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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Congrats.  My daughter is a senior in SMCS at Poolesville.  I can't speak to Blair program but I'm assuming that they are similar.  So, I'll just give you my thoughts based on the Poolesville program.  First, it's all about time management.  It's an eight period day.  Long days.  If your daughter can manage her schedule well, things will be fine.  My daughter gets up a little after 5A and gets home a little after 5P.  She also plays sports (those are really long days), coaches a 10U team and also is a theater kid.  Those can be really long days.  But, she found her tribe there.  An amazing group of nerd girls :) Wonderful kids. It can be competitive, but we've been hands off since she started CES in fourth grade.  It seems the kids who tend to be the most aggressive and competitive have really overbearing parents.  That's not a slight on the parents, just something we've noticed over the years.

That MAP score is great.  My daughter was in that ballpark and now she is doing multi-variable calculus.

Homework increases over the years.  Freshman year wasn't bad.  Senior year it's now about two hours a night.  I don't know if Blair follows the same program, but after 8th period there is a 'study hall' where kiddo can get a bunch of homework done before catching the 4:30 bus.  But now that spring sports have kicked off, she has to punt that to get to the field.

But the program has been amazing.  She's taken 15 APs with a WGPA of 4.88.  So, she'll likely start college as a second semester sophomore.  She applied to five schools and was accepted to all five.  Four of the five offered academic scholarships.  Two full rides and two 60% scholarships.   Maryland was the only one that didn't throw money at her.  Thankfully, that is by far the cheapest one :)

So, tldr; It's a lot of work, but it is very rewarding.  IMO.

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Thank you so much for such a detailed description. I have heard from past students parents that the internship that the students are required to do between junior and senior, is a process solely the responsibility of the Student and the staff/teachers have very limited resource and guidance on how to obtain these internships and that it is a very stressful time for the students. That some students email upwards of 100 professors and internship opportunities. At the acceptance meeting/open house they made it sound like they will guide the students completely, the teacher even said “we will lead them like a horse leading them to water” something similar to that. . What has your experience with that been with your Daughter?

Also how was making friends, was it an easy process, I know that the prgm has less girls, has making friends been an issue for your daughter. Does she hang out with the school friends outside of school ie prom/homecom8ng/sleepovers/malls? Just curious how the friendships go beyond the classroom and clubs. Thank![/quote]

Regarding the internship, there is an independent research course, teaching kids how to approach opportunities and conduct research. The teacher does have limited connections but that's about it. Students need to apply open opportunities by themselves, some of which are very competitive, or use their parents resources/connections. The current research funding situation across all agencies (including DoD) is shrinking rapidly, so there's less internship openings this year than previous years. Not sure about the future years, but I'm not optimistic about future of U.S. anyways...[/quote]

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