Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admissions to prestigious schools is not a litmus test that demonstrates academic success in high school. There are a lot of students whose "donut hole" families can neither qualify for need-based aid, nor pay full price at top 20 schools (none of which award merit aid).

Because of this, many or maybe most such students do not even apply to top schools, but instead choose a state school or a lower-ranked school that awards them merit aid.

In the DC metro area, this is a very common situation for families of high achievers. Half the Blair SMAC magnet goes to UMD-CP, and it's not because they couldn't get into Princeton or MIT.

Good points here. It is also instructive to look at how many kids apply to Montgomery CC and non flagship MD public universities from each of the HSs.

I'm not sure I see your point re MIT and Princeton though. Looking at the chart, RM and Blair kids (presumably mostly from the magnet programs) apply to both MIT and Princeton in significantly higher numbers than most of the other Bethesda schools without much, if any, better acceptance numbers than some of the non-magnet HSs.

I don't know what the statistics are on we are students who apply to MIT, Princeton, and other elite schools.

I do know that many qualified Blair magnet students do not even apply to such schools, because their periods cannot pay for them. The point being that the number of applications submitted does not reflect the number of students who are qualified to be admitted and attend.

I don't know many Blair grads. Are they well rounded "look you in the eye" types? Or "stare at their shoes" types that excel at test taking? In the private school world the great test takers aren't typically the most well rounded students. There is a place for the top takers, but often it is not schools full of well-rounded social kids. Fit is very important.

How is that relevant to this discussion?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admissions to prestigious schools is not a litmus test that demonstrates academic success in high school. There are a lot of students whose "donut hole" families can neither qualify for need-based aid, nor pay full price at top 20 schools (none of which award merit aid).

Because of this, many or maybe most such students do not even apply to top schools, but instead choose a state school or a lower-ranked school that awards them merit aid.

In the DC metro area, this is a very common situation for families of high achievers. Half the Blair SMAC magnet goes to UMD-CP, and it's not because they couldn't get into Princeton or MIT.

Good points here. It is also instructive to look at how many kids apply to Montgomery CC and non flagship MD public universities from each of the HSs.

I'm not sure I see your point re MIT and Princeton though. Looking at the chart, RM and Blair kids (presumably mostly from the magnet programs) apply to both MIT and Princeton in significantly higher numbers than most of the other Bethesda schools without much, if any, better acceptance numbers than some of the non-magnet HSs.

I don't know what the statistics are on we are students who apply to MIT, Princeton, and other elite schools.

I do know that many qualified Blair magnet students do not even apply to such schools, because their periods cannot pay for them. The point being that the number of applications submitted does not reflect the number of students who are qualified to be admitted and attend.

I don't know many Blair grads. Are they well rounded "look you in the eye" types? Or "stare at their shoes" types that excel at test taking? In the private school world the great test takers aren't typically the most well rounded students. There is a place for the top takers, but often it is not schools full of well-rounded social kids. Fit is very important.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admissions to prestigious schools is not a litmus test that demonstrates academic success in high school. There are a lot of students whose "donut hole" families can neither qualify for need-based aid, nor pay full price at top 20 schools (none of which award merit aid).

Because of this, many or maybe most such students do not even apply to top schools, but instead choose a state school or a lower-ranked school that awards them merit aid.

In the DC metro area, this is a very common situation for families of high achievers. Half the Blair SMAC magnet goes to UMD-CP, and it's not because they couldn't get into Princeton or MIT.

Good points here. It is also instructive to look at how many kids apply to Montgomery CC and non flagship MD public universities from each of the HSs.

I'm not sure I see your point re MIT and Princeton though. Looking at the chart, RM and Blair kids (presumably mostly from the magnet programs) apply to both MIT and Princeton in significantly higher numbers than most of the other Bethesda schools without much, if any, better acceptance numbers than some of the non-magnet HSs.

I don't know what the statistics are on we are students who apply to MIT, Princeton, and other elite schools.

I do know that many qualified Blair magnet students do not even apply to such schools, because their periods cannot pay for them. The point being that the number of applications submitted does not reflect the number of students who are qualified to be admitted and attend.

Since PP is interested in MIT and Princeton, it looks like 44 applied from Blair to Princeton and 43 applied from Blair to MIT. The Princeton applicants are going to be from through Blair (6% of the graduating class of 790) while the MIT applicants are probably mostly magnets (43 would be almost half of the magnet class). The acceptance rates look to be about on par with national averages, which seems a little disappointing for the magnet (wonder if this was an off year).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admissions to prestigious schools is not a litmus test that demonstrates academic success in high school. There are a lot of students whose "donut hole" families can neither qualify for need-based aid, nor pay full price at top 20 schools (none of which award merit aid).

Because of this, many or maybe most such students do not even apply to top schools, but instead choose a state school or a lower-ranked school that awards them merit aid.

In the DC metro area, this is a very common situation for families of high achievers. Half the Blair SMAC magnet goes to UMD-CP, and it's not because they couldn't get into Princeton or MIT.

Good points here. It is also instructive to look at how many kids apply to Montgomery CC and non flagship MD public universities from each of the HSs.

I'm not sure I see your point re MIT and Princeton though. Looking at the chart, RM and Blair kids (presumably mostly from the magnet programs) apply to both MIT and Princeton in significantly higher numbers than most of the other Bethesda schools without much, if any, better acceptance numbers than some of the non-magnet HSs.

NP. I think PP was addressing the private school parent (not all of them!) who is forever posting about how BCC or whatever school only sent 20-something to the Ivies, and how that's pathetic for a class size of 550 and is a reflection on the quality of a public school education.

If you look at the linked stats, though, only 40 kids from BCC applied to Brown, 30 applied to Columbia, 20 applied to Harvard, and so on. Moreover some of these applications are probably from the same kids, i.e. the kids who don't fall in PP's "donut hole" and can afford to be full pay at any of these schools.

Looking at this another way, only 7% of BCC's class applied to Brown, only 5% applied to Columbia, and only 4% applied to Harvard. Those percents are tiny compared to application rates at the top privates. For whatever reason, fewer BCC (and other MCPS) kids are applying to the elite universities, and this is going to impact acceptances and matriculations. Being in the donut hole is a big reason, as are familial expectations, the fact that some won't go to college at all, the way private schools select for high SSAT scores, and more.

Anonymous wrote:The reason U MD is skyrocketing in incoming SAT

Either that or because it's the nearest major university to the largest user of advanced IT.

Anonymous wrote:Admissions to prestigious schools is not a litmus test that demonstrates academic success in high school. There are a lot of students whose "donut hole" families can neither qualify for need-based aid, nor pay full price at top 20 schools (none of which award merit aid).

Because of this, many or maybe most such students do not even apply to top schools, but instead choose a state school or a lower-ranked school that awards them merit aid.

In the DC metro area, this is a very common situation for families of high achievers. Half the Blair SMAC magnet goes to UMD-CP, and it's not because they couldn't get into Princeton or MIT.

Good points here. It is also instructive to look at how many kids apply to Montgomery CC and non flagship MD public universities from each of the HSs.

I'm not sure I see your point re MIT and Princeton though. Looking at the chart, RM and Blair kids (presumably mostly from the magnet programs) apply to both MIT and Princeton in significantly higher numbers than most of the other Bethesda schools without much, if any, better acceptance numbers than some of the non-magnet HSs.

The reason U MD is skyrocketing in incoming SAT

Admissions to prestigious schools is not a litmus test that demonstrates academic success in high school. There are a lot of students whose "donut hole" families can neither qualify for need-based aid, nor pay full price at top 20 schools (none of which award merit aid).

Because of this, many or maybe most such students do not even apply to top schools, but instead choose a state school or a lower-ranked school that awards them merit aid.

In the DC metro area, this is a very common situation for families of high achievers. Half the Blair SMAC magnet goes to UMD-CP, and it's not because they couldn't get into Princeton or MIT.

Anonymous wrote:One thing I noticed is that at most of the LACs, the largest number of applicants come from Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Walt-Whitman HS, however across the top universities, the distribution tends to be even across the 7 or skewed towards Montgomery-Blair/Richard-Montgomery. I'm not too familiar with these schools- is there a reason why?

Only those in the upper echelons of society know about LACs. Chevy Chase and Bethesda are the refuge for those not in Georgetown.

That Stanford % is so harsh -- 200+ applicants, 10 admits. Damn.

Lots of Blair magnets apply to SLACs for science and math. They are not all engineering and comp sci.

Anonymous wrote:One thing I noticed is that at most of the LACs, the largest number of applicants come from Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Walt-Whitman HS, however across the top universities, the distribution tends to be even across the 7 or skewed towards Montgomery-Blair/Richard-Montgomery. I'm not too familiar with these schools- is there a reason why?

Blair has the CAP program and RM has the IB program - both have a heavy Liberal Arts focus?

I used to save these. I wonder if Bethesda magazine archives can be found. It would be interesting to track the data over time.

Anonymous wrote:One thing I noticed is that at most of the LACs, the largest number of applicants come from Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Walt-Whitman HS, however across the top universities, the distribution tends to be even across the 7 or skewed towards Montgomery-Blair/Richard-Montgomery. I'm not too familiar with these schools- is there a reason why?

Blair and RM house the high school test-in magnet programs.