Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They care about scores, grades and the essay in that order.

Also it's still not a lottery, PP.

They also care about race and gender. I doubt they care much about the essay.

They don’t get any info about race. It is 100 per cent race blind.

What a weird assertion. MCPS has all the race data on its current students. It doesn't need it on the application.

Sigh. MCPS also has all grades but like the racial makeup that info IS NOT SHARED with the selection committee. They have made it very clear again and again IT IS A RACE BLIND SELECTION.

This is too literal. It is not really race blind. They may not look at the demographics box in your student record but they look at proxies and they prioritize people who look like they may be of certain races due to being ESOL, FARMS or having other parts of their background that align.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I remember was that there was multiple essays. My kid applied to Poolesville SMCS, Global Ecology, Poolesville Humanities and RMIB and got into all of them. These were the years before lottery and admission was based on merit.

After your performance in the application exam and your performance at school, essays were the third thing that was evaluated.

1) your ancient experience is irrelevant
2) there is not and never has been a lottery for high school application programs

Are you, Jeff?
LOL! No need to get salty. My ds had a shot of getting a good education and meeting his needs because admission as based on merit. The war on magnet programs and gifted education had started, but not intensified in upcounty.

No one said this ---->

What is your point? Admission is on merit. There is no lottery. What are you disagreeing with?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They care about scores, grades and the essay in that order.

Also it's still not a lottery, PP.

They also care about race and gender. I doubt they care much about the essay.

They don’t get any info about race. It is 100 per cent race blind.

What a weird assertion. MCPS has all the race data on its current students. It doesn't need it on the application.

Sigh. MCPS also has all grades but like the racial makeup that info IS NOT SHARED with the selection committee. They have made it very clear again and again IT IS A RACE BLIND SELECTION.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They care about scores, grades and the essay in that order.

Also it's still not a lottery, PP.

They also care about race and gender. I doubt they care much about the essay.

They don’t get any info about race. It is 100 per cent race blind.

What a weird assertion. MCPS has all the race data on its current students. It doesn't need it on the application.

Race isn't reflected on the application, which means that the evaluators don't see it. Of course, at the high school level, students might be involved in activities that would reflect their race, or they might talk about it in their essay. Basically, there's no lottery for high school, and no credible allegations that race is taken into account during the admissions process, so maybe we should keep the focus on the OP's question, which is about the essay. As of this past school year, the essay was two short sections on prizes/activities/competitions/service and one longer essay on what a kid was passionate about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I remember was that there was multiple essays. My kid applied to Poolesville SMCS, Global Ecology, Poolesville Humanities and RMIB and got into all of them. These were the years before lottery and admission was based on merit.

After your performance in the application exam and your performance at school, essays were the third thing that was evaluated.

1) your ancient experience is irrelevant
2) there is not and never has been a lottery for high school application programs

Are you, Jeff?
LOL! No need to get salty. My ds had a shot of getting a good education and meeting his needs because admission as based on merit. The war on magnet programs and gifted education had started, but not intensified in upcounty.

No one said this ---->

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They care about scores, grades and the essay in that order.

Also it's still not a lottery, PP.

They also care about race and gender. I doubt they care much about the essay.

They don’t get any info about race. It is 100 per cent race blind.

What a weird assertion. MCPS has all the race data on its current students. It doesn't need it on the application.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They care about scores, grades and the essay in that order.

Also it's still not a lottery, PP.

They also care about race and gender. I doubt they care much about the essay.

They don’t get any info about race. It is 100 per cent race blind.

You can don’t ask you want that they don’t care about the essay but they only get relevant grades for that year and the past two MAP scores (only the relevant ones). When faced with multiple kids with similar MAP scores and similar grades in the one two subjects they get the grades for, then HOW ELSE do they differentiate then through the essay?!

It’s clearly posters lacking in critical thinking that claim that the selection committees “don’t care” about the essays!

You're not reading carefully. It matters less. It matters less than scores and grades.

Yes I am reading carefully and I’d suggest you are not. For a child with all As and very strong but not exceptional MAP scores (a description that most likely fits 95 percent of those applying — frankly if it doesn’t you shouldn’t bother) then the essay is very important. The essay is only unimportant if you have no chance or you are a shoo-in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They care about scores, grades and the essay in that order.

Also it's still not a lottery, PP.

They also care about race and gender. I doubt they care much about the essay.

They don’t get any info about race. It is 100 per cent race blind.

You can don’t ask you want that they don’t care about the essay but they only get relevant grades for that year and the past two MAP scores (only the relevant ones). When faced with multiple kids with similar MAP scores and similar grades in the one two subjects they get the grades for, then HOW ELSE do they differentiate then through the essay?!

It’s clearly posters lacking in critical thinking that claim that the selection committees “don’t care” about the essays!

You're not reading carefully. It matters less. It matters less than scores and grades.

The MAP-R score is very high even for RM. DC's friends got in with significantly lower. 270s is in range for Blair SMCS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When faced with multiple kids with similar MAP scores and similar grades in the one two subjects they get the grades for, then HOW ELSE do they differentiate then through the essay?!

Why do they only get grades in 1 - 2 subjects? I thought they got the whole 7th grade transcript.

For those of you whose kids have gotten in, what were their MAP scores?

They don’t get all the grades - they only get the relevant ones. For example SMCS only gets math, science and computer science (if applicable) and they only get the MAP-M, not the MAP-R.

My kid had all As in all subjects (even though the selection committees didn’t know that) and in the 260s for MAP-R and high 270s for MAP-M. Got offered Blair SMCS and CAP, Richard Montgomery IB, both Wheaton programs. I think the essay was very important as some other kids with similar scores did not get offers, or at least got some rejects,

Anonymous wrote:When faced with multiple kids with similar MAP scores and similar grades in the one two subjects they get the grades for, then HOW ELSE do they differentiate then through the essay?!

Why do they only get grades in 1 - 2 subjects? I thought they got the whole 7th grade transcript.

For those of you whose kids have gotten in, what were their MAP scores?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They care about scores, grades and the essay in that order.

Also it's still not a lottery, PP.

They also care about race and gender. I doubt they care much about the essay.

They don’t get any info about race. It is 100 per cent race blind.

You can don’t ask you want that they don’t care about the essay but they only get relevant grades for that year and the past two MAP scores (only the relevant ones). When faced with multiple kids with similar MAP scores and similar grades in the one two subjects they get the grades for, then HOW ELSE do they differentiate then through the essay?!

It’s clearly posters lacking in critical thinking that claim that the selection committees “don’t care” about the essays!

Anonymous wrote:What I remember was that there was multiple essays. My kid applied to Poolesville SMCS, Global Ecology, Poolesville Humanities and RMIB and got into all of them. These were the years before lottery and admission was based on merit.

After your performance in the application exam and your performance at school, essays were the third thing that was evaluated.

1) your ancient experience is irrelevant
2) there is not and never has been a lottery for high school application programs

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The essays are a few paragraphs each and no big deal.

I know, I'm worried that in a few paragraphs it's going to be hard to convince people that he is both all about art and all about STEM, oh and also well rounded.

I hardly doubt they care much about the essays like others say. We did meh essays and kid got waitlisted (kid didn't want to go but I wanted to apply).

They absolutely care about the essays - many cases it’s the only way to differentiate.

It is hard to make the essay work for multiple different programs. My kid had the same concerns and managed to work it out and got offered SMCS, RM IB, Blair CAP and Wheaton engineering - all pretty different programs.

Where is your child going?

Blair math, science, computer science magnet which was always their first choice.

Anonymous wrote:They care about scores, grades and the essay in that order.

Also it's still not a lottery, PP.

They also care about race and gender. I doubt they care much about the essay.