Reply to Wouldn't it be easier for your child to stand out in an average/low rated school vs a high rated?

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Reply to "Wouldn't it be easier for your child to stand out in an average/low rated school vs a high rated?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Not sure about Lee, but the top schools for Annandale HS last year were NoVa and George Mason. For Langley, they were Virginia Tech and JMU.   Langley also had 37 kids going to UVA or W&M.  Annandale had 13, and only one going to W&M.

Or we can look at the Ivies + Stanford.  Langley had eight kids going to those schools; Annandale had none.

So go ahead and tell me it's better to be in the top 2% at Annandale or Lee, but I'm not buying it. [/quote]

At least part of this comes down to bad advising and parents not knowing what the possibilities are. A student with an ambitious courseload, good ECs, good scores, and excellent grades has a very strong chance at Lee and Annandale.   My kids went to a similarly ranked and similarly disparaged FFX school and were accepted to UVA and W&M, as well as excellent out of state schools. Our experience was that the counseling advice was atrocious and had they not had knowledgeable parents they would not have been encouraged to apply or understood what courseload was needed, etc.[/quote]

Compare that, then, to a higher-ranked school where this information is well-known by parents, students, and counselors.  It makes a difference when this is part of the school’s DNA. At schools like Lee and Annandale the primary focus is on keeping kids on track to pass SOLs and graduate.  It’s great if a few kids ace their IB exams, but it’s the pass/graduation rates of the kids who barely speak English that determine whether the schools remain accredited and whether the principal eventually lands a cushy job at Gatehouse.[/quote]

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