Anonymous wrote:reviving this thread. We are in DC and looking for where to move for middle and high school outside the city and are totally daunted. Poolesville seems like a great educational opportunity, but am curious about the comments that it's not worth the mega-commute. I haven't been able to find any info about where PHS students go to college. That is of course NOT the only measure of success but I am wondering if it's worth the significant inconvenience to increase kids' chances of getting into some of these magnet programs and also just being a little more removed from the hectic competitiveness of closer in MoCo suburbs.

Where do PHS students go? All over the place. Some go to Ivies, some to state schools. Your kid has a greater chance of getting into an ivy league school if they are legacy. Did you go to an ivy and do you donate generously to your ivy alma mater? If your kid is a legacy, as long as they are a good student, any school will do.

If you want your kid to get in a top school without any hook (not legacy, not URM, not an Olympian etc), then you are probably depending on...gasp...your kid getting in due to merit. This requires your child getting a very rigorous education in which he excels during HS.

Does Poolesville provide a rigorous education? Yes. Will your child excel? Well, depends on if he has the ability. Is he/she a top 2-3% student? Can he/she ace the highly competitive entrance exam?

You should not worry about where PHS students go. You should focus on where your child wants to go, what are their abilities and what are your credentials as a parent.

Also see here: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/districts/montgomery-county-public-schools/poolesville-high-9143

Anonymous wrote:reviving this thread. We are in DC and looking for where to move for middle and high school outside the city and are totally daunted. Poolesville seems like a great educational opportunity, but am curious about the comments that it's not worth the mega-commute. I haven't been able to find any info about where PHS students go to college. That is of course NOT the only measure of success but I am wondering if it's worth the significant inconvenience to increase kids' chances of getting into some of these magnet programs and also just being a little more removed from the hectic competitiveness of closer in MoCo suburbs.

See here: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/poolesvillehs/magnet/CollegeAcceptedListClassof2014.pdf

reviving this thread. We are in DC and looking for where to move for middle and high school outside the city and are totally daunted. Poolesville seems like a great educational opportunity, but am curious about the comments that it's not worth the mega-commute. I haven't been able to find any info about where PHS students go to college. That is of course NOT the only measure of success but I am wondering if it's worth the significant inconvenience to increase kids' chances of getting into some of these magnet programs and also just being a little more removed from the hectic competitiveness of closer in MoCo suburbs.

Anonymous wrote:Op here - we are upcounty so not as concerned about busing. How about college placement? Extracurricular?

Tips for getting in?

One tip for for getting in -

Top performance in entrance exams matters. Exam is based on the older SAT format. Vocabulary and writing skills are very important. Math looks for content mastery, speed and accuracy - math, stats and probability, geometry, algebra 1 is tested. Use the college board SAT book to study. For vocabulary it is important that the student is an avid reader throughout middle school. Math skills can be build up quickly but mastery of language comes from practice over time.

Op here - we are upcounty so not as concerned about busing. How about college placement? Extracurricular?

Tips for getting in?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can handle the long bus ride, PHS is a wonderful program. We had 2 kids graduated from RMIB and one from PHS (GE). From rigor standpoint, there is no comparison. RMIB is much more difficult and stressful than GE program. From good and enjoyable 4 years of HS standpoint, I'd recommend PHS. Kids study hard but it's not a soul sucking program like IB.

GE or Global Ecology is considered an easier magnet program with the happiest kids in it.

RMIB and the two SMACS (Blair and PHS) are extremely rigorous magnets. There is no comparison in terms of work between GE and SMACS or GE and RMIB. GE is better compared to the Humanities program which is also good and enjoyable but not really as difficult and stressful as IB or SMACS.

RMIB has the additional component of the IB diploma, so the work required is more than that of SMACS in some way. SMACS has a research internship component that is not really mandatory, but RMIB has a dissertation requirement that is mandatory for the diploma.

No comparison between RMIB/SMACS with GE.

You are really not saying anything different than what PP said.

Not exactly. PHS can be stressful too depending on the program. If you are in SMACS it is harder than GE. I would put RMIB and both SMACS as the hardest programs in MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can handle the long bus ride, PHS is a wonderful program. We had 2 kids graduated from RMIB and one from PHS (GE). From rigor standpoint, there is no comparison. RMIB is much more difficult and stressful than GE program. From good and enjoyable 4 years of HS standpoint, I'd recommend PHS. Kids study hard but it's not a soul sucking program like IB.

GE or Global Ecology is considered an easier magnet program with the happiest kids in it.

RMIB and the two SMACS (Blair and PHS) are extremely rigorous magnets. There is no comparison in terms of work between GE and SMACS or GE and RMIB. GE is better compared to the Humanities program which is also good and enjoyable but not really as difficult and stressful as IB or SMACS.

RMIB has the additional component of the IB diploma, so the work required is more than that of SMACS in some way. SMACS has a research internship component that is not really mandatory, but RMIB has a dissertation requirement that is mandatory for the diploma.

No comparison between RMIB/SMACS with GE.

You are really not saying anything different than what PP said.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you so much! Super excited!!!

I've heard that you won't get bused the whole way to Poolesville if you're downcounty though. You do have to think about the sheer length of the commute. I think that you can drop your DD off in Gaithersburg and she can catch an MCPS bus to Poolesville.

Also think about carpooling with other parents if you need to. Parents are super supportive and every one pitches in. The same goes for the time students are working at school in the evening or there is an event at the school and need to be picked up late. All parents pitch in.

Some people carpool and some also drive their kids to PHS in the AM. For most it is a 35-45 min car-ride. The buses come at an insanely early hour only because they have to pick all the students at various bus stops. Some kids tend to go to sleep in the AM on the bus.

I think parents of prospective parents should at least drive one time to see how long it takes to get to school from their house. The one good thing is that you are not fighting the usual beltway or 270 traffic. You take winding, bucolic country backroads to get to PHS.

We went to our trusted sources in PHS and RMIB and got tepid feedback for the current PHS administration but we heard a lot of negatives about how the RMIB program was being run by the magnet coordinator, IB coordinator and the school principal.

Since we wanted to have as much of a drama-free magnet experience as possible and concentrate on supporting the academics and EC activities of our HS kid instead of butting head with MCPS administrators for four years, PHS was the obvious choice.

All the other negatives that people talk about - long commute, crumbing buildings, old infrastructure, ghetto school/hilly billy school labels, too much diversity/lack of diversity, "school within a school", soul sucking rigor, pressure cooker environment, magnet/non-magnet divide...yada, yada, yada...frankly were not even concerns for us because we are familiar with both the schools and the programs with older kids, nieces and nephews having gone through them for the past 8 years. We know the programs themselves are absolutely worthwhile and our kids will benefit and thrive (with a tiny amount of blood, sweat and tears).

Anonymous wrote:Thank you so much! Super excited!!!

I've heard that you won't get bused the whole way to Poolesville if you're downcounty though. You do have to think about the sheer length of the commute. I think that you can drop your DD off in Gaithersburg and she can catch an MCPS bus to Poolesville.

Anonymous wrote:

Yes Asian went up 5% in the town's elementary school and nearly 6% in the middle school. That's a lot.

2007-2008
Poolesville ES enrollment 405, 2.7% Asian = 11 students
John Poole MS enrollment 387, 1.3% Asian = 5 students

2017-2018
Poolesville ES enrollment 448, 7.6% Asian = 34 students
John Poole MS enrollment 375, 7.2% Asian = 27 students

34-11 = 23 more Asian-American students at Poolesville ES last year than 10 years ago. 27-5 = 22 more Asian-American students at John Poole MS last year than 20 years ago. Is that a lot more? Does that reflect "many" Asian families moving to Poolesville?

Anonymous wrote:If you can handle the long bus ride, PHS is a wonderful program. We had 2 kids graduated from RMIB and one from PHS (GE). From rigor standpoint, there is no comparison. RMIB is much more difficult and stressful than GE program. From good and enjoyable 4 years of HS standpoint, I'd recommend PHS. Kids study hard but it's not a soul sucking program like IB.

GE or Global Ecology is considered an easier magnet program with the happiest kids in it.

RMIB and the two SMACS (Blair and PHS) are extremely rigorous magnets. There is no comparison in terms of work between GE and SMACS or GE and RMIB. GE is better compared to the Humanities program which is also good and enjoyable but not really as difficult and stressful as IB or SMACS.

RMIB has the additional component of the IB diploma, so the work required is more than that of SMACS in some way. SMACS has a research internship component that is not really mandatory, but RMIB has a dissertation requirement that is mandatory for the diploma.

No comparison between RMIB/SMACS with GE.

If you can handle the long bus ride, PHS is a wonderful program. We had 2 kids graduated from RMIB and one from PHS (GE). From rigor standpoint, there is no comparison. RMIB is much more difficult and stressful than GE program. From good and enjoyable 4 years of HS standpoint, I'd recommend PHS. Kids study hard but it's not a soul sucking program like IB.