Article: Drawn to Magnet Schools; Students Do Extra Work Just to Get In

Quinn Connor spent weeks thinking about what to say in the essays she had to write to apply to Eastern Middle School. She spent her fifth-grade winter vacation finishing the final drafts.

It was a lot of extra work and there was no guarantee she'd get in. Every year, about 800 fifth-graders apply to Eastern and only 100 are accepted.

But for Quinn, 12, now a seventh-grader at Eastern, the humanities and communications magnet school in Montgomery County, all the work and worrying and waiting were worth it. "I was kind of nervous, thinking, 'What will they think of my writing? What if it's not good enough?' " Connor said.

"But the day the package came, I was so happy."

Every year, thousands ...

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