If accepted to Blair Stem and Richard Montgomery IB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RMIB is more well rounded -- lots of kids go on to major in STEM or humanities, and some both.

Blair students pretty much all end up majoring in STEM.

That doesn't make them less well rounded. DC is fluent in two world languages and an expert in European history, like their father who has PhD in engineering and has read tens of thousand of pages of history books. A lot of bright kids like history and languages but don't make it their major.

That's nice for your kid, but how many Blair students do you think are that well rounded? Not many.

Whereas RMIB students are more well rounded since the STEM oriented kids still have to take the IB humanities classes, and vice versa.

The vast majority of them are well rounded.
Blair students not only dominate in STEM, they also dominate in non-STEM subjects/competitions: journalism, C-SPAN etc...
You have no idea of what you're talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

Debatable. From MS the truly brilliant kids went to Blair, the grinders and strivers went to RMIB.

Is "grinders and strivers" code for "other people's hard-working, ambitious kids"?

I mean, what a crappy thing to say, even anonymously. Even something like "overly intense" would be a less loaded way of putting it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two things that have not been mentioned yet. Blair's size can be a negative and the fact that there's a second magnet at the school can be good or bad. There is a lot of competition for clubs and spots on the debate team, etc. so your child may not get to do her first choice of activity all the time.

Blair kids are done with most of their required classes by the end of 10th so 11th and 12th can be fun and full of electives. RMIB requirements go up until 12th and even at the end of 12th your child will be stressed out taking the IB tests. That was a drag.

I haven't seen anyone mention the extra period for the SMCS magnet—that's still a thing, right? But not at RMIB?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

My goodness! I have never seen so many wrongs in just one post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

Debatable. From MS the truly brilliant kids went to Blair, the grinders and strivers went to RMIB.

Is "grinders and strivers" code for "other people's hard-working, ambitious kids"?

I mean, what a crappy thing to say, even anonymously. Even something like "overly intense" would be a less loaded way of putting it.

And "truly brilliant" is laughable given those are the most intensely prepped kids in the state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two things that have not been mentioned yet. Blair's size can be a negative and the fact that there's a second magnet at the school can be good or bad. There is a lot of competition for clubs and spots on the debate team, etc. so your child may not get to do her first choice of activity all the time.

Blair kids are done with most of their required classes by the end of 10th so 11th and 12th can be fun and full of electives. RMIB requirements go up until 12th and even at the end of 12th your child will be stressed out taking the IB tests. That was a drag.

I haven't seen anyone mention the extra period for the SMCS magnet—that's still a thing, right? But not at RMIB?

Correct Blair has the extra period, RMIB does not. Is often used as a free period, which helps manage workload.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RMIB is more well rounded -- lots of kids go on to major in STEM or humanities, and some both.

Blair students pretty much all end up majoring in STEM.

That doesn't make them less well rounded. DC is fluent in two world languages and an expert in European history, like their father who has PhD in engineering and has read tens of thousand of pages of history books. A lot of bright kids like history and languages but don't make it their major.

That's nice for your kid, but how many Blair students do you think are that well rounded? Not many.

Whereas RMIB students are more well rounded since the STEM oriented kids still have to take the IB humanities classes, and vice versa.

The vast majority of them are well rounded.
Blair students not only dominate in STEM, they also dominate in non-STEM subjects/competitions: journalism, C-SPAN etc...
You have no idea of what you're talking about.

That is simply not true. But good effort!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

Tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

This is all easy to verify. Although it's not true that there were twice as many RMIB NMSF last year as Blair, it is true there were more. 2024 29 RMIB, 21 Blair. 2025 there were more from Blair. It does vary.

As for college admissions, look at the college commitment websites from last year. You can draw your own conclusions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two things that have not been mentioned yet. Blair's size can be a negative and the fact that there's a second magnet at the school can be good or bad. There is a lot of competition for clubs and spots on the debate team, etc. so your child may not get to do her first choice of activity all the time.

Blair kids are done with most of their required classes by the end of 10th so 11th and 12th can be fun and full of electives. RMIB requirements go up until 12th and even at the end of 12th your child will be stressed out taking the IB tests. That was a drag.

I haven't seen anyone mention the extra period for the SMCS magnet—that's still a thing, right? But not at RMIB?

Correct Blair has the extra period, RMIB does not. Is often used as a free period, which helps manage workload.

Definitely not accurate to say that it is used as an extra period

[Anonymous]

Often

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RMIB is more well rounded -- lots of kids go on to major in STEM or humanities, and some both.

Blair students pretty much all end up majoring in STEM.

That doesn't make them less well rounded. DC is fluent in two world languages and an expert in European history, like their father who has PhD in engineering and has read tens of thousand of pages of history books. A lot of bright kids like history and languages but don't make it their major.

That's nice for your kid, but how many Blair students do you think are that well rounded? Not many.

Whereas RMIB students are more well rounded since the STEM oriented kids still have to take the IB humanities classes, and vice versa.

The vast majority of them are well rounded.
Blair students not only dominate in STEM, they also dominate in non-STEM subjects/competitions: journalism, C-SPAN etc...
You have no idea of what you're talking about.

That is simply not true. But good effort!

Well, I think PP is falling into a trap here. Yes, Blair dominates C-SPAN but that's mainly CAP kids because they prepare a C-SPAN documentary in class and because many CAP kids are on at least their second round of C-SPAN documentaries.

However, there are exceptions. One of the most prolific C-SPAN winners on the competition's history is a current Blair magnet student.

The other trap that folks fall into is looking at the NMSF list and assuming they are all magnet. They aren't. At both Blair and RM, there are talented and successful kids both inside and outside the magnet programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RMIB is more well rounded -- lots of kids go on to major in STEM or humanities, and some both.

Blair students pretty much all end up majoring in STEM.

That doesn't make them less well rounded. DC is fluent in two world languages and an expert in European history, like their father who has PhD in engineering and has read tens of thousand of pages of history books. A lot of bright kids like history and languages but don't make it their major.

That's nice for your kid, but how many Blair students do you think are that well rounded? Not many.

Whereas RMIB students are more well rounded since the STEM oriented kids still have to take the IB humanities classes, and vice versa.

The vast majority of them are well rounded.
Blair students not only dominate in STEM, they also dominate in non-STEM subjects/competitions: journalism, C-SPAN etc...
You have no idea of what you're talking about.

That is simply not true. But good effort!

It's absolutely true and verifiable.
Thanks for showing your ignorance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We ended up going with RMIB, but it was a tough decision. We were impressed by both at the open houses. DH is a professor and felt that developing strong writing skills should be prioritized for college readiness, that high-level STEM work could come later if DC decided they wanted that. But our kid wasn't as into robotics and comp sci as some of their peers, and did very well with languages. Also really liked math, and met a young woman who ended up at Princeton for math who talked up RMIB. For DC RMIB was the right choice. I would say you need to have an excellent work ethic, because all the writing projects are very time-consuming. It is a grind in that sense, if that's what PP was referring to. Blair kids seem to have more time for ECs for that reason, too. Workload is not quite as time-intensive.

Even if your child has a natural ability to pick up math and technical concepts quickly the Blair workload is really intense but I would say it is manageable. If your child struggles conceptually they may find Blair crushing. They can spend hours trying to understand the work and then many more hours actually doing it.
The RMIB workload was different in that you could plow through it and if you put in the effort you can succeed but as PP said even if you work quickly and are really smart it will always take a lot of time. I hope that makes sense. You got out of it what you put into it. For Blair you could put in 100 hours of studying and still not do well or do worse than others if you just did not get something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two things that have not been mentioned yet. Blair's size can be a negative and the fact that there's a second magnet at the school can be good or bad. There is a lot of competition for clubs and spots on the debate team, etc. so your child may not get to do her first choice of activity all the time.

Blair kids are done with most of their required classes by the end of 10th so 11th and 12th can be fun and full of electives. RMIB requirements go up until 12th and even at the end of 12th your child will be stressed out taking the IB tests. That was a drag.

I haven't seen anyone mention the extra period for the SMCS magnet—that's still a thing, right? But not at RMIB?

Correct Blair has the extra period, RMIB does not. Is often used as a free period, which helps manage workload.

Older kids often use it as a free period. It's hard to do that in 9th and 10th.

[Anonymous]

Of the four 2024 US Presidential Scholars selected in Maryland, two were RMIB students, the other two from non-magnet publics.