Anonymous wrote:My DD received offers from Blair, RMIB, and Poolesville this year. She ultimately chose RMIB. Interestingly, most of her classmates who had multiple offers made the same choice, with only a few opting for Blair. It's important to note that each year, students may make different decisions. Perhaps in previous years, the majority of students chose Blair. Additionally, my daughter mentioned that the math program at RMIB may not be as competitive as she expected. So, while it's not accurate to say that Blair is definitively better than RMIB, individual preferences and program strengths certainly play a role in these choices

My kid got offers from Blair magnet, CAP, both Wheaton programs and RMIB. Chose Blair magnet. As did everyone he knew with the choice. Your anecdote is no more useful than mine.

Anonymous wrote:My DD received offers from Blair, RMIB, and Poolesville this year. She ultimately chose RMIB. Interestingly, most of her classmates who had multiple offers made the same choice, with only a few opting for Blair. It's important to note that each year, students may make different decisions. Perhaps in previous years, the majority of students chose Blair. Additionally, my daughter mentioned that the math program at RMIB may not be as competitive as she expected. So, while it's not accurate to say that Blair is definitively better than RMIB, individual preferences and program strengths certainly play a role in these choices

Furthermore, it's worth noting that Blair has a larger Asian student population, and this may contribute to their strong performance in competitions like the NMSF. Asian students often have a strong focus on academics, a value instilled by their parents, and this dedication to hard work deserves recognition

My DD received offers from Blair, RMIB, and Poolesville this year. She ultimately chose RMIB. Interestingly, most of her classmates who had multiple offers made the same choice, with only a few opting for Blair. It's important to note that each year, students may make different decisions. Perhaps in previous years, the majority of students chose Blair. Additionally, my daughter mentioned that the math program at RMIB may not be as competitive as she expected. So, while it's not accurate to say that Blair is definitively better than RMIB, individual preferences and program strengths certainly play a role in these choices

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t think these high achieving kids should be separated a from the slower students.

why not?

Because by integrating them with regular students, in honors for all we can raise the bar for everyone!

Honors for all has worked miracles at our school. It's helped raise the bar for everyone.

...aaaaannnd, right on cue, enter the troll poster sock-puppeting a hyprrbolic/sarcastic answer to themselves to distract from the points made by others.

Exposure to higher achieving peers provides an important opportunity for growth. To be both effective and fair, that has to be met with enough resources to address the differential needs of all ability levels.

Which manget is the most uptight and competitive?

Anonymous wrote:29 NMSF from RM and 41 from Blair. I'm not sure it tells you much other than both programs are really strong.

Yep. Any sniping between the parents in the two programs is just people who are overly invested in their kids' identities as "magnet kids." They are both good programs (Blair STEM, RMIB, Blair CAP) with good kids who have tremendous potentials. Some will realize those potentials and some won't, but that die is largely cast much earlier, and has little to do with which excellent program they attend.

29 NMSF from RM and 41 from Blair. I'm not sure it tells you much other than both programs are really strong.

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Anonymous wrote:My DC said to me that Blair STEM magnet kids are really smart but socially awkward.

DC said RMIB kids tend to be more well rounded -- smart in STEM as well as great writers, and they are all involved in various different types of outside activities, not just STEM related.

The Blair kids crushed RMIB in NMSF. National Merit Semi Finalists are based on the PSAT test scores. In calculating the scores, the English is doubled and the math is not. Blair is far superior. Those kids are higher in Math and English. Those numbers do not lie. You would think RM would crush Blair, but they never come close.

Where’s the data comparing percentages of NMSFs from the magnets from both RM & Blair? Total numbers at a school don’t really matter.

The total numbers provide a rough estimate. RMIB has about 125 kids each year and Blair magnet has about 100 total

You can't assume all kids who are NMSF are in those programs because Blair has very bright kids in CAP and in the regular programs and RM too. But in glancing at the list for my child's year at RMIB or Blair magnet I recognize basically every name as being in a magnet.

Every single nmsf at Blair is in the stem magnet this year (class of 2024).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think these high achieving kids should be separated a from the slower students.

why not?

Because by integrating them with regular students, in honors for all we can raise the bar for everyone!

Honors for all has worked miracles at our school. It's helped raise the bar for everyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC said to me that Blair STEM magnet kids are really smart but socially awkward.

DC said RMIB kids tend to be more well rounded -- smart in STEM as well as great writers, and they are all involved in various different types of outside activities, not just STEM related.

The Blair kids crushed RMIB in NMSF. National Merit Semi Finalists are based on the PSAT test scores. In calculating the scores, the English is doubled and the math is not. Blair is far superior. Those kids are higher in Math and English. Those numbers do not lie. You would think RM would crush Blair, but they never come close.

Where’s the data comparing percentages of NMSFs from the magnets from both RM & Blair? Total numbers at a school don’t really matter.

looser talk

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think these high achieving kids should be separated a from the slower students.

why not?

Because by integrating them with regular students, in honors for all we can raise the bar for everyone!

kids do not become high achieving simply by breathing the same air as high achieving kids.

Raising the bar is fine, but that's not happening in MCPS. You don't raise the bar by putting an "honors" designation on it, but not actually teaching more challenging curriculum.

Kids model on others as they grow. Peer cohort matters. If you have someone more advanced in a class, you have the opportunity to model on them. If not, you don't.

The flip side is the ease of meeting instructional need among students of similar ability, vs. the difficulty doing so for a highly heterogeneous-ability population. We shouldn't be starving high-ability students of robust enriched instruction any more than we should be leaving behind those with great difficulty or failing to give individual time to those more or less in the middle.

The solution is, of course, greater personnel allocation (i.e., funding) to highly heterogeneous classrooms/schools. Taxes, folks. The societal benefits (increased productivity, lower crime rates, even better health outcomes) greatly outweigh the costs.

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Anonymous wrote:Not exactly “personalities” but there are some very obvious demographic differences between CAP (largely upper middle class, white students) and magnet (many from Indian, Chinese, Korean and other Asian backgrounds often children of immigrants including the few who are white) at Blair. Nice kids either way.

Why is this? Why are there so few wealthy white families in SMCS relative to CAP, and why so many in CAP? Are the upper middle class white kids not as good in STEM or are their families less interested?

Simple answer. Most of the immigrant parents are in STEM related fields. Most of the uppper middle class white parents from CAP are in non-STEM/communication related friend. Exceptions prove the rule.

Or, prep culture vs. preppie culture.

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Anonymous wrote:My DC said to me that Blair STEM magnet kids are really smart but socially awkward.

DC said RMIB kids tend to be more well rounded -- smart in STEM as well as great writers, and they are all involved in various different types of outside activities, not just STEM related.

That's funny. The RMIB kids are really socially awkward but in an arrogant in-your-face way and they are so socially awkward they don't realize how they come off to others. The Blair kids we know tend to be more humble.

I have a child who goes to RMIB. The kids she hangs out with are funny, fun, and have very mainstream interests (football games, homecoming, birthday parties, etc). They are not at all arrogant, and while they are mostly in RMIB, not all of them are. My child works hard at school and is into sports but doesn't have any other ECs at school. It really depends upon the friends the kids make.

I bet there are arrogant kids, socially awkward kids, etc in the general RM population too.

There's always a small subset of kids like yours PP but it's not the norm

? and how would you know if that's not the norm?

My kid was in PHS SMCS program. We loved everything about it, except the sucky building.

Now they have a massive remodeling and build, so it is going to be ok. I guess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC said to me that Blair STEM magnet kids are really smart but socially awkward.

DC said RMIB kids tend to be more well rounded -- smart in STEM as well as great writers, and they are all involved in various different types of outside activities, not just STEM related.

The Blair kids crushed RMIB in NMSF. National Merit Semi Finalists are based on the PSAT test scores. In calculating the scores, the English is doubled and the math is not. Blair is far superior. Those kids are higher in Math and English. Those numbers do not lie. You would think RM would crush Blair, but they never come close.

Where’s the data comparing percentages of NMSFs from the magnets from both RM & Blair? Total numbers at a school don’t really matter.

The total numbers provide a rough estimate. RMIB has about 125 kids each year and Blair magnet has about 100 total

You can't assume all kids who are NMSF are in those programs because Blair has very bright kids in CAP and in the regular programs and RM too. But in glancing at the list for my child's year at RMIB or Blair magnet I recognize basically every name as being in a magnet.