<p>DRJ:</p>
<p>The story of your son’s friend is sobering indeed. But I don’t quite get it. He was an A student yet he was told not even to apply to the top state university? There must be more to the story. Why is there such a discrepancy between your son’s experience and his friend? Is A not the top grade at the school? Where do B students from the school go?</p>
<p>DRJ4- Are you in Texas?</p>
<p>MomOfWildChild - Yes, we live in Texas.</p>
<p>Marite -</p>
<p>Overall I think he fell victim to Texas’ top 10% rule, which provides that Texas residents who graduate in the top-10% of their high school class will be admitted to Texas public universities. For UT-Austin, where our son attends, that generally means admission into UT’s college of liberal arts but won’t guarantee admission to UT’s honors programs or to more selective UT colleges like business, pharmacy, sciences, etc. </p>
<p>Our son’s high school is non-ranking. UT reserves space for students from non-ranking high schools but the numbers vary depending on how many spaces remain after the top-10% applicants are admitted. I think about 30-40% of UT’s freshman class comes from non-ranking high school graduates and OOS students.</p>
<p>It was surprising to his family to be told to “look elsewhere” than UT-Austin. Actually, he had planned to attend his parents’ college in the Northeast and was accepted there. UT-Austin was more of an afterthought. I know we all assumed his private prep school education would help his chances to gain admission to schools like UT because we think it provided a more personal education than the public high school, although that doesn’t always translate into a better school.</p>
<p>Most of the graduates from our son’s high school go to Ivys in the Northeast, LACs in California, and several attend WashU in St. Louis because it’s medical program is popular with the doctors in our town. A few go to Southern colleges and about 1/3 stay in Texas to attend Rice, SMU, TCU, and Trinity. Actually, not that many go to UT-Austin or other public colleges so this was an eye-opener.</p>
<p>DRJ:</p>
<p>Thanks for the explanation. I suspected something like this might have been at work. I am still puzzled, however, that an A student did not make it into the top 10% in the school.</p>
<p>Has your son found a wide range of academic preparedness among his classmates at UTA?</p>
<p>Marite,</p>
<p>Yes, Texas’ top-10% rule is an interesting experiment. It has pros and cons.</p>
<p>Our son’s high school is relatively small and his year was a good year because all the top 10% were NMFs. In addition, there were 8-10 solid students who had A-/B+ averages who weren’t in the top-10%. However, to be precise, no student was in the top-10% because our son’s high school is non-ranking. Colleges are not told where the students rank in their class and no one from his high school can claim to be in the top-10% of the class. The students only know their rank because, in a small school like that, students are close and tell each other their grades.</p>
<p>Our son is in a dual degree program at UT, with majors in the business school and a liberal arts/core curriculum program called Plan II Honors. Most of his time in the first 2 years has been spent in Plan II courses but he will have more business courses and should meet more business students this year. Plan II has roughtly 180 students each year. Typically around 70 are NMFs and around 70 more are NM semi-finalists and commended students. Virtually all are in the top 5% of their high school class or from non-ranking schools like our son. His fellow Plan II students are academically prepared.</p>
<p>Our son has only taken one course at UT that was not a Plan II course or an introductory business course, and that was a history course - so that’s the only thing I can use to judge the overall academic preparedness of the typical UT student. Ironically, I think it was the most competitive class he took. Plan II courses seem more cooperative and the professors are more laid back, perhaps because they are tenured and experienced.</p>
<p>Public versus private.
We have done both. For us it depended on the individual child. Also for us the private school that has served two of my kids so well would not have been a fit for my 3rd.
Like many other’s I think our public schools also do a good job serving the high end and the low. If your child is a GATE student (CA) the opportunities are there. But the school is not going to come looking for you. The child must want it and pursue it. The counselor’s aren’t pushing the EC’s. And if your kid wants a few study halls they are willing to sign the release form. The parents and kids have to stay on top of it.
My D had some great AP teachers and some pretty bad one’s. It doesn’t appear at our public school that the best teacher’s get the AP’s. Our school district also requires all coaches to also teach. This is fairly new.
Child 2 went public for elementary. He was LD and had extra services. He attended 6-9 a great progressive private school. If he had gone off to the public jr high he would not have learned much. At the private school he was given as much time and attention as the higher level student. His LD was not a hindrance. He is now back in public. The same public his older sibling attended. He has been in regular college prep except for math. You would not know that these two kids attended the same school. He is not getting the education that his sister got. His classes are filled with kids who don’t want to learn or with teachers who have had to whittle down the requirements so that the class passes. He has been lucky that in spite of his classmates he has had teachers who want to teach even though the job is difficult given the students. He has a teacher who gives extra credit for being in class on time. And extra credit for turning in your work on time. Another class where the teacher gives no homework and the test’s are open book and still most of the class has a C. I have seen the greatest divide in instruction between gate and AP and regular with English and Social Science’s. The kids in the middle level really are getting left behind. But I think the parents and students are also to blame. My son said many of his classmates don’t respect the teachers. Many of his teachers want to teach but the kids aren’t there to learn. It is sad.
Fortunately for my son he is willing to try to work hard. We have worked hard to have a good relationship with his guidance counselor. We make a point of attending every back to school night and starting each semester off with an introductory email to the teacher. We have made the effort to make the best of his public school experience.
Our youngest did public k-5 and now is at the private middle school. It is an oasis. The kids are happy the teachers love their jobs. She is having amazing experiences. But at a cost of 20,000 a year it is a choice that is hard to make. If she was a classic gate student the public jr high academically would have been educationally strong. But all the social and self esteem issues of junior high make the private such a wonderful option. When it is time for her to go to high school I will consider private. She won’t be the high achiever like her sister on paper but I do think she is deserves a high quality education.
What I have seen in my kids friends with the private high school is that if your kid is not your typical high achiever but has potential the private will give them the exposure and push them to a higher level. Also we have seen several kids who were bright but had lost their direction and the private school didn’t let them fall through the cracks.</p>
<p>I made the OP to see what the thinking was like for a number of differnt parents. In other threads on CC, the discussion of public schools is politicized, so I was glad to see that just about everyone here who made the swtich did so after some deliberation and consdieration of their children as individuals.</p>
<p>For myself, we didn’t think the marginal benefit justified the extra cost of school, room and board or commute time. But we had deliberately bought into a resonably good school district when the kids were little with the thought of relying on the public schools. We revisited the issue with S2 because he’s a math whiz but socially awkward, but decided to stick to Plan A. He’ll be able to take some college math in 11trh and 12th grade for a lot cheaper than private school.</p>
<p>For us, the decision wasn’t politicized in the slightest. I am not an Ann Coulter hater of “government schools”, and do not believe that all private schools are better. I do have plenty of concern about vouchers and charter schools, but not necessarily from a politicized point of view. We live in a town with an excellent public schools system, and I might have, at one point, said that my children would “never” go to private school.</p>
<p>But, like other aspects of parenting, I have eaten my words. Education is not one size fits all. I now see that what works splendidly for one child may not for another. </p>
<p>I even have changed my tune on vouchers, although not if they will only fund faith based schools.</p>
<p>Goes to show we are all more multi-dimentional than partisan politics, especially when something affects our children.</p>
<p>Yes, Dadguy, you could give posters a little more credit than the idea that people are running out to put their children in private schools because they’ve read chapter six of Ann Coulter’s book! I think the main idea here is <em>choice.</em> Of course, not all of us have <em>choice</em>, and from what I’ve read many parents (some the same ones who are often criticized for “not caring”) would sure like to have some way out of the public schools their children are stuck with (in my opinion - if you want to believe all public schools are great, more power to you!) Also, it’s possible for a “good school district” to go downhill. Ours was “good” when we moved here 15 years ago - now, not so “good.”</p>
<p>Wow, I said all that?</p>
<p>Yep, sir ;)</p>
<p>I think not. You’ve just read an awful lot into my comments.</p>