS graduated from Blair in 2018 and 2016, and have a freshman currently at Blair. DD is a top Ivy doing economics and applied math, DS in Ivy doing finance. I would say that approx 20-30 from the magnet class for both kids went to top schools. and about a half went to UMD (many got great scholarship money). In order to stand out at Blair, agree with OP, high GPA, near perfect SAT/ACT, AP's with 4 and 5's, some leadership in school clubs (though does not matter much), national level awards whether it is USACO, USAMO, USAPhO, quiz bowls and many others. Individual awards are considered more prestigious than team awards for obvious reasons. If kid in research, then Science fair awards going to ISEF and conference presentations/ peer reviewed publications. Service/ volunteering is also big for top schools. I remember my DC was asked in interviews about what they did, as they also included anecdotes about volunteering in essays. All in all, it is certainly more difficult to stand out at Blair as many kids have top academic grades. You have to stand out in many more extracurriculars to be clearly noticed.

This is spot on. High stats are necessary but not sufficient. You also need top notch extracurricular accomplishments- national awards etc. to get into a top 20 school.

Seems right. But this is the rule everywhere, it may feel like the direct competition is other Blair students, but really it's that there are many other Blairs out there, and many other talented students who aren't at magnets. Being at a magnet isn't necessary. Personal accomplishment will trump magnet coursework, too.

I agree with the first sentence of the bolded and disagree with the second. Can't we all just agree that admissions offices look at the whole picture?

A kid who has slightly less "personal accomplishment" at a magnet than a kid with slightly more "personal accomplishment" at a non-magnet has roughly even odds of admission (all else being equal). But it is the combination of rigor, GPA, test scores, extras, and accomplishments. You increase your odds by increasing as many of those as possible.

This all makes sense. For STEM magnet programs, how much of the accomplishments should be STEM related? How much do other awards such as in music/ art/ sports matter? Not talking about athlete recruiting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say that it is harder to stand out at a magnet program. I don’t think it gives you an advantage quite honestly. Lots of great reasons to attend a magnet program but college admissions isn’t one of them.

What seems to matter for elite institutions is having some kind of hook - high level athletics, music or national awards in science or CS competitions etc.
you can look at prior years magnet destinations to see how many kids end up at mit or cal tech or CMU. It is highly variable from year to year and it is not clear to me that magnet programs have an edge over a regular high school with a good science program

Where can I find prior years college destinations from the magnet programs? Is it in a separate thread on this forum?

I do not believe they officially release that info. The year my kid graduated, within my kid's close friends of a dozen or so, 1 to P, 2 to MIT, 1 Brown, a few to Cornell, 1 to Yale, and a few to UMD w/ merit. I don't remember anyone to H or Caltech but again this is only about dozen kids or so. I know it's just a data point, nothing more.

My DD and DS graduated from Blair in 2018 and 2016, and have a freshman currently at Blair. DD is a top Ivy doing economics and applied math, DS in Ivy doing finance. I would say that approx 20-30 from the magnet class for both kids went to top schools. and about a half went to UMD (many got great scholarship money). In order to stand out at Blair, agree with OP, high GPA, near perfect SAT/ACT, AP's with 4 and 5's, some leadership in school clubs (though does not matter much), national level awards whether it is USACO, USAMO, USAPhO, quiz bowls and many others. Individual awards are considered more prestigious than team awards for obvious reasons. If kid in research, then Science fair awards going to ISEF and conference presentations/ peer reviewed publications. Service/ volunteering is also big for top schools. I remember my DC was asked in interviews about what they did, as they also included anecdotes about volunteering in essays. All in all, it is certainly more difficult to stand out at Blair as many kids have top academic grades. You have to stand out in many more extracurriculars to be clearly noticed.

This is spot on. High stats are necessary but not sufficient. You also need top notch extracurricular accomplishments- national awards etc. to get into a top 20 school.

Seems right. But this is the rule everywhere, it may feel like the direct competition is other Blair students, but really it's that there are many other Blairs out there, and many other talented students who aren't at magnets. Being at a magnet isn't necessary. Personal accomplishment will trump magnet coursework, too.

I agree with the first sentence of the bolded and disagree with the second. Can't we all just agree that admissions offices look at the whole picture?

A kid who has slightly less "personal accomplishment" at a magnet than a kid with slightly more "personal accomplishment" at a non-magnet has roughly even odds of admission (all else being equal). But it is the combination of rigor, GPA, test scores, extras, and accomplishments. You increase your odds by increasing as many of those as possible.

This all makes sense. For STEM magnet programs, how much of the accomplishments should be STEM related? How much do other awards such as in music/ art/ sports matter? Not talking about athlete recruiting.

I would say that there should be atleast some STEM related activities/ awards to show passion in some field of STEM. Could be coding related, math competitions, or science research. At Blair, all kids do a science related project in their final year in school. If the kids can get some science award out of this course that they take in school, that is really good for them. This year they had a Blair student who won the top 5 place at Regeneron STS. Blair has also had Regeneron ISEF finalists every year which also looks very good on the apps. Music, art and other portfolios are allowed for some schools which certainly look good. My DD played the violin and was in the top orchestra class at Blair, qualified for All State and All Nationals for her last 2 years at Blair. She also did ballet on the outside. When she sent in her college apps, she sent in her music portfolio. She is now graduating from Yale in 2022.