Reply to I'm an old mom who attended the Center and magnets for MS and HS-- AMA

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Has OP answered any of the questions?[/quote]

No, I went away and am back now. The poster who mentioned being in the Blair magnet 20 plus years ago was not me, though I'd agree with them.

Hm, this ended up being very long, but no one is forcing you to read, so... read if you like!

To answer the couple that were posed...

From the OP, 1) my kid is in 3rd grade, and 2) re: irrelevance, I understand that these are just "my experiences, relevant or irrelevant as they may be."

[quote]I have a real question, OP, not just unadulterated snark, like other posters. Having gone through all those magnets, did you fare better in college admissions compared to, say, your neighborhood kids who graduated from regular MCPS schools? And did you fare better post-college?[/quote]

It's a fine question that I may not be able to fully answer. Although my unusual experience may still be somewhat illustrative.

First, I moved around MoCo a lot, ended up in a rural area and basically never knew my neighbors, who were spaced far apart. Especially as I was traveling 30-45 minutes to school and spending so much time there... my friends were all my school friends. So if I'm taking your question somewhat literally, it's hard for me to compare myself to "neighborhood kids." I could probably compare myself better to kids for whom Blair was their home school, but that's not a perfect analogue.

The bigger confounding factor is that I had undiagnosed ADHD, so my grades suffered. At the same time, I had the highest overall test scores in the school, at least among those that were shared. I was not remotely an average college applicant from the Magnets. My neurodivergence is kind of relevant to the overall "G&T" program landscape, though. There were a tremendous number of us who were ND and as far as I know, back in the 80s/early 90s, very few had been diagnosed. But it's kind of laughably obvious now. I'm still in touch with many classmates, and a disproportionate number finally got autism and/or ADHD diagnoses in their adulthood.

This goes a bit to the other question I saw...

[quote]Which one was more weighing more then? Quest for knowledge or benefit for college application.[/quote]

It's so hard to get into the heads of my friends' parents, but both were present among the kids. There was a real mix... In the CAP/Eastern Magnet, you saw families I think more focused on the "quest for knowledge" or actual enrichment from something their kid had shown talent for and interest in (usually writing, often specifically journalism, sociology/history and/or some sort of creative media). Still often very interested in college admissions, but among a solid majority, that seemed to take at least a slight backseat to the quest for knowledge/etc.

In the math/science Magnet, which was then also larger... you had, I'd say, a pretty even four-way split, although with a lot of overlap among the groups.

1) overachievers who were bright, VERY hardworkers, but more focused on college admissions, careers and the distant future than whatever they were learning

2) what I described above re: the CAP, less competitive, more focused on the learning and the peer group, including kids who were excellent at and loved one subject, but were maybe not as strong in others

3) the sort of golden children/families that had impressive all-around resumes, were generally also popular and well-liked AND quite brilliant-- this group was disproportionately represented in the most competitive college admissions and had bits of #1 and #2, especially in that college admissions held a lot of importance

4) kids who were profoundly gifted or close to it, and also really unusual in other ways, neurodivergent or otherwise, and it was probably all you could do as a parent to just sort of... put them in an academic/peer situation that approximated meeting their needs. Some were successful, others flamed out.

Again, some overlap, and definitely more than 1/4 were neurodivergent.

For what it's worth (TL;DR), the CHG was also a mix of these, though of course we were much further from college admissions. And actually, I'm not sure any of us were in that Group #1, bright but mostly just extremely hard workers. Take from that what you will. I attended the Area 2 CHG at Bells Mill, though I moved during that time to Area 3. If I think about the ~22 kids who attended all of 4-6th with me and stayed in the DC area, ~13-15 went to either the Eastern or TPMS Magnets. A few went to home schools and a few to private. Of those from the CHG who went to the Eastern Magnet, most went to the CAP or RMIB, 1 also to Blair's math/science Magnet, 1 to Whitman (home school) and a couple to privates for HS. Most or all of the kids from CHG who went to the TPMS Magnet went to the Blair Magnet. So I guess a lot of us were basically kids who almost never attended our home schools. Huh.

Circling back to the college admissions thing... I think it's a question with too many confounding variables. But you knew that-- sorry I couldn't be of more help. It would depend on your home school, and certainly Blair poached some highly-gifted kids from home schools. I'm sure Whitman had Ivy admissions that weren't that much lower than Blair's, and that Blair had poached a couple of their kids who would have gotten into Ivies, etc. Although most of the Magnet kids were not coming from a W school district.

I do feel more strongly, though perhaps naively, that being in these programs actually set us all up for more success in life in a few ways that had little to do with Ivy admission or whatever.

-It was actually awesome to be with weirdo smart kids, both academically and socially. Helped a lot with self-esteem and definitely reduced boredom. Came up with better ideas, more exciting group projects, etc. Also never got a chance to rest on my laurels or coast through anything... which was actually very challenging for me, personally, with ADHD. But it's an ADHD diagnosis that would have helped me, NOT being in easier programs. As an adult, I know a number of people like me who could easily coast in other schools and other districts without any semblance of executive function, and it didn't help them in life, either.

-Those who went to UMCP or MC -- or even Ivies-- were just light years ahead in terms of having had to do higher-level work in a higher-level way. Not just the course content, but the teacher expectations, the peer group, and the format of assignments... it was great college and career prep, and not in a sort of cookie-cutter corporate way, but in terms of gleaning more from texts, thinking deeply and so on. Is this different from a W school and AP classes? (Not that W schools are a gold standard, but they tend to be advantaged.) I don't know. Though I do feel like the way both Magnet and CAP were integrated-- projects that spanned more than one class and were interdisciplinary-- was a departure from the way most other schools do things, and highly beneficial.

-I think it was very beneficial in terms of attending a more diverse school than most of us otherwise would. At the time, CAP was about 40% POC and Magnet a little less, but Blair otherwise was about 80%+ POC. Plus Blair was more socio-economically diverse/disadvantaged than most of our home schools, simply because it was more diverse/disadvantaged than almost any other school-- the "magnetic" point of the Magnet. Lots more ESOL and so on. I can see this benefit in the adults we are today. At that time, anyway, you couldn't be in a Magnet/CAP bubble without trying to be, so there was just a wider world view fostered among a lot of kids who would have otherwise, to shorthand it, attended Churchill or Poolesville.

If I were really good at getting to the point (see: ADHD) I would say that I, personally, fared better in life than I would have if I hadn't gone to these programs. But for me, personally, this was not because they gave me a concrete step up in life or put me on a nice automatic track, like CHG-->Magnets--->Ivy--->Big Law or whatever. It's because, for the most part, they made me a more open-minded, reflective person.

I know you can't prove a counterfactual, but I really do believe this. [/quote]

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