Anonymous wrote:One reason is that MIT interviewers have been know to tell applicants to go to UMd for undergrad and then try for MIT for grad school.

They do this because it is harder to get into MIT grad school from MIT undergrad than from anywhere else.

"Why bother to go to Blair Magnet if a kid ends up in those Colleges? You don't need to be an Ace to go to UMCP etc. This is a waste of resources.
If you plan to go to MIT that is another story."

Anonymous wrote:

The brand name is not the indicator of achievement in this age of out of control college tuition.

I don't know why DCUM has such a hard time comprehending (or accepting) this.

I completely disagree. I have a daughter going to one of the HYPS next year and complete strangers are in awe, acquaintances want the name of the test prep tutor, and friends are beyond proud of her. I am amazed at the number of people who upon hearing of where she is going to college tell her "you must be very smart." It is really weird.

Anonymous wrote:

The brand name is not the indicator of achievement in this age of out of control college tuition.

I don't know why DCUM has such a hard time comprehending (or accepting) this.

I completely disagree. I have a daughter going to one of the HYPS next year and complete strangers are in awe, acquaintances want the name of the test prep tutor, and friends are beyond proud of her. I am amazed at the number of people who upon hearing of where she is going to college tell her "you must be very smart." It is really weird.

The brand name is not the indicator of achievement in this age of out of control college tuition.

I don't know why DCUM has such a hard time comprehending (or accepting) this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I finally figured out how to use DC's Naviance account. Under the "College maps" section, I was able to find "top 20 most popular colleges where our students applied."

For DC's school (Einstein), these are the 10 most popular schools that students apply to (over the last 8 years, I am assuming):
1. Montgomery College
2. UM-college park
3. Towson
4. UMBC
5. Salisbury
6. Frostburg
7. St. Mary's College of Maryland
8. American U.
9. Morgan State
10. George Mason

The only thing that I found frustrating about this list is that some of the colleges that received a lot of applications from Einstein seniors are not necessarily where they enrolled. For instance, George Mason has 3 grads attending and is ranked #10, while Catholic U. has 21 grads attending and ranks #12 in terms of applications. Is there an easy way to find a list of the most popular colleges actually ATTENDED by Einstein grads?

Would anyone like to share stats from your DC's school or tell me more interesting info I can glean from Naviance?

What a depressing list, when you consider how a Virginia high school might have UVA, W&M, Virginia Tech, JMU, VCU, Mary Washington, and Christopher Newport in the top 10 along with GMU.

Anonymous wrote:What is SMCM?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For Wilson SHS in DC, our list looks comparable.


University of the District of Columbia
Montgomery College
Temple University
University of Vermont
George Mason University
University of Maryland, College Park
University of Michigan
Pennsylvania State University - All Campuses
Virginia State University
Virginia Commonwealth University
University of Pittsburgh
Delaware State University
North Carolina A&T State University
University of Wisconsin, Madison
The George Washington University
Morgan State University
University of Virginia
Howard University
Clark Atlanta University
University of Maryland, Eastern

OP here - Thank you! This is the sort of list I was looking for. Since DC residents receive in-state tuition in other states, it makes sense that Wilson students are applying to Madison, Michigan, and UVM. I also noted the presence of HBCU's. The list does look rather different than Einstein's. Now, could somebody from Whitman, WJ, or Richard Montgomery please share???

By the way, I am not in any way looking down upon UMD-College Park. Whoever did that is another poster. I'm just curious if large numbers of students from other MCPS high schools are applying to other schools. That's all!