It is a no brainer. Got to one of the Wheaton PLTW programs especially given your child's interests. Your child will get a lot more out of it than being in the regular program at Blair. Also, big fish, small pond.

OP here. DC ranked DCC as many of you advised with home school Blair listed first. He then applied to 3 Magnets (Blair SMACS, Wheaton BioMed, Wheaton Engineering). Just received results and got into both Wheaton magnets, not SMACS. Now we just need to weigh benefits of attending our home school Blair, or doing the hike to Wheaton. DC is an engineering/bio nerd. So, it seems like it's probably a no-brainer. Thanks for the advice!

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Anonymous wrote:Here's how I would think about the prioritization:

1) Blair magnet
2) Wheaton magnet
3) Regular Blair
4) Everything else

For that reason, I'd rank Blair in the DCC lottery and secure that spot and then take the Wheaton magnet if that's the best magnet option.

However, at regular Blair I'd recommend upending the recommended science sequence. "Honors" Biology and "Honors" Chemistry are on-level at best, so I'd recommend talking to parents of older kids and mapping out a pathway that makes sense and replicates the Wheaton program to the degree possible.

How do you "upend" ? Can you talk your way into AP without taking Honors first?

Yes. AP Physics doesn't have a pre-requisite, just a strong admonition to consider carefully before taking it as a freshman. AP Bio is supposed to, but I've seen it taken without.

This goes back to an issue that has been discussed to death on DCUM but remains an issue, which is that most schools show on-level courses in their online offerings, but those classes do not actually exist. So, "Honors" Biology should be getting kids ready for AP Bio and "Honors" Chemistry should be getting kids ready for AP Chemistry, but because MCPS got rid of on-level, those classes have slowed way down. It hurts on all sides, because high performing kids are bored and they end up not ready for the AP classes.

No, they do exist but they need enough students to sign up for the classes.
The problem is that the vast majority of MoCo/DCUM parents think that their kids are too smart and too good for on-level courses. Who wants their kids to be known as been on-level? The stigma!

No, at our school the on-level science classes do not exist anymore. They removed them from the course listings.

Because not enough students are signing up for them.

Yeah, funny how students don't sign up for a class when it isn't on the list of classes they can sign up for.

You cannot be that slow.
If not enough students continously sign up for a class, soon or later it will be discontinued.
It's not that hard to understand.

No, you don't understand. It was not simply a matter of students opting not to take an on-level class. It was a decision intentionally made to put all students into honors classes, to have honors classes as the default across the board, with the exception of math.

Again, because they have seen fewer and fewer students signing up for the regular, on-level classes.

Another consideration is the non-magnet experience at each school. I definitely have the sense that there is less of a distinction between magnet vs. non-magnet at Wheaton compared to Blair. The non-magnet STEM experience at Wheaton may be better in terms of both social and academic outcomes. I say this as a parent of a CAP student at Blair. There are certain clubs at Blair that are perceived to be "ruled by" magnet students and other students feel less comfortable there. Blair SMCS also has a lot of opportunities only available to their own students including some classes and internship support, etc. Blair has a very high number of very high achieving students, including 100 magnet, about 75-100 CAP, and several general education students. The non CAP/magnet students are at somewhat of a disadvantage because they are forced to take at least a couple more non-weighted classes. This means that the top weighted GPA will be lower if you are not in one of these programs. College admissions for Blair students interested in STEM but not in SMCS have to be much more challenging - this is what they are up against: https://old.mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/ParentResources/MagnetProfile.pdf

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Anonymous wrote:Here's how I would think about the prioritization:

1) Blair magnet
2) Wheaton magnet
3) Regular Blair
4) Everything else

For that reason, I'd rank Blair in the DCC lottery and secure that spot and then take the Wheaton magnet if that's the best magnet option.

However, at regular Blair I'd recommend upending the recommended science sequence. "Honors" Biology and "Honors" Chemistry are on-level at best, so I'd recommend talking to parents of older kids and mapping out a pathway that makes sense and replicates the Wheaton program to the degree possible.

How do you "upend" ? Can you talk your way into AP without taking Honors first?

Yes. AP Physics doesn't have a pre-requisite, just a strong admonition to consider carefully before taking it as a freshman. AP Bio is supposed to, but I've seen it taken without.

This goes back to an issue that has been discussed to death on DCUM but remains an issue, which is that most schools show on-level courses in their online offerings, but those classes do not actually exist. So, "Honors" Biology should be getting kids ready for AP Bio and "Honors" Chemistry should be getting kids ready for AP Chemistry, but because MCPS got rid of on-level, those classes have slowed way down. It hurts on all sides, because high performing kids are bored and they end up not ready for the AP classes.

No, they do exist but they need enough students to sign up for the classes.
The problem is that the vast majority of MoCo/DCUM parents think that their kids are too smart and too good for on-level courses. Who wants their kids to be known as been on-level? The stigma!

No, at our school the on-level science classes do not exist anymore. They removed them from the course listings.

Because not enough students are signing up for them.

Yeah, funny how students don't sign up for a class when it isn't on the list of classes they can sign up for.

You cannot be that slow.
If not enough students continously sign up for a class, soon or later it will be discontinued.
It's not that hard to understand.

No, you don't understand. It was not simply a matter of students opting not to take an on-level class. It was a decision intentionally made to put all students into honors classes, to have honors classes as the default across the board, with the exception of math.

And then the content of those "honors" classes was made less rigorous.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's how I would think about the prioritization:

1) Blair magnet
2) Wheaton magnet
3) Regular Blair
4) Everything else

For that reason, I'd rank Blair in the DCC lottery and secure that spot and then take the Wheaton magnet if that's the best magnet option.

However, at regular Blair I'd recommend upending the recommended science sequence. "Honors" Biology and "Honors" Chemistry are on-level at best, so I'd recommend talking to parents of older kids and mapping out a pathway that makes sense and replicates the Wheaton program to the degree possible.

How do you "upend" ? Can you talk your way into AP without taking Honors first?

Yes. AP Physics doesn't have a pre-requisite, just a strong admonition to consider carefully before taking it as a freshman. AP Bio is supposed to, but I've seen it taken without.

This goes back to an issue that has been discussed to death on DCUM but remains an issue, which is that most schools show on-level courses in their online offerings, but those classes do not actually exist. So, "Honors" Biology should be getting kids ready for AP Bio and "Honors" Chemistry should be getting kids ready for AP Chemistry, but because MCPS got rid of on-level, those classes have slowed way down. It hurts on all sides, because high performing kids are bored and they end up not ready for the AP classes.

No, they do exist but they need enough students to sign up for the classes.
The problem is that the vast majority of MoCo/DCUM parents think that their kids are too smart and too good for on-level courses. Who wants their kids to be known as been on-level? The stigma!

No, at our school the on-level science classes do not exist anymore. They removed them from the course listings.

Because not enough students are signing up for them.

Yeah, funny how students don't sign up for a class when it isn't on the list of classes they can sign up for.

You cannot be that slow.
If not enough students continously sign up for a class, soon or later it will be discontinued.
It's not that hard to understand.

No, you don't understand. It was not simply a matter of students opting not to take an on-level class. It was a decision intentionally made to put all students into honors classes, to have honors classes as the default across the board, with the exception of math.

The Wheaton Engineering program has very few engineering courses in the schedule. It doesn't have the 8th class that SMCS has, so you aren't getting much compared to a regular school that has PLTW. You're not getting much for your commute. It's great if you are already local.
If your home school cohort is bad, the Wheaton cohort is good.
At (regular) Blair, you'll miss the cohort in STEM classes, but you'll have some mixed classes (non-STEM) and clubs to mingle with SMCS students.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/wheatonhs/academies/Applicationprograms/#Engineeringapp

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Anonymous wrote:Wheaton sends more students to Clark school of engineering (UMD) than any school in MD.
Engineering is Wheaton forte.

-Blair alum

You might have missed a chapter in statistics class about sampling bias.

You might have been dropped headfirst when you were a kid.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's how I would think about the prioritization:

1) Blair magnet
2) Wheaton magnet
3) Regular Blair
4) Everything else

For that reason, I'd rank Blair in the DCC lottery and secure that spot and then take the Wheaton magnet if that's the best magnet option.

However, at regular Blair I'd recommend upending the recommended science sequence. "Honors" Biology and "Honors" Chemistry are on-level at best, so I'd recommend talking to parents of older kids and mapping out a pathway that makes sense and replicates the Wheaton program to the degree possible.

How do you "upend" ? Can you talk your way into AP without taking Honors first?

Yes. AP Physics doesn't have a pre-requisite, just a strong admonition to consider carefully before taking it as a freshman. AP Bio is supposed to, but I've seen it taken without.

This goes back to an issue that has been discussed to death on DCUM but remains an issue, which is that most schools show on-level courses in their online offerings, but those classes do not actually exist. So, "Honors" Biology should be getting kids ready for AP Bio and "Honors" Chemistry should be getting kids ready for AP Chemistry, but because MCPS got rid of on-level, those classes have slowed way down. It hurts on all sides, because high performing kids are bored and they end up not ready for the AP classes.

No, they do exist but they need enough students to sign up for the classes.
The problem is that the vast majority of MoCo/DCUM parents think that their kids are too smart and too good for on-level courses. Who wants their kids to be known as been on-level? The stigma!

No, at our school the on-level science classes do not exist anymore. They removed them from the course listings.

Because not enough students are signing up for them.

Yeah, funny how students don't sign up for a class when it isn't on the list of classes they can sign up for.

You cannot be that slow.
If not enough students continously sign up for a class, soon or later it will be discontinued.
It's not that hard to understand.

Anonymous wrote:Wheaton sends more students to Clark school of engineering (UMD) than any school in MD.
Engineering is Wheaton forte.

-Blair alum

You might have missed a chapter in statistics class about sampling bias.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's how I would think about the prioritization:

1) Blair magnet
2) Wheaton magnet
3) Regular Blair
4) Everything else

For that reason, I'd rank Blair in the DCC lottery and secure that spot and then take the Wheaton magnet if that's the best magnet option.

However, at regular Blair I'd recommend upending the recommended science sequence. "Honors" Biology and "Honors" Chemistry are on-level at best, so I'd recommend talking to parents of older kids and mapping out a pathway that makes sense and replicates the Wheaton program to the degree possible.

How do you "upend" ? Can you talk your way into AP without taking Honors first?

Yes. AP Physics doesn't have a pre-requisite, just a strong admonition to consider carefully before taking it as a freshman. AP Bio is supposed to, but I've seen it taken without.

This goes back to an issue that has been discussed to death on DCUM but remains an issue, which is that most schools show on-level courses in their online offerings, but those classes do not actually exist. So, "Honors" Biology should be getting kids ready for AP Bio and "Honors" Chemistry should be getting kids ready for AP Chemistry, but because MCPS got rid of on-level, those classes have slowed way down. It hurts on all sides, because high performing kids are bored and they end up not ready for the AP classes.

AP Physics 1 (Algebra based) is a first year physics course option, not a 2nd year of Physics after Honors. (It's part of 2 year sequence, but almost no one takes the 2nd year, because almost no one cares that much about physics but can't do math).

AP Physics C (calculus based) is a second year class (when it's both Mechanics and E&M in one credit) or a 2year sequence or double period with not prereq.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's how I would think about the prioritization:

1) Blair magnet
2) Wheaton magnet
3) Regular Blair
4) Everything else

For that reason, I'd rank Blair in the DCC lottery and secure that spot and then take the Wheaton magnet if that's the best magnet option.

However, at regular Blair I'd recommend upending the recommended science sequence. "Honors" Biology and "Honors" Chemistry are on-level at best, so I'd recommend talking to parents of older kids and mapping out a pathway that makes sense and replicates the Wheaton program to the degree possible.

How do you "upend" ? Can you talk your way into AP without taking Honors first?

Yes. AP Physics doesn't have a pre-requisite, just a strong admonition to consider carefully before taking it as a freshman. AP Bio is supposed to, but I've seen it taken without.

This goes back to an issue that has been discussed to death on DCUM but remains an issue, which is that most schools show on-level courses in their online offerings, but those classes do not actually exist. So, "Honors" Biology should be getting kids ready for AP Bio and "Honors" Chemistry should be getting kids ready for AP Chemistry, but because MCPS got rid of on-level, those classes have slowed way down. It hurts on all sides, because high performing kids are bored and they end up not ready for the AP classes.

No, they do exist but they need enough students to sign up for the classes.
The problem is that the vast majority of MoCo/DCUM parents think that their kids are too smart and too good for on-level courses. Who wants their kids to be known as been on-level? The stigma!

No, at our school the on-level science classes do not exist anymore. They removed them from the course listings.

Because not enough students are signing up for them.

Yeah, funny how students don't sign up for a class when it isn't on the list of classes they can sign up for.

Wheaton sends more students to Clark school of engineering (UMD) than any school in MD.
Engineering is Wheaton forte.

-Blair alum

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's how I would think about the prioritization:

1) Blair magnet
2) Wheaton magnet
3) Regular Blair
4) Everything else

For that reason, I'd rank Blair in the DCC lottery and secure that spot and then take the Wheaton magnet if that's the best magnet option.

However, at regular Blair I'd recommend upending the recommended science sequence. "Honors" Biology and "Honors" Chemistry are on-level at best, so I'd recommend talking to parents of older kids and mapping out a pathway that makes sense and replicates the Wheaton program to the degree possible.

How do you "upend" ? Can you talk your way into AP without taking Honors first?

Yes. AP Physics doesn't have a pre-requisite, just a strong admonition to consider carefully before taking it as a freshman. AP Bio is supposed to, but I've seen it taken without.

This goes back to an issue that has been discussed to death on DCUM but remains an issue, which is that most schools show on-level courses in their online offerings, but those classes do not actually exist. So, "Honors" Biology should be getting kids ready for AP Bio and "Honors" Chemistry should be getting kids ready for AP Chemistry, but because MCPS got rid of on-level, those classes have slowed way down. It hurts on all sides, because high performing kids are bored and they end up not ready for the AP classes.

No, they do exist but they need enough students to sign up for the classes.
The problem is that the vast majority of MoCo/DCUM parents think that their kids are too smart and too good for on-level courses. Who wants their kids to be known as been on-level? The stigma!

No, at our school the on-level science classes do not exist anymore. They removed them from the course listings.

Because not enough students are signing up for them.

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Anonymous wrote:DS is an engineering/bio kid. We live in Takoma Park, home school is Blair. He's applying to Wheaton Magnets (both Engineering and Biomedical) and Blair SMACS. Wondering how to rank DCC. If he ranks Blair 1st, he'll get it. We're guessing if he ranked Wheaton first, he would also probably get it, as Blair is crowded.

If a kid is super into engineering, robotics, etc., is it worth it to trek from Takoma Park to Wheaton for the Engineering Academy? We like the idea of attending Blair and doing STEM Academy there because he would go to school with kids in the neighborhood. But, we're wondering how similar the Engineering opportunities are in the Academies at each school?

Magnets aside, if your home school is Blair, can you rank Wheaton first and Blair second, and if you don't get Wheaton you are guaranteed Blair? And if you get Wheaton, can you change your mind and go to Blair?

No. You are only guaranteed your home school if you rank it first.

But if you don't get your first choice, and you rank your home school as your second choice, it is guaranteed. https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/school-info/downcounty/choice/detail/

"Students are guaranteed their base school only when ranked first on the initial Choice form, or if it is marked second and their first choice is not available."

So based on this, for this particular person, it seems like you apply for the magnets, put Wheaton first, put Blair second, and then make a decision later. I assume if you put Wheaton first and get in, you can change your mind and go to Blair, the home school.

No, you don't understand the processes.

These are two separate processes.

You apply to magnets. You see where you get in. Then you can decide which magnet to go to.

In a separate process, you rank which DCCs you want. This has nothing to do with the magnets. And your assumption that you can change to your home school if you put it as your second choice and don't like the noncom school you ranked first is incorrect.

Thanks for the clarification on the assumption. I do understand that the processes are separate.