@blossom Exactly. A kid can attend an excellent highly ranked school, have perfect stats, amazing ecs, community involvement and be just an excellent person and get rejected to each and every school.
The only thing that matters is that kids find a school THEY like and that fits them.
@SFNewYorker BTW, there is little “bonus” to a kid taking very advanced math early in terms of college admissions. My kids were years ahead in math ( one two years the other 4). There are many/most kids who don’t have access to extremely advanced classes. Some schools don’t even have Calc BC. And many of the kids who are light years ahead, had access earlier.
In CA, they let kids move ahead while in MA, they do not (so it’s rare for kids to be ahead via gifted programs). In MA, where our kids attended school that doesn’t exist in public schools. Many kids who had naturally advanced math kids just gave up or did programs outside of school. Many of these parents were from other systems where math followed a more advanced path.
Asian kids and some kids from other nations were also naturally 2 years ahead of their US peers when my kids entered high school. Not because they were “advanced” but due to the nature of their educational program. It’s great to be ahead if that’s where the kid is naturally. But IMO most of these kids were pushed by their parents. How do I know this? Well my kid who is 4 years ahead told me everyone in a math program was being tutored (usually by their parents).
I’m all in favor of advanced math, but IMO it’s mainly about early access and less often about natural abilities. For those kid who are excellent/gifted at math, I believe they’ll naturally find their way to the appropriate education. That’s why even Caltech and MIT don’t have expectations that someone has moved ahead of normal high school curriculum.