Reply to California parents- tips for applying to college?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have two kids who went to a large public HS in Los Angeles (from private schools before) and many parents were aghast that we didn't send them to Harvard Westlake.  Well, they got in to all the UCs, but ended up at tippy top private colleges.

Take home message: public high school is the way to go to get in to UCs and the path to a top college is not closed off at all! (despite everyone drinking the kool aid that private high schools are the feeder to HYPSM)[/quote]

This matches my experience as well [/quote]

The problem with elite LA private schools like Harvard Westlake is there are too many ultra wealthy families who are legacies or have a good chance of donating millions; kids of really famous people or students who are themselves famous; and athletes. Then there are some really brilliant students at Harvard-Westlake. The graduating class this year has around 12% of the class (34 students) who qualified as National Merit Semi-Finalists (CA cut off is higher than most other states at 221 - so higher the same as Maryland (221), higher that Virginia (need 219) and lower than DC (223).

So if you are just a really dedicated and smart student but not National Merit Scholarship smart and are just wealthy, not ultra wealthy you are going to lose out at many LA privates when colleges decide how many students to take from each high school. [/quote]

My kid is NM semifinalist at HW, top 10 (maybe top 5?) percent of the class, and we are hoping he gets into one of UCB or UCLA, but know there's a chance he won't get into either. [/quote]

Best of luck! We had two NM semifinalist kids and they both got in to every UC.  For anyone whose kid is applying in the future, you just have to make sure they listed it as one of their awards as a way around the test blind thing at the UCs (btw, this is just speculation based on my n=2, so take it with a grain of salt  :) [/quote]

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