Profile of students accepted into selective magnet middle schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eastern has less kids apply, it's easier to get into and it's mostly girls. (If you have a boy, I've never heard of one getting rejected by eastern). Bus stop for my kids a mix- but yes- a lot of Asians. We are neither Asian nor Jewish.

There are fewer kids who apply to Eastern than Takoma but I know many boys from my child's HGC who were rejected. And the 6th grade class is only about 20% boys. They did not balance gender in admissions.

If MCPS selects based on income and geography, they really should consider balancing out the sex ratio a little more. 80 girls and 20 boys is not for the social aspects of middle school.

My child has two 6th grade magnet classes at Eastern (out of the 4 magnet classes) that have only 2 boys each (the same two boys). Definitely not great for those kids.

This doesn't even make sense. I personally know of 8 boys who go to eastern ms - I know there are more.

Maybe you happen to know a large percentage of the boys in 6th grade. This is true and if you look at the magnet directory you can see how few boys there are. Not sure why those particular classes have only two boys. Seems like poor planning.

[Anonymous]

The profile is smart children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eastern has less kids apply, it's easier to get into and it's mostly girls. (If you have a boy, I've never heard of one getting rejected by eastern). Bus stop for my kids a mix- but yes- a lot of Asians. We are neither Asian nor Jewish.

There are fewer kids who apply to Eastern than Takoma but I know many boys from my child's HGC who were rejected. And the 6th grade class is only about 20% boys. They did not balance gender in admissions.

If MCPS selects based on income and geography, they really should consider balancing out the sex ratio a little more. 80 girls and 20 boys is not for the social aspects of middle school.

My child has two 6th grade magnet classes at Eastern (out of the 4 magnet classes) that have only 2 boys each (the same two boys). Definitely not great for those kids.

This doesn't even make sense. I personally know of 8 boys who go to eastern ms - I know there are more.

Maybe you happen to know a large percentage of the boys in 6th grade. This is true and if you look at the magnet directory you can see how few boys there are. Not sure why those particular classes have only two boys. Seems like poor planning.

Our experience at EMS was that the administration was quite poor. registration was often a mess with some
classes over-filled and others under and kids put in the wrong lunch. Many of these situations could have been corrected even before class placement. based on our experience, I'm quite sure that admin doesn't even think to address these kinds of issues. Make some noise; complain outside the school to sipervisors. Even with the overall gender imbalance, it is still usually possible to get 5+ boys in a class. Even if boys were only 20% of the 100 students, distributed among 3-4 magnet classes that's 5-7 boys per class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The profile is smart children.

+10000

I don't understand why this has devolved into discussion about the religious and ethnic makeup of the magnet programs. Those are not considerations for being selected into the program, only a byproduct of the particular kids who happen to be smart and driven enough to be chosen.

OP - I have heard that test scores are most important, followed by grades & teacher recommendations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The % of Asian (including Indian) kids at the TPMS magnet orientation was striking. I would have to say that it was 80-90%. I don't have any issue with it. Race/Sex/Religion should have zero to do with admissions to a competitive magnet program. My little Caucasoid is doing just fine and has got to know many nice kids.

They are not Asians or Spanish or Indians. They are first and foremost Americans. They are born and bred here. I am second generation Asian American and
my son is in TPMS. He is not Asian but American. They are there because their parents, like me, value education. Majority of their names may not be Smiths
or Rhodes but I can vouch you that they are all Americans who love their country. Any parent, irrespective of whether they are recent or old immigrant or
native American, who want their kids to thrive in an environment like TPMS, wouldn't hesitate to send their kids to magnet schools. I know our country will
continue to be in great hands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The % of Asian (including Indian) kids at the TPMS magnet orientation was striking. I would have to say that it was 80-90%. I don't have any issue with it. Race/Sex/Religion should have zero to do with admissions to a competitive magnet program. My little Caucasoid is doing just fine and has got to know many nice kids.

They are not Asians or Spanish or Indians. They are first and foremost Americans. They are born and bred here. I am second generation Asian American and
my son is in TPMS. He is not Asian but American. They are there because their parents, like me, value education. Majority of their names may not be Smiths
or Rhodes but I can vouch you that they are all Americans who love their country. Any parent, irrespective of whether they are recent or old immigrant or
native American, who want their kids to thrive in an environment like TPMS, wouldn't hesitate to send their kids to magnet schools. I know our country will
continue to be in great hands.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

They are not Asians or Spanish or Indians. They are first and foremost Americans. They are born and bred here. I am second generation Asian American and
my son is in TPMS. He is not Asian but American. They are there because their parents, like me, value education. Majority of their names may not be Smiths
or Rhodes but I can vouch you that they are all Americans who love their country. Any parent, irrespective of whether they are recent or old immigrant or
native American, who want their kids to thrive in an environment like TPMS, wouldn't hesitate to send their kids to magnet schools. I know our country will
continue to be in great hands.

I agree with all of this vehemently, EXCEPT THAT

1. They are there because their parents value education AND THEY GOT IN, and
2. There are people in the selective magnet middle schools who are not Americans; one need not be an American to be admitted to the selective magnet middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Agree that the profile is smart kids who come from families that value education enough to encourage their children to apply and help them with transportation etc. These children are making a conscious decision to leave their home schools to attend a school that is very often far away. That choice has to be validated by their parents. We were very happy when ds decided to apply and made it clear that we would support him in any way we could. Some of his friends were discouraged from applying by their parents who thought it would be "too much work" and would take away from travel sports and other non-academic commitments.
My child goes to Eastern and I would say that although girls outnumber boys, boys are usually 30-40% of the cohort in any given year and they can and do hold their own! We've found the kids to be very diverse in every way and the kids are very friendly and inclusive.
Regarding the posts implying that kids at TPMS are "smarter": My child was accepted to both Takoma Park as well as Eastern and at least for the year he applied, the median reading comprehension score for successful applicants at both programs was identical. The Raven score for Takoma Park was a little higher- 25 instead of 23. The other tests cannot be compared - the eastern applicants take a writing test and the TPMS kids take a SCAT test.
My child has thrived at Eastern and loves the program, the kids and the magnet teachers. The admin is not that great but I guess I have low expectations for MCPS admin in general!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree that the profile is smart kids who come from families that value education enough to encourage their children to apply and help them with transportation etc. These children are making a conscious decision to leave their home schools to attend a school that is very often far away. That choice has to be validated by their parents. We were very happy when ds decided to apply and made it clear that we would support him in any way we could. Some of his friends were discouraged from applying by their parents who thought it would be "too much work" and would take away from travel sports and other non-academic commitments.
My child goes to Eastern and I would say that although girls outnumber boys, boys are usually 30-40% of the cohort in any given year and they can and do hold their own! We've found the kids to be very diverse in every way and the kids are very friendly and inclusive.
Regarding the posts implying that kids at TPMS are "smarter": My child was accepted to both Takoma Park as well as Eastern and at least for the year he applied, the median reading comprehension score for successful applicants at both programs was identical. The Raven score for Takoma Park was a little higher- 25 instead of 23. The other tests cannot be compared - the eastern applicants take a writing test and the TPMS kids take a SCAT test.
My child has thrived at Eastern and loves the program, the kids and the magnet teachers. The admin is not that great but I guess I have low expectations for MCPS admin in general!

Agree, pp. I have 2 who got into both Takoma and Eastern and they each chose a different program to attend. Both are made up smart kids, many with parental support (the extra workload, distance, having classmates spread out can create logistical considerations not found when attending a neighborhood school). There are more girls at Eastern, but it is a more diversified set of kids. Takoma is heavily Asian. Different skill sets are required at both schools. My guess is many if the kids at both programs could handle the work at the other program. But some kids enjoy math and science more and done prefer reading, analyzing and writing. My kids chose the program better suited for their interests. The Takoma child would be pretty unhappy at Eastern and vice versa.

[Anonymous]

Good students who are also involved in sports and/or other EC activities. Supported by parents. Some prepped at home, some at prep centers and some did not.,

I think majority were not a 100% sure that they would get in, because the competition is intense and those who did not get in were no less deserving of being in the program. So, I guess LUCK played a big role too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Good students who are also involved in sports and/or other EC activities. Supported by parents. Some prepped at home, some at prep centers and some did not.,

I think majority were not a 100% sure that they would get in, because the competition is intense and those who did not get in were no less deserving of being in the program. So, I guess LUCK played a big role too.

I don't think extracurricular activities matter. At least they didn't stop my child who had no activities from being accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The % of Asian (including Indian) kids at the TPMS magnet orientation was striking. I would have to say that it was 80-90%. I don't have any issue with it. Race/Sex/Religion should have zero to do with admissions to a competitive magnet program. My little Caucasoid is doing just fine and has got to know many nice kids.

They are not Asians or Spanish or Indians. They are first and foremost Americans. They are born and bred here. I am second generation Asian American and
my son is in TPMS. He is not Asian but American. They are there because their parents, like me, value education. Majority of their names may not be Smiths
or Rhodes but I can vouch you that they are all Americans who love their country. Any parent, irrespective of whether they are recent or old immigrant or
native American, who want their kids to thrive in an environment like TPMS, wouldn't hesitate to send their kids to magnet schools. I know our country will
continue to be in great hands.

I wrote the previous post and I think you make a great point. Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone looked at human beings this way (and obviously I should do a better job of it). The sad fact is, MCPS/MoCo/MD loves to divide everyone up into groups and create rules based on skin color and ethnicity - this forum loves to do so as well and, obviously, I fell pray to it. If your son/daughter gets accepted to the TPMS Magnet program, jump on the opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Good students who are also involved in sports and/or other EC activities. Supported by parents. Some prepped at home, some at prep centers and some did not.,

I think majority were not a 100% sure that they would get in, because the competition is intense and those who did not get in were no less deserving of being in the program. So, I guess LUCK played a big role too.

I don't think extracurricular activities matter. At least they didn't stop my child who had no activities from being accepted.

The OP asked for the profile of the accepted students. It does not matter if EC was an admissions criteria or not (it was not), but, most kids I know in the MS magnet are super involved in some EC activity.

If we use your logic then the parental support, valuing academics and some kind of prep also does not matter - but it is in the profile of majority of the students accepted.

[Anonymous]

I second that test scores count a lot and cannot be too low on one section. DS was above the average admitted in Reading (1 point), way above the average in Math (5 points), and way below the average in Raven (5 points) and was rejected. I know he could have done well but there were more qualified kids, so fair decision. Tell you kid to keep up his energy for the entire test and do his best on each section and hopefully you will get a good representation of ability so the correct decision is made. Too bad there is not more space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I second that test scores count a lot and cannot be too low on one section. DS was above the average admitted in Reading (1 point), way above the average in Math (5 points), and way below the average in Raven (5 points) and was rejected. I know he could have done well but there were more qualified kids, so fair decision. Tell you kid to keep up his energy for the entire test and do his best on each section and hopefully you will get a good representation of ability so the correct decision is made. Too bad there is not more space.

I know that a lot of kids got rejected because their Raven scores were below the median score (not average) of accepted students.