If accepted to Blair Stem and Richard Montgomery IB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

Tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

This is all easy to verify. Although it's not true that there were twice as many RMIB NMSF last year as Blair, it is true there were more. 2024 29 RMIB, 21 Blair. 2025 there were more from Blair. It does vary.

As for college admissions, look at the college commitment websites from last year. You can draw your own conclusions.

Also incorrect.
The public schools with the most semifinalists are Montgomery Blair (42), Richard Montgomery (24), Poolesville (21), Walter Johnson (15), Winston Churchill (10) and Walt Whitman (10).
from https://www.mymcmedia.org/158-county-students-named-national-merit-semifinalists/

RMIB is not the same as RM, and Blair also has CAP, and is a larger non magnet school, so one should be careful about comparing similar size and relatively homogenous populations.

On the list for my child's grade there's exactly 1 non-magnet kid so I think personally think they are pretty reasonable comparisons. Have heard rom other parents in previous years that this was the case too. Blair is larger so that could impact the numbers but the overall numbers give you a sense of the quality of peers. Your child will go to school with all these students, not just the ones in their program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Some observations after both night sessions and shadow days:

-Blair’s evening session was more informative and organized than RM’s session. It was helpful to see some of the teachers from different subjects at Blair.
-My kid found the opposite to be true for the shadow days. RM was more organized and informative. My kid was excited about Blair’s research class. Yet, the kids spent the double period doing other things such as homework.
Kids seemed overall happier at RM and enthusiastic about the program. (Granted, kids were paired with seniors at RM rather than freshmen at Blair.)
-Both programs have a very high number of NMSF. No other program or school in the county can compare. interestingly, Blair’s medium SAT are 300 higher than RM’s program.

Which grade did your kid shadow? 9th graders and 11th graders can feel quite different. 9th graders are still in the process of fitting into the program, while 11th graders have already adjusted and should be starting to enjoy it.

Not the PP, but my child had the same experience last year. He was deciding between Blair Magnet and RMIB, and the RMIB presentation focused on college admissions while the Blair presentation focused on the experience of being in the program. The real deal-breaker, though, was when the RMIB kids tried to reassure my child that he wouldn't need to interact that much with "Gen pop" at Richard Montgomery, and used racially disparaging language to describe first the rest of the student body at RM (regarding Black and Latino kids) and then to mock the kids in the Blair Magnet (Asian American).

To my kid, it just felt mean. I'm not saying all RMIB kids are racist, but they are weirdly competitive and it felt okay to them to use racial language as part of that competition.

I'm not surprised. DD got into RMIB and the two girls he knows who went there his year had used racist language to make fun of API kids. One of them is from a well known liberal area so they didn't dare say anything negative about other races but it was shocking to hear that they felt it was okay. DD ended up going to our local school anyway for other reasons but her dislike of the other kids she knew who were going did not help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

Tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

This is all easy to verify. Although it's not true that there were twice as many RMIB NMSF last year as Blair, it is true there were more. 2024 29 RMIB, 21 Blair. 2025 there were more from Blair. It does vary.

As for college admissions, look at the college commitment websites from last year. You can draw your own conclusions.

Wrong again. Did you actually verify before you posted?
Blair has better college admissions than any school in the state.
Again, tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

Most Blair magnet students don't post their admissions on insta and the school does not release that info unlike at RMIB where their whole open house presentation was about college admissions. If you or your child are obsessed with college admissions RMIB is the right way to go. One of the local magazines puts out a list every year of applications and admissions and enrollment even? I haven't looked at it in a while but I remember both schools did very well. I don't understand the need to put down the other school in this thread. It seems to be mostly 1 or more RMIB parents bashing Blair. Why?

LOL at suggesting Blair parents don't care about elite college outcomes. Fhs. Blair usually has more MIT admits, RMIB has slighly more Ivy+ admits. However, athletic recruiting is a factor. I noticed some Ivy admits are recruits, at both schools. This does mean that a very high number of high stats kids are shut out from T-10s. Both schools do pretty well, but home schools generally do just as well. Go to a magnet because you care about the education and college readiness, not because you think it will improve your college admissions chances. Competing against other magnet kids generally makes it harder not easier.

Where was that suggestion? I'm saying it's hard to compare by looking at the social media postings because so few Blair magnet students post. But RMIB students and families are much more open and aggressive about college being the No. 1 goal and so is the program administration. The Blair magnet admin is the opposite and actively discourages kids from focusing solely on that.

Because the pool of students is too uniform, which results in somewhat less impressive college admissions outcomes. You act like Blair is not emphasizing college outcomes as some kind of noble act. Please. I do think Blair encourages students to be more realistic, which is good. 175+ students completing against each other for spots at the same 10 or so schools. The odds are very tough. A high number of Blair students end up attending UMD with scholarships, because they did not get into Ivies or MIT. Nothing wrong with that. From a financial perspective, it's very smart. But there is a reason Blair magnet admin doesn't trumpet college outcomes.

Blair students study STEM, which is very competitive for college.
RMIB fills out the whole range of Ivy Bachelor of Arts degree, including many dying departments. Might be good for an academic, arts, or business career afterward, might be good for Starbucks.
Definit more of an unpredictable chance future vs a more reliable STEM path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

Tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

This is all easy to verify. Although it's not true that there were twice as many RMIB NMSF last year as Blair, it is true there were more. 2024 29 RMIB, 21 Blair. 2025 there were more from Blair. It does vary.

As for college admissions, look at the college commitment websites from last year. You can draw your own conclusions.

Wrong again. Did you actually verify before you posted?
Blair has better college admissions than any school in the state.
Again, tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

Most Blair magnet students don't post their admissions on insta and the school does not release that info unlike at RMIB where their whole open house presentation was about college admissions. If you or your child are obsessed with college admissions RMIB is the right way to go. One of the local magazines puts out a list every year of applications and admissions and enrollment even? I haven't looked at it in a while but I remember both schools did very well. I don't understand the need to put down the other school in this thread. It seems to be mostly 1 or more RMIB parents bashing Blair. Why?

LOL at suggesting Blair parents don't care about elite college outcomes. Fhs. Blair usually has more MIT admits, RMIB has slighly more Ivy+ admits. However, athletic recruiting is a factor. I noticed some Ivy admits are recruits, at both schools. This does mean that a very high number of high stats kids are shut out from T-10s. Both schools do pretty well, but home schools generally do just as well. Go to a magnet because you care about the education and college readiness, not because you think it will improve your college admissions chances. Competing against other magnet kids generally makes it harder not easier.

Where was that suggestion? I'm saying it's hard to compare by looking at the social media postings because so few Blair magnet students post. But RMIB students and families are much more open and aggressive about college being the No. 1 goal and so is the program administration. The Blair magnet admin is the opposite and actively discourages kids from focusing solely on that.

To be fair, Blair Magnet parents are 175% focused on college admissions, so admin has to work harder to push back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two things that have not been mentioned yet. Blair's size can be a negative and the fact that there's a second magnet at the school can be good or bad. There is a lot of competition for clubs and spots on the debate team, etc. so your child may not get to do her first choice of activity all the time.

Blair kids are done with most of their required classes by the end of 10th so 11th and 12th can be fun and full of electives. RMIB requirements go up until 12th and even at the end of 12th your child will be stressed out taking the IB tests. That was a drag.

I haven't seen anyone mention the extra period for the SMCS magnet—that's still a thing, right? But not at RMIB?

Correct Blair has the extra period, RMIB does not. Is often used as a free period, which helps manage workload.

Older kids often use it as a free period. It's hard to do that in 9th and 10th.

You can do it in 9th and take PE/Art later, but that doesn't make the workload lighter; it just gives you 45minutes for homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a strong program but niche, for STEM obviously but majority pre-engineering. RMIB is better for kids who like STEM and humanities, and produces excellent analytical writers across disciplines. Historically RMIB has had better college outcomes because Ivy+ schools prefer a broader liberal arts focus. Blair does better with MIT. Both are very competitive but RMIB students are a little more chill. Last year RMIB produced twice as many NMSF as Blair. This year it was reversed, Blair produced twice as many. So the cohorts vary too.

Tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

This is all easy to verify. Although it's not true that there were twice as many RMIB NMSF last year as Blair, it is true there were more. 2024 29 RMIB, 21 Blair. 2025 there were more from Blair. It does vary.

As for college admissions, look at the college commitment websites from last year. You can draw your own conclusions.

Wrong again. Did you actually verify before you posted?
Blair has better college admissions than any school in the state.
Again, tell me you have no idea of what you're talking about without telling me you have no idea.

Most Blair magnet students don't post their admissions on insta and the school does not release that info unlike at RMIB where their whole open house presentation was about college admissions. If you or your child are obsessed with college admissions RMIB is the right way to go. One of the local magazines puts out a list every year of applications and admissions and enrollment even? I haven't looked at it in a while but I remember both schools did very well. I don't understand the need to put down the other school in this thread. It seems to be mostly 1 or more RMIB parents bashing Blair. Why?

LOL at suggesting Blair parents don't care about elite college outcomes. Fhs. Blair usually has more MIT admits, RMIB has slighly more Ivy+ admits. However, athletic recruiting is a factor. I noticed some Ivy admits are recruits, at both schools. This does mean that a very high number of high stats kids are shut out from T-10s. Both schools do pretty well, but home schools generally do just as well. Go to a magnet because you care about the education and college readiness, not because you think it will improve your college admissions chances. Competing against other magnet kids generally makes it harder not easier.

Where was that suggestion? I'm saying it's hard to compare by looking at the social media postings because so few Blair magnet students post. But RMIB students and families are much more open and aggressive about college being the No. 1 goal and so is the program administration. The Blair magnet admin is the opposite and actively discourages kids from focusing solely on that.

To be fair, Blair Magnet parents are 175% focused on college admissions, so admin has to work harder to push back.

This is so true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both are excellent. Go with whichever has the shorter commute.

+1 All other things being equal

Questions to ask yourself -
How interested in STEM is your DC? Will taking more STEM classes motivate your child in school?
How easily does your child pick up STEM concepts? The work is much more compressed than at RMIB. They do a year's worth of work and then some in many semester classes. You don't want to set up your child to struggle.
Does your child want friends who are also very into STEM?
I would also think hard about the extra period at Blair. It can make the day really long and cuts into time for other activities.
Is your child very organized and hardworking and pretty equally strong in all subjects? RMIB requires kids to juggle a lot of different demands.
Does your child do okay with testing or can they tolerate a lot of testing? RMIB will require a lot of testing in 11th and 12th so your child would have APs and then IB exams. It's several full weeks of testing.
Is your child a self-starter in terms of finding activities and are they very competitive about them? Many of the popular activities at Blair require applications and they are competition based. There are more opportunities at RM and fewer high performing peers just due to Blair's size and the presence of CAP which is even bigger than the magnet and full of kids who are just as smart as the STEM kids.
Would your child to better as a big fish in a smaller pond - RMIB - or would they be okay being a smaller fish in a really huge pond - Blair? Or are they the type of kid who would thrive in the really huge pond - Blair?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RMIB is more well rounded -- lots of kids go on to major in STEM or humanities, and some both.

Blair students pretty much all end up majoring in STEM.

That doesn't make them less well rounded. DC is fluent in two world languages and an expert in European history, like their father who has PhD in engineering and has read tens of thousand of pages of history books. A lot of bright kids like history and languages but don't make it their major.

That's nice for your kid, but how many Blair students do you think are that well rounded? Not many.

Whereas RMIB students are more well rounded since the STEM oriented kids still have to take the IB humanities classes, and vice versa.

The vast majority of them are well rounded.
Blair students not only dominate in STEM, they also dominate in non-STEM subjects/competitions: journalism, C-SPAN etc...
You have no idea of what you're talking about.

That is simply not true. But good effort!

Well, I think PP is falling into a trap here. Yes, Blair dominates C-SPAN but that's mainly CAP kids because they prepare a C-SPAN documentary in class and because many CAP kids are on at least their second round of C-SPAN documentaries.

However, there are exceptions. One of the most prolific C-SPAN winners on the competition's history is a current Blair magnet student.

Yes, that person is an Blair Magnet, but started winning back at Eastern (Communications) MS magnet.
You can see that this is the sort of contest that strongly favors schools that have a program tailored to that specific contest.

[Anonymous]

We know three kids who had the choice last year from 2 different middle schools. The girl went back to her home school. It's a W and she lives really close to it. She also has a lot of time consuming outside activities. One boy chose Blair and the other one did RMIB. Was surprised because that second kid's parents are in the STEM field and the kid was into all the STEM activities in MS. RM is closer to them though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Some observations after both night sessions and shadow days:

-Blair’s evening session was more informative and organized than RM’s session. It was helpful to see some of the teachers from different subjects at Blair.
-My kid found the opposite to be true for the shadow days. RM was more organized and informative. My kid was excited about Blair’s research class. Yet, the kids spent the double period doing other things such as homework.
Kids seemed overall happier at RM and enthusiastic about the program. (Granted, kids were paired with seniors at RM rather than freshmen at Blair.)
-Both programs have a very high number of NMSF. No other program or school in the county can compare. interestingly, Blair’s medium SAT are 300 higher than RM’s program.

Which grade did your kid shadow? 9th graders and 11th graders can feel quite different. 9th graders are still in the process of fitting into the program, while 11th graders have already adjusted and should be starting to enjoy it.

Not the PP, but my child had the same experience last year. He was deciding between Blair Magnet and RMIB, and the RMIB presentation focused on college admissions while the Blair presentation focused on the experience of being in the program. The real deal-breaker, though, was when the RMIB kids tried to reassure my child that he wouldn't need to interact that much with "Gen pop" at Richard Montgomery, and used racially disparaging language to describe first the rest of the student body at RM (regarding Black and Latino kids) and then to mock the kids in the Blair Magnet (Asian American).

To my kid, it just felt mean. I'm not saying all RMIB kids are racist, but they are weirdly competitive and it felt okay to them to use racial language as part of that competition.

Um.. RMIB is like 80%+ Asian. What you stated is BS.

Also, several of the RMIB kids are RM cluster kids, which included my own Asian kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We know three kids who had the choice last year from 2 different middle schools. The girl went back to her home school. It's a W and she lives really close to it. She also has a lot of time consuming outside activities. One boy chose Blair and the other one did RMIB. Was surprised because that second kid's parents are in the STEM field and the kid was into all the STEM activities in MS. RM is closer to them though.

Yea, that's my kid, too. DC chose RMIB because it is closer and more well rounded even though they are a STEM kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:. interestingly, Blair’s medium SAT are 300 higher than RM’s program.

This ridiculous claim is obvious false.

RMIB SAT is much higher than RM overall.

RMIB doesn't publish a college profile document for the public, but Blair Magnet does.

Comparing RM whole school vs Blair Magnet ges you "300 points" for that nonsense calculation.

It’s not a claim, and I’m not PP. This data comes from the printed materials we received at both schools’ open houses this past weeks. I was surprised by it too. Also, Blair’s open house did not provide any college acceptance information on paper or in the slideshow. RM, however, printed it out and placed it on a table for attendees to take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Some observations after both night sessions and shadow days:

-Blair’s evening session was more informative and organized than RM’s session. It was helpful to see some of the teachers from different subjects at Blair.
-My kid found the opposite to be true for the shadow days. RM was more organized and informative. My kid was excited about Blair’s research class. Yet, the kids spent the double period doing other things such as homework.
Kids seemed overall happier at RM and enthusiastic about the program. (Granted, kids were paired with seniors at RM rather than freshmen at Blair.)
-Both programs have a very high number of NMSF. No other program or school in the county can compare. interestingly, Blair’s medium SAT are 300 higher than RM’s program.

Which grade did your kid shadow? 9th graders and 11th graders can feel quite different. 9th graders are still in the process of fitting into the program, while 11th graders have already adjusted and should be starting to enjoy it.

Not the PP, but my child had the same experience last year. He was deciding between Blair Magnet and RMIB, and the RMIB presentation focused on college admissions while the Blair presentation focused on the experience of being in the program. The real deal-breaker, though, was when the RMIB kids tried to reassure my child that he wouldn't need to interact that much with "Gen pop" at Richard Montgomery, and used racially disparaging language to describe first the rest of the student body at RM (regarding Black and Latino kids) and then to mock the kids in the Blair Magnet (Asian American).

To my kid, it just felt mean. I'm not saying all RMIB kids are racist, but they are weirdly competitive and it felt okay to them to use racial language as part of that competition.

Um.. RMIB is like 80%+ Asian. What you stated is BS.

Also, several of the RMIB kids are RM cluster kids, which included my own Asian kid.

I don't think it's BS because my kid heard similar. It's not everyone but there's an attitude of inferiority that results in finding ways to bash the other school's kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:. interestingly, Blair’s medium SAT are 300 higher than RM’s program.

This ridiculous claim is obvious false.

RMIB SAT is much higher than RM overall.

RMIB doesn't publish a college profile document for the public, but Blair Magnet does.

Comparing RM whole school vs Blair Magnet ges you "300 points" for that nonsense calculation.

It’s not a claim, and I’m not PP. This data comes from the printed materials we received at both schools’ open houses this past weeks. I was surprised by it too. Also, Blair’s open house did not provide any college acceptance information on paper or in the slideshow. RM, however, printed it out and placed it on a table for attendees to take.

Can you share a picture of the RMIB data?

[Anonymous]

I think I know what PP is talking about. There's a profile sheet for colleges page that lists a lot of IB and SAT scores for the RMIB program. The SAT score is not just for RMIB but for the whole school though. It doesn't look like it but it is.