Confused why BCC and other Western MOCO schools have so few high school options

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Out of about 60 cities, the top 5 most populated cities in Montgomery County MD are:
1. Germantown 90.1K (Poolesville Magnet)
2. Silver Spring 83.5K (Blair Magnet)
3. Gaithersburg 69.6K (Poolesville Magnet)
4. Rockville 67K (Crown HS)
5. Bethesda 67K

Once you get past about the top 10, the drop off in population is significant. But if you cover the top three, that's 243.2K or 22.9% of the population of Montgomery County. Although that may not sound like much, it's a lot in an election, and remember that since you can vote for another district's candidates, it helps concentrate voting power.

Building schools where people LIVE?!?

Scandalous!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of about 60 cities, the top 5 most populated cities in Montgomery County MD are:
1. Germantown 90.1K (Poolesville Magnet)
2. Silver Spring 83.5K (Blair Magnet)
3. Gaithersburg 69.6K (Poolesville Magnet)
4. Rockville 67K (Crown HS)
5. Bethesda 67K

Once you get past about the top 10, the drop off in population is significant. But if you cover the top three, that's 243.2K or 22.9% of the population of Montgomery County. Although that may not sound like much, it's a lot in an election, and remember that since you can vote for another district's candidates, it helps concentrate voting power.

So you think it's suspicious that the magnets are sort of near where many people live.

Bethesda is not a city. These are actual cities in Moco ranked by population.

Gaithersburg: (pop. ~70,000)
Rockville: (pop. ~67,000)
Takoma Park: (pop. ~17,000)
Kensington: (pop. ~2,000)
Garrett Park: (pop. ~1,000)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because BCC and the other downcounty schools are very high quality schools. If your MS student is interested in biomedical engineering, they will be very well prepared at BCC or one of the available magnets.

Didn't some kids pass out drunk in a bathroom at BCC last year? Weren't there fights at football games? Were there students involved in carjacking during their lunch break? That doesn't sound all that great to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since today is notification day, I was looking up what we would apply to next year for my son who is in 7th now. We zone to BCC. Compared to all the other schools, it seems like BCC kids (and the other Western/Southern schools) don’t have any magnet/application based options outside of Blair SMCS, RMIB, and Poolesville Ecology. My kids is a Biomedical/Engineering kid. Those application based magnets look fantastic. Why don’t the kids in our area get that option?

The only one that's a true intellectual standout is the bolded. It's the TJ of Maryland. The other two are very nice, but not any better than W schools. The other "special programs" you are thinking of are not really selective. They're attractively-packaged to attract kids to traditionally under-served areas of the county, but the intellectual rigor, content quality and peer cohort just aren't there.

Eventually most parents realize this, and also take note of the ridiculous commute.

LOL. RMIB is way better than the W schools.

It's just the regional IB center. Most students aren't interested in IB (compared to their home AP courses) because the IB program is a lot less flexible, and not as advanced in STEM. Also, BCC has a full IB program, plus a ton of AP courses.

For OP's kid and her or his interests:
BCC has some engineering intro courses, with classes like introduction to engineering design, etc. But these are essentially fancy fillers. Make no mistake, OP. Colleges aren't dazzled by electives or unusual coursework. They want to see RIGOR and national standards. The best engineering colleges are very selective. Your kid needs to do well on his STEM APs. Since they have prerequisites for the most part (math and science courses before you can get to the AP), you have to be very strategic in your kid's high school trajectory planning, because there is only so much you can fit in a 7-period schedule, with all the graduation requirements from the state of MD and the county. Also, you probably don't want to end up with 6 AP classes in one year. You have to distribute the load.

Your kid's math track will determine what STEM courses they can take when. If they're in Algebra 2 by 8th grade, I know some kids who have bypassed the 9th grade Honors Bio suggestion, and done variations of:
9th: Honors Physics / Honors Precalc (or Honors Chem / Honors Precalc)
10th: AP Physics C / AP Calc BC / Honors Chem (or AP Chem / AP Calc BC / Honors Phys)
11th: AP Chem / Multivariable calculus (or AP Phys C / MVC)
12th: AP Bio / dual enrollment higher calculus at Montgomery College or UMD, or relax with AP Stats (the latter might be more useful for medicine, actually).

Along with some BCC engineering electives or computer science (AP Computer Science Principles is the tech requirement, then you can take AP Java).

Essentially, for anyone with a kid in middle school, the 9th grade course registration means coming up with a plan for all 4 years of high school.

TLDR: you only get to elite engineering universities with the most rigorous science classes, and those will either be at the Blair STEM magnet or any W school STEM AP schedule. No need to look further. Question is: is your kid hardcore enough?

You're saying not all schools offer the STEM AP classes you list above? My DD will be going to Blake and wants to be an engineer so it will be disappointing if the class selection is weak. I guess I should not have assumed courses would be somewhat equal

No one needs to take Multi-variable Calculus in high school to become an engineer. I would argue that it offers no advantage to race through these math classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out of about 60 cities, the top 5 most populated cities in Montgomery County MD are:
1. Germantown 90.1K (Poolesville Magnet)
2. Silver Spring 83.5K (Blair Magnet)
3. Gaithersburg 69.6K (Poolesville Magnet)
4. Rockville 67K (Crown HS)
5. Bethesda 67K

Once you get past about the top 10, the drop off in population is significant. But if you cover the top three, that's 243.2K or 22.9% of the population of Montgomery County. Although that may not sound like much, it's a lot in an election, and remember that since you can vote for another district's candidates, it helps concentrate voting power.

So you think it's suspicious that the magnets are sort of near where many people live.

Bethesda is not a city. These are actual cities in Moco ranked by population.

Gaithersburg: (pop. ~70,000)
Rockville: (pop. ~67,000)
Takoma Park: (pop. ~17,000)
Kensington: (pop. ~2,000)
Garrett Park: (pop. ~1,000)

Irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since today is notification day, I was looking up what we would apply to next year for my son who is in 7th now. We zone to BCC. Compared to all the other schools, it seems like BCC kids (and the other Western/Southern schools) don’t have any magnet/application based options outside of Blair SMCS, RMIB, and Poolesville Ecology. My kids is a Biomedical/Engineering kid. Those application based magnets look fantastic. Why don’t the kids in our area get that option?

The only one that's a true intellectual standout is the bolded. It's the TJ of Maryland. The other two are very nice, but not any better than W schools. The other "special programs" you are thinking of are not really selective. They're attractively-packaged to attract kids to traditionally under-served areas of the county, but the intellectual rigor, content quality and peer cohort just aren't there.

Eventually most parents realize this, and also take note of the ridiculous commute.

Some of us actually live in traditionally under-served areas of the county, and our kids are doing just fine on intellectual rigor, content quality, and peer cohort, thank you.

DP/DCC.

Disagree. A reasonable number of highly capable kids, but not enough of an identified and encouraged cohort to ensure rigor. Look at the IB offerings at the regional/local IB schools and compare the HL rigor and options for complementary APs at those schools versus that available at RM or BCC. It is not the same.

It might be different if they had enough room at Blair, where the numbers from being the largest school population in the state (and the reasonable cohort further enabled by their application programs) do mean a goodly amount of advanced courses, but there isn't enough room there to accommodate those others who would benefit from that course availability. They are trying to get Kennedy IB up, but they set it up as a cart before the horse kind of thing, hoping to draw a cohort better to enable more advanced course offerings when the thing that might draw such students in the first place would be to have those offerings in place. That would mean $, however, to support teaching of courses in initial years when the numbers of students might be few.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS only has magnets in the two extreme corners of the county where major voting concentrations are, and you can vote for another district’s candidate. The new Crown HS seems to be lobbied by Kings Farm and College Gardens (Hungerford CO) to be included in their boundary. Plus the programs already mentioned. See the pattern?

Poolesville is a "major voting concentration"?!

And RM is in an extreme corner of the country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since today is notification day, I was looking up what we would apply to next year for my son who is in 7th now. We zone to BCC. Compared to all the other schools, it seems like BCC kids (and the other Western/Southern schools) don’t have any magnet/application based options outside of Blair SMCS, RMIB, and Poolesville Ecology. My kids is a Biomedical/Engineering kid. Those application based magnets look fantastic. Why don’t the kids in our area get that option?

The only one that's a true intellectual standout is the bolded. It's the TJ of Maryland. The other two are very nice, but not any better than W schools. The other "special programs" you are thinking of are not really selective. They're attractively-packaged to attract kids to traditionally under-served areas of the county, but the intellectual rigor, content quality and peer cohort just aren't there.

Eventually most parents realize this, and also take note of the ridiculous commute.

LOL. RMIB is way better than the W schools.

It's just the regional IB center. Most students aren't interested in IB (compared to their home AP courses) because the IB program is a lot less flexible, and not as advanced in STEM. Also, BCC has a full IB program, plus a ton of AP courses.

For OP's kid and her or his interests:
BCC has some engineering intro courses, with classes like introduction to engineering design, etc. But these are essentially fancy fillers. Make no mistake, OP. Colleges aren't dazzled by electives or unusual coursework. They want to see RIGOR and national standards. The best engineering colleges are very selective. Your kid needs to do well on his STEM APs. Since they have prerequisites for the most part (math and science courses before you can get to the AP), you have to be very strategic in your kid's high school trajectory planning, because there is only so much you can fit in a 7-period schedule, with all the graduation requirements from the state of MD and the county. Also, you probably don't want to end up with 6 AP classes in one year. You have to distribute the load.

Your kid's math track will determine what STEM courses they can take when. If they're in Algebra 2 by 8th grade, I know some kids who have bypassed the 9th grade Honors Bio suggestion, and done variations of:
9th: Honors Physics / Honors Precalc (or Honors Chem / Honors Precalc)
10th: AP Physics C / AP Calc BC / Honors Chem (or AP Chem / AP Calc BC / Honors Phys)
11th: AP Chem / Multivariable calculus (or AP Phys C / MVC)
12th: AP Bio / dual enrollment higher calculus at Montgomery College or UMD, or relax with AP Stats (the latter might be more useful for medicine, actually).

Along with some BCC engineering electives or computer science (AP Computer Science Principles is the tech requirement, then you can take AP Java).

Essentially, for anyone with a kid in middle school, the 9th grade course registration means coming up with a plan for all 4 years of high school.

TLDR: you only get to elite engineering universities with the most rigorous science classes, and those will either be at the Blair STEM magnet or any W school STEM AP schedule. No need to look further. Question is: is your kid hardcore enough?

It is not just a regional IB center. It is the only magnet that selects from the entire county. Much more selective.

VAC is whole county. Are there others?

Sorry I thought it was just a DCC option..now I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since today is notification day, I was looking up what we would apply to next year for my son who is in 7th now. We zone to BCC. Compared to all the other schools, it seems like BCC kids (and the other Western/Southern schools) don’t have any magnet/application based options outside of Blair SMCS, RMIB, and Poolesville Ecology. My kids is a Biomedical/Engineering kid. Those application based magnets look fantastic. Why don’t the kids in our area get that option?

The only one that's a true intellectual standout is the bolded. It's the TJ of Maryland. The other two are very nice, but not any better than W schools. The other "special programs" you are thinking of are not really selective. They're attractively-packaged to attract kids to traditionally under-served areas of the county, but the intellectual rigor, content quality and peer cohort just aren't there.

Eventually most parents realize this, and also take note of the ridiculous commute.

LOL. RMIB is way better than the W schools.

It's just the regional IB center. Most students aren't interested in IB (compared to their home AP courses) because the IB program is a lot less flexible, and not as advanced in STEM. Also, BCC has a full IB program, plus a ton of AP courses.

For OP's kid and her or his interests:
BCC has some engineering intro courses, with classes like introduction to engineering design, etc. But these are essentially fancy fillers. Make no mistake, OP. Colleges aren't dazzled by electives or unusual coursework. They want to see RIGOR and national standards. The best engineering colleges are very selective. Your kid needs to do well on his STEM APs. Since they have prerequisites for the most part (math and science courses before you can get to the AP), you have to be very strategic in your kid's high school trajectory planning, because there is only so much you can fit in a 7-period schedule, with all the graduation requirements from the state of MD and the county. Also, you probably don't want to end up with 6 AP classes in one year. You have to distribute the load.

Your kid's math track will determine what STEM courses they can take when. If they're in Algebra 2 by 8th grade, I know some kids who have bypassed the 9th grade Honors Bio suggestion, and done variations of:
9th: Honors Physics / Honors Precalc (or Honors Chem / Honors Precalc)
10th: AP Physics C / AP Calc BC / Honors Chem (or AP Chem / AP Calc BC / Honors Phys)
11th: AP Chem / Multivariable calculus (or AP Phys C / MVC)
12th: AP Bio / dual enrollment higher calculus at Montgomery College or UMD, or relax with AP Stats (the latter might be more useful for medicine, actually).

Along with some BCC engineering electives or computer science (AP Computer Science Principles is the tech requirement, then you can take AP Java).

Essentially, for anyone with a kid in middle school, the 9th grade course registration means coming up with a plan for all 4 years of high school.

TLDR: you only get to elite engineering universities with the most rigorous science classes, and those will either be at the Blair STEM magnet or any W school STEM AP schedule. No need to look further. Question is: is your kid hardcore enough?

It is not just a regional IB center. It is the only magnet that selects from the entire county. Much more selective.

VAC is whole county. Are there others?

Sorry I thought it was just a DCC option..now I know.

VAPA is DCC-only. VAC is whole county.