MAP M and MAP R scores for Poolesville Magnet Programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do you find the Fall scores?

Your kid sees them when the finish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went to SMCS open house yesterday. Last year 900 applied; they accepted 140 and 127 enrolled. Their yield is above Harvard's.

Did they explain why they took so many more this year? Usually there are only 100 places.

They said they invited 140 aiming at a smaller class but almost everyone accepted so they ended with a larger class. This surprised me because I thought they sent out 100 in the first round and then added more from the waitlist, as some students declined. This sounded like there was no waitlist but actually there was (he mentioned it). A little bit confusing but there was no opportunity to clarify.

That’s odd. I’d thought we’d been told in previous years they accepted only 100 and then added a few from the waitlist, if any, to cover attrition because they knew very few would decline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went to SMCS open house yesterday. Last year 900 applied; they accepted 140 and 127 enrolled. Their yield is above Harvard's.

Did they explain why they took so many more this year? Usually there are only 100 places.

They said they invited 140 aiming at a smaller class but almost everyone accepted so they ended with a larger class. This surprised me because I thought they sent out 100 in the first round and then added more from the waitlist, as some students declined. This sounded like there was no waitlist but actually there was (he mentioned it). A little bit confusing but there was no opportunity to clarify.

That’s odd. I’d thought we’d been told in previous years they accepted only 100 and then added a few from the waitlist, if any, to cover attrition because they knew very few would decline.

That's what I thought, too. Perhaps they invited too many kids from the waiting list after some number declined, and then too many accepted? In any case, these were the numbers we were given.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went to SMCS open house yesterday. Last year 900 applied; they accepted 140 and 127 enrolled. Their yield is above Harvard's.

Did they explain why they took so many more this year? Usually there are only 100 places.

The magnet coordinator explained that he is really bad at math, and demonstrated that several times during the presentation.

[Anonymous]

Ostrander (Blair SMCS coordinator) told me that they’ve always invited around 140 right off the bat, but in the past 30-some would decline and they’d end up with their preferred size of just over 100. But last year a much smaller number declined and they ended up with 127. They usually have 4 cohorts of students and this year they had to add a fifth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ostrander (Blair SMCS coordinator) told me that they’ve always invited around 140 right off the bat, but in the past 30-some would decline and they’d end up with their preferred size of just over 100. But last year a much smaller number declined and they ended up with 127. They usually have 4 cohorts of students and this year they had to add a fifth.

So.. if enough (i.e. too many) students are invited to the program from the getgo to account for declines, what is the purpose of the waitlist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ostrander (Blair SMCS coordinator) told me that they’ve always invited around 140 right off the bat, but in the past 30-some would decline and they’d end up with their preferred size of just over 100. But last year a much smaller number declined and they ended up with 127. They usually have 4 cohorts of students and this year they had to add a fifth.

I have a current 9th grader at Blair SMCS. I really thought my kid was going to decline the admission based on logistics and some benefits of the home school, but the admitted student night and shadowing opportunity were too convincing. Blair did a great job of selling the program at the admitted student night - maybe they shouldn't have done it so well!

[Anonymous]

I see no purpose. I do think I read somewhere that a few kids have been offered spots off the waitlist some years ago, so maybe occasionally they decide they can absorb a few more. But it will be interesting to see what they do this year - if they decide that 5 cohorts is fine and can invite the same number of kids (potentially getting a lot again, or if this year was an anomaly they can go back to 4 cohorts), or if they invite fewer and use the waitlist if needed. I don't get the strategy - it seems like you should decide how many you want, invite that many, and then use the waitlist if you have extra spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So does the essay even matter? Seems like if you have a high MAP score you get in to all…

Most people with high scores can write decent essays.

Someone tossed out a number that 800 people apply to 100 seats in magnet. When you consider people applying to 2 or 3 magnets, and people declining invites, you end up with a pretty high acceptance rate for applications.

Really? How does that math work out, exactly?

Let's take the 3 most selective magnets - SMCS, IB, and Eco. 100 attendees each, 800 applications each, but each applicant applies to average of 2 programs. That's 300 seats for 1200 kids. Now figure some kids stay at homeschool after getting admitted, so the number of admits is even higher

So it 100 seats on each magnet program kn poolesvile. I ready some water it was 75 in global and 60 each in SMCS and humanities. Is not that right ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ostrander (Blair SMCS coordinator) told me that they’ve always invited around 140 right off the bat, but in the past 30-some would decline and they’d end up with their preferred size of just over 100. But last year a much smaller number declined and they ended up with 127. They usually have 4 cohorts of students and this year they had to add a fifth.

Weird, in DD's year he said they invited "just over 100" aiming for a class of 100.

[Anonymous]

We might see more interest going forward. I think that year is the first one that went through lottery for elementary and middle school magnets so more of them might have jumped at the magnet experience in high school for the first time.

[Anonymous]

I wish they’d just expand the program.

PHS Ecology program parent here. If you live near Blair, I would not travel to PHS.

However, we adore the program. My kid didn’t have high MAP scores. If I recall scores were 239 R and 267 M and was admitted off waitlist to Ecology. SAT was low 1500s. Kid is a HE senior taking MV and AP Physics

[Anonymous]

Heard second hand from a parent who spoke with a teacher that Blair accepted way more last year than usual anticipating that they would not have the high yield they usually get because fewer kids from TPMS getting in. Usually they have 30-50 kids from TPMS magnet and they are used to the commute and rigor and accept without hesitation. This year not as many from TPMS since it was lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Heard second hand from a parent who spoke with a teacher that Blair accepted way more last year than usual anticipating that they would not have the high yield they usually get because fewer kids from TPMS getting in. Usually they have 30-50 kids from TPMS magnet and they are used to the commute and rigor and accept without hesitation. This year not as many from TPMS since it was lottery.

My goodness! Why do y'all right wingers keep repeating that same lie?
HS magnets are not lotteries.

[Anonymous]

You have reading comprehension issues. I understood that the middle schools were lottery. A lot of TPMS kids then go to Blair.

But since TPMS was lottery and HS was not lottery the overlap was expected to be smaller. With fewer TPMS kids going to Blair that situation could have theoretically impacted yield at Blair. It sounds like it didn't impact yield and they overcompensated for the lottery effect.