High School magnet results are out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got an email that DC was invited to the Wheaton/Edison HS. Still on WL at Blair. Wootton is the home school. Any inputs on the Wheaton/Edison Cybersecurity program. TIA.

My DC is currently invited and accepted to that program. Also coming from magnet middle. Excited about it. Also on WL for CAP. Does not want to go to CAP even if gets in...wants this Cybersecurity program. I'm sure many here will be dismissive because it is a lottery program but it sounds interesting. For the first few years you are a student in the Information Technology academy at Wheaton...my DC will take some AP classes outside of that academy as well. Good luck with your choices.

Information Technology at Wheaton is really good. My kid was in one of the magnets but hung out mostly with the AOIT kids because they were less intense. They participate in hackerthons (Blair hosts a really fun one), robotics, etc. The facilities are brand new. All of kid’s friends were direct admits to UMD for CS (before anyone sh*ts on UMD, these are all moderate income kids who didn’t qualify for financial aid to more prestigious/private schools and CS at UMD is top notch/hard to get into/can’t be beat in the area).

Wheaton is a well run school. I felt like I always knew what was going on. The college counselor knows her sh*t.

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC is on WL for several magnets. Anyone willing to share their kids scores 250 R 270 M?

Kid got into RMIB and Blair SMAC. 263 MAPR and high 280’s MAPM, I believe.

Coming from a parochial school. 99th percentile math and reading Scantron and all subscores of HSPT.

I thought Scantron was the machine that scanned those #2-pencil, fill-in-the-bubble forms that teachers used for multiple-choice tests back in 80's!

It was. The company is still around. ADW uses their test (Performance Series). Shorthand is to call it ScanTron.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crapshoot!

Sorry that your kids are not being selected for academic merit but being rejected for other reasons.

All I can say is you can rock your HS years in a normal year with some good strategy and guidance from private college counselors. Maybe the end result will be that you will be the top student in your school and get into an Ivy.

I am so sorry that your children will be missing their friends and will not have a cohort that they were friends with in MS. This is the biggest point of concern here in a pandemic.

I am sending hugs to all the kids who have been rejected unnecessarily. MCPS sucks!

+100

+1000. Kids do not suddenly become "not gifted". There should be more spots in gifted and talented programs at all levels. Once you are in you stay in.

Absolutely untrue, at least for the highly gifted. Highly gifted are the ones with true needs - 90th percentiles kids can be enriched in the regular classroom.

A study was done (can't find citation) on NYC gifted kindergarteners as defined by the test they take (WPPSI?). Then at the end of high school gifted was defined as acceptance at a highly selective college.

There was a 70% turnover between the two groups. The determinants of being highly gifted shift over time, and not all smart 5-year olds grow into motivated, focused, articulate kids.

The big issue in NYC is they identify giftedness in preK. Hardly valid data and it’s typically because those parents prepped. My BIL is currently prepping their 3 1/2 year old for the evaluation. It’s ridiculous, but it’s a free program in an otherwise expensive area.

Yes ID'ing in kindergarten is a problem. Yes test prep happens and widens the racial disparity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crapshoot!

Sorry that your kids are not being selected for academic merit but being rejected for other reasons.

All I can say is you can rock your HS years in a normal year with some good strategy and guidance from private college counselors. Maybe the end result will be that you will be the top student in your school and get into an Ivy.

I am so sorry that your children will be missing their friends and will not have a cohort that they were friends with in MS. This is the biggest point of concern here in a pandemic.

I am sending hugs to all the kids who have been rejected unnecessarily. MCPS sucks!

+100

+1000. Kids do not suddenly become "not gifted". There should be more spots in gifted and talented programs at all levels. Once you are in you stay in.

Absolutely untrue, at least for the highly gifted. Highly gifted are the ones with true needs - 90th percentiles kids can be enriched in the regular classroom.

A study was done (can't find citation) on NYC gifted kindergarteners as defined by the test they take (WPPSI?). Then at the end of high school gifted was defined as acceptance at a highly selective college.

There was a 70% turnover between the two groups. The determinants of being highly gifted shift over time, and not all smart 5-year olds grow into motivated, focused, articulate kids.

The big issue in NYC is they identify giftedness in preK. Hardly valid data and it’s typically because those parents prepped. My BIL is currently prepping their 3 1/2 year old for the evaluation. It’s ridiculous, but it’s a free program in an otherwise expensive area.

Yes ID'ing in kindergarten is a problem. Yes test prep happens and widens the racial disparity.

My child took the test with absolutely no prep at age 4 and again at age 5. (We declined the first placement because it was too far from our house.) Scored 99 on both tests. Test prep does happen, but those tests were designed to be prep proof. Were they? No idea. Good luck to your bil, but NYC's regular K programs are also excellent and NYC has a ton of points of entry to good programs for gifted kids so I wouldn't sweat not getting into Anderson, or BSI, or Nest, etc. I wish moco offered half the opportunities!

[Anonymous]

We got letter that SMCs is overenrolled and Humanities is at Capacity. For Humanities we are offered a do you want to remain on the WL response but SMCs says they will review as an an availability comes along.

[Anonymous]

Did anyone get off the WL for SMCs this year?

[Anonymous]

Just following up, any movement on magnet HS WLs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So interesting. My DS (perfect GPA, extremely high MAP R and MAP M -- always among the top if not the top at his schools) was not accepted at CAP but accepted a Blair SMAC and RMIB. He's also a good writer. We're thrilled to have two great choices, but I would have thought as a DCC boy with such high scores he would have gotten into CAP.

CAP is awesome by the way, for anyone who gets in. Highly recommend it.

CAP is the most prestigious and competitive program in the county these days. Pretty much anything at Blair is golden.

except the 2800 or so kids not in the carrot programs there. In that case Blair is just Easter Middle +

Actually that isn't true. The 2800 kids not in those programs include many of the county's best and brightest. It is hands down the best high school in MCPS.

You're not talking about Blair, are you? The only thing that matters is which colleges the kids go to after HS. Blair doesn't have any advantages in that regard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's pretty clear that since they eliminated teacher recs and the test this year, that there was a lot of jury-rigging of the admit pool to intentionally make it more diverse. Lack of diversity in magnets has been a sore spot within MCPS for years, and with the pandemic, they had a good excuse to eliminate the objective test. While that actually seemed reasonable, it was unconscionable to also eliminate teacher recs. Basically they had carte blanche to just intentionally choose incoming classes based on diversity. When you remove the actual distinguishing criteria (test and recs), you're left with criteria that lots and lots of students match (tons of MS students have straight As), so sure, out of all those students, it's easy to social engineer. Basically this year's applicants got shafted.

Totally!!!

Yes, but that means that admissions to colleges for this cohort will be below expectations --> not worth the commute anymore, especially for students who live along 270 in stronger HS school districts.

Folks, magnets are done, and I have a student who just graduated one. I have no plans to send my younger child to Blair Magnet anymore. It was nice while it lasted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So interesting. My DS (perfect GPA, extremely high MAP R and MAP M -- always among the top if not the top at his schools) was not accepted at CAP but accepted a Blair SMAC and RMIB. He's also a good writer. We're thrilled to have two great choices, but I would have thought as a DCC boy with such high scores he would have gotten into CAP.

CAP is awesome by the way, for anyone who gets in. Highly recommend it.

CAP is the most prestigious and competitive program in the county these days. Pretty much anything at Blair is golden.

except the 2800 or so kids not in the carrot programs there. In that case Blair is just Easter Middle +

Actually that isn't true. The 2800 kids not in those programs include many of the county's best and brightest. It is hands down the best high school in MCPS.

You're not talking about Blair, are you? The only thing that matters is which colleges the kids go to after HS. Blair doesn't have any advantages in that regard.

Yes, it does. Blair sends more students to the ivies than any school in the county. Scratch that... More than any school in the great state of Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You're not talking about Blair, are you? The only thing that matters is which colleges the kids go to after HS. Blair doesn't have any advantages in that regard.

Yes, it does. Blair sends more students to the ivies than any school in the county. Scratch that... More than any school in the great state of Maryland.

There’s also a lot of legacy status with folks in Takoma Park, so it’s not just the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You're not talking about Blair, are you? The only thing that matters is which colleges the kids go to after HS. Blair doesn't have any advantages in that regard.

Yes, it does. Blair sends more students to the ivies than any school in the county. Scratch that... More than any school in the great state of Maryland.

There’s also a lot of legacy status with folks in Takoma Park, so it’s not just the school.

Legacy? As if. It's all about the benjamins, not parental alums.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You're not talking about Blair, are you? The only thing that matters is which colleges the kids go to after HS. Blair doesn't have any advantages in that regard.

Yes, it does. Blair sends more students to the ivies than any school in the county. Scratch that... More than any school in the great state of Maryland.

There’s also a lot of legacy status with folks in Takoma Park, so it’s not just the school.

LOL
And compare that to the legacy status of folks from Potomac and Bethesda, legacy status in Takoma Park is not even a blip on the radar.

[Anonymous]

Do you think there will be more openings the first week of school- since things were virtual all year are their people who live in Bethesda that will just not show up for example to Blair of RM or PHS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You're not talking about Blair, are you? The only thing that matters is which colleges the kids go to after HS. Blair doesn't have any advantages in that regard.

Yes, it does. Blair sends more students to the ivies than any school in the county. Scratch that... More than any school in the great state of Maryland.

There’s also a lot of legacy status with folks in Takoma Park, so it’s not just the school.

LOL
And compare that to the legacy status of folks from Potomac and Bethesda, legacy status in Takoma Park is not even a blip on the radar.

And yet it isn't...