I only know a few kids who go to private schools, so my rant is all about public school students. It’s just so strange to see kids who are basically neighbors (same suburban city) attend schools that are either essentially equally ranked or in some cases the same school get treated so differently by admissions. You bring up a good point about majors, maybe that is the key difference.
I would assume it’s based on data from previous kids from that high school. If a school provides students that have historically done well at slo, seems they are likely to get more admits in the future. We are a feeder school in a sense, our Oregon HS sends 5-10 a year and probably 30-40 apply.
3 Likes
I think much of it is, my son has two friends at the same school who are much stronger academically who have not hear from cal poly because they applied to computer science or STEM. He is very much in a niche major, but has a ton of volunteer leadership experience that ties directly into it (which is easier with his major).
2 Likes
Thanks Zoe - so kind of you to offer! I will pass this along to my son to reach out to you!
I was referring to the UC data for UCLA and UCB. If you click that link and filter by either of those two campuses and then by source school type, you’ll see the data I and the OP were referring to. The numbers add up to the number of applicants total that have been reported in many places, so all schools must be part of the data set.
Don’t forget private schools inflate their grades
I assumed that feeder school means a school that has at least 2/3 students on a free and reduced lunch program.
This is complete nonsense. Quite the opposite at most private schools. Not to mention they have to take a placement test and score above average to even get into the private schools (in my area anyway).
1 Like
I do share sentiments of some others about our CA universities and the difficulty getting in when out of state or International students do when we have been funding these schools for so many years via our taxes. (Though if one looks at the forums for other state flagships they feel the same and quite resent our CA kids coming in and bumping their kids spots. ). Two thoughts helped me (a little) 2 years ago when my “very high stats” daughter had far more rejections than I expected, and this year as my son, not so high stats, is hearing from schools.
- There are about 27,155 High Schools in the US and about 2600 in CA (simple google). Every one of these high schools has a Valedictorian, a top 1%, top 5%, top 10%, etc. Every one has some students with extraordinary things they’ve accomplished, extraordinary stories of adversity and perseverance, etc. Each or our child is amazing but they not the only ones and are competing with these thousands of others, equally amazing and deserving.
- Regarding disappointment that my child didn’t get a spot at a specific school. Which student that did get accepted should get bumped for mine? As we see in these posts, there are far more achieving students than one could imagine and so more than can be accommodated. They were equally deserving and if they didn’t get a spot would be the ones entitled to ask the above questions, and if did get in may have bumped our child.
My daughter is at CP (alas, looks like my son won’t be). Just one anecdotal perspective. When she first got there I remember her saying she hadn’t met anyone who didn’t have above a 4.0 in HS, and has yet to meet anyone who didn’t seem like they deserved to be there. So which one of them shouldn’t have gotten in to give a spot to another student? The most humbling thing to me was just how many stellar students and people are here in our state (and country), and though hard to swallow, all above put in perspective for me why it turned out more challenging than I expected. All said, good luck to all of of our class of 28 and I though I sound stoic here, I do share the heartbreak.
22 Likes
There’s some schools down here in so cal that do as per reports I myself went to private school and a lot of my friends here send them their kids to private schools which they have acknowledged this why I didn’t do it to my kids… yes every school is different but for these private schools it’s a selling point when they recruit kids that pay for that expensive tuition
Very different where I am in the Bay Area. Not only are grades not inflated they make it very challenging to get A’s. Either way Cal Poly and the UC’s are likely well aware of schools that purposely inflate grades as they would see poor outcomes for kids admitted to their schools that weren’t able to keep up.
5 Likes
My niece graduated bachelors and masters from SLO. She has said this is exactly what they are facing. Not that they know the schools, but that many students are coming in with very strong numbers, and are being put on academic probation.
1 Like
Bold statement, Cotton.
I do think it would be good to steer away from public vs private generalizations. Having two kids…one in private and one in public HS, there are differences but the broad generalizations that are being thrown around are just wrong.
Back to the point of this thread. Congrats to the new admits to Poly!
12 Likes
I don’t get this. They do know the schools. They have algorithms for these things. At this point I find it incredibly hard to believe that his is true given CP’s access to school data and the rigor of their acceptance process. I guess I could ask my kid who is there and he’d tell me several of his public school friends had a rough first quarter or two.
1 Like
Spoke to admissions counselor and they said they are still reviewing applications, so don’t loose hope.
12 Likes
Last post got flagged.
Anyways, point is schools do know.
All this is hearsay.
1 Like
There is simply no logic in CP accepting kids from schools that inflate grades. They have plenty of solid applicants.
Ace, I was referring to conversations my niece had had with her academic counselors/professors and her personal experience. Not to any other data.
This comment is very interesting and extremely problematic. The majority of people do not have the information, one, or resources to control their child’s educational choices. the overwhelming majority of students attend their local public high school.