What's Wrong With My High School? - Page 3

axp2004 · 05-24-2009, 09:09 AM

Are you serious? Why are many of you bashing the amazing college options that these students have? Do you not know how many students DO NOT have the opportunity to attend some of these schools?

Everyone needs to get out of the IVY or nothing mentality. Look at this list from Time magazine abotu where the top 50 CEO's went to college (from 2006). Where the Fortune 50 CEOs Went to College - TIME

There are so many great college options out there, so stop adding to the cynicism that the Ivies are the only option.

Northstarmom · 05-24-2009, 09:22 AM

THREE to MIT? Now that sounds really odd...not to mention three off to Harvard. Something just doesn't sound right about this. Anyone else"

Doesn't sound odd. There are public schools like that -- particularly in the Boston area, where there are schools filled with kids from highly educated backgrounds where parents also are local college professors, including at Harvard and MIT, which also gives the kids a boost intellectually and with admissions.

There are public schools in the Boston area that send 20 kids to Harvard. One of the Newton highs is like that.

3 students from my own public school class -- that wasn't in the Boston area -- went to Harvard.

stillnadine · 05-24-2009, 10:07 AM

My s goes to the top ranked public high school in our state (highest average SATs, etc) yet very, very few students will go OOS for college. His guidance couselor freaked when she found out he was applying to Tulane and we live in the south! Part of the reason the OP's class will be attending so many fine schools, located all around the country, is that his school has a "culture" of sending students elsewhere for college. Their parents when to colleges in other states. Of the students in my s's class (about 450), most are very good/excellent students, very good athletes, children of college educated parents, living in a relatively affluent area. I bet fewer than 10% will venture out of state. In fact, I only know 3 for sure (my s being one of them).

pierre0913 · 05-24-2009, 12:08 PM

I'm actually pretty happy that I wasn't in the top 50% of my school. If I was in the top 5% and I told everybody that I wanted to go to Clemson or UNC-Asheville, people might have told me I was crazy and would be looked down upon for that. However, at other schools, many valedictorians go to Clemson or UNC-Asheville, that's the problem with going to a top high school.

stillnadine · 05-24-2009, 12:20 PM

Pierre, I bet the top 5% of my s class will be attending either Clemson, CofC or USouth Carolina, and probably most of the top 50%!

Lergnom · 05-24-2009, 01:07 PM

McPucks, it also points to cultural factors and family histories. Many if not most METCO kids are the first in their family to go to college so they set their sights lower, even though the high school encourages them and though need-blind admissions and financial aid is highlighted. Remember that they go to school here but go home to situations where peer pressure is usually negative, even violently so. Peers have a tremendous influence. And for many African-American or Latino city kids, they must move from the pressured, hyper-achievement world (and a very safe place) to one which is in many unfortunate ways the opposite. Money in this case is as much a marker of fitting in to a culture of success.

ReadyToRoll · 05-24-2009, 01:28 PM

Our high school in Connecticut has a graduating class of 200 kids this year, with four accepted to Yale and three that are planning to go there. So I don't think 3 to Harvard for a Massachusetts public school is odd. (Hmm...I wonder if Ivy acceptance is ever skewed by state....) Interestingly, we only have 1 acceptance to Harvard and none to MIT (2 applied).

SLUMOM · 05-26-2009, 07:17 AM

I agree with axp2004, it is very unfortunate that people tend to focus on the top 50 or so schools in the country, when there are so many others to consider!

marite · 05-26-2009, 07:59 AM

I did not read the whole thread.
Belmont High is one of the top performing schools in MA, together with Newton, Lexington, Brookline. It has a high concentration of Harvard, MIT, BU, Tufts profs as well as other professionals, many of whom graduated from top schools in the country and whose children are thus facbrats and legacies on top of being graduates of a well-known school. It also has a gigantic Mormon temple. As Pierre says, Mitt Romney has a house in Belmont.

Pierre may think his GCs are clueless but he has no idea of what cluelessness means when it comes to GCs at other schools.