Most Prestigious Private HS In US Suffers Elite College Matriculation Decline, Parents/Admins Reeling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know the public school kids who look disadvantaged but are actually wealthy get the advantage in college admissions.

Public schools are less competitive environments with no admission requirements, rampant grade inflation, and meaningless class rank largely based on weighted GPAs that are actually just ranking kids based on the number of honors and AP courses they take.

Becoming valedictorian in public school is often the easiest path to an Ivy.

You mean class rank 1, not the person who gives a speech.
A hugh portion of school districts don't even have class rank, and there are 26,000 high schools and each ivy decides admissions independently for ~2000 seats.

Please look up the definition of valedictorian, it means class rank 1.

A huge portion of public school districts are underperforming and completely worthless.

If you take into account the overall number of applications and acceptances rather than just matriculations, from public school valedictorians, yes it is absolutely the easiest path to an ivy.

I don't quite know what this is getting at.

If you look at Title 1 public school (63% of all public schools) valedictorian matriculations, the number going to an Ivy school is next to nothing.

I would agree it is an easy path for the 38% non-Title 1...but almost no poor school valedictorians are attending Ivy schools.

Also, if you literally are talking about the #1 kid in the class, at the 38% non-Title 1 schools it's not easy to be #1. The smartest kid at Sidwell probably won't be #1 at Whitman, not because they can't but likely because that is not their focus in life.

It is easy to be #1 in public school due to minimal competition, grade inflation, and how weighted GPAs are calculated. You just take the most honors / AP classes and that is usually enough because getting As is not hard. There is no rigor.


I attended one of the HYPs and the classmates who struggled the most with coursework were the public school graduates, usually valedictorians. They were not prepared for the college coursework that came easy to the rest of us, average private high school graduates.

There is no comparison.

This is not remotely true. The best students at schools like Whitman, Langley, and the magnets are usually far ahead of their DMV private school counterparts.

I wish that were true, but it is the opposite. I understand the grind these public school kids face, but they are not nearly as prepared for college.

Prepared for college really doesn't mean anything...prepared for what exactly? Even at HYP these days you can easily find classes that meet general requirements where the professor won't assign anything much more than a couple of 3-5 page term papers, and the professor is known for giving nearly the entire class an A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know the public school kids who look disadvantaged but are actually wealthy get the advantage in college admissions.

Public schools are less competitive environments with no admission requirements, rampant grade inflation, and meaningless class rank largely based on weighted GPAs that are actually just ranking kids based on the number of honors and AP courses they take.

Becoming valedictorian in public school is often the easiest path to an Ivy.

You mean class rank 1, not the person who gives a speech.
A hugh portion of school districts don't even have class rank, and there are 26,000 high schools and each ivy decides admissions independently for ~2000 seats.

Please look up the definition of valedictorian, it means class rank 1.

A huge portion of public school districts are underperforming and completely worthless.

If you take into account the overall number of applications and acceptances rather than just matriculations, from public school valedictorians, yes it is absolutely the easiest path to an ivy.

I don't quite know what this is getting at.

If you look at Title 1 public school (63% of all public schools) valedictorian matriculations, the number going to an Ivy school is next to nothing.

I would agree it is an easy path for the 38% non-Title 1...but almost no poor school valedictorians are attending Ivy schools.

Also, if you literally are talking about the #1 kid in the class, at the 38% non-Title 1 schools it's not easy to be #1. The smartest kid at Sidwell probably won't be #1 at Whitman, not because they can't but likely because that is not their focus in life.

It is easy to be #1 in public school due to minimal competition, grade inflation, and how weighted GPAs are calculated. You just take the most honors / AP classes and that is usually enough because getting As is not hard. There is no rigor.


I attended one of the HYPs and the classmates who struggled the most with coursework were the public school graduates, usually valedictorians. They were not prepared for the college coursework that came easy to the rest of us, average private high school graduates.

There is no comparison.

Your statement is a contradiction and hence what it's not easy to be #1.

If there is grade inflation and classes are easy, then it's easy for the "less smart" kids to get all As. Therefore, there are far more 4.0 kids at a public school.

It's not an question of intellect, but rather the kids that have "valedictorian" as their goal in life (of which there are usually several). These kids are the ones that end up with 17 AP classes because they are ruthlessly chasing the highest weighted GPA. They load up on AP Psych, AP Human Geography, AP Environmental Studies (as well as all the core APs) because they are just chasing weighted GPA. They may take an online AP class over the Summer in order to have "one more" AP class then the #2 kid in the class.

They are often not the smartest kids at the school by a large margin.

Bingo, now you understand the problem. This is the state of public schools. The class grades are meaningless when As are so common.

Different issue than "it's easy to be valedictorian"...which it is not.

If your know how to work the system, you just take the most AP/honors courses. That is much easier to in my opinion than competing based on rigorous and difficult coursework.

It's just not how most people want to approach their high school experience, especially if you are a great musician and want to be in something like orchestra or jazz band ...those will count as unweighted classes...or you think you were #1 only to find out someone else took PE over the summer (some schools allow) so they could take one more AP class than you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know the public school kids who look disadvantaged but are actually wealthy get the advantage in college admissions.

Public schools are less competitive environments with no admission requirements, rampant grade inflation, and meaningless class rank largely based on weighted GPAs that are actually just ranking kids based on the number of honors and AP courses they take.

Becoming valedictorian in public school is often the easiest path to an Ivy.

You mean class rank 1, not the person who gives a speech.
A hugh portion of school districts don't even have class rank, and there are 26,000 high schools and each ivy decides admissions independently for ~2000 seats.

Please look up the definition of valedictorian, it means class rank 1.

A huge portion of public school districts are underperforming and completely worthless.

If you take into account the overall number of applications and acceptances rather than just matriculations, from public school valedictorians, yes it is absolutely the easiest path to an ivy.

I don't quite know what this is getting at.

If you look at Title 1 public school (63% of all public schools) valedictorian matriculations, the number going to an Ivy school is next to nothing.

I would agree it is an easy path for the 38% non-Title 1...but almost no poor school valedictorians are attending Ivy schools.

Also, if you literally are talking about the #1 kid in the class, at the 38% non-Title 1 schools it's not easy to be #1. The smartest kid at Sidwell probably won't be #1 at Whitman, not because they can't but likely because that is not their focus in life.

It is easy to be #1 in public school due to minimal competition, grade inflation, and how weighted GPAs are calculated. You just take the most honors / AP classes and that is usually enough because getting As is not hard. There is no rigor.


I attended one of the HYPs and the classmates who struggled the most with coursework were the public school graduates, usually valedictorians. They were not prepared for the college coursework that came easy to the rest of us, average private high school graduates.

There is no comparison.

Your statement is a contradiction and hence what it's not easy to be #1.

If there is grade inflation and classes are easy, then it's easy for the "less smart" kids to get all As. Therefore, there are far more 4.0 kids at a public school.

It's not an question of intellect, but rather the kids that have "valedictorian" as their goal in life (of which there are usually several). These kids are the ones that end up with 17 AP classes because they are ruthlessly chasing the highest weighted GPA. They load up on AP Psych, AP Human Geography, AP Environmental Studies (as well as all the core APs) because they are just chasing weighted GPA. They may take an online AP class over the Summer in order to have "one more" AP class then the #2 kid in the class.

They are often not the smartest kids at the school by a large margin.

Bingo, now you understand the problem. This is the state of public schools. The class grades are meaningless when As are so common.

Different issue than "it's easy to be valedictorian"...which it is not.

If your know how to work the system, you just take the most AP/honors courses. That is much easier to in my opinion than competing based on rigorous and difficult coursework.

It's just not how most people want to approach their high school experience, especially if you are a great musician and want to be in something like orchestra or jazz band ...those will count as unweighted classes...or you think you were #1 only to find out someone else took PE over the summer (some schools allow) so they could take one more AP class than you.

Agree completely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know the public school kids who look disadvantaged but are actually wealthy get the advantage in college admissions.

Public schools are less competitive environments with no admission requirements, rampant grade inflation, and meaningless class rank largely based on weighted GPAs that are actually just ranking kids based on the number of honors and AP courses they take.

Becoming valedictorian in public school is often the easiest path to an Ivy.

You mean class rank 1, not the person who gives a speech.
A hugh portion of school districts don't even have class rank, and there are 26,000 high schools and each ivy decides admissions independently for ~2000 seats.

Please look up the definition of valedictorian, it means class rank 1.

A huge portion of public school districts are underperforming and completely worthless.

If you take into account the overall number of applications and acceptances rather than just matriculations, from public school valedictorians, yes it is absolutely the easiest path to an ivy.

I don't quite know what this is getting at.

If you look at Title 1 public school (63% of all public schools) valedictorian matriculations, the number going to an Ivy school is next to nothing.

I would agree it is an easy path for the 38% non-Title 1...but almost no poor school valedictorians are attending Ivy schools.

Also, if you literally are talking about the #1 kid in the class, at the 38% non-Title 1 schools it's not easy to be #1. The smartest kid at Sidwell probably won't be #1 at Whitman, not because they can't but likely because that is not their focus in life.

It is easy to be #1 in public school due to minimal competition, grade inflation, and how weighted GPAs are calculated. You just take the most honors / AP classes and that is usually enough because getting As is not hard. There is no rigor.


I attended one of the HYPs and the classmates who struggled the most with coursework were the public school graduates, usually valedictorians. They were not prepared for the college coursework that came easy to the rest of us, average private high school graduates.

There is no comparison.

This is not remotely true. The best students at schools like Whitman, Langley, and the magnets are usually far ahead of their DMV private school counterparts.

I wish that were true, but it is the opposite. I understand the grind these public school kids face, but they are not nearly as prepared for college.

Prepared for college really doesn't mean anything...prepared for what exactly? Even at HYP these days you can easily find classes that meet general requirements where the professor won't assign anything much more than a couple of 3-5 page term papers, and the professor is known for giving nearly the entire class an A.

I saw this come up most with the pre-med curriculum and in STEM majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This could easily be a cohort issue. Anyone with kids in private schools knows that some cohorts are just stronger than others. There's no real rhyme or reason to it, just sometimes you have a very very strong group of kids who press each other higher, and sometimes you have a more normal group of kids.

This is SOO true. Some cohorts rise the entire class.

Btw, our non-DMV private had a ROCKSTAR year last year with ivies, and this year is just meh.
Doing a lot better with the Ivy+ schools though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know the public school kids who look disadvantaged but are actually wealthy get the advantage in college admissions.

Public schools are less competitive environments with no admission requirements, rampant grade inflation, and meaningless class rank largely based on weighted GPAs that are actually just ranking kids based on the number of honors and AP courses they take.

Becoming valedictorian in public school is often the easiest path to an Ivy.

You mean class rank 1, not the person who gives a speech.
A hugh portion of school districts don't even have class rank, and there are 26,000 high schools and each ivy decides admissions independently for ~2000 seats.

Please look up the definition of valedictorian, it means class rank 1.

A huge portion of public school districts are underperforming and completely worthless.

If you take into account the overall number of applications and acceptances rather than just matriculations, from public school valedictorians, yes it is absolutely the easiest path to an ivy.

I don't quite know what this is getting at.

If you look at Title 1 public school (63% of all public schools) valedictorian matriculations, the number going to an Ivy school is next to nothing.

I would agree it is an easy path for the 38% non-Title 1...but almost no poor school valedictorians are attending Ivy schools.

Also, if you literally are talking about the #1 kid in the class, at the 38% non-Title 1 schools it's not easy to be #1. The smartest kid at Sidwell probably won't be #1 at Whitman, not because they can't but likely because that is not their focus in life.

It is easy to be #1 in public school due to minimal competition, grade inflation, and how weighted GPAs are calculated. You just take the most honors / AP classes and that is usually enough because getting As is not hard. There is no rigor.


I attended one of the HYPs and the classmates who struggled the most with coursework were the public school graduates, usually valedictorians. They were not prepared for the college coursework that came easy to the rest of us, average private high school graduates.

There is no comparison.

This is not remotely true. The best students at schools like Whitman, Langley, and the magnets are usually far ahead of their DMV private school counterparts.

I wish that were true, but it is the opposite. I understand the grind these public school kids face, but they are not nearly as prepared for college.

Prepared for college really doesn't mean anything...prepared for what exactly? Even at HYP these days you can easily find classes that meet general requirements where the professor won't assign anything much more than a couple of 3-5 page term papers, and the professor is known for giving nearly the entire class an A.

I saw this come up most with the pre-med curriculum and in STEM majors.

My kid is a STEM major at HYP as we speak...the upper level classes are dominated by public magnet school kids in both number of kids in the classes and grades. It's the reverse for the humanities majors since in theory you will have to take some real classes if you intend to major in English vs. just fulfilling an English requirement as a STEM major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know the public school kids who look disadvantaged but are actually wealthy get the advantage in college admissions.

Public schools are less competitive environments with no admission requirements, rampant grade inflation, and meaningless class rank largely based on weighted GPAs that are actually just ranking kids based on the number of honors and AP courses they take.

Becoming valedictorian in public school is often the easiest path to an Ivy.

You mean class rank 1, not the person who gives a speech.
A hugh portion of school districts don't even have class rank, and there are 26,000 high schools and each ivy decides admissions independently for ~2000 seats.

Please look up the definition of valedictorian, it means class rank 1.

A huge portion of public school districts are underperforming and completely worthless.

If you take into account the overall number of applications and acceptances rather than just matriculations, from public school valedictorians, yes it is absolutely the easiest path to an ivy.

I don't quite know what this is getting at.

If you look at Title 1 public school (63% of all public schools) valedictorian matriculations, the number going to an Ivy school is next to nothing.

I would agree it is an easy path for the 38% non-Title 1...but almost no poor school valedictorians are attending Ivy schools.

Also, if you literally are talking about the #1 kid in the class, at the 38% non-Title 1 schools it's not easy to be #1. The smartest kid at Sidwell probably won't be #1 at Whitman, not because they can't but likely because that is not their focus in life.

It is easy to be #1 in public school due to minimal competition, grade inflation, and how weighted GPAs are calculated. You just take the most honors / AP classes and that is usually enough because getting As is not hard. There is no rigor.


I attended one of the HYPs and the classmates who struggled the most with coursework were the public school graduates, usually valedictorians. They were not prepared for the college coursework that came easy to the rest of us, average private high school graduates.

There is no comparison.

Your statement is a contradiction and hence what it's not easy to be #1.

If there is grade inflation and classes are easy, then it's easy for the "less smart" kids to get all As. Therefore, there are far more 4.0 kids at a public school.

It's not an question of intellect, but rather the kids that have "valedictorian" as their goal in life (of which there are usually several). These kids are the ones that end up with 17 AP classes because they are ruthlessly chasing the highest weighted GPA. They load up on AP Psych, AP Human Geography, AP Environmental Studies (as well as all the core APs) because they are just chasing weighted GPA. They may take an online AP class over the Summer in order to have "one more" AP class then the #2 kid in the class.

They are often not the smartest kids at the school by a large margin.

Bingo, now you understand the problem. This is the state of public schools. The class grades are meaningless when As are so common.

Different issue than "it's easy to be valedictorian"...which it is not.

If your know how to work the system, you just take the most AP/honors courses. That is much easier to in my opinion than competing based on rigorous and difficult coursework.

But it's really not. You don't know the lengths to which some kids (and/or their parents) will go to get these GPA boosts.

[Anonymous]

Oh, this is one of my favorite themes on this forum!

My poor, poor child is sooo disadvantaged because they attend one of the most expensive and “elite” private schools in the world. Despite being better off than 99.99% of the people who live now or have ever lived on this planet. But we will soldier on under this heavy burden as it develops true resilience and grit in the face of such adversity!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know the public school kids who look disadvantaged but are actually wealthy get the advantage in college admissions.

Public schools are less competitive environments with no admission requirements, rampant grade inflation, and meaningless class rank largely based on weighted GPAs that are actually just ranking kids based on the number of honors and AP courses they take.

Becoming valedictorian in public school is often the easiest path to an Ivy.

You mean class rank 1, not the person who gives a speech.
A hugh portion of school districts don't even have class rank, and there are 26,000 high schools and each ivy decides admissions independently for ~2000 seats.

Please look up the definition of valedictorian, it means class rank 1.

A huge portion of public school districts are underperforming and completely worthless.

If you take into account the overall number of applications and acceptances rather than just matriculations, from public school valedictorians, yes it is absolutely the easiest path to an ivy.

I don't quite know what this is getting at.

If you look at Title 1 public school (63% of all public schools) valedictorian matriculations, the number going to an Ivy school is next to nothing.

I would agree it is an easy path for the 38% non-Title 1...but almost no poor school valedictorians are attending Ivy schools.

Also, if you literally are talking about the #1 kid in the class, at the 38% non-Title 1 schools it's not easy to be #1. The smartest kid at Sidwell probably won't be #1 at Whitman, not because they can't but likely because that is not their focus in life.

It is easy to be #1 in public school due to minimal competition, grade inflation, and how weighted GPAs are calculated. You just take the most honors / AP classes and that is usually enough because getting As is not hard. There is no rigor.


I attended one of the HYPs and the classmates who struggled the most with coursework were the public school graduates, usually valedictorians. They were not prepared for the college coursework that came easy to the rest of us, average private high school graduates.

There is no comparison.

This is not remotely true. The best students at schools like Whitman, Langley, and the magnets are usually far ahead of their DMV private school counterparts.

I wish that were true, but it is the opposite. I understand the grind these public school kids face, but they are not nearly as prepared for college.

Prepared for college really doesn't mean anything...prepared for what exactly? Even at HYP these days you can easily find classes that meet general requirements where the professor won't assign anything much more than a couple of 3-5 page term papers, and the professor is known for giving nearly the entire class an A.

I saw this come up most with the pre-med curriculum and in STEM majors.

My kid is a STEM major at HYP as we speak...the upper level classes are dominated by public magnet school kids in both number of kids in the classes and grades. It's the reverse for the humanities majors since in theory you will have to take some real classes if you intend to major in English vs. just fulfilling an English requirement as a STEM major.

This makes sense. The strong magnets are more comparable to private schools and the magnets are often STEM focused already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know the public school kids who look disadvantaged but are actually wealthy get the advantage in college admissions.

Public schools are less competitive environments with no admission requirements, rampant grade inflation, and meaningless class rank largely based on weighted GPAs that are actually just ranking kids based on the number of honors and AP courses they take.

Becoming valedictorian in public school is often the easiest path to an Ivy.

You mean class rank 1, not the person who gives a speech.
A hugh portion of school districts don't even have class rank, and there are 26,000 high schools and each ivy decides admissions independently for ~2000 seats.

Please look up the definition of valedictorian, it means class rank 1.

A huge portion of public school districts are underperforming and completely worthless.

If you take into account the overall number of applications and acceptances rather than just matriculations, from public school valedictorians, yes it is absolutely the easiest path to an ivy.

I don't quite know what this is getting at.

If you look at Title 1 public school (63% of all public schools) valedictorian matriculations, the number going to an Ivy school is next to nothing.

I would agree it is an easy path for the 38% non-Title 1...but almost no poor school valedictorians are attending Ivy schools.

Also, if you literally are talking about the #1 kid in the class, at the 38% non-Title 1 schools it's not easy to be #1. The smartest kid at Sidwell probably won't be #1 at Whitman, not because they can't but likely because that is not their focus in life.

It is easy to be #1 in public school due to minimal competition, grade inflation, and how weighted GPAs are calculated. You just take the most honors / AP classes and that is usually enough because getting As is not hard. There is no rigor.


I attended one of the HYPs and the classmates who struggled the most with coursework were the public school graduates, usually valedictorians. They were not prepared for the college coursework that came easy to the rest of us, average private high school graduates.

There is no comparison.

Your statement is a contradiction and hence what it's not easy to be #1.

If there is grade inflation and classes are easy, then it's easy for the "less smart" kids to get all As. Therefore, there are far more 4.0 kids at a public school.

It's not an question of intellect, but rather the kids that have "valedictorian" as their goal in life (of which there are usually several). These kids are the ones that end up with 17 AP classes because they are ruthlessly chasing the highest weighted GPA. They load up on AP Psych, AP Human Geography, AP Environmental Studies (as well as all the core APs) because they are just chasing weighted GPA. They may take an online AP class over the Summer in order to have "one more" AP class then the #2 kid in the class.

They are often not the smartest kids at the school by a large margin.

Bingo, now you understand the problem. This is the state of public schools. The class grades are meaningless when As are so common.

Different issue than "it's easy to be valedictorian"...which it is not.

If your know how to work the system, you just take the most AP/honors courses. That is much easier to in my opinion than competing based on rigorous and difficult coursework.

But it's really not. You don't know the lengths to which some kids (and/or their parents) will go to get these GPA boosts.

It really needs to be your focus in life starting in 9th grade...understanding there are probably 5 kids/families that have decided its their focus too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know the public school kids who look disadvantaged but are actually wealthy get the advantage in college admissions.

Public schools are less competitive environments with no admission requirements, rampant grade inflation, and meaningless class rank largely based on weighted GPAs that are actually just ranking kids based on the number of honors and AP courses they take.

Becoming valedictorian in public school is often the easiest path to an Ivy.

You mean class rank 1, not the person who gives a speech.
A hugh portion of school districts don't even have class rank, and there are 26,000 high schools and each ivy decides admissions independently for ~2000 seats.

Please look up the definition of valedictorian, it means class rank 1.

A huge portion of public school districts are underperforming and completely worthless.

If you take into account the overall number of applications and acceptances rather than just matriculations, from public school valedictorians, yes it is absolutely the easiest path to an ivy.

I don't quite know what this is getting at.

If you look at Title 1 public school (63% of all public schools) valedictorian matriculations, the number going to an Ivy school is next to nothing.

I would agree it is an easy path for the 38% non-Title 1...but almost no poor school valedictorians are attending Ivy schools.

Also, if you literally are talking about the #1 kid in the class, at the 38% non-Title 1 schools it's not easy to be #1. The smartest kid at Sidwell probably won't be #1 at Whitman, not because they can't but likely because that is not their focus in life.

It is easy to be #1 in public school due to minimal competition, grade inflation, and how weighted GPAs are calculated. You just take the most honors / AP classes and that is usually enough because getting As is not hard. There is no rigor.


I attended one of the HYPs and the classmates who struggled the most with coursework were the public school graduates, usually valedictorians. They were not prepared for the college coursework that came easy to the rest of us, average private high school graduates.

There is no comparison.

Your statement is a contradiction and hence what it's not easy to be #1.

If there is grade inflation and classes are easy, then it's easy for the "less smart" kids to get all As. Therefore, there are far more 4.0 kids at a public school.

It's not an question of intellect, but rather the kids that have "valedictorian" as their goal in life (of which there are usually several). These kids are the ones that end up with 17 AP classes because they are ruthlessly chasing the highest weighted GPA. They load up on AP Psych, AP Human Geography, AP Environmental Studies (as well as all the core APs) because they are just chasing weighted GPA. They may take an online AP class over the Summer in order to have "one more" AP class then the #2 kid in the class.

They are often not the smartest kids at the school by a large margin.

Bingo, now you understand the problem. This is the state of public schools. The class grades are meaningless when As are so common.

Different issue than "it's easy to be valedictorian"...which it is not.

If your know how to work the system, you just take the most AP/honors courses. That is much easier to in my opinion than competing based on rigorous and difficult coursework.

But it's really not. You don't know the lengths to which some kids (and/or their parents) will go to get these GPA boosts.

It really needs to be your focus in life starting in 9th grade...understanding there are probably 5 kids/families that have decided its their focus too.

What a meaningless race to just be competing on quantity of GPA boosting classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, this is one of my favorite themes on this forum!

My poor, poor child is sooo disadvantaged because they attend one of the most expensive and “elite” private schools in the world. Despite being better off than 99.99% of the people who live now or have ever lived on this planet. But we will soldier on under this heavy burden as it develops true resilience and grit in the face of such adversity!

Clearly a public school parent. No the lack of AP is something private schools will need to address. Parents are figuring out that not having AP hurts top
students. Suddenly students who have all As in easier classes getting better college results? When this happens it is because the school might be positioning that all the classes are hard and the top classes are really not that much different. With AP You have a proven curriculum and AP score to back this up. No one can say the AP class is same or close to regular class. Some private schools do a great job explaining this but some do not. Again if your school doesn’t speak with colleges and if it is true that colleges will not take calls then how is this difference explained? I looked on our school profile and it does’t address this disparity. The only people
happy are parents who figured out this particular system and have the kids take just enough humanities rigor to be able to say high rigor in transcript. Student may not even take math senior year or dropped language. Student will have a higher GPA than poor kid who took BC calc and top physics. This is happening a lot more than one would think or expect. If you do not care about college than okay but most people care and are upset when they realize what is going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know the public school kids who look disadvantaged but are actually wealthy get the advantage in college admissions.

Public schools are less competitive environments with no admission requirements, rampant grade inflation, and meaningless class rank largely based on weighted GPAs that are actually just ranking kids based on the number of honors and AP courses they take.

Becoming valedictorian in public school is often the easiest path to an Ivy.

You mean class rank 1, not the person who gives a speech.
A hugh portion of school districts don't even have class rank, and there are 26,000 high schools and each ivy decides admissions independently for ~2000 seats.

Please look up the definition of valedictorian, it means class rank 1.

A huge portion of public school districts are underperforming and completely worthless.

If you take into account the overall number of applications and acceptances rather than just matriculations, from public school valedictorians, yes it is absolutely the easiest path to an ivy.

I don't quite know what this is getting at.

If you look at Title 1 public school (63% of all public schools) valedictorian matriculations, the number going to an Ivy school is next to nothing.

I would agree it is an easy path for the 38% non-Title 1...but almost no poor school valedictorians are attending Ivy schools.

Also, if you literally are talking about the #1 kid in the class, at the 38% non-Title 1 schools it's not easy to be #1. The smartest kid at Sidwell probably won't be #1 at Whitman, not because they can't but likely because that is not their focus in life.

It is easy to be #1 in public school due to minimal competition, grade inflation, and how weighted GPAs are calculated. You just take the most honors / AP classes and that is usually enough because getting As is not hard. There is no rigor.


I attended one of the HYPs and the classmates who struggled the most with coursework were the public school graduates, usually valedictorians. They were not prepared for the college coursework that came easy to the rest of us, average private high school graduates.

There is no comparison.

Your statement is a contradiction and hence what it's not easy to be #1.

If there is grade inflation and classes are easy, then it's easy for the "less smart" kids to get all As. Therefore, there are far more 4.0 kids at a public school.

It's not an question of intellect, but rather the kids that have "valedictorian" as their goal in life (of which there are usually several). These kids are the ones that end up with 17 AP classes because they are ruthlessly chasing the highest weighted GPA. They load up on AP Psych, AP Human Geography, AP Environmental Studies (as well as all the core APs) because they are just chasing weighted GPA. They may take an online AP class over the Summer in order to have "one more" AP class then the #2 kid in the class.

They are often not the smartest kids at the school by a large margin.

Bingo, now you understand the problem. This is the state of public schools. The class grades are meaningless when As are so common.

Different issue than "it's easy to be valedictorian"...which it is not.

If your know how to work the system, you just take the most AP/honors courses. That is much easier to in my opinion than competing based on rigorous and difficult coursework.

But it's really not. You don't know the lengths to which some kids (and/or their parents) will go to get these GPA boosts.

It really needs to be your focus in life starting in 9th grade...understanding there are probably 5 kids/families that have decided its their focus too.

What a meaningless race to just be competing on quantity of GPA boosting classes.

Agreed...but just again pointing out why it's not easy to be valedictorian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all know the public school kids who look disadvantaged but are actually wealthy get the advantage in college admissions.

Public schools are less competitive environments with no admission requirements, rampant grade inflation, and meaningless class rank largely based on weighted GPAs that are actually just ranking kids based on the number of honors and AP courses they take.

Becoming valedictorian in public school is often the easiest path to an Ivy.

You mean class rank 1, not the person who gives a speech.
A hugh portion of school districts don't even have class rank, and there are 26,000 high schools and each ivy decides admissions independently for ~2000 seats.

Please look up the definition of valedictorian, it means class rank 1.

A huge portion of public school districts are underperforming and completely worthless.

If you take into account the overall number of applications and acceptances rather than just matriculations, from public school valedictorians, yes it is absolutely the easiest path to an ivy.

I don't quite know what this is getting at.

If you look at Title 1 public school (63% of all public schools) valedictorian matriculations, the number going to an Ivy school is next to nothing.

I would agree it is an easy path for the 38% non-Title 1...but almost no poor school valedictorians are attending Ivy schools.

Also, if you literally are talking about the #1 kid in the class, at the 38% non-Title 1 schools it's not easy to be #1. The smartest kid at Sidwell probably won't be #1 at Whitman, not because they can't but likely because that is not their focus in life.

It is easy to be #1 in public school due to minimal competition, grade inflation, and how weighted GPAs are calculated. You just take the most honors / AP classes and that is usually enough because getting As is not hard. There is no rigor.


I attended one of the HYPs and the classmates who struggled the most with coursework were the public school graduates, usually valedictorians. They were not prepared for the college coursework that came easy to the rest of us, average private high school graduates.

There is no comparison.

Your statement is a contradiction and hence what it's not easy to be #1.

If there is grade inflation and classes are easy, then it's easy for the "less smart" kids to get all As. Therefore, there are far more 4.0 kids at a public school.

It's not an question of intellect, but rather the kids that have "valedictorian" as their goal in life (of which there are usually several). These kids are the ones that end up with 17 AP classes because they are ruthlessly chasing the highest weighted GPA. They load up on AP Psych, AP Human Geography, AP Environmental Studies (as well as all the core APs) because they are just chasing weighted GPA. They may take an online AP class over the Summer in order to have "one more" AP class then the #2 kid in the class.

They are often not the smartest kids at the school by a large margin.

Bingo, now you understand the problem. This is the state of public schools. The class grades are meaningless when As are so common.

Different issue than "it's easy to be valedictorian"...which it is not.

If your know how to work the system, you just take the most AP/honors courses. That is much easier to in my opinion than competing based on rigorous and difficult coursework.

But it's really not. You don't know the lengths to which some kids (and/or their parents) will go to get these GPA boosts.

It really needs to be your focus in life starting in 9th grade...understanding there are probably 5 kids/families that have decided its their focus too.

This assumes you can't make a good life without HYPSM. But look around Washington DC even. You totally can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, this is one of my favorite themes on this forum!

My poor, poor child is sooo disadvantaged because they attend one of the most expensive and “elite” private schools in the world. Despite being better off than 99.99% of the people who live now or have ever lived on this planet. But we will soldier on under this heavy burden as it develops true resilience and grit in the face of such adversity!

Clearly a public school parent. No the lack of AP is something private schools will need to address. Parents are figuring out that not having AP hurts top
students. Suddenly students who have all As in easier classes getting better college results? When this happens it is because the school might be positioning that all the classes are hard and the top classes are really not that much different. With AP You have a proven curriculum and AP score to back this up. No one can say the AP class is same or close to regular class. Some private schools do a great job explaining this but some do not. Again if your school doesn’t speak with colleges and if it is true that colleges will not take calls then how is this difference explained? I looked on our school profile and it does’t address this disparity. The only people
happy are parents who figured out this particular system and have the kids take just enough humanities rigor to be able to say high rigor in transcript. Student may not even take math senior year or dropped language. Student will have a higher GPA than poor kid who took BC calc and top physics. This is happening a lot more than one would think or expect. If you do not care about college than okay but most people care and are upset when they realize what is going on.

And here we have one of the standard answers to someone pointing out how ridiculous people sound when they say how disadvantaged their poor elite child is: you must be a public school parent, implying sour grapes.

But that doesn’t actually refute the argument, does it? It IS ridiculous, regardless of who points it out.

If you don’t like the AP decision of the school you choose to pay for, protest to your HOS. Or, of course, choose a different school. But you won’t do either.