Is graduating from a title 1 school a hook?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another factor is that your kid probably has more leadership opportunities than they would at a "better" high school.
For example, my kid is captain of a varsity team and probably wouldn't have even made the team if they were in different school. Becoming president of Honor Society or being a officer in SGA isn't as competitive.

+1 The chances are better coming from a Title I school or an elite private. The middle class gets screwed again.

Or, hear me out, have your kids go to a Title 1 school, as a middle class family. Which is always an option. That is what we did. Kids went k-8 Catholic, then Title 1 (or close to it) high school. Oldest at UVA. 4s and 5s on 9 AP exams, high 1400s SAT (submitted) and 4.4 gpa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another factor is that your kid probably has more leadership opportunities than they would at a "better" high school.
For example, my kid is captain of a varsity team and probably wouldn't have even made the team if they were in different school. Becoming president of Honor Society or being a officer in SGA isn't as competitive.

+1 The chances are better coming from a Title I school or an elite private. The middle class gets screwed again.

The middle class kids at Title I schools are the ones who benefit. They just happen to be at a Title I school instead of an elite private.

Lower middle income and lower income kids go to non-flagship state schools and community college, usually in the same area.

UMC kids at my son’s Title I school go to Princeton, Yale, NYU, Cal and UCLA. Another got into UNC, but declined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The advantage would be specific to Pell recipients.

That’s not true. I can think of many babied top students at the best high schools who are driven to tutors, math classes, private coaches so they can play a sport, whose schedules are driven my mom. These kids would fall apart in a Title 1 school. So yes, no matter what income, kids who do well in Title 1 schools are more desirable candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We aren’t low income as a family or first generation to attend college, but live in a low income zip code and teen attends large public title 1 school. Will graduate in top 1%, lots of DE and AP classes, expecting SAT to be above 1500 based on PSAT scores. No national awards, but some cool ECs, strong leadership, job, interesting hobby. No one, or rarely anyone, applies to college out of state. He is wanting a school in top 5-20 (which are all out of state). Does coming from a school with limited resources and no one from your high school applying give an admission boost?

Your child is probably the best out of his peers, so that will look good, but with a school like that, standardized test scores will be really important, because GPA is probably massively inflated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We aren’t low income as a family or first generation to attend college, but live in a low income zip code and teen attends large public title 1 school. Will graduate in top 1%, lots of DE and AP classes, expecting SAT to be above 1500 based on PSAT scores. No national awards, but some cool ECs, strong leadership, job, interesting hobby. No one, or rarely anyone, applies to college out of state. He is wanting a school in top 5-20 (which are all out of state). Does coming from a school with limited resources and no one from your high school applying give an admission boost?

Um, no. If anything, it's probably a detriment.

Do you have some cynical notion that admissions officers will look more favorably on a child who has "survived" a ... what ... ghetto environment or some shit like that?

It’s actually really hard to do well, stay motivated, and seek out opportunities to excel when everyone around you is far below grade level, into trouble, and completely apathetic about school.

There’s a lot of research showing that integrated schools benefit all students, including higher-income and higher-achieving kids.
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/10/19/446085513/the-evidence-that-white-children-benefit-from-integrated-schools

Have your kids attended Title I schools? Assuming that being surrounded by lower-income students automatically makes it “really hard to stay motivated,” or that high-achieving kids are somehow held back, just isn’t true at our school. It’s absolutely possible to stay motivated, take rigorous classes, lead, etc. My children and their friends have done exactly that and have gone on to attend top schools in Virginia and across the country.

I don’t know whether attending a Title I school is a “hook,” but colleges evaluate students in context and understand that students who’ve learned in socioeconomically and culturally diverse schools often develop adaptability, perspective, and openness that serve them well in college.

If more parents could look beyond GreatSchools ratings, they might find that their children gain exposure to different perspectives and experiences. Title I schools aren’t lacking because of the students; they’re under-resourced because of broader structural issues.

Disagree. It absolutely is harder to find rigor in title 1 schools. In the regular or “honors” classes, there is nothing honors about them. Teachers have to significantly lower expectations and tailor assignments to what most of the class can realistically be successfully completing. Even the AP classes are not as good. Teachers often cannot get through a years worth of content. If you take an AP class, you practically need to self study all year and do plenty of test prep if you want a 4/5. The class alone will not prepare you well at all. You have to be extremely self motivated outside of school and disciplined to move ahead in these schools.

None of this is true about the urban Title 1 HS my DS attended in CA. Passed all APs and got 4s and 5s on 80% of them, with minimal self study and test prep outside of class.

gettings 4s and 5s is great, but it's basically what 1/3 of all kids going to college are doing. that's hardly gettin you into any top school. unless you have a dozen APs all 5s and then that's just table stakes

NP. Ok. But you just said that kids going to title 1 schools can’t get a rigorous education or do well on AP exams without tons of self study. Which is false, and what PP was responding to.

Thank you for this. I think some of these posters hate the idea of Title 1 students are getting into top 20 colleges while their kid’s $50k private school got them in some flagship state schools.

[Anonymous]

In my experience as a private middle school teacher, college placements matched most kids middle school academic abilities, despite the high school they attended. Smart kids that went to private or public high school (most went to low-prestige ones, hence going to private k-8), did well on college admissions. Kids that were average, for the most part, in middle school, are at JMU, VCU, Coastal Carolina (all fine schools) despite parents shelling out money and lost time driving kids to and from in order to avoid the “scary” public high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another factor is that your kid probably has more leadership opportunities than they would at a "better" high school.
For example, my kid is captain of a varsity team and probably wouldn't have even made the team if they were in different school. Becoming president of Honor Society or being a officer in SGA isn't as competitive.

+1 The chances are better coming from a Title I school or an elite private. The middle class gets screwed again.

Or, hear me out, have your kids go to a Title 1 school, as a middle class family. Which is always an option. That is what we did. Kids went k-8 Catholic, then Title 1 (or close to it) high school. Oldest at UVA. 4s and 5s on 9 AP exams, high 1400s SAT (submitted) and 4.4 gpa.

It's definitely a winning college admissions strategy, but I'm just not willing to do that to my kids. Our first home was zoned for Cardozo HS. It had less than a 5% fluency rate and was rife with gangs. That's a non-starter.

We moved out of DC and my kids go to very good public schools. They fit right in socially and enjoy sports and clubs with friends with a similar SES. I wouldn't trade that for an admissions boost, but the fact is that these days colleges give preference to the elite privates and Title I schools.

FGLI gets a preference and the wealthy spend $$$ on elite private school tuition, ECs, private coaches, private tutors, etc. to give their kids an edge. Plus even affording it is hard for donut hole families with the astronomical cost of attendance.

No matter how you slice it, the middle class is getting screwed.

[Anonymous]

How exactly are you getting screwed. You decided to move away from Cardozo HS where your kids could have been top of theclass, to an area where they could have friends "with a similar ses".

[Anonymous]

Having options doesn’t make you “screwed”. Screwed are the low income kids with problematic family lives, who have no options but to go to schools with gangs and low scores.

Also, affording to live in a house zoned for a good public school in this area, probably means you are not middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We aren’t low income as a family or first generation to attend college, but live in a low income zip code and teen attends large public title 1 school. Will graduate in top 1%, lots of DE and AP classes, expecting SAT to be above 1500 based on PSAT scores. No national awards, but some cool ECs, strong leadership, job, interesting hobby. No one, or rarely anyone, applies to college out of state. He is wanting a school in top 5-20 (which are all out of state). Does coming from a school with limited resources and no one from your high school applying give an admission boost?

Um, no. If anything, it's probably a detriment.

Do you have some cynical notion that admissions officers will look more favorably on a child who has "survived" a ... what ... ghetto environment or some shit like that?

It’s actually really hard to do well, stay motivated, and seek out opportunities to excel when everyone around you is far below grade level, into trouble, and completely apathetic about school.

There’s a lot of research showing that integrated schools benefit all students, including higher-income and higher-achieving kids.
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/10/19/446085513/the-evidence-that-white-children-benefit-from-integrated-schools

Have your kids attended Title I schools? Assuming that being surrounded by lower-income students automatically makes it “really hard to stay motivated,” or that high-achieving kids are somehow held back, just isn’t true at our school. It’s absolutely possible to stay motivated, take rigorous classes, lead, etc. My children and their friends have done exactly that and have gone on to attend top schools in Virginia and across the country.

I don’t know whether attending a Title I school is a “hook,” but colleges evaluate students in context and understand that students who’ve learned in socioeconomically and culturally diverse schools often develop adaptability, perspective, and openness that serve them well in college.

If more parents could look beyond GreatSchools ratings, they might find that their children gain exposure to different perspectives and experiences. Title I schools aren’t lacking because of the students; they’re under-resourced because of broader structural issues.

Disagree. It absolutely is harder to find rigor in title 1 schools. In the regular or “honors” classes, there is nothing honors about them. Teachers have to significantly lower expectations and tailor assignments to what most of the class can realistically be successfully completing. Even the AP classes are not as good. Teachers often cannot get through a years worth of content. If you take an AP class, you practically need to self study all year and do plenty of test prep if you want a 4/5. The class alone will not prepare you well at all. You have to be extremely self motivated outside of school and disciplined to move ahead in these schools.

None of this is true about the urban Title 1 HS my DS attended in CA. Passed all APs and got 4s and 5s on 80% of them, with minimal self study and test prep outside of class.

gettings 4s and 5s is great, but it's basically what 1/3 of all kids going to college are doing. that's hardly gettin you into any top school. unless you have a dozen APs all 5s and then that's just table stakes

NP. Ok. But you just said that kids going to title 1 schools can’t get a rigorous education or do well on AP exams without tons of self study. Which is false, and what PP was responding to.

OP here. I’m sure it varies per school, but not all title 1 schools are equal. My teen’s experience with AP classes at school has been underwhelming. For one, there aren’t nearly as many options. No AP world, no AP language besides Spanish, no calc BC, physics C, I could go on. Plus an AP class listed in the catalog that you sign up for in spring might not actually run in the fall because of low enrollment. They did require a ton of self study to get through the curriculum not covered in class and to do well on AP exam. He has pivoted to dual enrollment since the AP classes have been unreliable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How exactly are you getting screwed. You decided to move away from Cardozo HS where your kids could have been top of theclass, to an area where they could have friends "with a similar ses".

Come on, drop the BS. Cardozo wasn't a safe option for a white kid and you know it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How exactly are you getting screwed. You decided to move away from Cardozo HS where your kids could have been top of theclass, to an area where they could have friends "with a similar ses".

Come on, drop the BS. Cardozo wasn't a safe option for a white kid and you know it.

You're probably the same type of person who wants your kid to go to a "diverse" college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The advantage would be specific to Pell recipients.

That’s not true. I can think of many babied top students at the best high schools who are driven to tutors, math classes, private coaches so they can play a sport, whose schedules are driven my mom. These kids would fall apart in a Title 1 school. So yes, no matter what income, kids who do well in Title 1 schools are more desirable candidates.

+1

My kid absolutely benefited from learning how to thrive attending an urban Title I, and not one of NYC’s “desirable” public magnets either. Several T5 admits from its graduating classes recently. The LAC that DC now attends wouldn’t have been one of their expected admits had they come from a large, UMC feeder school.

We were frankly surprised it seems to have been a hook. It wasn’t the reason they attended their T1, but it clearly turned out to be a factor in admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The advantage would be specific to Pell recipients.

That’s not true. I can think of many babied top students at the best high schools who are driven to tutors, math classes, private coaches so they can play a sport, whose schedules are driven my mom. These kids would fall apart in a Title 1 school. So yes, no matter what income, kids who do well in Title 1 schools are more desirable candidates.

+1

My kid absolutely benefited from learning how to thrive attending an urban Title I, and not one of NYC’s “desirable” public magnets either. Several T5 admits from its graduating classes recently. The LAC that DC now attends wouldn’t have been one of their expected admits had they come from a large, UMC feeder school.

We were frankly surprised it seems to have been a hook. It wasn’t the reason they attended their T1, but it clearly turned out to be a factor in admissions.

I actually think you see this bump at all mediocre public schools, not exclusively Title I schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How exactly are you getting screwed. You decided to move away from Cardozo HS where your kids could have been top of theclass, to an area where they could have friends "with a similar ses".

Come on, drop the BS. Cardozo wasn't a safe option for a white kid and you know it.

You're probably the same type of person who wants your kid to go to a "diverse" college.

If you send your kid to a school like Cardozo when you have other options, then you're a horrible parent.