No benefit for attending a top ranked high school
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Anonymous
I recently learned about Naviance and explored it for S's HS, which is ranked in the top 30 by US News and has been for the last 5 years. Said school is widely regarded as the best in a (very large) city, and it is acclaimed for supposedly preparing graduates for college. 100% pass district tests and on average students take 6 AP exams with a pass rate of over 95%. The average SAT and ACT are upwards of 1900/28. The top 10% take nearly 14 APs on average and most get near perfect scores on testing. I took a look at Naviance data and was surprised to see that across the top LACs and universities, there was seemingly no benefit of attending this HS. Actually, more places had LOWER admit rates than the usual average and the few with higher ones were barely higher. Keep in mind that a 4.4+ is equivalent to the top 15% and a 4.6+ the top 5%. With these statistics, what's the point of going to a supposedly more rigorous HS? Many people in this HS could easily be in the top 10% or even valedictorian at other schools.
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Anonymous
| Ah, forgot to add U'Chicago. 7% admitted from this HS, average GPA 4.6. Lower than the 6 year average for all HS of 10%. |
Anonymous
| I totally don't understand... |
Anonymous
| “to whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48) |
Anonymous
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The top schools could fill their classes with students from these schools. They want more diversity in the student body so they won't take all of these students who are qualified. The point of these schools is make sure your student is qualified. These kids all found a great spot, I am sure.
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Anonymous
| Very interesting, OP. I have often wondered what these stats are at highly ranked schools. |
Anonymous
+1 those look like fantastic admits from one school. |
Anonymous
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It is basically a lottery when you're talking about colleges with admit rates in the single digits or in the teens. The numbers may be more skewed when your talking about magnet schools like TJ.
Also, people underestimate the power of a cohort. An academically focused cohort has the potential to push your student to achieve. |
Anonymous
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I came from a crappy school and went to an ivy. I would have been better prepared be probably as more success coming from a top high school and attending some SLAC or flagship state -- that transition to college sucked and I was WAY behind and only had a real inkling in how to manage my career in my late 20s. All my closest friends st one were no use b/c they were getting service jobs back home in the sticks, and I was too embarrassed to ask my cosmopolitan and wealthy college classmates
Oh and almost flunked out frost Year b/c it was no longer JV academics (we had no AP, our physics teacher was unlicensed but grandfathered in, etc) |
Anonymous
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I live in San Francisco. The best public high school is Lowell (followed by Sota, a school for the arts, but it has a heavy drug culture). The girl who gave us (me and DD, then an 8th grader) a tour, CRIED DURING THE TOUR. She said she never gets to sleep before 2am, and cries from stress every day. I wouldn't even let DD take the exam to get accepted. I don't want her spending four years being miserable.
She's going to attend a high school that's considered decent (no significant gang or drug culture, engaged and driven teachers) instead. She'll do very well, fairly easily. She will have a higher GPA from this school than if she went to Lowell. She will rank higher among her peers at this school. DD won't get into Stanford. She'll wind up at some other UC, and do fine. My goal is not an Ivy for her. It's that she learns and has an enjoyable life. |
Anonymous
| The admit rate includes people with geographic diversity. Compare to a local HS admit rate. We are in the same boat - extremely challenging, highly-ranked school that is smaller than local HS. From what I can tell, we are sending a higher percentage to top schools compared to the local HS. |
Anonymous
ITA.. but you know there are those who only want the top tier. -signed a former Bay Area resident. I miss that place *sniff*. |
Anonymous
| This is precisely why my DD did not consider TJ. There is no life-time advantage. She is probably in the top 5% of her FCPS high-school (mostly all A's.) More importantly, she is happy and relaxed. She will do fine. |
Anonymous
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Yup exactly its much better to be in the top 5-10% at your normal high school vs going to be TJ and having it be a crap shoot and worse really getting lost in the crowd if you aren't in the top 10-20% at that school
For all the crowing about TJ for the middle 50% most end up going to UVA, William and Mary and Tech decent schools but schools people can easily get into from their home school as well |
Anonymous
| Your child goes to high school to grow up and have an education. You don't send them to a school just for college admissions. How is sending your child to a less resourced school with less experienced teachers and weaker classmates going to improve their education? Pick the best education you can for your child. If they love the sciences, send them to a specialized magnet program. Even if they end up at the state land grant, they will start with a better foundation than most of their college classmates. No school is going to automatically get them into a top tier college. Exeter and Andover may send 25% of their class to HYPS, but 20% are legacy development cases. |