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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

[b]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.
[/b]

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.[/quote]

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.
[/quote]

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

Different issue than "it's easy to be valedictorian"...which it is not.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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