Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are students admitted just based on the test?

There may be students who are admitted just based on the test. But in general, there is more to the admissions decision than just the test.

How do you know?

No one knows for certain, but the fact that kids with lower median scores are being accepted over ones with higher scores strongly implies that other factors are at play, unless names of kids above a certain score are being drawn from a hat. No one really knows how much weight is carried by each other facfor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are students admitted just based on the test?

There may be students who are admitted just based on the test. But in general, there is more to the admissions decision than just the test.

How do you know?

http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/stateboard/legalopinions/2010/docs/StanislavandIrinaP.Opin.No.14-31.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are students admitted just based on the test?

There may be students who are admitted just based on the test. But in general, there is more to the admissions decision than just the test.

How do you know?

I would pick a neighborhood you like (with food schools) & go from there. We choose Olney, but after 3rd grade mine left to go to HGC, & then Magnet Middle & HS.
I still love the Olney area though, even if we laugh that we could've lived somewhere less expensive.

Hi OP,

Are you still with us? At least you are getting a glimpse of the competitive world of MoCo parents and test scores.

Find a neighborhood area that you like, with a reasonable commute, and then check out the associated school cluster. Your DS and DD will likely be surrounded by many many gifted peers, as you can tell from the last 6 pages, whether they test into the HGCs or not.

Welcome.

Anonymous wrote:

Well, if the accepted median score was higher it means there were more kids who scored higher than applicants to other centers. To get in this HGC means your kid will have to score higher on this test. Having to score higher means harder. What am I missing here?

Unless you are arguing that is other than the top half of accepted students, the other half and the not accepted students are somehow scored lower than other centers, that is a deeper point differentiating median from mean, and somehow I don't think that is what your are arguing about.

No, a higher median score just means a higher median score.

Let's say that there are two HGCs. At HGC #1, 800 students apply for 36 spots, and the median score is 30. At HGC #2, 72 students apply for 36 spots, and the median score is 35. Which HGC is harder to get into?

Anonymous wrote:Are students admitted just based on the test?

There may be students who are admitted just based on the test. But in general, there is more to the admissions decision than just the test.

It could definitely mean what you said PP or it could mean something else. It's very hard to know without knowing the standard deviation. For a totally random example see below. Which school is "harder" to get in to? You can't tell from the median score.

HGC 1:
95
95
95
MEDIAN: 90
89
89
89

HGC 2:
95
95
95
MEDIAN: 94
89
89
89

Anonymous wrote:Are students admitted just based on the test?

Pretty much if not exactly entirely.

Are students admitted just based on the test?

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Some HGCs are harder to get into then others so you could research that.

LOLA

How would one research this, and why do you believe this is true?

Some HGCs have much higher accepted median scores than other HGCs.

Does that make them harder to get into?

What else can it mean?

It means the median scores are higher.

That's all.

At other schools, entrance may be just as competitive, with the median scores lower. Each cluster has its own applicants pool. Higher median scores means the applicant pool scores skew higher, but that is all it means. We are not talking about a nationwide applicant pool and Harvard vs. U. Maryland - we are talking about local applicant pools.

It's the median scores of accepted students, not the applicant pool.

Yes.

That doesn't make the Center in question harder to get into.

If the center takes the top 3% of applicants the competition is essentially the same. The peer group may be better due to SES factors but the HGC is still taking the top 3%. So a kid might be able to get in with a lower score from an outlying area but what's to say your kid wouldn't have a proportionally lower score if he had grown up in the same area/es.

Let's assume all hgcs have the same acceptance rate, if OP is deciding which cluster to move to and her dcs are good test takers, her children will IN GENERAL (of course there are exceptions, but we can only talk in general terms here) have a better chance of being one of the chosen in an area with lower median accepted scores. Why do you think some people prefer being the big fish in a small pond? You have to be a stronger student, or at least a stronger test taker, to make the percent cut in certain areas.

This.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know whether it is fair. It just seems obvious that higher median score among the accepted means it is harder to get into this HGC.

It doesn't seem obvious to me. All it means is that the median score among the accepted applicants was higher.

Well, if the accepted median score was higher it means there were more kids who scored higher than applicants to other centers. To get in this HGC means your kid will have to score higher on this test. Having to score higher means harder. What am I missing here?

Unless you are arguing that is other than the top half of accepted students, the other half and the not accepted students are somehow scored lower than other centers, that is a deeper point differentiating median from mean, and somehow I don't think that is what your are arguing about.

Anonymous wrote:The letters will arrive when the letters arrive. What practical difference does it make if MCPS mails the letters this Friday or the following Monday?

Just wondering why it's phrased that way instead of when they are being mailed (like many of the MS and HS letters).

Anonymous wrote:They just added that to the website. I checked recently and it didn't have that information.

After March 15 is a little odd because it's a Sunday. Are they mailing this Friday or sometime next week?

Some folks would get them on the 14th if MCPS mailed them on Friday.

The letters will arrive when the letters arrive. What practical difference does it make if MCPS mails the letters this Friday or the following Monday?