Montgomery Blair/Albert Einstein vs. B-CC/Whitman -- help me understand the differences

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "W" schools are highly sought after. If you can go there, I'd do it.

W school parents are afraid of POC and think that poverty is contagious.

Its not necessarily POC, but income. They don't want their kids going to school with their housekeepers kids.

Why not. A mix of kids is ultimately beneficial to everyone.

DP. My kids go to RM. They like it there, and we purposefully chose RM cluster even though we could've easily afforded in a W cluster. We looked at well over 20 houses all over the western side of MoCo, from Kensington to North Potomac, and every cluster in between. We ultimately settled on the RM cluster because 1. we wanted our kids to have the opportunity to be in the IB program if they so chose to 2. we moved from a wealthy area, and I didn't want my kids surrounded by only wealthy kids. We saw the issues with that, too.

Having stated that, it is also important to have more like-minded peer groups in the school, not just because your kid might succumb to peer pressure, but because having like minded peers helps keep you motivated without necessarily being uber competitive. There are kids at RM who don't care about school, but by and large, in HS, you can start to avoid those kids when you take challenging classes because those kids tend to not want challenging classes. My kids have found a good peer group who are above average (AP classes) to high achieving (IB program). They are very happy there.

But to ^PPs point, you don't know whether your kid will be a high achiever, above average, or just a middling student right now. So, yes, it is good to have a wide variety of peer groups in the school.

[Anonymous]

MoCo has pretty good programs across the board. Do you believe your child will work hard? Does e family speak about a variety of issues (problem solving, emotions, courtesy, social, economic and political etc)?

If so, you’ve set your kid up for success in any MOCo school.

If not, get started because your kid will need that in any environment.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "W" schools are highly sought after. If you can go there, I'd do it.

W school parents are afraid of POC and think that poverty is contagious.

Its not necessarily POC, but income. They don't want their kids going to school with their housekeepers kids.

Actually, that's an underrated advantage of attending a socio-economically diverse school. My child attends Wheaton HS and I am constantly amazed how they can command a strong presence in any room and their gregarious approach towards people of different social classes. It has resulted in a richly diverse friend group for my child that I don't believe would be possible in a more SES-segregated educational environment. If my child chooses to hire a housekeeper when they have a family, I'm confident they'll attract the very best and treat them like family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "W" schools are highly sought after. If you can go there, I'd do it.

W school parents are afraid of POC and think that poverty is contagious.

Its not necessarily POC, but income. They don't want their kids going to school with their housekeepers kids.

Actually, that's an underrated advantage of attending a socio-economically diverse school. My child attends Wheaton HS and I am constantly amazed how they can command a strong presence in any room and their gregarious approach towards people of different social classes. It has resulted in a richly diverse friend group for my child that I don't believe would be possible in a more SES-segregated educational environment. If my child chooses to hire a housekeeper when they have a family, I'm confident they'll attract the very best and treat them like family.

Troll, right? If your child chooses to be a housekeeper, what then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "W" schools are highly sought after. If you can go there, I'd do it.

W school parents are afraid of POC and think that poverty is contagious.

Its not necessarily POC, but income. They don't want their kids going to school with their housekeepers kids.

Actually, that's an underrated advantage of attending a socio-economically diverse school. My child attends Wheaton HS and I am constantly amazed how they can command a strong presence in any room and their gregarious approach towards people of different social classes. It has resulted in a richly diverse friend group for my child that I don't believe would be possible in a more SES-segregated educational environment. If my child chooses to hire a housekeeper when they have a family, I'm confident they'll attract the very best and treat them like family.

Troll, right? If your child chooses to be a housekeeper, what then?

If PP is educated and affluent then the likelihood of that is extremely low if not nil. Are you that insecure that you think that if your child rubs shoulders from time to time with poor children it will rub off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "W" schools are highly sought after. If you can go there, I'd do it.

W school parents are afraid of POC and think that poverty is contagious.

Its not necessarily POC, but income. They don't want their kids going to school with their housekeepers kids.

Actually, that's an underrated advantage of attending a socio-economically diverse school. My child attends Wheaton HS and I am constantly amazed how they can command a strong presence in any room and their gregarious approach towards people of different social classes. It has resulted in a richly diverse friend group for my child that I don't believe would be possible in a more SES-segregated educational environment. If my child chooses to hire a housekeeper when they have a family, I'm confident they'll attract the very best and treat them like family.

WTF. Can't believe you actually typed out that last sentence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "W" schools are highly sought after. If you can go there, I'd do it.

W school parents are afraid of POC and think that poverty is contagious.

Its not necessarily POC, but income. They don't want their kids going to school with their housekeepers kids.

Actually, that's an underrated advantage of attending a socio-economically diverse school. My child attends Wheaton HS and I am constantly amazed how they can command a strong presence in any room and their gregarious approach towards people of different social classes. It has resulted in a richly diverse friend group for my child that I don't believe would be possible in a more SES-segregated educational environment. If my child chooses to hire a housekeeper when they have a family, I'm confident they'll attract the very best and treat them like family.

Troll, right? If your child chooses to be a housekeeper, what then?

If PP is educated and affluent then the likelihood of that is extremely low if not nil. Are you that insecure that you think that if your child rubs shoulders from time to time with poor children it will rub off?

I’m not insecure at all. You literally just said you are exposing your child to poor children so he can practice for when he employs them. Horrifying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "W" schools are highly sought after. If you can go there, I'd do it.

W school parents are afraid of POC and think that poverty is contagious.

Its not necessarily POC, but income. They don't want their kids going to school with their housekeepers kids.

Actually, that's an underrated advantage of attending a socio-economically diverse school. My child attends Wheaton HS and I am constantly amazed how they can command a strong presence in any room and their gregarious approach towards people of different social classes. It has resulted in a richly diverse friend group for my child that I don't believe would be possible in a more SES-segregated educational environment. If my child chooses to hire a housekeeper when they have a family, I'm confident they'll attract the very best and treat them like family.

WTF. Can't believe you actually typed out that la

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "W" schools are highly sought after. If you can go there, I'd do it.

W school parents are afraid of POC and think that poverty is contagious.

Its not necessarily POC, but income. They don't want their kids going to school with their housekeepers kids.

Actually, that's an underrated advantage of attending a socio-economically diverse school. My child attends Wheaton HS and I am constantly amazed how they can command a strong presence in any room and their gregarious approach towards people of different social classes. It has resulted in a richly diverse friend group for my child that I don't believe would be possible in a more SES-segregated educational environment. If my child chooses to hire a housekeeper when they have a family, I'm confident they'll attract the very best and treat them like family.

Troll, right? If your child chooses to be a housekeeper, what then?

If PP is educated and affluent then the likelihood of that is extremely low if not nil. Are you that insecure that you think that if your child rubs shoulders from time to time with poor children it will rub off?

I’m not insecure at all. You literally just said you are exposing your child to poor children so he can practice for when he employs them. Horrifying.

PP you quoted and I did not write that post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids have gone to BCC and it’s fine. I am actually somewhat jealous of my friends (white professionals) whose kids have gone to Einstein and, Northwood. All did really well at those schools. I think that since there’s a smaller pool of competitive kids they shined more academically and definitely athletically and got into colleges that they may not have from BCC or Whitman. Another benefit is that all those kids seem to be a lot less materialistic and less into the basic rich white girl bs that my kids are into like having to have the right labels, whining that “all their friends” are at Bethany and eating disorders.

lol I love you pp

We moved from B-CC district to Einstein and while I can't speak to college admissions, there is generally speaking less of a presumption of wealth at Einstein. Nobody assumes that another family will "just" hire a tutor, pay for lessons, pay for extras, go to beach week, go out to a restaurant, etc etc etc. There relative wealth at B-CC informs the expectations of parents, students, teachers, and coaches alike -- and who knows, maybe college admissions folks, too? So can confirm that folks are less (overtly, at least) materialistic.

That relative wealth also pays for lots of parent- and booster-funded perks that are not available elsewhere. (Also, the PTSA at BCC is special -- and I mean that in a good way.)

The pros of cons of more/less wealth (and other diversities) cut both ways in my experience. Great people and experiences -- and crappy ones -- at all of the schools!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the advice. As regards pushing, he does need some of that because he loves to slack off. But what I’m most concerned about is being able to easily fall into a peer group where academics are cool.

Re housing budget, it’s not prohibitive to live either place because you can always trade off on other amenities to find something affordable. But I have noticed the MASSIVE housing price differences between the two sides of the county - seems like a 30-40 percent gap which is huge.

Is he in 8th grade now at a DC public? Are you open to religious privates?

we are entering junior high. We are open to religious privates but cost will be a problem plus don't know that world well. It seems significantly less expensive to buy in a good school district than go private. The glamour privates seem out of reach.

This has been a very useful thread, thanks to all. The college admission information was very illuminating -- the info I took from it is that you have an excellent shot at a middling university from any of these HSs, and to get into an Ivy your kid will need to be extraordinary regardless of which school they go to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "W" schools are highly sought after. If you can go there, I'd do it.

W school parents are afraid of POC and think that poverty is contagious.

Its not necessarily POC, but income. They don't want their kids going to school with their housekeepers kids.

Why not. A mix of kids is ultimately beneficial to everyone.

DP. My kids go to RM. They like it there, and we purposefully chose RM cluster even though we could've easily afforded in a W cluster. We looked at well over 20 houses all over the western side of MoCo, from Kensington to North Potomac, and every cluster in between. We ultimately settled on the RM cluster because 1. we wanted our kids to have the opportunity to be in the IB program if they so chose to 2. we moved from a wealthy area, and I didn't want my kids surrounded by only wealthy kids. We saw the issues with that, too.

Having stated that, it is also important to have more like-minded peer groups in the school, not just because your kid might succumb to peer pressure, but because having like minded peers helps keep you motivated without necessarily being uber competitive. There are kids at RM who don't care about school, but by and large, in HS, you can start to avoid those kids when you take challenging classes because those kids tend to not want challenging classes. My kids have found a good peer group who are above average (AP classes) to high achieving (IB program). They are very happy there.

But to ^PPs point, you don't know whether your kid will be a high achiever, above average, or just a middling student right now. So, yes, it is good to have a wide variety of peer groups in the school.

The people on this thread! Did you just say that kids who take a lot of AP classes are simply "above average" but not high achieving because they are not in the magnet. Oh my

[Anonymous]

Not pp but I can explain what PP just said,

For example at Blair Magnet (class 2022)

70% of students got 5 at AP Calculus BC

so doing good at AP (score 5) is still considered average because majority students can do.

I am not sure the same percentage students got A grade for magnet analysis

For non magnet or IB students -- yes AP is considered high achieving

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the advice. As regards pushing, he does need some of that because he loves to slack off. But what I’m most concerned about is being able to easily fall into a peer group where academics are cool.

Re housing budget, it’s not prohibitive to live either place because you can always trade off on other amenities to find something affordable. But I have noticed the MASSIVE housing price differences between the two sides of the county - seems like a 30-40 percent gap which is huge.

Is he in 8th grade now at a DC public? Are you open to religious privates?

we are entering junior high. We are open to religious privates but cost will be a problem plus don't know that world well. It seems significantly less expensive to buy in a good school district than go private. The glamour privates seem out of reach.

This has been a very useful thread, thanks to all. The college admission information was very illuminating -- the info I took from it is that you have an excellent shot at a middling university from any of these HSs, and to get into an Ivy your kid will need to be extraordinary regardless of which school they go to.

This is accurate in my opinion. Encourage your child to work hard, do their best and take challenging classes.
Also they should be involved at a high level in at least 2 activities.
Students should make an effort to get to know their junior year teachers so they can get strong college recommendations.
This should set them up well for college.
Take math and English all 4 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll bite. If you want your kid pushed from the school, skip public education and pay for private.

I don't know what you actually mean but private schools in this area are inferior to MCPS. Only a few can compare to MCPS.

Seriously? My kid went to silver creek and was given sentence starters as their only source of writing. He had an A in math because he could retake anything until he got an A and the teacher point blank told me he was a C in math kinda kid, but that was only when I pushed her for the info.

He’s now at private. There is Hw, quizzes, and tests. He’s actually learning how to study. I think he’ll be better served for high school than had we stayed in MCPS.

The question OP asked was whether mcps pushes kids. And quite frankly, they don’t.

A friend subbed at Silver Creek and would concur.