National Merit Semifinalists

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting how few private school kids there are given the are supposed to have the brightest kids.

Who ever said they have the brightest kids? The richest kids, maybe. Unsurprising the magnets outperformed the other schools.

Many of those magnet kids will attend UMD because their parents can’t afford private schools, but they will do very well.

UMD is world class for STEM. Lots of Blair Magnet kids there doing very well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting how few private school kids there are given the are supposed to have the brightest kids.

Who ever said they have the brightest kids? The richest kids, maybe. Unsurprising the magnets outperformed the other schools.

Many of those magnet kids will attend UMD because their parents can’t afford private schools, but they will do very well.

UMD is world class for STEM. Lots of Blair Magnet kids there doing very well.

My Poolesville kid is a freshman STEM major there too and loving it. Also will be a Junior after one semester. We could afford private but the magnet school was a top notch education for free.

[Anonymous]

Will your children actually take advantage of all the credits by graduating early

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting how few private school kids there are given the are supposed to have the brightest kids.

Who ever said they have the brightest kids? The richest kids, maybe. Unsurprising the magnets outperformed the other schools.

Many of those magnet kids will attend UMD because their parents can’t afford private schools, but they will do very well.

UMD is world-class for STEM. Lots of Blair Magnet kids there doing very well.

My Poolesville kid is a freshman STEM major there too and loving it. Also will be a Junior after one semester. We could afford private but the magnet school was a top-notch education for free.

Yep. With all the Blair, Poolesville, top MD kids, and now some TJ kids who they attract with scholarships, it is a seriously good peer group in STEM-related majors. I hope they keep the quality up at these high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will your children actually take advantage of all the credits by graduating early

From what I've gathered, it really depends on the major. For some, yes. For others, it allows a double major in two very different fields. For example, some engineering majors have many requirements that you can't get credit for in high school.

I don't know from personal experience (my kids are in high school). Friends and neighbors who have current UMD students or recent UMD grads have told me.

[Anonymous]

Anyone know how to get a report of all the Maryland semifinalists similar to the Virginia list below?


https://web.archive.org/web/20230915001040if_/https://litter.catbox.moe/5lujlt.pdf

[Anonymous]

https://web.archive.org/web/20230913233627if_/https://litter.catbox.moe/ftekdo.pdf

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the link.

Why do you think one Virginia school- TJ HS - produced 160+ semifinalists?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the link.

Why do you think one Virginia school- TJ HS - produced 160+ semifinalists?

Because TJ is a magnet school. It’s like Blair magnet but the entire school with 500 kids per grade. Arguably if Blair magnet had 500 kids they’d have more than 160 semifinalists.

[Anonymous]

Blair had approximately 40 out of approximately 100 so a higher ratio than TJ.

But I'm not sure how much that would go up if it had 500 kids. I don't think Moco total had more than 130-140 but I could be wrong.

[Anonymous]

It's 189 for Moco total. My estimate was way off.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?pagetype=showrelease&id=13329

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting how few private school kids there are given the are supposed to have the brightest kids.

Who ever said they have the brightest kids? The richest kids, maybe. Unsurprising the magnets outperformed the other schools.

Many of those magnet kids will attend UMD because their parents can’t afford private schools, but they will do very well.

raise hand.. that's my kid. Killing it in their advanced math class already, as a freshman.

You sound cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

NP. Sounds perfectly normal to me. My Blair kid passed out of all foundational math at their school and was halfway through math major requirements as a first year.

On a different note, when will commended kids get that notice? Has anyone heard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the link.

Why do you think one Virginia school- TJ HS - produced 160+ semifinalists?

Because TJ is a magnet school. It’s like Blair magnet but the entire school with 500 kids per grade. Arguably if Blair magnet had 500 kids they’d have more than 160 semifinalists.

Two additional factors: 1) VA had a lower cut score than MD this year (219 v. 221); and 2) VA is allotted more SF slots than MD (generally ~500 v. ~300) because VA usually has more graduating seniors in the state than MD does (the number allotted is proportional).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS represented very well. DCC (besides Blair), we've gotta step it up!

But Blair is fantastic

And with all those DCC kids @Blair it make up for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting how few private school kids there are given the are supposed to have the brightest kids.

Who ever said they have the brightest kids? The richest kids, maybe. Unsurprising the magnets outperformed the other schools.

Many of those magnet kids will attend UMD because their parents can’t afford private schools, but they will do very well.

raise hand.. that's my kid. Killing it in their advanced math class already, as a freshman.

You sound cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

NP. Sounds perfectly normal to me. My Blair kid passed out of all foundational math at their school and was halfway through math major requirements as a first year.

On a different note, when will commended kids get that notice? Has anyone heard?

We don't care about commended in MoCo. That's a FFX thing. We have higher expectations.
It's NMSFs or bust.