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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't understand the "not social" thing. Whenever I visit the school for an event, the kids are very social. [/quote]

It might be different for a girl, but my son felt the program was super social and not intense or terrible in terms of the homework. I don't understand the families who are here saying that. If it's a good fit, it's fun. The teaching is terrific. The peer group is great - they work together during off periods/slow periods in that long day. My son also played a sport and an instrument, but this idea that the homework load is onerous just wasn't his experience. (he did well, too - it's not like he didn't do HW and then got B's or whatever). For the right kid, this program is (chef's kiss) perfect. [/quote]

Did your son play an instrument at Blair. How did it impact their ability to take electives? [/quote]

He was in the band as a freshman, but not after that.. he took lessons after school. What was really neat is that he ended up taking classes like Guitar 1 and Piano 2 randomly- just using them as a space to practice his own instrument (with headphones)! He didn’t need the class, and was able to just use that period as a place to do his practicing for an hour and a half every other day. Occasionally the teacher would walk around and ask him to play a scale or something, but they left him alone for the most part. I really credit Ostrander for making this happen- though my kid did have to go and nicely ask etc. Things like this made Blair feel like a special place. Good luck to OP- and congrats![/quote]

This sounds an atypical arrangement. Won't you worry a little bit about impacting your DS' WGPA by inserting non-honored classes? All kids I know that practices instruments before at a competition level do test-in for an honor or AP level music class or band/orchestra. [/quote]

Electives don't count for WGPA. College AOs aren't that stupid. [/quote]

Oh, wow, I’d better tell my kid that his electives - organic chemistry, linear algebra, neuroscience and discrete math - “don’t count” for WGPA!

(For anyone who’s not an idiot, YES, OF COURSE THEY DO!)[/quote]

Ask your gifted child to read the thread and explain the magnet program to you, slowly. 
[/quote]

How about you read it again, slowly. I am extremely familiar with the program and also know what electives are and that if they are honors/advanced/AP (like all magnet classes and many other elective options) they count toward weighted GPA. Perhaps you should ask your kid what an elective is, given that you’re having trouble understanding.
[/quote]

DP.  I think you both can be right.  MCPS/Blair reports them as weighted.  College admissions offices (at least some of them), in an effort to counter differential treatment of GPA across jurisdictions so as better to conduct apples-to-apples comparisons for admission, walk back certain of these GPA bonuses, applying them only to courses which meet a curricular standard.  Such a standard might be having the course seen as core rather than elective.

However, some of those admissions offices might also go a little deeper, seeing electives within certain subjects/at certain presumed levels as worthy of maintaining the GPA bonus weight.  Many admissions offices, especially at privates, would keep the particulars to themselves, though state schools such as UMD might disclose them.[/quote]

No college in the country with any familiarity with Blair’s program would count their advanced electives (which are post-AP and typically equate to sophomore or Junior COLLEGE classes) as unweighted. They are also in core subjects like math or science.[/quote]

And just to make it abundantly clear, many of those classes end up earning college credit, meaning that Blair magnet graduates can technically be juniors in their first year at college (this is not unusual at UMD, for example).[/quote]

That DP.  I don't think you are particularly wrong, here, but the other poster also can be right.  Not every college might know Blair's program well enough, and not every college might make the same weighting, credit or placement decisions.[/quote]

I don’t think the other poster is arguing the opposite tbh. Their claim is farcical and I’m sure they know that if they have any familiarity with the program so I suspect they are just stirring sh*t for the sake of it[/quote]

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