Reply to magnet schools for Bethesda kids?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The magnet program is basically a tool to help upper society pick out a few middle class kids and give them a chance to get into schools where they can then meet the wealthy and make a case for their value.

This quote is particularly amusing knowing that about 1/2 the Blair magnet kids end up at UMCP!  I wonder if the parents who think that Whittman is better know that SMAC classes don't take county assessments or the new RQA's.  The teachers create their own tests and have flexibility in the classroom.  This alone is priceless, IMO.[/quote]

not all the magnet kids are truly elite academically, just the potential to be so. It is a refining process, that the 100 or so best test takers and add in legit rigor and then skim again. The UMCP either didn't make the net level cut or parents couldn't afford to help with the next step to a private school. [/quote]
It is not just about taking a test.  They also consider essays (you submit essays as part of the application and you write one during the test).  They don't just want high scoring kids (they do), they also want kids with a spark.  Yes they are identifying potential and not everyone is off the charts amazing but [b]you are totally off base if you think that many of the kids who end up at UMCP are there because they could not "make the cut" at a top university.  [/b][/quote]

Agree.  PP, you are completely out of touch.  Most affluent families neither qualify for need-based aid, nor can pay $70k per year per kid for college.  That is why so many magnet kids do not even apply to top privates, and go to UMCP.  [/quote]

+1000, Just went through this process with DS and the above statement is absolutely true. If you are at the lower end of the economic spectrum you get aid and if you are at the top you can just write the check with no problem. The rest of us in-between basically get screwed. [/quote]

+1M

My magnet kid has straight As, 5s on all AP exams so far, and perfect scores on SAT subject tests.  DC's PSAT score is close to perfect as well.

DC will not be applying to top tier schools because we cannot pay for them - the choice will come down to UMCP, or a lower-tier school with lots of merit aid.[/quote]
We anticipate being in this situation too (although I am not sure about the straight As!!)  
We have spoken to DS about this and he understands.  We have also stressed that high school is not just about getting into a particular college.  He gets that.  A lot of gifted kids are as focused on the process as they are on the outcome.  He wants a rich and enriching high school experience.  That is why he is at Blair.  It is not all about getting into a top 10 univ.  
Luckily for him UMD-CP honors is a great option esp. for STEM.  [/quote]

PP here.  Completely agree.

My point is that the W school crowd especially seems to use admissions to highly-ranked schools as a litmus test for capability.  In fact, they are not an accurate measure of a student's high school performance.[/quote]

They are, however, a predictor of future success.  [/quote]

You mean that grades and scores that *qualify* a student to attend a highly-ranked school (and not whether the student actually attends that school) are a predictor of future success?  Yes, you are right:

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-solution/2011/03/01/the-ivy-league-earnings-myth

Evidence-based research suggests that the outcomes of students at school(s) that your DC is qualified to attend are likely to be the same ones that your DC will enjoy, by virtue of the fact of him/her being qualified to be admitted to those schools. In other words, what matters is your DC him/herself. So, e.g., a student who is admitted to Swarthmore but chooses to attend e.g. Kenyon or Denison or Wooster will do as well as the Swarthmore grads, on average:

[i]"Dale and Krueger concluded that students, who were accepted into elite schools, but went to less selective institutions, earned salaries just as high as Ivy League grads. For instance, if a teenager gained entry to Harvard, but ended up attending Penn State, his or her salary prospects would be the same.

In the pair's newest study, the findings are even more amazing. Applicants, who shared similar high SAT scores with Ivy League applicants could have been rejected from the elite schools that they applied to and yet they still enjoyed similar average salaries as the graduates from elite schools. In the study, the better predictor of earnings was the average SAT scores of the most selective school a teenager applied to and not the typical scores of the institution the student attended."[/i] 
[/quote]

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