I am in the Fallsmead school district and I know one family whose daughter went to Cold Spring (HGC) and another who declined for her son to continue attending Fallsmead. Both parents are happy with the decision that they made for their child. I don't talk to the Cold Spring mother all that often as her daughter is a couple of years older than my eldest, but when we would stop and chat in the neighborhood I always ask about her daughter and I know she has been very happy for her - although from day one she bemoaned the amount of homework. I am closer to the mother of the boy who stayed in the system as he is a very good friend of my son and she has been very happy that she kept him in the cluster. He is excelling (no surprise) and has a lot of friends. She likes that he can walk to and from school and since he is in a school in the neighborhood he can be with his friends, do after school activities, etc.

One thing that was common with both parents (and I recall this as being mentioned at one time or another with both moms) is that they talked to their kid and got their input on what they wanted for themselves. For the girl that went to Cold Spring, she was told that the schedule would be more academic, etc. so she knew what to expect up front. For the boy... he really did not want to leave his friends and the education at the elementary school was good enough that his mom felt comfortable keeping him in.

For your child, you should really think about what is best for your family. And maybe you can solicit his or her opinion as well.

Anonymous wrote:Our older child went to HGC then to TPMS and is now at Blair. He is a math kid so the HGC was crucial for him because at the time, pre 2.0, there was better math acceleration at the HGC than at home school. For our second child, we turned HGC down because now the math curriculum is the same at both places and our W cluster home school has enough high-performing kids in compacted math to provide peers for our DD, and we didn't think the rest of the program was so exceptional that it was worth taking DD away from her friends and routine. Don't get me wrong, the HGC was just fine, but honestly, we didn't find it to be the mecca people make it out to be.

Depends on the Center. Our older child had a so so Center teacher one year and a great one the next. DC#2 is having an amazing year at Oak View, where the fifth grade teacher is fantastic.

Anonymous wrote:We turned it down to stay at Luxmanor, easily the best ES in MoCo.

LOL

My math kid is loving the reading/writing at the HGC. Definitely rose to the occasion. Sure, there are kids there that much better writers but he is OK with that and learned a lot. Also I think the math is better than our home school because of the peer group. There are also challenge problems available which was not the case at our home school.

Interesting since my child attended pre-2.0 and we were told that the math curriculum was not any different. In fact, they said if your kid was very math focused, it might not be a good match as the HGC curriculum was very writing based. I guess it depended on what was offered at your home school. My child ended up in 7th grade algebra with her home school cohert for middle...no extra acceleration.

Our older child went to HGC then to TPMS and is now at Blair. He is a math kid so the HGC was crucial for him because at the time, pre 2.0, there was better math acceleration at the HGC than at home school. For our second child, we turned HGC down because now the math curriculum is the same at both places and our W cluster home school has enough high-performing kids in compacted math to provide peers for our DD, and we didn't think the rest of the program was so exceptional that it was worth taking DD away from her friends and routine. Don't get me wrong, the HGC was just fine, but honestly, we didn't find it to be the mecca people make it out to be.

Anonymous wrote:I am always just a bit skeptical of people who say their child was admitted and they turned it down. I am sure some ore truthful..but not all.

Sure, you can never know. But my DC is now HS age and some of the kids who were once rumored to have turned down HGC have now taken slots in HS programs. Sometimes changing schools in ES is just unthinkable to the kid or maybe parent, sometimes being the big fish at the home school works out best. I have no doubt there are far fewer people looking for alternatives in ES than there are in MS and HS.

We turned it down to stay at Luxmanor, easily the best ES in MoCo.

I am always just a bit skeptical of people who say their child was admitted and they turned it down. I am sure some ore truthful..but not all.

My child is at a HGC now. We debated whether to keep him at the home school. He was appropriately challenged in math (in fact, the math specialist at the home school is amazing and comes up with wonderful projects so we miss that), but he was on the cusp for writing. He was a very advanced reader but he wasn't being pushed with writing because it was not bad enough to need extra help but not so amazing that it would garner extra attention.

The HGC has been great. He doesn't feel much pressure (he is actually less stressed than last year) and enjoys the projects. His writing has moved to another level so the process they use seems to really work. The peer group feels like all of the kids in the top of his elementary class - I think many more would have benefited from this program so it is a shame so few slots are available.

The bus ride is long so we drive him and then on some days he takes the bus back to the home school for KAH so he can see his friends. He does his homework on the bus or reads so he doesn't mind the down time (although he doesn't do it every day).

Anonymous wrote:Query - is the HGC comparable to a Sidwell or Georgetown Prep?

Better--it's free!

Anonymous wrote:Query - is the HGC comparable to a Sidwell or Georgetown Prep? Also, are the teachers different?

Different how? Like are they college professor types? No, that would be inappropriate. These kids are still kids. The HGC teachers are supposed to be trained in teaching to GT kids. I have no idea what the training involves however. There are some great teachers, and some not so great teachers.

Query - is the HGC comparable to a Sidwell or Georgetown Prep? Also, are the teachers different?

Anonymous wrote:My child did not find the HGC a pressure cooker. It did have more work but she enjoyed it. The bus sride was also a very social part of the day. She would turn down rides to school to take the bus with her friends.

+1.. my DC plays games on the 40min bus ride with the other kids, and its not really a pressure cooker. 4th grade did seem to have a lot of hw, though, at least at my DC's HGC. 5th grade, there's almost no hw. It's been good for my DC. I think DC found more like-minded kids at HGC than DC would've at the home school. Would DC been happy at home school? Probably, but DC wouldn't have been as challenged.

Anonymous wrote:I think 50% of parents I know have admitted that they did not want their kid to go to HGC. Their kids took the test and qualified, but they wanted to give a happy childhood to their kids and did not want them to be in the pressure cooker environment, so they turned down the admission.

Some (quite a few) people I spoke to said that to my face directly or indirectly. Maybe that's true for their kids, but not for mine.