Montgomery Blair vs elite privates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about Blair CAP but RMIB teaches extensive writing for 4 years. Kids read and write EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

It's just not comparable. Here's the difference - RMIB's 12th grade reading list: Pride and Prejudice, Hamlet , A Room of One’s Own, Selected poems (Margaret Atwood), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

In the elite privates, the Rushdie and Twain are middle school texts. The Austen is often a 9th grade book. These are all important books to read, but they are pretty foundational. At the privates, senior lit classes are more likely reading The Waste Land, Mrs. Dalloway, Absalom, Absalom!, The Myth of Sisyphus and Lolita that mirror core college English courses. And they offer additional electives that go deep on Ondaatje and Zadie Smith and Baldwin and Murakami in addition to Ovid, Homer,Virgil,and Sophocles classics.

So, kids rebound better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about Blair CAP but RMIB teaches extensive writing for 4 years. Kids read and write EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

It's just not comparable. Here's the difference - RMIB's 12th grade reading list: Pride and Prejudice, Hamlet , A Room of One’s Own, Selected poems (Margaret Atwood), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

In the elite privates, the Rushdie and Twain are middle school texts. The Austen is often a 9th grade book. These are all important books to read, but they are pretty foundational. At the privates, senior lit classes are more likely reading The Waste Land, Mrs. Dalloway, Absalom, Absalom!, The Myth of Sisyphus and Lolita that mirror core college English courses. And they offer additional electives that go deep on Ondaatje and Zadie Smith and Baldwin and Murakami in addition to Ovid, Homer,Virgil,and Sophocles classics.

Interesting. Can you provide links to your sources please?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about Blair CAP but RMIB teaches extensive writing for 4 years. Kids read and write EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

It's just not comparable. Here's the difference - RMIB's 12th grade reading list: Pride and Prejudice, Hamlet , A Room of One’s Own, Selected poems (Margaret Atwood), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

In the elite privates, the Rushdie and Twain are middle school texts. The Austen is often a 9th grade book. These are all important books to read, but they are pretty foundational. At the privates, senior lit classes are more likely reading The Waste Land, Mrs. Dalloway, Absalom, Absalom!, The Myth of Sisyphus and Lolita that mirror core college English courses. And they offer additional electives that go deep on Ondaatje and Zadie Smith and Baldwin and Murakami in addition to Ovid, Homer,Virgil,and Sophocles classics.

Well, that's silly. I wouldn't pay $41,000 to a school that regards Huckleberry Finn, Jane Austen, and Salman Rushdie as YA novels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about Blair CAP but RMIB teaches extensive writing for 4 years. Kids read and write EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

It's just not comparable. Here's the difference - RMIB's 12th grade reading list: Pride and Prejudice, Hamlet , A Room of One’s Own, Selected poems (Margaret Atwood), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

In the elite privates, the Rushdie and Twain are middle school texts. The Austen is often a 9th grade book. These are all important books to read, but they are pretty foundational. At the privates, senior lit classes are more likely reading The Waste Land, Mrs. Dalloway, Absalom, Absalom!, The Myth of Sisyphus and Lolita that mirror core college English courses. And they offer additional electives that go deep on Ondaatje and Zadie Smith and Baldwin and Murakami in addition to Ovid, Homer,Virgil,and Sophocles classics.

You seem to know a lot of private and magnet programs... Serious question -- can you tell me why private kids don't score high on the standardized tests? I know Blair and RM magnet kids score off the chart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the parents (and teacher) who said that the Blair acceptance was mostly based on test scores. I'm wondering if you can articulate why you think so. Because I imagine that the kids with great test scores probably also had pretty good ECs and recs, and so it would be hard to isolate this factor as determinative just from anecdotal knowledge about who got in. I actually agree with you, even though I know little about it as my kid was not at TPMS and I know few Blair SMAC kids, so I'm not arguing a point, I'm really just curious about how you know.

The Blair SMAC magnet is purely an academic program offering higher-level learning and experiences to the county's most talented math and science students. I am sure that teacher recs matter, but ECs do not. They do not care if your kid is well-rounded. Of course, many are, but their violin skills did not get them into the program.

Now if you had one spot left in the class, and two kids with the exact same academic record, test scores and effusive recommendations, I don't know what the tie breaker would be. Maybe then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about Blair CAP but RMIB teaches extensive writing for 4 years. Kids read and write EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

It's just not comparable. Here's the difference - RMIB's 12th grade reading list: Pride and Prejudice, Hamlet , A Room of One’s Own, Selected poems (Margaret Atwood), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

In the elite privates, the Rushdie and Twain are middle school texts. The Austen is often a 9th grade book. These are all important books to read, but they are pretty foundational. At the privates, senior lit classes are more likely reading The Waste Land, Mrs. Dalloway, Absalom, Absalom!, The Myth of Sisyphus and Lolita that mirror core college English courses. And they offer additional electives that go deep on Ondaatje and Zadie Smith and Baldwin and Murakami in addition to Ovid, Homer,Virgil,and Sophocles classics.

You are ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about Blair CAP but RMIB teaches extensive writing for 4 years. Kids read and write EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

It's just not comparable. Here's the difference - RMIB's 12th grade reading list: Pride and Prejudice, Hamlet , A Room of One’s Own, Selected poems (Margaret Atwood), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

In the elite privates, the Rushdie and Twain are middle school texts. The Austen is often a 9th grade book. These are all important books to read, but they are pretty foundational. At the privates, senior lit classes are more likely reading The Waste Land, Mrs. Dalloway, Absalom, Absalom!, The Myth of Sisyphus and Lolita that mirror core college English courses. And they offer additional electives that go deep on Ondaatje and Zadie Smith and Baldwin and Murakami in addition to Ovid, Homer,Virgil,and Sophocles classics.

Well, that's silly. I wouldn't pay $41,000 to a school that regards Huckleberry Finn, Jane Austen, and Salman Rushdie as YA novels.

They are real literature, but easy reads that do not require much knowledge of other texts, history, or literary techniques. Haroun and the Sea of Stories is in fact a children's book. It isn't Midnight's Children. There's a reason why P&P is easily adapted for zombie lit and Bridget Jones. Huck Finn is a great work of American fiction, but was written to be accessible to a semi-literate American popular audience.

[Anonymous]

The handful of kids that are the absolute smartest in the whole entire region are at Blair. They have one kid who may be the smartest in the country .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about Blair CAP but RMIB teaches extensive writing for 4 years. Kids read and write EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

It's just not comparable. Here's the difference - RMIB's 12th grade reading list: Pride and Prejudice, Hamlet , A Room of One’s Own, Selected poems (Margaret Atwood), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

In the elite privates, the Rushdie and Twain are middle school texts. The Austen is often a 9th grade book. These are all important books to read, but they are pretty foundational. At the privates, senior lit classes are more likely reading The Waste Land, Mrs. Dalloway, Absalom, Absalom!, The Myth of Sisyphus and Lolita that mirror core college English courses. And they offer additional electives that go deep on Ondaatje and Zadie Smith and Baldwin and Murakami in addition to Ovid, Homer,Virgil,and Sophocles classics.

Well, that's silly. I wouldn't pay $41,000 to a school that regards Huckleberry Finn, Jane Austen, and Salman Rushdie as YA novels.

They are real literature, but easy reads that do not require much knowledge of other texts, history, or literary techniques. Haroun and the Sea of Stories is in fact a children's book. It isn't Midnight's Children. There's a reason why P&P is easily adapted for zombie lit and Bridget Jones. Huck Finn is a great work of American fiction, but was written to be accessible to a semi-literate American popular audience.

Easy reads. You don't say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about Blair CAP but RMIB teaches extensive writing for 4 years. Kids read and write EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

It's just not comparable. Here's the difference - RMIB's 12th grade reading list: Pride and Prejudice, Hamlet , A Room of One’s Own, Selected poems (Margaret Atwood), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Farewell to Arms, Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

In the elite privates, the Rushdie and Twain are middle school texts. The Austen is often a 9th grade book. These are all important books to read, but they are pretty foundational. At the privates, senior lit classes are more likely reading The Waste Land, Mrs. Dalloway, Absalom, Absalom!, The Myth of Sisyphus and Lolita that mirror core college English courses. And they offer additional electives that go deep on Ondaatje and Zadie Smith and Baldwin and Murakami in addition to Ovid, Homer,Virgil,and Sophocles classics.

Interesting. Can you provide links to your sources please?

I'm curious too about the source for the RMIB 12th grade reading list. I'm fine with that list, actually,it depends on what you do with it, and I'm sure the works are studied at a worthwhile and appropriate level at RMIB. I actually think I prefer it to the private school list - the kids are not yet in college, after all, so why the constant push for increased complexity. But when I went to the RMIB Open House and saw the reading list for ninth graders, it mirrored my honors college freshman year course, e.g. Homer, Virgil, etc. And I thought to myself that was too hard, even though my kid was admitted, and wished for some Jane Austen. So can anyone with first-hand knowledge fill in here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the parents (and teacher) who said that the Blair acceptance was mostly based on test scores. I'm wondering if you can articulate why you think so. Because I imagine that the kids with great test scores probably also had pretty good ECs and recs, and so it would be hard to isolate this factor as determinative just from anecdotal knowledge about who got in. I actually agree with you, even though I know little about it as my kid was not at TPMS and I know few Blair SMAC kids, so I'm not arguing a point, I'm really just curious about how you know.

The Blair SMAC magnet is purely an academic program offering higher-level learning and experiences to the county's most talented math and science students. I am sure that teacher recs matter, but ECs do not. They do not care if your kid is well-rounded. Of course, many are, but their violin skills did not get them into the program.

Now if you had one spot left in the class, and two kids with the exact same academic record, test scores and effusive recommendations, I don't know what the tie breaker would be. Maybe then.

I suspect it depends on the extra curricular. I agree that being a great violinist probably won't have much chance on their test scores. However, I think a kid with a STEM passion might garner closer attention. If the kid likes to program video games, engineer things in the garage, wrestle with mathematical brainteasers, is a junior astronomer, or loves nature and has made a study of flora and fauna, etc., I think that might factor into the equation.

The Blair program is very demanding. They need kids who are both highly capable and highly motivated to be there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the parents (and teacher) who said that the Blair acceptance was mostly based on test scores. I'm wondering if you can articulate why you think so. Because I imagine that the kids with great test scores probably also had pretty good ECs and recs, and so it would be hard to isolate this factor as determinative just from anecdotal knowledge about who got in. I actually agree with you, even though I know little about it as my kid was not at TPMS and I know few Blair SMAC kids, so I'm not arguing a point, I'm really just curious about how you know.

The Blair SMAC magnet is purely an academic program offering higher-level learning and experiences to the county's most talented math and science students. I am sure that teacher recs matter, but ECs do not. They do not care if your kid is well-rounded. Of course, many are, but their violin skills did not get them into the program.

Now if you had one spot left in the class, and two kids with the exact same academic record, test scores and effusive recommendations, I don't know what the tie breaker would be. Maybe then.

I suspect it depends on the extra curricular. I agree that being a great violinist probably won't have much chance on their test scores. However, I think a kid with a STEM passion might garner closer attention. If the kid likes to program video games, engineer things in the garage, wrestle with mathematical brainteasers, is a junior astronomer, or loves nature and has made a study of flora and fauna, etc., I think that might factor into the equation.

The Blair program is very demanding. They need kids who are both highly capable and highly motivated to be there.

If the kid doesn't score well on the test, none of that matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was wondering, for folks whose kids are at the Blair Magnet, whether you think it is harder to get into the Blair magnet or the top tier privates (Sidwell, Maret, etc.). I was assuming many kids apply to public magnets and privates at the same time - which was more difficult?

Yes it's pretty hard. MCPS can't really serve a decent % of the county's G&T like other large and small counties can.
And any commute over 60 minutes and you really have to ask if that's worth it twice a day in rush hour for a kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The handful of kids that are the absolute smartest in the whole entire region are at Blair. They have one kid who may be the smartest in the country .

cool, can't wait to see what she does for herself and society. about time I get some ROI on my high MoCo taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The handful of kids that are the absolute smartest in the whole entire region are at Blair. They have one kid who may be the smartest in the country .

cool, can't wait to see what she does for herself and society. about time I get some ROI on my high MoCo taxes.

The kid will probably go back to China or India or wherever she came from. Yes, your tax money at work for sure.