<p>I have a 8th grader. For HS, we have a choice to go to a feeder school. Actually two feeder programs: one is a gifted program in a public school and the other is a private school that produced Bill Gates. We can also go to a decent public school that is top 100 in the country. </p>
<p>So the question is should my kid go to that decent school to be #1 or go to a feeder program and be one of the top 5%? Which one will have more weight during admission?</p>
<p>The gifted program has been sending 50% of the students to the tier-1 schools: the likes of HYPSMCC. The likes of Berkeley, Cornell, NYU, Dartmouth, Columbia are usually their safeties. But need all the stars to aligned to be the #1 in the program just because of the talent pool. </p>
<p>What are your experiences? I believe that at tier-1 schools, admission officers use the rigor of curriculum as a diffetentiator because the majority of the applicants have SAT/ACT/GPA way above the threshhold. So I am leaning towards being one of the top students instead of being THE best student in HS, but does a class rank of #15 out of 500 students look bad?</p>
<p>Within your budget and ability go to the most intellectually and academically stimulating high school. Then take the most challenging courses that high school offers. And work hard and thrive – socially, intellectually and academically at that school.</p>
<p>Select the school that is best suited to your child’s learning style and interests and that will offer the richest academic and extracurricular opportunities and most nurturing environment. You are educating a kid, not honing a spear aimed at a particular class of colleges.</p>
<p>True, it’s about educating the kid but there is always a practical side to it, that is about preparing for his future career path. I am sure many here at the forum would do it differently if they were to give a second chance of their HS selections (or their children’s) given what they know now.</p>
<p>The problem is, you have no idea what the “future career path” of an eighth grader will be, and neither does the eighth grader. And since there are many, many colleges that will afford him or her wonderful opportunities, I’d focus on matching the high school to the child rather than worrying about whether the student will be #1 at one school vs. #15 at another or what percentage of seniors at each school get into the most selective colleges. And there’s always the possibility that your kid, no matter how accomplished as an eighth grader, may not turn out to be the all-around outstanding student you expect him to be in high school, or may or not be remotely interested in attending a top tier college. You don’t know who he’ll be in four years, so trying to parse out the ultimate ideal path to college admissions is probably a pointless exercise at this point. And you haven’t even mentioned which high school appeals to your kid–that matters, too.</p>