We made same decision re: Frost. |
| If you are coming from one of the better middle schools, what's the real benefit of the magnet? It sounds like your kid can have a pretty challenging math curriculum at their home school and even though English is "advanced" for everyone and they are all in the same humanities and science classes, if the make up of the homeschool is such that most kids come from highly academic families with competitive children, why not just stay there? It sounds like although the magnet schools have great math and science curricula, the other subjects (English and history or example) aren't that great plus you're dealing with kids from dissimilar backgrounds so you'd find a better academic co-hort at your home school. |
| Just went to my email archive to count this year’s mathcounts rank in chapter round (Montgomery county). Among top 20, ten are from TPMS, 3 from Clemente, 2 from Cabin John, 2 from Hoover and 2 from Frost. |
So if you're solely basing your decision to enroll on how many students at the school win this one math competition, then since Clemente (at 3) only has one more than Frost, Cabin John and Hoover. Not worth the extra commute, I say. |
| Wait do Frost kids go to TPMS or Clemente |
| TPMS |
Go check last years state qualifiers’ list. |
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And who won the science bowl last year and this year?
Frost. Who sent the more students to Mathcounts national last year? Frost. |
woot woot! |
Frost lost badly to TPMS at state math counts. Sending more kiids is not the same as performing. |
It is a strong indication of the schools overall quality. And with the recent changes two magnet programs using a lottery for admissions I would expect these statistics to be even less favorable going forward. |
How does your kid feel about changing schools and making new friends, OP? That would be a big factor in my decision too. I have a 7th grader in a magnet program - the commute is a dealbreaker for many families and if you’re not finding your kid’s program to be what you were hoping it would be I think making a move makes sense if the social piece doesn’t stress your kid too much. |
Forst is a fine school as is TPMS, but in the past magnets were all about the cohort. With the lottery admissions, that just doesn't exist anymore. Sure there are bright kids but it isn't really the same. |
Once the lottery kids are in 8th, Frost may finally surpass TPMS. It will illustrate how badly MCPS has messed up these once respected flagship programs with their ill-conceived lottery. My neighbor's son is a 7th grade on the JV math team now and claims that several of the strongest 6th-grade nathletes aren't even in the magnet this year. |
This. I would choose Frost. It has good stem clubs and enough peers, plus it’ll probably easier for your kid to stand out. with the time saved from the commute, almost a no brainer. |