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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]bottom line - they are looking for a consistent track record of STEM awesomeness - consistent high map-m scores 275+, years of STEM-based extra circular stuff i.e. math competitions & science fair participation, solid As across STEM subjects, 100+ hours of volunteering. for FARMS kids the bar will be lower but the rest of applications will be in one big pool. no one will know if the kid from a particular middle school or of a particular race. Student is assigned a number so they cant easily guess what is the ethnicity unless in the essay kid mentions that they are bilingual. but I think they know the gender. our kid went though the process this year and it was very very stressful for all 8th graders that had aspersions to get into these competitive programs. [/quote]

“Years of STEM extra curriculars”? Do you know how much that stuff costs? If this is true no wonder upper middle class kids have an advantage. Not to mention the fact that the pandemic made many of these things virtually impossible. What about the smart shy kids who are high achievers but not into competitions? Also my own kid is at TPMS magnet and has never once had the opportunity to participate in a science fair. The circulated list of “gifted” summer camps and opportunities START at $1000 a week. This seems in the realm of the pushy parent and I hope you are very wrong about these “requirements”.

On the other hand, all the info about entry to the middle school magnet program I got from DCUM seemed very biased. My own kid took MAP a few days ago and reported that his scores were the highest in his home room and among the highest among the magnet kids, excluding those taking geometry in 7th who were higher. This is the first time I’ve heard him compare scores ever, but he’s clearly breezing through TPMS easily getting As and finding the magnet classes very little effort, so I assume the Blair program could be a good fit, if he decides he wants to do it[/quote]

Congratulations on the great MAP score. My DC keeps mentioning that 7th graders at TPMS are very very strong set of kids.

I totally agree that there are many pricy STEM activities that give rich kids major advantage but there are many free or inexpensive ways to show of deep interest in STEM. 
Being part of a school math club, lego club, science bowl are all free. Many math competitions are free too. Getting all As is free. Science Fair in MoCo is free - there are no in-school invitations or announcements for it. Pushy parents keep an eye on stuff like sciencemontgomery.org  and give thier kids a heads up about this opportunity.

My DC is in TPMS 8th grade. There are several kids with very high 280+ MAP-M scores that were rejected by Blair. I don't know what info they put in their application but per my DC one common theme for these kids was that they were not solid A students. A bunch of Cs (probably due to lost or late HW submissions) and high MAP-M shows that the kid is capable but not willing or able to be organized.

Blair SMACS has a great video on their website that crisply describes what they are looking for. Strong organizational skills is one of these characteristics. [/quote]

I guess I’m not really a pushy parent! Can you share a link to the video you refer to? I can’t find it.[/quote]

FYI - not every middle school offers math clubs and science bowl. Our MCPS middle school doesn't have anything like that. [/quote]

You could always volunteer to start one![/quote]

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