DCC Wheaton/Blair Question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. DC ranked DCC as many of you advised with home school Blair listed first. He then applied to 3 Magnets (Blair SMACS, Wheaton BioMed, Wheaton Engineering). Just received results and got into both Wheaton magnets, not SMACS. Now we just need to weigh benefits of attending our home school Blair, or doing the hike to Wheaton. DC is an engineering/bio nerd. So, it seems like it's probably a no-brainer. Thanks for the advice!

My TPMS magnet child is in the exact same boat as yours. Blair home school, invited to both Blair magnet and Wheaton Engineering magnet. Kid wants to go into robotics/engineering and is leaning heavily toward Blair magnet bc home school/friends. But I was blown away by Wheaton magnet at open house and feel like I know absolutely nothing about Blair magnet from Open House (we were shoved into the auditorium and forced to listen to extremely cynical lecture and Q&A). I'm afraid Blair magnet is "cog in a machine" kind of stuff and also, frankly, I hear scary things about the elitist culture the program fosters within the school.

[Anonymous]

To the poster who questioned the Wheaton Engineering to UMd Clark school pipeline, I read it the UMd mag they send out to Clark student families. The largest number of public high students starting at Clark was from Wheaton. This was 2 years ago when my former Wheaton grad was a sophomore at UMd/Clark. It is a great program that gets a look from UMd. Other PLTW engineering programs in MCPS may also contribute a lot of students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. DC ranked DCC as many of you advised with home school Blair listed first. He then applied to 3 Magnets (Blair SMACS, Wheaton BioMed, Wheaton Engineering). Just received results and got into both Wheaton magnets, not SMACS. Now we just need to weigh benefits of attending our home school Blair, or doing the hike to Wheaton. DC is an engineering/bio nerd. So, it seems like it's probably a no-brainer. Thanks for the advice!

My TPMS magnet child is in the exact same boat as yours. Blair home school, invited to both Blair magnet and Wheaton Engineering magnet. Kid wants to go into robotics/engineering and is leaning heavily toward Blair magnet bc home school/friends. But I was blown away by Wheaton magnet at open house and feel like I know absolutely nothing about Blair magnet from Open House (we were shoved into the auditorium and forced to listen to extremely cynical lecture and Q&A). I'm afraid Blair magnet is "cog in a machine" kind of stuff and also, frankly, I hear scary things about the elitist culture the program fosters within the school.

As a Blair magnet parent, I know nothing of the “elitist culture” you refer to. I’m not even sure I know what that means?