Oh heck no, thank god.

Blair magnet is similar.

Op, MOCO magnet program structure is fundamentally different than VA. Moco uses “school within a school” model whereas VA uses the “whole school” model. In short, answer to your question is a yes whereas it will not show high on a national ranking where the ranking is measured using “whole school.”

Did MCPS not have a facility that it could dedicate to a magnet STEM school, as FCPS did with TJ, or was there a conscious decision to create “schools within a school” to boost the average test scores at those schools and/or promote some degree of interaction between the magnet and non-magnet students. They seem like very different environments.

Thank you so much for your response. This was helpful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Their STEM magnet high school is Blair at Takoma Park. Some would claim that Blair is more selective since it is a much smaller program and only takes in the top 1% kids. Consistently sends kids to MIT.

There are 2 stem magnets. Sixteen HSs feed to Blair and 9 feed to Poolesville. Blair has about 100 kids and Poolesville has 75 (?). DCUM has had lots of arguments over how they compare to TJ. I won't go there.

I will add that Blair and Poolesville magnets do not show up in the rankings because the magnets are small parts of the total school population...especially Blair which has over 3000 students.

You will get a better answer if you post on the MD forum, because VA parents don't really know these things, nor do they have any reason to.

There is the Blair STEM magnet, which is as competitive because it pulls from the whole county and is a small program, not an entire school. It does wonderful things, including partnering students with local college professors for research. It's fantastic....hard to get into.

One thing MCPS has which FCPS does not is a middle school mini-TJ-like magnet, which is at Takoma Park Middle School (and another school in the top half of the county whose name is escaping me). Same school-within-a-school situation, which unique and excellent curriculum geared toward STEM. Also incredibly difficult to get into.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Their STEM magnet high school is Blair at Takoma Park. Some would claim that Blair is more selective since it is a much smaller program and only takes in the top 1% kids. Consistently sends kids to MIT.

There are 2 stem magnets. Sixteen HSs feed to Blair and 9 feed to Poolesville. Blair has about 100 kids and Poolesville has 75 (?). DCUM has had lots of arguments over how they compare to TJ. I won't go there.

Yes. Their STEM magnet high school is Blair at Takoma Park. Some would claim that Blair is more selective since it is a much smaller program and only takes in the top 1% kids. Consistently sends kids to MIT.

Anonymous wrote:Look at the USNWR rankings for high schools. TJ is at the peak nationally. No MD has nothing close.

Yeah but the thing about that is that it’s just all the really smart kids concentrated in one building. You don’t get smarter if you just walk in. You might get contact anxiety though.

No.

So all kids go to their base schools. They don't have an option to apply to a STEM school? STEM school which is not as great as TJ but still is a STEM school.

Look at the USNWR rankings for high schools. TJ is at the peak nationally. No MD has nothing close.

No, thank god.

Just curious. Does Maryland have equivalent of TJ school. If yes, what is the name of the school. Is the admission process as rigorous as TJ's.