Anonymous
Post 03/03/2026 11:46     Subject: Re:Got off SMCS waitlist
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Congrats. My daughter is a senior in SMCS at Poolesville. I can't speak to Blair program but I'm assuming that they are similar. So, I'll just give you my thoughts based on the Poolesville program. First, it's all about time management. It's an eight period day. Long days. If your daughter can manage her schedule well, things will be fine. My daughter gets up a little after 5A and gets home a little after 5P. She also plays sports (those are really long days), coaches a 10U team and also is a theater kid. Those can be really long days. But, she found her tribe there. An amazing group of nerd girls Wonderful kids. It can be competitive, but we've been hands off since she started CES in fourth grade. It seems the kids who tend to be the most aggressive and competitive have really overbearing parents. That's not a slight on the parents, just something we've noticed over the years.

That MAP score is great. My daughter was in that ballpark and now she is doing multi-variable calculus.

Homework increases over the years. Freshman year wasn't bad. Senior year it's now about two hours a night. I don't know if Blair follows the same program, but after 8th period there is a 'study hall' where kiddo can get a bunch of homework done before catching the 4:30 bus. But now that spring sports have kicked off, she has to punt that to get to the field.

But the program has been amazing. She's taken 15 APs with a WGPA of 4.88. So, she'll likely start college as a second semester sophomore. She applied to five schools and was accepted to all five. Four of the five offered academic scholarships. Two full rides and two 60% scholarships. Maryland was the only one that didn't throw money at her. Thankfully, that is by far the cheapest one

So, tldr; It's a lot of work, but it is very rewarding. IMO.



Thank you so much for such a detailed description. I have heard from past students parents that the internship that the students are required to do between junior and senior, is a process solely the responsibility of the Student and the staff/teachers have very limited resource and guidance on how to obtain these internships and that it is a very stressful time for the students. That some students email upwards of 100 professors and internship opportunities. At the acceptance meeting/open house they made it sound like they will guide the students completely, the teacher even said “we will lead them like a horse leading them to water” something similar to that. . What has your experience with that been with your Daughter?

Also how was making friends, was it an easy process, I know that the prgm has less girls, has making friends been an issue for your daughter. Does she hang out with the school friends outside of school ie prom/homecom8ng/sleepovers/malls? Just curious how the friendships go beyond the classroom and clubs. Thank!


I have a current junior going through this right now and it IS extremely stressful. What I’ve learned is most kids get internships though family connections. Dad works at NIH and agrees to take an intern if his friends in a different lab will offer his son a spot. This sucks for families like mine who do not work in STEM fields nor have connections that do. The teachers send out announcements about highly competitive programs looking for high school interns, including some that have an interest in Blair magnet students in particular, but the competition for those is intense. The research class doesn’t start until this semester and while they are working on resumes and cover letters in that class it’s TOO LATE for many of the competitive internships which had deadlines in December, Jan or Feb.

Essentially it is student driven and kids with family connections are at a HUGE advantage. School help has been limited. My kid did tell me that apparently 2-3 seniors didn’t have an internship last year and the school didn’t find out until a few weeks ago.
Anonymous
Post 03/03/2026 10:57     Subject: Got off SMCS waitlist
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I don't understand the "not social" thing. Whenever I visit the school for an event, the kids are very social.


It might be different for a girl, but my son felt the program was super social and not intense or terrible in terms of the homework. I don't understand the families who are here saying that. If it's a good fit, it's fun. The teaching is terrific. The peer group is great - they work together during off periods/slow periods in that long day. My son also played a sport and an instrument, but this idea that the homework load is onerous just wasn't his experience. (he did well, too - it's not like he didn't do HW and then got B's or whatever). For the right kid, this program is (chef's kiss) perfect.


My son had the same experience. HW was never a headache, and HW from humanity courses is consistently more time demanding than magnet courses for him. He has a ton of EC activities as well, consistently spending 1-3 hours per day on the EC including weekends. He has a very bounded close friendship circle and a large "say hello" friendship group. Never felt lonely but rather felt extremely comfortable staying with his like-minded friends. Since there are less girls in STEM magnet, if you don't have existing friends there, it's going to be hard especially in the freshman year. But I found girls in SMCS are less "drama" but more "simple" and straightforward to approach for friendship.
Anonymous
Post 03/03/2026 10:34     Subject: Got off SMCS waitlist
Anonymous wrote:I don't understand the "not social" thing. Whenever I visit the school for an event, the kids are very social.


It might be different for a girl, but my son felt the program was super social and not intense or terrible in terms of the homework. I don't understand the families who are here saying that. If it's a good fit, it's fun. The teaching is terrific. The peer group is great - they work together during off periods/slow periods in that long day. My son also played a sport and an instrument, but this idea that the homework load is onerous just wasn't his experience. (he did well, too - it's not like he didn't do HW and then got B's or whatever). For the right kid, this program is (chef's kiss) perfect.
Anonymous
Post 03/03/2026 09:09     Subject: Re:Got off SMCS waitlist
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Congrats. My daughter is a senior in SMCS at Poolesville. I can't speak to Blair program but I'm assuming that they are similar. So, I'll just give you my thoughts based on the Poolesville program. First, it's all about time management. It's an eight period day. Long days. If your daughter can manage her schedule well, things will be fine. My daughter gets up a little after 5A and gets home a little after 5P. She also plays sports (those are really long days), coaches a 10U team and also is a theater kid. Those can be really long days. But, she found her tribe there. An amazing group of nerd girls Wonderful kids. It can be competitive, but we've been hands off since she started CES in fourth grade. It seems the kids who tend to be the most aggressive and competitive have really overbearing parents. That's not a slight on the parents, just something we've noticed over the years.

That MAP score is great. My daughter was in that ballpark and now she is doing multi-variable calculus.

Homework increases over the years. Freshman year wasn't bad. Senior year it's now about two hours a night. I don't know if Blair follows the same program, but after 8th period there is a 'study hall' where kiddo can get a bunch of homework done before catching the 4:30 bus. But now that spring sports have kicked off, she has to punt that to get to the field.

But the program has been amazing. She's taken 15 APs with a WGPA of 4.88. So, she'll likely start college as a second semester sophomore. She applied to five schools and was accepted to all five. Four of the five offered academic scholarships. Two full rides and two 60% scholarships. Maryland was the only one that didn't throw money at her. Thankfully, that is by far the cheapest one

So, tldr; It's a lot of work, but it is very rewarding. IMO.



Thank you so much for such a detailed description. I have heard from past students parents that the internship that the students are required to do between junior and senior, is a process solely the responsibility of the Student and the staff/teachers have very limited resource and guidance on how to obtain these internships and that it is a very stressful time for the students. That some students email upwards of 100 professors and internship opportunities. At the acceptance meeting/open house they made it sound like they will guide the students completely, the teacher even said “we will lead them like a horse leading them to water” something similar to that. . What has your experience with that been with your Daughter?

Also how was making friends, was it an easy process, I know that the prgm has less girls, has making friends been an issue for your daughter. Does she hang out with the school friends outside of school ie prom/homecom8ng/sleepovers/malls? Just curious how the friendships go beyond the classroom and clubs. Thank!


Regarding the internship, there is an independent research course, teaching kids how to approach opportunities and conduct research. The teacher does have limited connections but that's about it. Students need to apply open opportunities by themselves, some of which are very competitive, or use their parents resources/connections. The current research funding situation across all agencies (including DoD) is shrinking rapidly, so there's less internship openings this year than previous years. Not sure about the future years, but I'm not optimistic about future of U.S. anyways...
Anonymous
Post 03/03/2026 08:05     Subject: Re:Got off SMCS waitlist
Anonymous wrote:Congrats. My daughter is a senior in SMCS at Poolesville. I can't speak to Blair program but I'm assuming that they are similar. So, I'll just give you my thoughts based on the Poolesville program. First, it's all about time management. It's an eight period day. Long days. If your daughter can manage her schedule well, things will be fine. My daughter gets up a little after 5A and gets home a little after 5P. She also plays sports (those are really long days), coaches a 10U team and also is a theater kid. Those can be really long days. But, she found her tribe there. An amazing group of nerd girls Wonderful kids. It can be competitive, but we've been hands off since she started CES in fourth grade. It seems the kids who tend to be the most aggressive and competitive have really overbearing parents. That's not a slight on the parents, just something we've noticed over the years.

That MAP score is great. My daughter was in that ballpark and now she is doing multi-variable calculus.

Homework increases over the years. Freshman year wasn't bad. Senior year it's now about two hours a night. I don't know if Blair follows the same program, but after 8th period there is a 'study hall' where kiddo can get a bunch of homework done before catching the 4:30 bus. But now that spring sports have kicked off, she has to punt that to get to the field.

But the program has been amazing. She's taken 15 APs with a WGPA of 4.88. So, she'll likely start college as a second semester sophomore. She applied to five schools and was accepted to all five. Four of the five offered academic scholarships. Two full rides and two 60% scholarships. Maryland was the only one that didn't throw money at her. Thankfully, that is by far the cheapest one

So, tldr; It's a lot of work, but it is very rewarding. IMO.



Thank you so much for such a detailed description. I have heard from past students parents that the internship that the students are required to do between junior and senior, is a process solely the responsibility of the Student and the staff/teachers have very limited resource and guidance on how to obtain these internships and that it is a very stressful time for the students. That some students email upwards of 100 professors and internship opportunities. At the acceptance meeting/open house they made it sound like they will guide the students completely, the teacher even said “we will lead them like a horse leading them to water” something similar to that. . What has your experience with that been with your Daughter?

Also how was making friends, was it an easy process, I know that the prgm has less girls, has making friends been an issue for your daughter. Does she hang out with the school friends outside of school ie prom/homecom8ng/sleepovers/malls? Just curious how the friendships go beyond the classroom and clubs. Thank!
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 21:11     Subject: Re:Got off SMCS waitlist
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Congrats. My daughter is a senior in SMCS at Poolesville. I can't speak to Blair program but I'm assuming that they are similar. So, I'll just give you my thoughts based on the Poolesville program. First, it's all about time management. It's an eight period day. Long days. If your daughter can manage her schedule well, things will be fine. My daughter gets up a little after 5A and gets home a little after 5P. She also plays sports (those are really long days), coaches a 10U team and also is a theater kid. Those can be really long days. But, she found her tribe there. An amazing group of nerd girls Wonderful kids. It can be competitive, but we've been hands off since she started CES in fourth grade. It seems the kids who tend to be the most aggressive and competitive have really overbearing parents. That's not a slight on the parents, just something we've noticed over the years.

That MAP score is great. My daughter was in that ballpark and now she is doing multi-variable calculus.

Homework increases over the years. Freshman year wasn't bad. Senior year it's now about two hours a night. I don't know if Blair follows the same program, but after 8th period there is a 'study hall' where kiddo can get a bunch of homework done before catching the 4:30 bus. But now that spring sports have kicked off, she has to punt that to get to the field.

But the program has been amazing. She's taken 15 APs with a WGPA of 4.88. So, she'll likely start college as a second semester sophomore. She applied to five schools and was accepted to all five. Four of the five offered academic scholarships. Two full rides and two 60% scholarships. Maryland was the only one that didn't throw money at her. Thankfully, that is by far the cheapest one

So, tldr; It's a lot of work, but it is very rewarding. IMO.





I think the Blair program is more intense - please correct me of I’m wrong but at Poolesville isn’t magnet pre calculus over 4 semesters? At Blair it’s 3 semesters, or 2 if you are in functions. Most kids also accelerate in comp sci and Blair offers (now) more advanced electives. It is NOT an AP program though, most kids at Blair end up with 7-8 APs unless they ignore the magnet coordinators advice and instruction.


The only mandatory more intense class at Blair is the 3 sester Precalculus.

Accelerated CS is optional.

The kids take AP exams after taking non-AP magnet CS, Chem, Physics, Bio, Math if they want to.
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 21:08     Subject: Got off SMCS waitlist
I don't understand the "not social" thing. Whenever I visit the school for an event, the kids are very social.
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 21:04     Subject: Got off SMCS waitlist
Blair SMCS is intense, competitive and not super social. It’s not that the kids are unfriendly… they just may not prioritize social bonds and hanging out for fun. Also kids are spread out distance wise making it harder to get together outside of school. It’s all about fit for the right kid. Yes, changes coming up- that’s the wild card no one can give definites about.

Poolesville SMCS is intense also but overall a more social friendly place. Plus there are other magnet programs at PHS so the kids make friends outside of SMCS too. The other programs are super social and collaborative and I think that mentality/energy rubs off on the SMCS kids there. Some kids even have boyfriend/girlfriend in other programs at PHS.

Basically it all boils down to fit. Go in with eyes wide open and choose best fit. Don’t assume it’s not tough and then be overwhelmed or surprised. None of the programs are a pipeline to any particular college. So go for the HS experience, not because you think it buys you a ticket to some particular college.

Good luck!
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 20:47     Subject: Got off SMCS waitlist
I wish parents and students had been more honest about the amount of homework when my kid decided to accept the place three years ago. It’s been good but it’s also been a huge amount of pressure and I didn’t expect that or the extensive homework all year round.
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 20:45     Subject: Got off SMCS waitlist
Anonymous wrote:My kid graduated two years ago. It is NOT a grind. HW is not that bad. They do it together at school mostly. They have fun! They like it! It’s a great program. Congrats!


I just don’t get this. Any honest parent or student agrees it’s a grind. No they don’t “do it together at school mostly”. It’s not a social program. Sometimes it can be fun but sometimes it’s overwhelming. Kids who are perfectionist or disorganized will burn out. It’s a lot. The home work load is extremely intense.
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 19:31     Subject: Got off SMCS waitlist
Anonymous wrote:My son says says his Blair experience was more important to his education than the ivy that followed


Mine says the same thing (he’s at UMD). Nothing is as amazing as this program. It teaches them how to think, how to work together, it piques their interest in all sorts of cool things. After TPMS and Blair, any kind of classes are … okay. Maybe challenging, but doable! It’s a great opportunity, OP. Congrats!
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 19:29     Subject: Got off SMCS waitlist
My kid graduated two years ago. It is NOT a grind. HW is not that bad. They do it together at school mostly. They have fun! They like it! It’s a great program. Congrats!
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 18:53     Subject: Got off SMCS waitlist
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My son says says his Blair experience was more important to his education than the ivy that followed


Just correcting the implication that this is a path to an Ivy. Blair magnet graduates are much more likely to go to UMD (still a great choice) than an ivy. Most of them land in large state publics with strong research.


Lots of kids end up at UMD due to the in-state tuition + merit. Niit because they have no options.


I didn’t suggest otherwise, but making clear that it is not by any stretch a ticket to an ivy.
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 17:09     Subject: Got off SMCS waitlist
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My son says says his Blair experience was more important to his education than the ivy that followed


Just correcting the implication that this is a path to an Ivy. Blair magnet graduates are much more likely to go to UMD (still a great choice) than an ivy. Most of them land in large state publics with strong research.


Lots of kids end up at UMD due to the in-state tuition + merit. Niit because they have no options.
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2026 16:01     Subject: Got off SMCS waitlist
Anonymous wrote:My son says says his Blair experience was more important to his education than the ivy that followed


Just correcting the implication that this is a path to an Ivy. Blair magnet graduates are much more likely to go to UMD (still a great choice) than an ivy. Most of them land in large state publics with strong research.