Top 10 Schools in MoCo

[Anonymous]

NP here. I find the comment about "resident racist" very ironic, especially when MCPS is playing the race card in magnet admissions.

One thing is for certain that this has only deepened the racial divide. I no longer look at a black kid in a magnet program and feel pride at their achievement. I now question if they are under-qualified and were chosen because of their race. I neither trust MCPS nor I trust people not to play the race card.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, Blair booster, by your metric Stuyvesant beats Blair because it’s had more Intel winners and finalists.

LOL
Are you blind or what?
Stuy has had 189 semi-finalists and 22 finalists
Blair has had 202 semi-finalists and 40 finalists.

Blair beats Stuy hands down, and remember with less magnet students.

See folks, facts are hard for some to swallow.

Ok, but what do you have beyond that one competition?

Also, it’s “fewer.”

Math and physics olympiads
Robotics
Or Siemens, which by the way, Blair was the grand and final winner of this competition this year.
Just to name a few...

Oh, you mean the physics Olympiad where Poolesville won a gold medal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I find the comment about "resident racist" very ironic, especially when MCPS is playing the race card in magnet admissions.

One thing is for certain that this has only deepened the racial divide. I no longer look at a black kid in a magnet program and feel pride at their achievement. I now question if they are under-qualified and were chosen because of their race. I neither trust MCPS nor I trust people not to play the race card.

You were just a closet racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, more people means a higher number of them are gifted.

Yes, the top 1% of 4000 is superior to the top 1% of 300. This is more or less the situation.

It's true that the top 0.1% of 4000 is the same as the 1% of 400. This is exactly the situation despite the rantings of the tiger moms.

The only thing true there is the headcount.

I'd take 0.1% of the [4000] smart kids in NYC who chose to apply and then got admitted to Stuyvesant over 1% of the [400] robo-applicants who then MCPS mystery-picked to go to a MCPS magnet.

MCPS robo-applicants! MCPS mystery-picked admits!

LOL. Sad but true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, Blair booster, by your metric Stuyvesant beats Blair because it’s had more Intel winners and finalists.

LOL
Are you blind or what?
Stuy has had 189 semi-finalists and 22 finalists
Blair has had 202 semi-finalists and 40 finalists.

Blair beats Stuy hands down, and remember with less magnet students.

See folks, facts are hard for some to swallow.

Ok, but what do you have beyond that one competition?

Also, it’s “fewer.”

Math and physics olympiads
Robotics
Or Siemens, which by the way, Blair was the grand and final winner of this competition this year.
Just to name a few...

Oh, you mean the physics Olympiad where Poolesville won a gold medal?

Poolesville HS is a whole school Magnet. I believe roughly 3/4 of the students are test in Magnet students so the average SAT scores, AP completion rates etc (which is what the US news rankings rely heavily on) are very high and this is probably the main reason it is ranked as the best high school in Maryland. It is a great school with wonderful Magnet programs (science, humanities and global ecology) and a very strong, high achieving student body. On all those scores it outperforms Blair as a whole and RMIB as a whole since these are larger, more diverse schools with Magnet programs. The majority of students in Blair and RMIB are not Magnet. In my opinion, this is one of the best attributes of Blair and RMIB as it makes for a diverse student body and a more varied high school experience but it no doubt also means lower SAT scores and AP completion rates for the schools as a whole.
What you/someone who sounds like you, are saying though is that Poolesville SMAC is a more high performing and more nationally recognized science magnet program and that is not the case by any objective metric ( scientific awards, average SAT scores, percentage of Magnet students who are NMSF perhaps even college acceptances etc.,). Just be patient! Poolesville is a younger program and I am sure it will just go from strength to strength in the coming years. They are not rival programs but rather sibling programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, Blair booster, by your metric Stuyvesant beats Blair because it’s had more Intel winners and finalists.

LOL
Are you blind or what?
Stuy has had 189 semi-finalists and 22 finalists
Blair has had 202 semi-finalists and 40 finalists.

Blair beats Stuy hands down, and remember with less magnet students.

See folks, facts are hard for some to swallow.

Ok, but what do you have beyond that one competition?

Also, it’s “fewer.”

Math and physics olympiads
Robotics
Or Siemens, which by the way, Blair was the grand and final winner of this competition this year.
Just to name a few...

Oh, you mean the physics Olympiad where Poolesville won a gold medal?

Poolesville HS is a whole school Magnet. I believe roughly 3/4 of the students are test in Magnet students so the average SAT scores, AP completion rates etc (which is what the US news rankings rely heavily on) are very high and this is probably the main reason it is ranked as the best high school in Maryland. It is a great school with wonderful Magnet programs (science, humanities and global ecology) and a very strong, high achieving student body. On all those scores it outperforms Blair as a whole and RMIB as a whole since these are larger, more diverse schools with Magnet programs. The majority of students in Blair and RMIB are not Magnet. In my opinion, this is one of the best attributes of Blair and RMIB as it makes for a diverse student body and a more varied high school experience but it no doubt also means lower SAT scores and AP completion rates for the schools as a whole.
What you/someone who sounds like you, are saying though is that Poolesville SMAC is a more high performing and more nationally recognized science magnet program and that is not the case by any objective metric ( scientific awards, average SAT scores, percentage of Magnet students who are NMSF perhaps even college acceptances etc.,). Just be patient! Poolesville is a younger program and I am sure it will just go from strength to strength in the coming years. They are not rival programs but rather sibling programs.

I didn't say Poolesville is better than Blair. I said it's roughly equivalent to Blair, Stuy, and TJ.

Other posters then said Poolesville is worse than Blair, and one denigrated Poolesville's student body by saying "WTF is the student body it's even pulling from." They're the ones who really tried to drive home the idea that Blair is better. It's indicative of a general attitude on this board that downcounty schools are better than upcounty schools, even when (in the case of Poolesville and Blair) they offer the same SMAC program. There's this idea on this board that upcounty kids are not as smart and upcounty parents are not as invested in their kids' educations. It's offensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I find the comment about "resident racist" very ironic, especially when MCPS is playing the race card in magnet admissions.

One thing is for certain that this has only deepened the racial divide. I no longer look at a black kid in a magnet program and feel pride at their achievement. I now question if they are under-qualified and were chosen because of their race. I neither trust MCPS nor I trust people not to play the race card.

Magnet admissions do not include race. That is against the law.

Pretending that it is a factor, however, is racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, Blair booster, by your metric Stuyvesant beats Blair because it’s had more Intel winners and finalists.

Where do you get that. The top three schools in the country for the last 20 years are
1. Blair (40 finalists). 2. Stuyvesant (22 finalists). 3. TJ (15 finalists)

And isn't Blair roughly one fifth the size of TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, Blair booster, by your metric Stuyvesant beats Blair because it’s had more Intel winners and finalists.

Where do you get that. The top three schools in the country for the last 20 years are
1. Blair (40 finalists). 2. Stuyvesant (22 finalists). 3. TJ (15 finalists)

And isn't Blair roughly one fifth the size of TJ?

Blair's STEM magnet program has about 100 kids per grade whereas TJ has roughly 500.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, Blair booster, by your metric Stuyvesant beats Blair because it’s had more Intel winners and finalists.

Where do you get that. The top three schools in the country for the last 20 years are
1. Blair (40 finalists). 2. Stuyvesant (22 finalists). 3. TJ (15 finalists)

And isn't Blair roughly one fifth the size of TJ?

yes, MCPS has rinky dink small magnet programs compared with other districts. even when you add them all together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, Blair booster, by your metric Stuyvesant beats Blair because it’s had more Intel winners and finalists.

Where do you get that. The top three schools in the country for the last 20 years are
1. Blair (40 finalists). 2. Stuyvesant (22 finalists). 3. TJ (15 finalists)

And isn't Blair roughly one fifth the size of TJ?

Can't wait to see how many finalists there are once this Fall 2018 Cohort starts competing. Or maybe some will get added bonus points at the competition like they did for mcps magnet apps....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, Blair booster, by your metric Stuyvesant beats Blair because it’s had more Intel winners and finalists.

Where do you get that. The top three schools in the country for the last 20 years are
1. Blair (40 finalists). 2. Stuyvesant (22 finalists). 3. TJ (15 finalists)

And isn't Blair roughly one fifth the size of TJ?

yes, MCPS has rinky dink small magnet programs compared with other districts. even when you add them all together.

Blair SMAC, RMIB and Poolesville combined together would be around 400 students per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, Blair booster, by your metric Stuyvesant beats Blair because it’s had more Intel winners and finalists.

Where do you get that. The top three schools in the country for the last 20 years are
1. Blair (40 finalists). 2. Stuyvesant (22 finalists). 3. TJ (15 finalists)

And isn't Blair roughly one fifth the size of TJ?

yes, MCPS has rinky dink small magnet programs compared with other districts. even when you add them all together.

Blair SMAC, RMIB and Poolesville combined together would be around 400 students per year.

that's less than 1% of MCPS aggregate freshman class. MCPS underserving its top students again. most magnet and G&T programs are set up to serve at least 3-5% of total population. you'd think in an area with as many BAs, MAs and Phds per capita as DC and MoCo they could easily fill a program up to 5%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, Blair booster, by your metric Stuyvesant beats Blair because it’s had more Intel winners and finalists.

Where do you get that. The top three schools in the country for the last 20 years are
1. Blair (40 finalists). 2. Stuyvesant (22 finalists). 3. TJ (15 finalists)

And isn't Blair roughly one fifth the size of TJ?

yes, MCPS has rinky dink small magnet programs compared with other districts. even when you add them all together.

Blair SMAC, RMIB and Poolesville combined together would be around 400 students per year.

that's less than 1% of MCPS aggregate freshman class. MCPS underserving its top students again. most magnet and G&T programs are set up to serve at least 3-5% of total population. you'd think in an area with as many BAs, MAs and Phds per capita as DC and MoCo they could easily fill a program up to 5%.

This is one of the few points I'd agree with. The magnets should server 5X the number of students going forward. That's why I was thrilled to read about the new enriched classes being offered in MS as an alternative to the magnets going forward.

[Anonymous]

who in their right mind is calling that an alternative?

MS in MCPS is a disaster; it needs a total overhaul. And now that the C2.0 kids are coming through in full force, the deficiencies are quite clear.