Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 19:49     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I thought it was a shame that we didn’t hear from any teachers or have the opportunity to ask questions. The students were impressive but the biomedical science project examples stood out way more than the engineering ones.


There were a lot of teachers (various engineering, head of math etc) in the fair area answering questions. Email Ms. Gerhardt with questions, and she can put you in touch with relevant faculty.



It’s not the same as seeing them in action presenting to a group or the entire auditorium, showing their passion and how they engage their audience. Overall I think my kid would likely do well at Wheaton but he’s not going to accept the place.


Why do you care how they "present to an entire auditorium?" They were answering lots of program questions, "showing their passion" and "engaging " many "audience " members. I was there. You could have gotten a sense of them as teachers from talking to them. A missed opportunity, but on your shoulders, not theirs.


I care how they teach. A one on one conversation is different from presenting to a classroom. And leaving it up to families to sell them out in the hall way was a poor call - if they really want our kids to attend they need to sell it to us! Why do you care what I care about? Seriously. My impression was that overall the program wasn’t as rigorous as Blair’s but they also spent an hour less selling the program to families and didn’t differentiate between kids and parents. I still didn’t feel as if I got much of an idea of how the program would work, how experienced and innovative the teachers were etc. I learned almost nothing about the electives available. It felt like a wasted opportunity and I learned nothing additional from the presentation in the fall. Not separating out the two programs was a mistake in my opinion.


I also care about how they teach, and your earlier statement doesn't speak to that at all. That's on you. You have preconceptions, and reinforced them yourself. You could have gotten a better idea (the magnet and elective teachers and magnet directors were all there), and you still can (email or call and ask), but you don't seem genuinely interested. Totally fine. Just move on.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 18:36     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I thought it was a shame that we didn’t hear from any teachers or have the opportunity to ask questions. The students were impressive but the biomedical science project examples stood out way more than the engineering ones.


There were a lot of teachers (various engineering, head of math etc) in the fair area answering questions. Email Ms. Gerhardt with questions, and she can put you in touch with relevant faculty.



It’s not the same as seeing them in action presenting to a group or the entire auditorium, showing their passion and how they engage their audience. Overall I think my kid would likely do well at Wheaton but he’s not going to accept the place.


Why do you care how they "present to an entire auditorium?" They were answering lots of program questions, "showing their passion" and "engaging " many "audience " members. I was there. You could have gotten a sense of them as teachers from talking to them. A missed opportunity, but on your shoulders, not theirs.


I care how they teach. A one on one conversation is different from presenting to a classroom. And leaving it up to families to sell them out in the hall way was a poor call - if they really want our kids to attend they need to sell it to us! Why do you care what I care about? Seriously. My impression was that overall the program wasn’t as rigorous as Blair’s but they also spent an hour less selling the program to families and didn’t differentiate between kids and parents. I still didn’t feel as if I got much of an idea of how the program would work, how experienced and innovative the teachers were etc. I learned almost nothing about the electives available. It felt like a wasted opportunity and I learned nothing additional from the presentation in the fall. Not separating out the two programs was a mistake in my opinion.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 17:39     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I thought it was a shame that we didn’t hear from any teachers or have the opportunity to ask questions. The students were impressive but the biomedical science project examples stood out way more than the engineering ones.


There were a lot of teachers (various engineering, head of math etc) in the fair area answering questions. Email Ms. Gerhardt with questions, and she can put you in touch with relevant faculty.



It’s not the same as seeing them in action presenting to a group or the entire auditorium, showing their passion and how they engage their audience. Overall I think my kid would likely do well at Wheaton but he’s not going to accept the place.


Why do you care how they "present to an entire auditorium?" They were answering lots of program questions, "showing their passion" and "engaging " many "audience " members. I was there. You could have gotten a sense of them as teachers from talking to them. A missed opportunity, but on your shoulders, not theirs.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 15:15     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I thought it was a shame that we didn’t hear from any teachers or have the opportunity to ask questions. The students were impressive but the biomedical science project examples stood out way more than the engineering ones.


There were a lot of teachers (various engineering, head of math etc) in the fair area answering questions. Email Ms. Gerhardt with questions, and she can put you in touch with relevant faculty.



It’s not the same as seeing them in action presenting to a group or the entire auditorium, showing their passion and how they engage their audience. Overall I think my kid would likely do well at Wheaton but he’s not going to accept the place.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 14:56     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I was impressed with the students.

I still do not have a lot of clarity on how the Engineering and Biomedical magnets are very different from the academies.


For engineering, I think the magnet takes more classes overall. Academy does ied in 9th and poe in 10th. Mag does both (I think as mag only) classes in 9th I think. So, they go into 10th 1 class up, and perhaps the content of those 2 classes is slightly different. I think some math classes are mag only.

But, the academy has many of the same classes, so it is a great alternative to magnet. Wheaton has the most admissions to UMD engineering and the number of admits implies those are both mag and academy kids.


Ok, just talked to my engineering mag kid, and they said all the mag engineering classes are separate with slightly different content/expectations.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 14:46     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:I was impressed with the students.

I still do not have a lot of clarity on how the Engineering and Biomedical magnets are very different from the academies.


For engineering, I think the magnet takes more classes overall. Academy does ied in 9th and poe in 10th. Mag does both (I think as mag only) classes in 9th I think. So, they go into 10th 1 class up, and perhaps the content of those 2 classes is slightly different. I think some math classes are mag only.

But, the academy has many of the same classes, so it is a great alternative to magnet. Wheaton has the most admissions to UMD engineering and the number of admits implies those are both mag and academy kids.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 14:36     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:I thought it was a shame that we didn’t hear from any teachers or have the opportunity to ask questions. The students were impressive but the biomedical science project examples stood out way more than the engineering ones.


There were a lot of teachers (various engineering, head of math etc) in the fair area answering questions. Email Ms. Gerhardt with questions, and she can put you in touch with relevant faculty.

Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 14:34     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I thought it was a shame that we didn’t hear from any teachers or have the opportunity to ask questions. The students were impressive but the biomedical science project examples stood out way more than the engineering ones.



Ugh I didn't see those. Care to share?

I felt like the Q&A was missing too, and I also felt like some of the answers I got were different: teachers, administrators, students had different answers to the same questions (which should have discreet, binary yes or no answers).


I meant during the Q and A where they shared the project they were most excited about. The biomedical examples were viewing research on how to turn diseased lungs into healthy ones at a research facility and dissecting cow eyes and hearts. And the only engineering example i remember was we made model airplanes out of balsa wood. Perhaps I missed something but the biomedical opportunities sounded more impressive to me.


The engineering kids on the panel were all juniors and 1 soph, and they don't start the major project until senior year. I know mine doesn't know much about it yet.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 13:12     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I thought it was a shame that we didn’t hear from any teachers or have the opportunity to ask questions. The students were impressive but the biomedical science project examples stood out way more than the engineering ones.



Ugh I didn't see those. Care to share?

I felt like the Q&A was missing too, and I also felt like some of the answers I got were different: teachers, administrators, students had different answers to the same questions (which should have discreet, binary yes or no answers).


I meant during the Q and A where they shared the project they were most excited about. The biomedical examples were viewing research on how to turn diseased lungs into healthy ones at a research facility and dissecting cow eyes and hearts. And the only engineering example i remember was we made model airplanes out of balsa wood. Perhaps I missed something but the biomedical opportunities sounded more impressive to me.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 12:43     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I was impressed with the students.

I still do not have a lot of clarity on how the Engineering and Biomedical magnets are very different from the academies.


For the biomedical magnet- that seemed more aggressive and targeted for kids who want to do go pre-med where as the academy is more for becoming a CNA/CMA. Biomed magnet kids take precalc freshman year where as the academy kids do not


I have to admit that while it is difficult to figure out all the various details of the academies, Wheaton did a good job last night of giving kids and their families an opportunity to chat with the teachers/current students. We learned a lot about the academy DS got into and will probably be accepting the spot based on what we learned last night. We’ve been to other HS open houses that were not as organized so we really appreciated last night.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 12:39     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:I was impressed with the students.

I still do not have a lot of clarity on how the Engineering and Biomedical magnets are very different from the academies.


For the biomedical magnet- that seemed more aggressive and targeted for kids who want to do go pre-med where as the academy is more for becoming a CNA/CMA. Biomed magnet kids take precalc freshman year where as the academy kids do not
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 12:37     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:I thought it was a shame that we didn’t hear from any teachers or have the opportunity to ask questions. The students were impressive but the biomedical science project examples stood out way more than the engineering ones.



Ugh I didn't see those. Care to share?

I felt like the Q&A was missing too, and I also felt like some of the answers I got were different: teachers, administrators, students had different answers to the same questions (which should have discreet, binary yes or no answers).
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 12:04     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
I thought it was a shame that we didn’t hear from any teachers or have the opportunity to ask questions. The students were impressive but the biomedical science project examples stood out way more than the engineering ones.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 09:28     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
Anonymous wrote:I was impressed with the students.

I still do not have a lot of clarity on how the Engineering and Biomedical magnets are very different from the academies.


My kid was waitlisted for the magnet and is now in the academy. I can’t really figure out how different they are either, but I think they are pretty similar. The Academy kids take engineering every semester. I think that the magnet kids take some extra computer science classes and they also have strict requirements about the other math and science classes they are taking. But my child is pretty much on track to take the same science and math classes at roughly the same time. Anyway, we feel good about the Academy.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2023 09:18     Subject: How was Wheaton open house?
I was impressed with the students.

I still do not have a lot of clarity on how the Engineering and Biomedical magnets are very different from the academies.