Are magnets worth it for college admission?
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Anonymous
| The MAJORITY of Magnet kids go to UMD. |
Anonymous
yes, but the point is that there are more high flyers in magnets than home school, for the most part. IMO, competition is more fiercer in magnets. |
Anonymous
Cite source, please. I'm not saying that they don't, but it would be good to see the cited numbers. |
Anonymous
OP here.. no, that's not my intent. My kids are freshman and senior, and actually one is in a magnet, so it's not about that. I'm past the point of trying to get my HSers into a magnet. I'm just hearing about how brutal the college admissions is for magnet kids from both TJ and MCPS. So, now I'm wondering, other than yes, the challenge that they need in HS (and they did), how is it that some of the high achieving kids from a magnet program don't do as well for college admissions? Some of them are disappointed in their college admissions, and I'm disappointed for them. So, it got me thinking about how they are competing against each other for the same spots. They all seem to apply to similar schools. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe they should branch out. But, they are all so similar in their achievements, it's hard to understand why some get in and some don't. |
Anonymous
At the magnet information session, we were told that half of the magnet graduates to go UMD-CP. |
Anonymous
What teenager likes to wake up at 5 am and goes to school sick? Yeah you’re a troll! |
Anonymous
Umm, you basically just said what the person said. So what are you disagreeing about? |
Anonymous
Which magnet? |
Anonymous
You do realize that this cohort is a small one and most magnet kids are not the social butterflies of the school. Blair has a ton go to UMD-CP because they get into honors college with scholarship. Some go for free. So yes, maybe they get into Rice or Michigan but they aren't going for free. UMD-CP for in-state or cheaper is a no brainer. Most families choose magnet over private due to costs. Same with college. And their cohort of friends are all together at UMD-CP. |
Anonymous
The Blair SMAC magnet. Here's some information - forward to around 11:45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7tIVLmhbXM |
Anonymous
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Yes. I think for our children magnets were absolutely worth it for college admissions.
The pathway for both of my kids -> PHS SMCS -> UMD. We are Asian-American first gen immigrants. Our kids chose STEM careers. Both had perfect stats in GPA and SAT, NMS, ECs, Internships and research papers etc. We knew that they would not get into top private schools based on the fact that many of their peers in PHS look and achieve like them. Apart from that, they also did not apply extensively. They applied to 6 schools in all. Since UMD was in-state and great for CS, Physics and Math (both did double majors, both had Math in common), that was their lowest bar in terms of where they wanted to apply. This did not leave very many colleges for them that were ranked higher for these majors. This is not a drawback but a boon. Imagine having a college like UMD as your safety. To be honest, UMD was very much their dream school, target and safety all rolled in one. Having done STEM research internships during PHS (It is a SMCS requirement) and having written a paper based on that - they also found it easy to get future internships @ UMD right from the get go. Having been through the rigor, pace, and curriculum of SMCS and having so many AP and post-AP credits transfer, allowed them to juggle two hard majors, internships, and socializing in college with ease. They watched many of their college classmates - either do very poorly in hard courses or study very hard to stay afloat or do well but without any outside interests. In other words, the training and exposure they got at PHS made college seem easy. The kind of professional training that the SMCS teaches these students in terms of advocating for oneself, building a network of peers, acquiring skill sets, acquiring credentials, creating and seeking opportunities, time management and organization is invaluable for college and professional life. They also were hugely networked at UMD with other area students from DMV because they had either competed with them in other arenas or had crossed paths with them. Last, but not the least - since they are already in-state in a public university and the cost is already low. Therefore, even a small merit aid usually covers a significant amount of tuition if not all. This merit $$$ was like a payday for the work that they did in magnet HS. For us, magnet STEM schools was worth it for succeeding in college and professional life. It made the college admission process easy too. Of course, I don't mean to be glib and say that it was all easy. To be in the magnet track meant that my kids were performing academically at very high levels from ES. They were acing all kinds of tests that was being administered by MCPS- Raven, TerraNova, MAPS - and tests like JHU-CTY outside of school. They were consistent from K-12, and also worked hard to have a well rounded resume - ECs, volunteer work, competitions, honor societies, internships, research papers, no discipline issues, consistent performance, no absenteeism, juggling leadership responsibilities, self advocating etc. |
Anonymous
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I can't speak for now, but I graduated from Blair in the late 90s. I got into every college I applied to, including some Ivys. I chose UMCP, because they gave me a full ride (banneker key scholarship, not sure if they have it anymore). Anyway, when I got to UMCP, I found many of my old magnet classmates there (I'd guess 40/100, at least). And they were the most represented school in all of MD with the full ride scholarship. If I were to guess, at least half of those attending from Blair got a full ride.
So yeah, a lot of us went to UMCP but there were very very good reasons for that. I have never regretted going there, and the magnet easily prepared me for my STEM career. A lot of my old classmates went onto to medical school from there, and a few have them have mentioned how relieved they were to not have undergrad debt in addition to med school debt. I don't think you should feel bad if you go to Blair/Poolesville and don't end up in an Ivy. |
Anonymous
OP here.. this and the right above you poster are good to hear. I'm hearing that UMD Honors for CS with merit is pretty hard to get into, and probably some of the other engineering majors. So, I guess from that perspective, and being able to handle the workload, being in a magnet is worth it. And I agree that graduating with zero debt is a boon now a days. Many of us, my situation included, don't have family wealth, and while we make good money, we also live in a hcol area, so trying to pay for expensive privates would be difficult. This is kind of new to me because my trajectory to college was a B rated state school from out west. We didn't have this many high achieving kids in my school, so I guess I was expecting more for college admissions for these magnet kids. But, also, times have changed for college admissions, too. |
Anonymous
Thanks for that link. Somethings to note: -- 98 % get accepted to UMD who apply. Not 100%. That's kind of surprising to me. I'm seeing the same at other magnets, not everyone at magnets who apply to UMD get into UMD. -- 20 get a full BK scholarship. That's impressive. |
Anonymous
my kid got a full bk but from different mcps magnet |