my former high school in Wisconsin that was considered good for our little corner of the state (Green Bay/northeast part) but definitely a notch below the better milwaukee/Madison high schools and several notches below the good schools in the dmv...

Valedictorian and salutatorian both went to UW-Madison. They did well...val is now a lawyer at a big law firm in Chicago and sal is doing a post doc at JHU after getting his PhD in a science field from UMich. I just looked up the stuff for this year's class- val is going to Georgia Tech, two that tied for sal are going to Northwestern and U of Maine (maybe a money thing? seems kind of random, but alas)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The valedictorian in my son's class went to Yale. This is a MCPS high school that DCUM regularly disparages, and is seen as a negative if you are looking at real estate in the cluster.

The valedictorian in my graduating class in an average, small mid-west town went to Arizona State on a full scholarship, including room & board. He was accepted everywhere he applied, but only Arizona State gave the full package and let him choose his major.

Very selfish and short-sighted decision. You go to Arizona State, you better stay in Arizona or maybe southern California if you want that to pay off. But what good does that do? Another parent at my high school met with Boston College's financial aid office because they only offered a little bit of need-based aid. The Financial Aid person said they could sell their house or take out loans. But the parent really didn't love their kid that much, so they took the state school ride the way your valedictorian did.

Short-sighted.

Eh, he ended up going to medical school and becoming a anesthesiologist. He had done well for himself.

The valedictorian from my really crappy, rural high school went to Penn- Wharton. He had his eye on getting the heck out of town!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

She should be able to get to a top 25 as long as she has a good sat score 1500+.

Nope. Plenty of kids with 1600 are rejected from T25 schools every year.

Yes but plenty of those kids come from highly populated metro areas where those stats are very common. This kid has a hook: rural.

how do you know rural is a hook?

Geographic diversity and less competition.

does geographic diversity "count" within states though? i went to a pretty, uh, inadequate high school in rural southern illinois and I'm not sure that counted for anything. Pretty sure I was still competing with the kids from the New Triers and Walter Paytons (i.e., the hyper competitive high schools in the Chicago area) of the state. If anything I feel as though it was probably a disadvantage because my school had no track record of ever sending kids to Ivies or even kids applying to them.

It doesn't, and geographic diversity is always overstated. State flagships, may consider regional diversity, that's the way to play that hand.

+10000. If you live in Wyoming or Alaska, it may be good for something because colleges love to be able to say "we have students from all 50 states!" Otherwise? "Rural" is not a geographic diversity hook, especially if you are rural in a state such as say, Illinois or New York or Pennsylvania that also have highly educated metro areas with a lot of students applying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The valedictorian in my son's class went to Yale. This is a MCPS high school that DCUM regularly disparages, and is seen as a negative if you are looking at real estate in the cluster.

The valedictorian in my graduating class in an average, small mid-west town went to Arizona State on a full scholarship, including room & board. He was accepted everywhere he applied, but only Arizona State gave the full package and let him choose his major.

Very selfish and short-sighted decision. You go to Arizona State, you better stay in Arizona or maybe southern California if you want that to pay off. But what good does that do? Another parent at my high school met with Boston College's financial aid office because they only offered a little bit of need-based aid. The Financial Aid person said they could sell their house or take out loans. But the parent really didn't love their kid that much, so they took the state school ride the way your valedictorian did.

Short-sighted.

this is brilliant satire. brava!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The valedictorian in my son's class went to Yale. This is a MCPS high school that DCUM regularly disparages, and is seen as a negative if you are looking at real estate in the cluster.

The valedictorian in my graduating class in an average, small mid-west town went to Arizona State on a full scholarship, including room & board. He was accepted everywhere he applied, but only Arizona State gave the full package and let him choose his major.

Very selfish and short-sighted decision. You go to Arizona State, you better stay in Arizona or maybe southern California if you want that to pay off. But what good does that do? Another parent at my high school met with Boston College's financial aid office because they only offered a little bit of need-based aid. The Financial Aid person said they could sell their house or take out loans. But the parent really didn't love their kid that much, so they took the state school ride the way your valedictorian did.

Short-sighted.

Wow, you seem like a pleasant well adjusted adult.

PP is dumber than a box of rocks.

Anonymous wrote:The valedictorian in my son's class went to Yale. This is a MCPS high school that DCUM regularly disparages, and is seen as a negative if you are looking at real estate in the cluster.

The valedictorian in my graduating class in an average, small mid-west town went to Arizona State on a full scholarship, including room & board. He was accepted everywhere he applied, but only Arizona State gave the full package and let him choose his major.

Very selfish and short-sighted decision. You go to Arizona State, you better stay in Arizona or maybe southern California if you want that to pay off. But what good does that do? Another parent at my high school met with Boston College's financial aid office because they only offered a little bit of need-based aid. The Financial Aid person said they could sell their house or take out loans. But the parent really didn't love their kid that much, so they took the state school ride the way your valedictorian did.

Short-sighted.

The whole premise of this post seems to be that the reputation of a high school is more important than one's class standing. That is not at all true. You are wayyyyyyy more likely to get into the ivy league being in the top 1% of your class from a sh*thole county than the top 10% of your class from Langley High school.

The valedictorian in my son's class went to Yale. This is a MCPS high school that DCUM regularly disparages, and is seen as a negative if you are looking at real estate in the cluster.

The valedictorian in my graduating class in an average, small mid-west town went to Arizona State on a full scholarship, including room & board. He was accepted everywhere he applied, but only Arizona State gave the full package and let him choose his major.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

She should be able to get to a top 25 as long as she has a good sat score 1500+.

Nope. Plenty of kids with 1600 are rejected from T25 schools every year.

Yes but plenty of those kids come from highly populated metro areas where those stats are very common. This kid has a hook: rural.

how do you know rural is a hook?

Geographic diversity and less competition.

does geographic diversity "count" within states though? i went to a pretty, uh, inadequate high school in rural southern illinois and I'm not sure that counted for anything. Pretty sure I was still competing with the kids from the New Triers and Walter Paytons (i.e., the hyper competitive high schools in the Chicago area) of the state. If anything I feel as though it was probably a disadvantage because my school had no track record of ever sending kids to Ivies or even kids applying to them.

It doesn't, and geographic diversity is always overstated. State flagships, may consider regional diversity, that's the way to play that hand.

Anonymous wrote:Don’t listen to the negative stuff on this board. I went to a meh HS in a small town and I had several class mates that were successful at highly ranked colleges (including myself). I don’t remember any who flunked out. I could tell that the kids from New England boarding schools had a better educational foundation than I did, but they weren’t smarter.

It is true that the answer to your question isn’t going to tell you as much as you might think, due to economic differences. I’m the one who posted above about the valedictorian at our small town school who is attending Hopkins, but the salutatorian is attending the (not super highly ranked) state flagship because she got a full ride (as in books, stipend, the whole enchilada). That’s hard to pass up if your parents aren’t wealthy.

I'm rural Illinois PP. I agree with this 100%. Sure there was culture shock (I hate that I now have to know what "Choate" and "Quogue" and "Gstaad" are) but it was fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

She should be able to get to a top 25 as long as she has a good sat score 1500+.

Nope. Plenty of kids with 1600 are rejected from T25 schools every year.

Yes but plenty of those kids come from highly populated metro areas where those stats are very common. This kid has a hook: rural.

how do you know rural is a hook?

Geographic diversity and less competition.

does geographic diversity "count" within states though? i went to a pretty, uh, inadequate high school in rural southern illinois and I'm not sure that counted for anything. Pretty sure I was still competing with the kids from the New Triers and Walter Paytons (i.e., the hyper competitive high schools in the Chicago area) of the state. If anything I feel as though it was probably a disadvantage because my school had no track record of ever sending kids to Ivies or even kids applying to them.

Don’t listen to the negative stuff on this board. I went to a meh HS in a small town and I had several class mates that were successful at highly ranked colleges (including myself). I don’t remember any who flunked out. I could tell that the kids from New England boarding schools had a better educational foundation than I did, but they weren’t smarter.

It is true that the answer to your question isn’t going to tell you as much as you might think, due to economic differences. I’m the one who posted above about the valedictorian at our small town school who is attending Hopkins, but the salutatorian is attending the (not super highly ranked) state flagship because she got a full ride (as in books, stipend, the whole enchilada). That’s hard to pass up if your parents aren’t wealthy.

TBH, this might depend alot on which kind of coaching and guidance the valedictorian/top students at random meh high schools are getting. Is there a savvy parent or mentor who knows how to help the kiddo craft the application, market the hook?

I feel like many vals in random towns/meh high schools probably do not have this guidance, and thus land at state flagships—which is honestly still a great and fine place to land! This is despite the advantage that comes with being in a flyover state, as ivies etc want geographic diversity.

OP—it seems like and that you are savvy enough, so read up a lot on the process, help your DC develop and market their hooks and get top leadership positions, craft a narrative in your entire application, write killer essays. Your child is able to truly shine at their school, and based on your reports of their intelligence, they should be able to get good test scores.

There's no reason why your kiddo shouldnt have a good shot at the likes of Rice, Hopkins, etc, if not the ivies.

Esp if child is in a public less familiar with apps to ivies etc, it might be worth it to look at using a private counselor with that familiarity