Reply to Explain MCPS magnets to me?

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Explain MCPS magnets to me?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Middle School: there is a down-county STEM magnet (TPMS) and a down-county Humanities magnet (Eastern) and there are up-county counterparts (won't get into it since coming from DC I assume you're gonna stick to down county).

[b]Your kid applies in Fall of 5th grade[/b] and is notified in late Winter of 5th grade. This used to be via essay/testing/scores, but now it is more of a "you made the cut, do you want to enter the lottery?" thing and I don't know if the kids are involved or write an essay because my kid did it 4+ years ago when the process was selective beyond the initial cut. Yes, the cohorts used to be filled with even higher-testing more motivated kids. Yes, the cohorts are still very strong.

High School: if you move you'll know what to do, but basically the big ones are as follows:
- Blair SMACS - eligible if you live down-county
- Richard Montgomery IB - I forget if it's all county but if you live in the down-county portion you're eligible
- Blair CAP (Humanities) - eligible if you are zoned for Blair, Einstein, Kennedy, Wheaton, or Northwood or attended a middle school magnet at TPMS or Eastern
- Wheaton Engineering or Wheaton Biomed (same eligibility as CAP, I think?) - these are selective magnets, Wheaton also has focused programs in these subjects but they are not the same rigor/selection
- Poolesville has a Global Ecology program that is open to the entire county - focused on field trips and sustainability and hands-on science stuff.

You apply for HS magnets in fall of 8th grade and are notified in late Jan/early Feb.

If you live to the west and are zoned for Whitman, Wootton, Churchill, or Walter Johnson, your entire school pyramid will be solid. Some kids opt for magnets if offered a spot, some pass, some do them and return for high school, but any way you slice it these four high schools are excellent. People complain that they don't have special programs but they don't need them.

[/quote]

Not any more. There is no applying in 5th grade. There is a universal review of 5th graders instead. For the HS magnets there is still an application process which happens in the fall of 8th grade.[/quote]

Not quite correct.  There is a universal review for the Math /Science and Humanities magnets for 5th.  The speciality magnets like Aerospace, Performing Arts, Design & Development students still have select/apply.[/quote]

They have apply, but not select.  It's a straight lottery, without qualification criteria, for the small number of seats at each school reserved for those out-of-bounds applicants.[/quote]

This is close but with a small correction. Yes, it is a lottery. However, they say they take into account socioeconomic and demographic factors and they certainly take into account siblings in school already (but not siblings who graduated). In the open day at Parkland this year they told us chances of getting into your preferred school are ~10%. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics