Reply to Gifted kid - APS, FCPS, or Nysmith?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can’t figure out why people keep falsely saying that Nysmith is for AAP rejects.  In our 9 years there, never heard of this happening.  Maybe there are some kids that tried to get into AAP that I don’t know about, but most kids started Nysmith in pre-K through 1st grade, well before AAP testing/applications. We hear far more stories about kids coming to Nysmith because they were not challenged enough in the early grades at their public schools, and in our case because our public school still only had 1/2 day Kindergarten.

With regard to the assertion regarding them not getting into TJ- that’s just false.  Almost all the kids who took the TJ test this year made it to the semi-final pool (about 20 kids). Not bragging - just a fact. While we don’t know the final result, that seems pretty good out of a class of about 60, many of whom didn’t apply.  About a third of the 8th graders are in Algebra II Honors or higher.  Not a bragging point but just rebutting the insinuation that these kids wouldn’t be able to make it in AAP. This year’s graduating class has been accepted to various private chools such as Phillips Exeter, Sidwell, NCS, Holton, Potomac and other great schools, and many will go to their awesome public schools that we are very fortunate to have in this area.

The kids are not obnoxious or rude, they are nice kids just trying their hardest, like everyone else’s.  We don’t judge your kids.  I know many kids who have thrived in AAP and good for them!  I am happy for them.  Seems to me that the obnoxious people are not the kids, but the parents on this board who think it is okay to bash kids for no reason. [/quote]

No one said the kids themselves are obnoxious or rude.  But, they are coached to say things that are offputting.  I do think the point is that the school does the kids no favors by making them announce themselves as being from”Nysmith School for the Gifted” at every opportunity, rather than just having them say they are from Nysmith and letting the winds (or lack thereof) speak for themselves. Since the kids all do this— at debate and OOTM and Math contests, etc, I assume it’s what the school tells them to do, not their choice. So, that’s not on the kids.  That’s on the school. But it is obnoxious. As obnoxious as it would be for a RRMS kid to announce that they were from the RRMS AAP Center, rather than just giving the name of the school.

As for TJ admissions, any decent MS will have 2/3 or more of the applicants make the semifinals(up to last year. I assume the new testing would cut down on semifinalists, but haven’t seen the numbers). That’s the easy part. The hard part is getting admitted. And most years, Nysmith is listed as having “ts” admits, which is either less than 10 or less than 5, depending on they are. The only year I remember them crossing the ts threshold was 2020, when DS was admitted.

I’m sure they are all great, super special kids. But in my DCs’ ES alone, every single year we knew of  a couple kids who were not admitted to AAP and whose parents moved them to Nysmith. At least one also moved to Flint Hill. They must either lose kids to AAP in 3rd or add an extra 3rd grade class to deal with the influx. Because my kids can’t attend the only ES where Nysmith is the AAP backup.

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