Reply to Getting into Takoma Park Middle School's magnet as a boy

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When my daughter was applying to Eastern and TP magnets a few years ago, directors at both open houses said there was slight gender preference, as all the parents in our area already knew. We live in SS but were zoned for [b]SSIMS, where my daughter eventually went to continue French Immersion and get those h.s. credits[/b]. She lost out on Eastern and TP. If your child's home middle school is Eastern or TP, you have some advantage, as every parent in our area knows. Also, it's important to point out that there are many, many, many kids who deserve to be in these magnets who don't get in. At the open houses, we were told that the folks reading the applications did it all in[b] ONE DAY. [/b]Each had a stack to read and put his/her top choices in a pile. Those got passed around, kids got picked. It's incredible that they would even admit this -- not too bright for magnet teachers! By contrast, the high school magnets - Blair, CAP, RM's IB -- take weeks to choose their students. We knew several top applicants to MS magnets who didn't get in and several who got in but were certainly not as deserving as the former. We knew several who got in and deserved it. It's kind of a crapshoot for all bright kids, unless yours is truly exceptional. My girl didn't make it, but she just got into CAP (only DCC kids apply to that) and the wait pool for RM's IB, where 900 kids applied from all over the county and 110 were picked with 100 on wait list. The school told me that wait pool kids are not ranked and that they reevaluate each app before picking from the pool. Now that's an impressive admittance procedure. No gender pref., no school pref. So, please, please don't worry if your kid misses out on middle school magnets. HS magnet directors roll their eyes and scoff when you ask if the magnet middles are feeders into the magnet HS. Just give all of them a shot, and don't let your children feel they are not as bright and deserving as you know they are just because they didn't get in. In this area, you can't possibly be fair with so few slots in these programs. There are too many super bright kids with well educated and often driven parents. All those kids deserve a rigorous, challenging, creative educational experience, and it's sad that the county just doesn't have the resources for it.[/quote]

All middle school students get high school credits for high school-level classes.

The HGC applicants are also reviewed and chosen in one day.  I don't have a problem with this, don't know why you do.  The truth is that the majority are kicked out immediately because test scores are too low - so their applications are not even read.  The remaining, top-test-scores students are then evaluated.  I can easily see how this could be done efficiently in one day.[/quote]

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