Magnet High Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remarkably, everyone who responds to this has a straight A student with a natural work ethic who gets straight A's at a magnet program, and it's nothing they did, their children are just superior. Don't believe me? You don't have to ask them, they will tell you again.

I have a bright, lazy kid who squeaked into a magnet program off the wait list and has straight... B's. With the occasional A and C. You probably think my kid is just there to make yours look good. I don't care, I just want them to have classes that are hard and engaging. It has occurred to me more than once, watching my kid and others like them, that engaging underachievers is not easy. I wonder how many other kids didn't make the cut but would enjoy the challenge.

Pathetic

Yes. Obviously those children don't matter.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:
DP.. and so what if they do study extra harder to get into a competitive magnet?

I used to think like you, but I realized that when a parent hires a coach for a kid to get better in athletics, no one bats an eye, but if they do this for academics, then it's considered terrible. Why? IMO, academics is more important than athletics.

And before you think I hired a tutor for my kids, I have never done so. My DC is in a test in magnet.

Plenty of people bat an eye.

really? How many posts are there on this forum about people making negative comments about hiring private coaches for some sport vs about people hiring tutors for kids who aren't behind academically?

This isn't a sports forum.

so, if you go into the sports forum, how many people do you think make negative comments about parents hiring private coaches for their kids?

Vs the school forum, and how many people like the PP you cut out of the thread who make negative comments about kids who study hard to get into a magnet?

It’s not just studying hard if only a small group of students have access to an expert at getting students into magnets. It’s like saying the group of people building a house without the blueprints don’t want to work as hard as the other group that was given the plans.

^^ This, all the way. It's not based upon natural ability. There are a lot of people especially in specific ethnic communities that spend tons on tutors and then act like their kids are just naturally smarter than everyone else. Far from the truth.

Those "ethnic parents" don't hide the fact that their kids go to after school tutoring. They openly discuss it. They don't tout being "naturally smart". They tout "working hard".

You are very judgey. Maybe you should have your kids work harder.

FWIW, my kids have ever gone to an after school tutor.

+1. My experience with these "ethnic communities" is that they will happily openly discuss all of the tutoring and extra work their kids do (it is not a secret, just ask!). They know nobody is handing their kids anything for free in this country. In my experience it is white americans who like to brag that their kids are naturally smart and don't need extra tutoring, etc. Maybe their kids aren't as "naturally smart" as they think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
DP.. and so what if they do study extra harder to get into a competitive magnet?

I used to think like you, but I realized that when a parent hires a coach for a kid to get better in athletics, no one bats an eye, but if they do this for academics, then it's considered terrible. Why? IMO, academics is more important than athletics.

And before you think I hired a tutor for my kids, I have never done so. My DC is in a test in magnet.

Plenty of people bat an eye.

really? How many posts are there on this forum about people making negative comments about hiring private coaches for some sport vs about people hiring tutors for kids who aren't behind academically?

This isn't a sports forum.

so, if you go into the sports forum, how many people do you think make negative comments about parents hiring private coaches for their kids?

Vs the school forum, and how many people like the PP you cut out of the thread who make negative comments about kids who study hard to get into a magnet?

It’s not just studying hard if only a small group of students have access to an expert at getting students into magnets. It’s like saying the group of people building a house without the blueprints don’t want to work as hard as the other group that was given the plans.

^^ This, all the way. It's not based upon natural ability. There are a lot of people especially in specific ethnic communities that spend tons on tutors and then act like their kids are just naturally smarter than everyone else. Far from the truth.

Those "ethnic parents" don't hide the fact that their kids go to after school tutoring. They openly discuss it. They don't tout being "naturally smart". They tout "working hard".

You are very judgey. Maybe you should have your kids work harder.

FWIW, my kids have ever gone to an after school tutor.

+1. My experience with these "ethnic communities" is that they will happily openly discuss all of the tutoring and extra work their kids do (it is not a secret, just ask!). They know nobody is handing their kids anything for free in this country. In my experience it is white americans who like to brag that their kids are naturally smart and don't need extra tutoring, etc. Maybe their kids aren't as "naturally smart" as they think.

I believe there was a NYT article about this--Americans believe in innate giftedness whereas several Asian cultures believe work ethic is paramount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
DP.. and so what if they do study extra harder to get into a competitive magnet?

I used to think like you, but I realized that when a parent hires a coach for a kid to get better in athletics, no one bats an eye, but if they do this for academics, then it's considered terrible. Why? IMO, academics is more important than athletics.

And before you think I hired a tutor for my kids, I have never done so. My DC is in a test in magnet.

Plenty of people bat an eye.

really? How many posts are there on this forum about people making negative comments about hiring private coaches for some sport vs about people hiring tutors for kids who aren't behind academically?

This isn't a sports forum.

so, if you go into the sports forum, how many people do you think make negative comments about parents hiring private coaches for their kids?

Vs the school forum, and how many people like the PP you cut out of the thread who make negative comments about kids who study hard to get into a magnet?

It’s not just studying hard if only a small group of students have access to an expert at getting students into magnets. It’s like saying the group of people building a house without the blueprints don’t want to work as hard as the other group that was given the plans.

^^ This, all the way. It's not based upon natural ability. There are a lot of people especially in specific ethnic communities that spend tons on tutors and then act like their kids are just naturally smarter than everyone else. Far from the truth.

Those "ethnic parents" don't hide the fact that their kids go to after school tutoring. They openly discuss it. They don't tout being "naturally smart". They tout "working hard".

You are very judgey. Maybe you should have your kids work harder.

FWIW, my kids have ever gone to an after school tutor.

+1. My experience with these "ethnic communities" is that they will happily openly discuss all of the tutoring and extra work their kids do (it is not a secret, just ask!). They know nobody is handing their kids anything for free in this country. In my experience it is white americans who like to brag that their kids are naturally smart and don't need extra tutoring, etc. Maybe their kids aren't as "naturally smart" as they think.

I believe there was a NYT article about this--Americans believe in innate giftedness whereas several Asian cultures believe work ethic is paramount.

This Asian believes it's 99% work ethic of kids. But I have only 3 sample data points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remarkably, everyone who responds to this has a straight A student with a natural work ethic who gets straight A's at a magnet program, and it's nothing they did, their children are just superior. Don't believe me? You don't have to ask them, they will tell you again.

I have a bright, lazy kid who squeaked into a magnet program off the wait list and has straight... B's. With the occasional A and C. You probably think my kid is just there to make yours look good. I don't care, I just want them to have classes that are hard and engaging. It has occurred to me more than once, watching my kid and others like them, that engaging underachievers is not easy. I wonder how many other kids didn't make the cut but would enjoy the challenge.

Pathetic

Yes. Obviously those children don't matter.

Not children, they are fine. Those parents consider schooling is competition (superior or inferior ) are pathetic, really sorry for their kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid who is at Poolesville SMACS program never had a tutor, is organized but does not study a ton, never had a B, and only takes Khan Academy free online classes because of being bored. She completed her own application, aced the test on her own, and wrote her entrance essays. I think she is truly gifted as she experiments with creating new algebraic equations and finds trends in parabola plottings and their equations. The kids who learn to a test get weeded out and eliminated pretty quickly. The kids that stay really thrive and want to be there and are naturally very bright.

Genius and hard work are not mutually exclusive. Congrats on your kid's achievements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

SAT averages and percentage of NMSF etc are higher at the MCPS magnets because TJ is also less selective. It's more like comparing the top 200 kids from FCPS...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

I don't think this is correct. Blair STEM program is as good as TJ but does not get the same attention as TJ because the structure MCPS runs magnets is so different than TJ (i.e., school within a school model vs whole school model of TJ). Also, RM/IB is not humanities program (I know many people do think that). IB is more about "balanced" education than "focused" education like Blair STEM or TJ.

PHS is only "whole" school magnet in MCPS but that's just name sake. Inclusion of ISP kids (local home school kids), makes it less than "whole" school magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

No dog in this fight but I know enough to know this is not true. Acceptance ration is higher (more difficult) for MCPS magnets. Rigor? Nobody knows based on experience.

+1 unless you've gone through both programs, how can you really compare?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

Wheaton also has stem magnets.

Only 3 magnets in MoCo HS - PHS, RM/IB, and Blair STEM. Others call themselves "magnet" but they are not true magnets

That's just untrue. Blair/CAP is criteria-based, as are the regional IB programs, Wheaton BioMedical Engineering, and the portfolio-based Einstein Visual Arts Program.

There are probably some others I'm forgetting, but it's certainly not just the three you mentioned.

haven't read through the pages, but there are regional IB magnets, like Kennedy HS. RMIB is a whole county magnet. But the other regional magnets are application and test based.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

No, Blair is definitely more difficult to get in and is honestly a bit more rigorous than TJ

Although smaller Blair has a higher SAT average, Intel scholars, NMSF, members of USA Math & Physics Olympiads and beats the stuffing out of TJ on It's Academic just for fun.

The smaller is the key part. Blair picks the roughly 100 great students out of a similar sized county and TJ picks hundreds every year. They get to dip a lower in the pool due to being lager. That will always dilute your scores. The same effect why Blair has one of the lower SAT scores in the county despite having the program embedded to boost scores and perceptions. The larger school simply drowns out the statistics but one can speculate how low they would rank without importing those almost 100 kids assuming a few make it in form the IB naturally. While Takoma middle puts more kids in the program than any other middle, most of those kids are out of bounds too in the middle magnet except for the 25 set aside seats which were created because local kids were getting squeezed out of the local program by higher testing W kids.

This is where all the prepping accusations come from (because how dare a kids read a book prior to a test, cheaters) and why the East county wants to consider local peer group for admissions to tip the scales in the local favor. Funny part it is a quiet self own to all people who claim to have bought cheaper houses to get a more “better” peer group but turn around and want considerations for not having better peers for their kids.

Wrong, idiot.

Delusional striver. Blair is a joke to everyone outside the DCC. It is the cheap side of town, anyone can go there, most don’t want to.

I think this applies to RM and Blair both. Without magnets, these two are basically ghetto schools. PHS, I suppose, is fine either way.

yea, all those JWMS kids of doctors, lawyers, scientists, IT Professionals.. so ghetto. LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

No, Blair is definitely more difficult to get in and is honestly a bit more rigorous than TJ

Although smaller Blair has a higher SAT average, Intel scholars, NMSF, members of USA Math & Physics Olympiads and beats the stuffing out of TJ on It's Academic just for fun.

The smaller is the key part. Blair picks the roughly 100 great students out of a similar sized county and TJ picks hundreds every year. They get to dip a lower in the pool due to being lager. That will always dilute your scores. The same effect why Blair has one of the lower SAT scores in the county despite having the program embedded to boost scores and perceptions. The larger school simply drowns out the statistics but one can speculate how low they would rank without importing those almost 100 kids assuming a few make it in form the IB naturally. While Takoma middle puts more kids in the program than any other middle, most of those kids are out of bounds too in the middle magnet except for the 25 set aside seats which were created because local kids were getting squeezed out of the local program by higher testing W kids.

This is where all the prepping accusations come from (because how dare a kids read a book prior to a test, cheaters) and why the East county wants to consider local peer group for admissions to tip the scales in the local favor. Funny part it is a quiet self own to all people who claim to have bought cheaper houses to get a more “better” peer group but turn around and want considerations for not having better peers for their kids.

Wrong, idiot.

Delusional striver. Blair is a joke to everyone outside the DCC. It is the cheap side of town, anyone can go there, most don’t want to.

I think this applies to RM and Blair both. Without magnets, these two are basically ghetto schools. PHS, I suppose, is fine either way.

yea, all those JWMS kids of doctors, lawyers, scientists, IT Professionals.. so ghetto. LOL

A lot of those kids are in IB program.

- dp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

I don't think this is correct. Blair STEM program is as good as TJ but does not get the same attention as TJ because the structure MCPS runs magnets is so different than TJ (i.e., school within a school model vs whole school model of TJ). Also, RM/IB is not humanities program (I know many people do think that). IB is more about "balanced" education than "focused" education like Blair STEM or TJ.

PHS is only "whole" school magnet in MCPS but that's just name sake. Inclusion of ISP kids (local home school kids), makes it less than "whole" school magnet.

yea my RMIB kid's EE is STEM related. DC was kind of shocked at how much writing STEM researchers do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

No, Blair is definitely more difficult to get in and is honestly a bit more rigorous than TJ

Although smaller Blair has a higher SAT average, Intel scholars, NMSF, members of USA Math & Physics Olympiads and beats the stuffing out of TJ on It's Academic just for fun.

The smaller is the key part. Blair picks the roughly 100 great students out of a similar sized county and TJ picks hundreds every year. They get to dip a lower in the pool due to being lager. That will always dilute your scores. The same effect why Blair has one of the lower SAT scores in the county despite having the program embedded to boost scores and perceptions. The larger school simply drowns out the statistics but one can speculate how low they would rank without importing those almost 100 kids assuming a few make it in form the IB naturally. While Takoma middle puts more kids in the program than any other middle, most of those kids are out of bounds too in the middle magnet except for the 25 set aside seats which were created because local kids were getting squeezed out of the local program by higher testing W kids.

This is where all the prepping accusations come from (because how dare a kids read a book prior to a test, cheaters) and why the East county wants to consider local peer group for admissions to tip the scales in the local favor. Funny part it is a quiet self own to all people who claim to have bought cheaper houses to get a more “better” peer group but turn around and want considerations for not having better peers for their kids.

Wrong, idiot.

Delusional striver. Blair is a joke to everyone outside the DCC. It is the cheap side of town, anyone can go there, most don’t want to.

I think this applies to RM and Blair both. Without magnets, these two are basically ghetto schools. PHS, I suppose, is fine either way.

yea, all those JWMS kids of doctors, lawyers, scientists, IT Professionals.. so ghetto. LOL

A lot of those kids are in IB program.

- dp

-um no they are not.

-parent of RMIB and JWMS kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

No, Blair is definitely more difficult to get in and is honestly a bit more rigorous than TJ

Although smaller Blair has a higher SAT average, Intel scholars, NMSF, members of USA Math & Physics Olympiads and beats the stuffing out of TJ on It's Academic just for fun.

The smaller is the key part. Blair picks the roughly 100 great students out of a similar sized county and TJ picks hundreds every year. They get to dip a lower in the pool due to being lager. That will always dilute your scores. The same effect why Blair has one of the lower SAT scores in the county despite having the program embedded to boost scores and perceptions. The larger school simply drowns out the statistics but one can speculate how low they would rank without importing those almost 100 kids assuming a few make it in form the IB naturally. While Takoma middle puts more kids in the program than any other middle, most of those kids are out of bounds too in the middle magnet except for the 25 set aside seats which were created because local kids were getting squeezed out of the local program by higher testing W kids.

This is where all the prepping accusations come from (because how dare a kids read a book prior to a test, cheaters) and why the East county wants to consider local peer group for admissions to tip the scales in the local favor. Funny part it is a quiet self own to all people who claim to have bought cheaper houses to get a more “better” peer group but turn around and want considerations for not having better peers for their kids.

Wrong, idiot.

Delusional striver. Blair is a joke to everyone outside the DCC. It is the cheap side of town, anyone can go there, most don’t want to.

I think this applies to RM and Blair both. Without magnets, these two are basically ghetto schools. PHS, I suppose, is fine either way.

yea, all those JWMS kids of doctors, lawyers, scientists, IT Professionals.. so ghetto. LOL

A lot of those kids are in IB program.

- dp

-um no they are not.

-parent of RMIB and JWMS kids.

And those kids who cannot get into IB, they attend RM non magnet. They are no different than kids from other MS. You think JW kids are somehow "special"?? LOL.