<p>If you want your kid (assuming you know he does well on standardized tests) to go to an Ivy, send him to an awful school where the graduation rate is 50%, rather than spending 100k to send him to a private high school or moving to a suburb with that amazing public school.</p>
<p>In our west coast city, the school that sends the most students to Ivy’s is a middle of the road public school, that has done a great job of PR, branding itself as having the poor kids who accomplish much. The classes are about half as tough as at the top local privates (based on the opinion of a couple of d’s friends who switched schools jr year), but they get huge coverage when they do well academically, as in placing in the national constitional law competition. The top privates, on the other hand, are not well connected to adcoms at top colleges, and are expected to excel, so students don’t get much bang out of their rigorous class buck.
So, (and I wish I had known this 4 years ago) if I had it to do over, I would either apply to a top 50 private high school, or have her switch schools jr year, so she acquires the study habits and goals of the private, and the easier grades and ‘bootstrap’ rep of the public school.</p>
<p>I have taught at a few of the better known private schools here in eastern PA. And actually, the biggest benefit I saw from that was the quality of the <em>guidance deparments.</em> That is what made the difference, consistently. </p>
<p>If our public school had guidance like the Waldorf school, our kids would be cleaning up. Alas, we have hacks. :/</p>
<p>Each high school is given an API score from 200 to 1000. This score is given to high schools based on performance on standardized tests.</p>
<p>Every college knows these API scores, and they use this score (secretly) to determine the academic rigor of a school and to see if students actually earned their grades based on past performances on standardized tests.</p>
<p>Check your school’s website and see how your school scored.</p>
<p>Best! : )</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s too much unless it’s a really prominent school or it’s a prep school.
Even if the high school is one of the lower-performing schools, but the student is in the top 5%, colleges won’t consider the applicant to be lesser than a student in the top 5% at a higher-performing school.</p>
<p>Colleges want to see that students have performed to the best of their abilities in the environment in which they’ve been. They believe that if the student has succeeded in a lower-performing school, that student will succeed at their college.</p>
<p>Danpakoman, is that just California schools that have an API?
vlezquez, thanks for the info! I think that it would be very helpful for people to post Naviance data from their schools, not just for Harvard but from other colleges too, especially for the benefit of those of us whose schools are too poor to afford Naviance! Brooklyn Tech used to do it themselves (not with Naviance) and they had a whole list on their website but it’s not there anymore! It was a list of the students (not identified, of course), with their stats, where they applied, where they were admitted, and where they attended. It was very helpful for those of us who find this whole thing very confusing!</p>
<p>API scores are just a California thing. It’s hard to measure just how good a school is. Our high school’s average SAT scores are not much above NYS averages, but the top quarter of the class does very well and there are good programs for them.</p>
<p>Regardless of how it should or shouldnt be, I think it comes down to stats at the end of the day. Colleges like bragging rights over how high their entering classes GPAs are. If you have a 3.4 at a highly selective, rigorous private school or 3.9 at a moderate public school, the 3.9 will trump though the 3.4 may actually be better educated and stronger academically. In my cynical opinion.</p>
<p>Selection bias dooms this entire discussion.
For the individual student striving to enter the ‘most selective college’ of their dreams, take care of the standardized testing part by choosing the path that leads to the best SAT/ACT, and AP test scores.</p>
<p>One of the responders claims:</p>
<p>“If you want your kid (assuming you know he does well on standardized tests) to go to an Ivy, send him to an awful school where the graduation rate is 50%, rather than spending 100k to send him to a private high school or moving to a suburb with that amazing public school.”</p>
<p>I suppose that’s meant to be tongue in cheek. Taken literally this is awful advise, especially if you as the parent have other options. Schools with gradualtion rates of 50% are not good places to spend 4-years. It is a sad commentary on the American education system that they do.</p>
<p>Why the private schools with high admissions standards work so well is not because they are “expensive”. In practice they all struggle to make ends meet despite high tuition. Classes are small; students are pre-selected from the best; parents and teachers are committed; and the curriculum is rigorous. Lots and lots of work from day-one right through graduation. The grading cannot be compared to public schools, in that often a 3.7 can be near the top grade. What college wouldn’t want students from such schools?</p>
<p>
API is not just for CA high schools. I was checking out Virginia high schools and I did notice there are API scores related to these schools as well. That is why I know the best high school near the FairFax area is not even better than the worst high school in my city.</p>
<p>I have not analyzed all of the Stuy data, but here is an interesting comparison of GPA and SAT scores:
Acccepted: 96.3/630/650/780.
Not accepted: 96.8/750/750/790.
I’ll let others try to explain why these two students had such different outcomes at Harvard.</p>