Reply to TJ or Edison, which do you think would get your high achieiving kid into a better college?

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Reply to "TJ or Edison, which do you think would get your high achieiving kid into a better college?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I went to UC Berkeley and after that, an Ivy League law school (and graduated not too long ago).  I have a close co-worker who went to an Ivy League for undergrad and law school and also worked for several years in the admissions office of Yale actually reviewing applications. I can tell you unequivocally that you take two children who are otherwise the same - i.e., test scores, grades, extracurriculars, race, etc. - one of them is at Edison and one is at TJ, the kid at Edison will have a better chance of being accepted.  Admissions offices absolutely take account of the context in which the student was educated (realizing that not everyone is afforded the same opportunities with where they were placed in life) and a kid who performs well in a lesser regarded high school will be viewed as someone who achieved despite being in tougher circumstances, [b]while the kid who performs well in a better regarded high school will be viewed as not having to have worked as hard to achieve. [/b]

Now, law school admissions, on the other hand, are completely different.  There, great weight is given to how prestigious the undergrad school was that you attended. [/quote]

It is true the admission office will look at the entire application and the SES and other circumstances will be considered. However, the above bolded statement is problematic. 1. The statement itself is illogical in that a kid who performed well (say top 10%) at a better regarded high school (TJ) would have had to work much more/harder to excel at such school than at a lesser regarded school (Edison). I think you should talk to TJ students or parents to get a sense of how tough it is to excel at a place like TJ. The SES factor is a separate matter and the overall SES level would be higher at TJ compared to Edison but there are many middle class or lower middle class students at TJ and there are middle class and even upper middle class students at Edison. Many of the TJ students are children of immigrant families who had to struggle as immigrant families with limited English. Only 7-8% of the TJ students come from private schools and low FARMS rate does not mean the students are wealthy, they may be middle class. 2. Colleges look at the rigor of the classes on the transcript and they want to see if the student challenged him/herself. Having taken advanced classes at TJ and excelling will not put that student at a disadvantage compared to a student who challenged him/herself and excelled at Edison. It will put the TJ student at an advantage assuming everything else are equal.

In fact, graduating in the top 10% at TJ will offer better chance at Ivy League Schools compared to graduating in the tip 10% of Edison given that about 20 to 25% of TJ graduated get accepted to Ivy League schools. I don't think one can say that about Edison.

The partial list of college acceptances for 2014:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/377204.page[/quote]

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