Thank you PP for writing this out. It is very helpful.

Anonymous wrote:If you have a child there or who went through the program recently what did it offer that is special? Were the teachers better than at a regular good W school? Is it the cohort? The course offerings seem to be similar to other schools' offerings but just IB level. Does that mean they cover more information and more in depth? Was that worth it?

My kid is a senior at RMIB. Every school has good and bad teachers. RMIB is no different. DC had some really awesome teachers, including a math teacher that DC thinks is one of the best teachers they've ever had.

IB is more in depth whereas AP is more breadth. For example, IB world history, they picked a few topics in world history and went really in depth with it. There is a *ton* of writing. Every class has a research project, including math and physics.

Pros:
Kids learn to write, and write well
Very prepared for rigors of college; you need to be well organized and self motivated
Cohort of very high achieving kids

Cons:
A ton of writing, not great if you don't like writing, although, I will say that my STEM focused DC didn't like writing much going into it, but has learned that they can write very well and writing comes very easy to them now (pro)
If you live far away, the commute can be long. I know some kids get on the bus at like 6:15am. Luckily, we live fairly close to RM so it's not an issue
Lack of sleep
A lot of time commitment. Most IB students have other extra curricular activities, so the added work load makes it hard to juggle everything. I know of two kids who dropped IB to focus on their e.c.s

They also have to write an Extended Essay for Theory of Knowledge. Again, just a ton of writing. They get graded as normal per MCPS, and then graded by the IB org for their IA and EE.

Whether it's worth it depends on you and your kid. My DC found MS very boring, so the challenge of IB was good for DC. And of course, if you get the IB diploma and score high on the IB exams, it can only add to your profile. I am not sure how much weight the IB diploma carries, though, because the diploma is given out end of senior year, while the college apps are done by beginning of senior year. But, the colleges can see the IB exam scores during your junior year, so they can probably get a sense of whether you will complete the diploma.

If we had to do it all over again, I think we'd still have DC do RMIB. They've had a good experience, albeit some late nights. I think DC would've been bored with just AP classes, which they also took.

If you have a child there or who went through the program recently what did it offer that is special? Were the teachers better than at a regular good W school? Is it the cohort? The course offerings seem to be similar to other schools' offerings but just IB level. Does that mean they cover more information and more in depth? Was that worth it?

Above poster. I just remembered that I know the current RM principal, and she is awesome. Hopefully the current program admin is just as good and that old chip-on-shoulder attitude is gone!

Anonymous wrote:My kid chose SMAC a few years back because the RM presentation was just really bad (even though we know it is a good program)

Same, in part. This was pre covid. The main presentation had a lot of Blair bashing. It was weird. I think this was during some transition time at RM, so hopefully that is all in the past.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was disappointing it was virtual and only the administrators spoke, no students. It is also disappointing that the shadowing days are this Thursday and Friday and decision day is Friday, February 17th.

You would think the admin would give kids a few days to think about it, maybe the weekend. This is a huge decision. Some students may be on the fence and go to shadowing on Friday and have to make the decision by the end of the day.

The program is very rigorous. 98% of students earn IB diplomas. They also listed a sample of the schools (Ivy + top public universities) the Class of 2022 were attending but they do not break out which of those students actually were a part of the IB program.

98% that FINISH the IB diploma program earn their diploma. Many kids drop it

My kids is a junior and doesn’t know anyone who has dropped it. The kids from outside boundary (which I think is 100/125) can’t drop without returning to their home school so very few drop. Maybe the inbounds kids drop? But their passage rates are really impressive. I also like Ms Deeny and the admins seem good (also really like the school secretary who responds promptly to all emails and is super nice about it). I would assume that the schools listed are all from the IB program. I actually haven’t seen that list for 2022 so would love to see it. I suspect it’s a little inflated because some top kids got in multiple great schools. Did they all list actual enrollment? That tends to even out those numbers as that one kid admitted to Harvard Yale and Stanford can only enroll one place!

Anonymous wrote:It was disappointing it was virtual and only the administrators spoke, no students. It is also disappointing that the shadowing days are this Thursday and Friday and decision day is Friday, February 17th.

You would think the admin would give kids a few days to think about it, maybe the weekend. This is a huge decision. Some students may be on the fence and go to shadowing on Friday and have to make the decision by the end of the day.

The program is very rigorous. 98% of students earn IB diplomas. They also listed a sample of the schools (Ivy + top public universities) the Class of 2022 were attending but they do not break out which of those students actually were a part of the IB program.

98% that FINISH the IB diploma program earn their diploma. Many kids drop it

Anonymous wrote:My kid chose SMAC a few years back because the RM presentation was just really bad (even though we know it is a good program)

? you made a decision purely based on marketing?

Ms Deeny is amazing. Loved her at TPMS. If it weren’t for the commute I’d push my kid to accept the place just on the strength of the principal. I know that will be a well run school.