Blair CAP vs. Whitman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are not choosing RMIB for the same commute/community aspects you point out about CAP, OP. We live close to Blair, and our Eastern 8th grader has decided he wants to continue with his friends/program at CAP.

As for the science - they are putting kids into AP Physics at Blair as freshmen, which I think seems crazy. But I guess they'll have a cohort? They can't possibly be ready for that as 14/15 year olds, right?!?! Is that happening at other schools? Why the rush? The Bio-Chem-Physics pathway just seems more sensible.

I don't understand why Blair puts them in AP Physics but not AP Government NSL (which as a magnet course could be taught both to magnet standards and to the AP Government NSL test, which is not that hard). It doesn't look like Blair even offers AP Government NSL to anyone. I wish the Blair website were better -- I can't find a course bulletin so got this info off the general MCPS page for Blair classes:

https://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/SchoolCourseCatalogs/School/04757/top

I also don't understand the AP Physics for 9th graders. There's plenty of time to get to AP Physics. My RMIB kid and my W school kid both took AP Physics I as sophomores after taking honors chem and honors bio as freshmen while taking algebra 2 -- I don't see a need to rush it before that. Strange.

Yes, they offer AP NSL to 9th grade and both CAP and STEM kids have the option of signing up. Mine took it last year.

Your kid took AP NSL as a ninth grader? What program was he in?

[Anonymous]

What does "W" school cluster mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does "W" school cluster mean?

This should be a pinned post in the forum: W School: a group of schools with a larger percentage of academically successful students that have Ws in the school name. Specifically, Walt Whitman, Winston Churchill, Thomas Wootton, and Walter Johnson. BCC is often considered an honorary W.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are not choosing RMIB for the same commute/community aspects you point out about CAP, OP. We live close to Blair, and our Eastern 8th grader has decided he wants to continue with his friends/program at CAP.

As for the science - they are putting kids into AP Physics at Blair as freshmen, which I think seems crazy. But I guess they'll have a cohort? They can't possibly be ready for that as 14/15 year olds, right?!?! Is that happening at other schools? Why the rush? The Bio-Chem-Physics pathway just seems more sensible.

I don't understand why Blair puts them in AP Physics but not AP Government NSL (which as a magnet course could be taught both to magnet standards and to the AP Government NSL test, which is not that hard). It doesn't look like Blair even offers AP Government NSL to anyone. I wish the Blair website were better -- I can't find a course bulletin so got this info off the general MCPS page for Blair classes:

https://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/SchoolCourseCatalogs/School/04757/top

I also don't understand the AP Physics for 9th graders. There's plenty of time to get to AP Physics. My RMIB kid and my W school kid both took AP Physics I as sophomores after taking honors chem and honors bio as freshmen while taking algebra 2 -- I don't see a need to rush it before that. Strange.

Yes, they offer AP NSL to 9th grade and both CAP and STEM kids have the option of signing up. Mine took it last year.

Your kid took AP NSL as a ninth grader? What program was he in?

When my kid's went through there they took AP USH in 9th and AP NSL in 10th. AP NSL is still offered but I don't see APUSH at least as an option for 9th graders. It probably is but they aren't recommending it anymore. I know it was on this page a few months ago. https://mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/courses.php

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does "W" school cluster mean?

This should be a pinned post in the forum: W School: a group of schools with a larger percentage of academically successful students that have Ws in the school name. Specifically, Walt Whitman, Winston Churchill, Thomas Wootton, and Walter Johnson. BCC is often considered an honorary W.

The forgotten Ws: Wheaton and Watkins Mill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does "W" school cluster mean?

This should be a pinned post in the forum: W School: a group of schools with a larger percentage of academically successful students that have Ws in the school name. Specifically, Walt Whitman, Winston Churchill, Thomas Wootton, and Walter Johnson. BCC is often considered an honorary W.

BCC is a W.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does "W" school cluster mean?

This should be a pinned post in the forum: W School: a group of schools with a larger percentage of academically successful students that have Ws in the school name. Specifically, Walt Whitman, Winston Churchill, Thomas Wootton, and Walter Johnson. BCC is often considered an honorary W.

Wrong
W schools stand for: White and Wealth, hence the reason Wheaton and Watkins Mill are not W schools

[Anonymous]

Any final thoughts after tonIght’s presentation? We thought it was impressive and if we lived in the DCC my kid said it would be a no-brainer, primarily because of the cohort/community. But kid is weighing that against the commute and thinks the home school wins out, knowing that the home school can provide a solid education with room to pursue their interests in classes and extracurriculars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are not choosing RMIB for the same commute/community aspects you point out about CAP, OP. We live close to Blair, and our Eastern 8th grader has decided he wants to continue with his friends/program at CAP.

As for the science - they are putting kids into AP Physics at Blair as freshmen, which I think seems crazy. But I guess they'll have a cohort? They can't possibly be ready for that as 14/15 year olds, right?!?! Is that happening at other schools? Why the rush? The Bio-Chem-Physics pathway just seems more sensible.

I don't understand why Blair puts them in AP Physics but not AP Government NSL (which as a magnet course could be taught both to magnet standards and to the AP Government NSL test, which is not that hard). It doesn't look like Blair even offers AP Government NSL to anyone. I wish the Blair website were better -- I can't find a course bulletin so got this info off the general MCPS page for Blair classes:

https://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/SchoolCourseCatalogs/School/04757/top

I also don't understand the AP Physics for 9th graders. There's plenty of time to get to AP Physics. My RMIB kid and my W school kid both took AP Physics I as sophomores after taking honors chem and honors bio as freshmen while taking algebra 2 -- I don't see a need to rush it before that. Strange.

Yes, they offer AP NSL to 9th grade and both CAP and STEM kids have the option of signing up. Mine took it last year.

Your kid took AP NSL as a ninth grader? What program was he in?

When my kid's went through there they took AP USH in 9th and AP NSL in 10th. AP NSL is still offered but I don't see APUSH at least as an option for 9th graders. It probably is but they aren't recommending it anymore. I know it was on this page a few months ago. https://mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/courses.php

When did your kids graduate? Did they take the APUSH course in ninth, or are you referring to them sitting for the exam?

I question if you really saw it at this web page "a few months ago" since Blair magnet has not had APUSH in their social studies sequence in a long time, and this web page has had the same social studies sequence going back to three years at least. Just to confirm I checked the wayback machine and went back to 2017. They have had the same pathway in that web page at least going back to 2017 - Hons USH in ninth, NSL (AP or Hons) in tenth, World History (AP or Hons) in 11th. A family friend that went to Blair magnet and graduated recently from UMD used to complain about not having APUSH in the pathway since he realized after going to UMD how useful APUSH would have been w.r.t. credit waiver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any final thoughts after tonIght’s presentation? We thought it was impressive and if we lived in the DCC my kid said it would be a no-brainer, primarily because of the cohort/community. But kid is weighing that against the commute and thinks the home school wins out, knowing that the home school can provide a solid education with room to pursue their interests in classes and extracurriculars.

I just sent the forms to decline both CAP and RMIB. It definitely gave me a pang but CAP isn't worth it for my kid (and they really didn't want RMIB at all).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any final thoughts after tonIght’s presentation? We thought it was impressive and if we lived in the DCC my kid said it would be a no-brainer, primarily because of the cohort/community. But kid is weighing that against the commute and thinks the home school wins out, knowing that the home school can provide a solid education with room to pursue their interests in classes and extracurriculars.

I just sent the forms to decline both CAP and RMIB. It definitely gave me a pang but CAP isn't worth it for my kid (and they really didn't want RMIB at all).

First PP here -- just declined CAP. It was a bit painful, but my kid seems relieved to have the decision finalized.

[Anonymous]

Wow, that’s sad. Blair has so much to offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know anything about Whitman, but my daughter is in CAP. She has about two hours of homework every night. She has straight As, but does need to work at it (she got As easily through middle school so I think it was a bit of a shock for her in 9th grade).

Maybe this is just her friends, but it seems like the kids that like CAP the most are quirky, proud of being smart, language and drama oriented kids. Lots of theater kids, into quirky fashion, love reading and talking about books and other language related topics, and social political debating.

Just some thoughts, though not necessarily particular to your question!

Thanks a lot for sharing! My son is currently at Eastern and he complains about the amount of homework at Eastern. He struggles to get A's in English. But he wants to go to CAP because his friends are going. That is what I worry about. Homework might keep him away from sports and other activities, and he might still not be able to get good grades, plus the commute....then why bother? In addition, the qualities you described about your daughter and her friends are awesome. But that is not quite who my child is. He is not drama or language-oriented at all.... My main "concern" about CAP is that it might be time-consuming (commute, homework) and he might still not do that well from a GPA perspective.....

I haven’t read this whole thread but I have a senior DS who is in CAP and went to Eastern. He has had much better grades in CAP. Actually he had straight As in his CAP classes. This was not at all the case at Eastern. IMHO CAP is a better program than Eastern. Better teachers and better run. Eastern is still much better than home middle schools though. We are big fans of CAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are not choosing RMIB for the same commute/community aspects you point out about CAP, OP. We live close to Blair, and our Eastern 8th grader has decided he wants to continue with his friends/program at CAP.

As for the science - they are putting kids into AP Physics at Blair as freshmen, which I think seems crazy. But I guess they'll have a cohort? They can't possibly be ready for that as 14/15 year olds, right?!?! Is that happening at other schools? Why the rush? The Bio-Chem-Physics pathway just seems more sensible.

I don't understand why Blair puts them in AP Physics but not AP Government NSL (which as a magnet course could be taught both to magnet standards and to the AP Government NSL test, which is not that hard). It doesn't look like Blair even offers AP Government NSL to anyone. I wish the Blair website were better -- I can't find a course bulletin so got this info off the general MCPS page for Blair classes:

https://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/SchoolCourseCatalogs/School/04757/top

I also don't understand the AP Physics for 9th graders. There's plenty of time to get to AP Physics. My RMIB kid and my W school kid both took AP Physics I as sophomores after taking honors chem and honors bio as freshmen while taking algebra 2 -- I don't see a need to rush it before that. Strange.

Yes, they offer AP NSL to 9th grade and both CAP and STEM kids have the option of signing up. Mine took it last year.

Your kid took AP NSL as a ninth grader? What program was he in?

Whitman kids who do AP history track take NSL in 9th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, that’s sad. Blair has so much to offer.

But with costs. I'm glad it's there for those who want it, but it's not for everyone.