What's Wrong With My High School?

[pierre0913]

At my high school (a public, non-application, single town school), it seems that if you are in the top 50% of the school, you are guaranteed acceptance to a US News Top 50 LAC or National University. I do not see why my school seems to be special in this case. Any reasons why? It just seems really easy compared to other schools to get into a good school. Listed below are where the people in my class are planning to go to college next year and the number of people going to each school:

American University 2
Assumption College 3
Bard College 1
Bentley University 3
Berklee College Of Music 1
Boston College 4
Boston University 6
Brandeis University 1
Brigham Young University 4
Brown University 6
Bryant University 2
University Of California – Berkeley 1
University Of California – Santa Barbara 1
Carleton College 1
Carnegie Mellon University 1
Clark University 3
Clemson University 1
Colby College 1
Colby-Sawyer College 1
Colgate University 1
University Of Colorado – Boulder 1
Colorado College 2
Connecticut College 2
Cornell University 3
Duke University 2
Emerson College 1
Emmanuel College 2
Fitchburg State College 1
Framingham State College 2
Gettysburg College 1
Hampshire College 3
Harvard University 3
Haverford College 2
Hobart And William Smith Colleges 1
Hofstra University 1
Johns Hopkins University 2
Kansas State University 1
Kenyon College 1
Lasell College 1
Lesley University 1
University Of Maryland – College Park 2
Massachusetts Bay Community College 1
Massachusetts College Of Pharmacy And Health Sciences 2
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology 3
University Of Massachusetts – Amherst 11
University Of Massachusetts – Boston 1
University Of Massachusetts – Dartmouth 2
University Of Massachusetts – Lowell 2
McGill University 4
Merrimack College 1
University Of Michigan 2
Mount Ida College 1
Muhlenberg College 1
University Of New Hampshire 2
New York University 2
University Of North Carolina – Asheville 1
Northeastern University 1
Oberlin College 1
Ohio Wesleyan University 1
Pace University 1
University Of Pennsylvania 1
Providence College 2
Queen’s University 1
University Of Redlands 1
Rhode Island School Of Design 1
Rochester Institute Of Technology 1
University Of Rochester 3
Rockhurst University 1
Roger Williams University 1
Salve Regina University 1
Savannah College Of Art & Design 2
Simmons College 1
Skidmore College 3
University Of South Carolina 1
Southern Vermont College 1
Stonehill College 3
Suffolk University 3
Syracuse University 2
University Of Tampa 1
Temple University 1
University Of Toronto 1
Trinity College 1
Tufts University 4
Tulane University 1
University Of Vermont 2
Villanova University 1
Washington University In St. Louis 1
Wellesley College 1
Wesleyan University 1
Westfield State College 2
Wheaton College 2
Wheelock College 3
Worcester State College 1

[ticklemepink]

So? And why are you concerned? You got into a good school as well as your classmates- you should be proud! And feel privileged to have this opportunity to attend this school...

[pierre0913]

No, I'm not concerned, I'm just really curious as to what makes my school "so much better" than other public schools in the country.

[vicariousparent]

High property taxes?
Relatively affluent parents?
Relatively well-educated parents?
Good college counseling?

You should realize that in large parts of the country the public school system is terrible. You just happen to be in a good public school and have taken it for granted.

[soozievt]

I don't know if the list of college acceptances means that your high school is "better" than other high schools. I don't know if this list necessarily is a direct correlation with how good your HS is. Rather, one may also have to look at the demographics that your school serves. That means looking at the type of community (income levels) and parent educational levels and so on. What percentage of the senior class go onto four year colleges? What is the average SAT scores for your high school? and so on. For instance, I don't know that you could claim that your HS is "better" than my kids' rural public high school based on where the students landed at college. But what I could tell you is that the demographics of your community and student population differs a lot from our high school's population. Our school is still good and my kids got into very selective universities and were well prepared and fared very well winning top awards at their universities in fact. But we simply had far fewer kids at our HS who went onto such colleges as you do at your HS. Both high schools may be good and prepare kids well but both schools deal with a very different population overall.

[pierre0913]

High property taxes?
-Not especially for the area but relatively high for the country.

Relatively affluent parents?
-Yes

Relatively well-educated parents?
-Yes, a lot of them teach/work at local universities such as Tufts, BU, or Harvard

Good college counseling?
-haha no the guidance counselors are clueless

[JiffsMom]

Originally Posted by pierre0913

Relatively affluent parents?
-Yes

Relatively well-educated parents?
-Yes, a lot of them teach/work at local universities such as Tufts, BU, or Harvard

There's your answer. Those are two of the leading indicators of high academic achievement.

[AtomicCafe]

^ That's exactly right. Money has a lot to do with it. At my school, only about 4 people are going to top schools. (Granted, our class is only 20 people, but still.) Many more were accepted to top schools, but we live in a poorer area, and financial aid doesn't always work in our favor, so we have to find somewhere else that'll offer more. Besides that, we have no connections to schools like Harvard. If you think you're school is average in terms of education, then money is probably the answer.

[3bm103]

How many students in the class? I counted 169 going to the schools you mentioned. Our public high school would have that many out of a class of about 450. Plus over 200 going to the University of Michigan and Michigan State combined.

[pierre0913]

There are about 250 people in the class. I pulled the list and number of the school website and does not include everyone yet. My friend is going to Yale and I know of someone going to Oxford another that is going to Lafayette College so not everyone has "reported" their college decision to the school yet.

[ReadyToRoll]

I understand where Pierre is coming from. Our high school also seems to have kids with lower stats than other high schools being admitted to colleges when you compare head to head or by looking at other Naviances. Yes, I live in a wealthy town with educated parents, but I'm comparing this with other high schools around my state and in neighboring state where I would consider the population to be similar. The only thing that may be different is that last year, 100 percent of our graduating class went to college. But other schools in the area might still have 99 percent, etc. We're a blue ribbon and silver medal high school, but so are a bunch of others.

And even if it is true that my town has higher achieving kids, how would a college know that? I just can't imagine that they can keep track of every high school around.

[eireann]

Big differences in public schools, especially with a lot of college professor parents.

Pierre, I'm just curious about one thing. Your school, I am assuming, is in MA, given that you said parents work at Tufts, BU, etc., and the general spread of universities. Four students going to BYU seems unusual and random and far away. Are these kids Mormon? (I notice these things in particular because a friend of mine from high school lives in Provo, but I'm just randomly curious because they seem like outliers...not looking to offend anyone.).

[pierre0913]

Mitt Romney lives in my town if that says anything about how many mormons there are. There's about 10-20 of them in my class. I know somebody who had an A average and 2000+ on the SAT but only applied to the University Of Utah and BYU because of the mormon community.

My school is the 100th best public high school according to US News but I feel that there is some grade inflation and even so students seem to get into better colleges with lower grades than average. I don't really get why a wealthy town would have an "advantage" over other towns with students that work just as hard as us.

[silvervestersmom]

Soozievt hit the nail on the head re Belmont High School. It's the demographics! If you have ever been there it is clearly a leafy, affluent suburb of Boston. Being a wealthy suburb of Boston it naturally has high achieving parents who influence their kids. I think Pierre is just showing off.....as if anything is "wrong" with his H.S.

As for Mormons, just last night I had a discussion about Belmont having a large number of Mormons with a Mormon friend. She told me there is a large Mormon church there which draws a lot of members to living in Belmont.

[pierre0913]

silvervestersmom, I am not trying to show off. I am just really curious about this. I don't feel that the people in my grade are all too different from people at other schools academically so I am confused as to why my school gets an unfair upper hand in the college admissions program.