Which MoCo cluster for gifted DD and DS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I see two issues with your argument. First, if one HGC cluster has a larger number of applicants, assuming same average quality of applicants other centers, chances are the median accepted score will be higher. Second, if for some reason, the lower accepted rate school has lower median accepted scores then it is still not harder for the high quality student to get into this HGC because this particular acceptance rate and median score combination revealed that while the applicants are abundant but the quality of competition is not as high.

Using acceptance rates only as a measure of how hard it is to get into a center is misguided.

Student A's scores are not relevant to admission to HGC B, since Student A did not apply to HGC B, and therefore there is no way to know whether or not Student A would have been admitted to HGC B.

What you write is irrelevant to the argument at hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why are the test scores higher at some of the HGCs?

That is the whole point people are debating. Some clusters draw from the better performing schools that have higher quality applicants. Therefore the admitted kids have higher scores. Therefore it is harder to get into these HGC for any given kids.

If HGC placement is based on need, then it might be the case that high performing students in lower performing schools have more need than those in the higher performing schools (even if their scores wouldn't have gotten them into Cold Spring or wherever).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why are the test scores higher at some of the HGCs?

That is the whole point people are debating. Some clusters draw from the better performing schools that have higher quality applicants. Therefore the admitted kids have higher scores. Therefore it is harder to get into these HGC for any given kids.

No, it is not harder to get in. It's just that the students who do get in have higher scores.

(And I think it's a serious mistake to conflate "higher scores" with "higher quality".)

[Anonymous]

They likely have higher scores because they did practice tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They likely have higher scores because they did practice tests.

Still harder. They had to practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They likely have higher scores because they did practice tests.

Still harder. They had to practice.

Here is the summary of this whole argument: "My kid didn't get into the HGC, even though her test scores were higher than some other kid who did get into a different HGC, no fair!"

[Anonymous]

I don't know whether it is fair. It just seems obvious that higher median score among the accepted means it is harder to get into this HGC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know whether it is fair. It just seems obvious that higher median score among the accepted means it is harder to get into this HGC.

It doesn't seem obvious to me. All it means is that the median score among the accepted applicants was higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some HGCs are harder to get into then others so you could research that.

LOLA

How would one research this, and why do you believe this is true?

Some HGCs have much higher accepted median scores than other HGCs.

Does that make them harder to get into?

What else can it mean?

It means the median scores are higher.

That's all.

At other schools, entrance may be just as competitive, with the median scores lower. Each cluster has its own applicants pool. Higher median scores means the applicant pool scores skew higher, but that is all it means. We are not talking about a nationwide applicant pool and Harvard vs. U. Maryland - we are talking about local applicant pools.

It's the median scores of accepted students, not the applicant pool.

Yes.

That doesn't make the Center in question harder to get into.

If the center takes the top 3% of applicants the competition is essentially the same. The peer group may be better due to SES factors but the HGC is still taking the top 3%. So a kid might be able to get in with a lower score from an outlying area but what's to say your kid wouldn't have a proportionally lower score if he had grown up in the same area/es.

Let's assume all hgcs have the same acceptance rate, if OP is deciding which cluster to move to and her dcs are good test takers, her children will IN GENERAL (of course there are exceptions, but we can only talk in general terms here) have a better chance of being one of the chosen in an area with lower median accepted scores. Why do you think some people prefer being the big fish in a small pond? You have to be a stronger student, or at least a stronger test taker, to make the percent cut in certain areas.

[Anonymous]

Speaking of the HGC, are the letters going out this week? I think they went out around this time last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know whether it is fair. It just seems obvious that higher median score among the accepted means it is harder to get into this HGC.

It is not obvious. It is not self-evident. And it is not supported by logic.

[Anonymous]

About 20% have been accepted in the last two years from our home school (of those who apply, not the population as a whole). Is that typical?

[Anonymous]

We had 7 kids go (out of about 120 third graders). I have no idea how many applied. My child reported 'a room full' at testing time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of the HGC, are the letters going out this week? I think they went out around this time last year.

The website says letters will be received after March 15.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/admissions/applications.aspx

[Anonymous]

They just added that to the website. I checked recently and it didn't have that information.

After March 15 is a little odd because it's a Sunday. Are they mailing this Friday or sometime next week?