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<p>Straight A grades from a high school with very low academic standards may result in the student getting into a college for which s/he is unable to handle the work due to poor preparation, resulting in poor academic performance and/or needing remedial courses.</p>
<p>I’m sitting on the fence with fireandrain. For years I wondered if we should have lived in the “best” district in our area, or in the city where our kids could have gone to an exam high school, or if we should have sprung for a private. All of those choices would have made paying for their college educations difficult and we live in a state with an adequate, but not very compellingly attractive state system. It wasn’t a good fit for either kid’s interests. In the end the kids went to a school that looks mediocre by the numbers, but if you look closer the top 25% are doing great. Not only that but they have an excellent arts programs and offer a diversity of races and incomes (and more diversity in the classrooms) than most of those better schools. </p>
<p>All that said from our school if you are aiming for HYMPS you have to be in the top 2% or so. I think my kids results would have been similar if they’d gone to the more competitive schools (comparing with a similar nephew suggests that), and both kids, especially the younger one, really loved the diversity of our school. They also had a very pleasant high school experience which was by no means cut throat or overscheduled.</p>
<p>Better preparation is usually the way to go, but.
My youngest attended the best ( or one of the) high school in a city where the school district pretty much bites as opposed to attending a school in a neighboring suburb where the districts are smaller/ more responsive/ better reputations.
Her sister attended an excellent private prep in our city.
Both were accepted to all the schools they applied, however there is a lot to be said for your child being in the middle or at the top of her peer group, academically & economically, rather than having her be the one whose parents are making sacrifices they really cant afford in order to provide the * best* education.</p>
<p>I would research the heck out of the schools & neighborhoods before making a decision.</p>
<p>My kids’ HS is one of the best in our state and many colleges know it. When I look at Naviance, for example, I see that the average GPA of accepted-to-some-great-college from our HS is often lower than the average GPA of all students they accept. In other words, they know our classes are more demanding and adjust - a kid from the HS down the road may need a 3.8 to get into college X while a kid from our school can do it with a 3.4. </p>
<p>Maybe more important though, I’d consider whether my kid would necessarily get As at a less rigorous high school at all…the peer group can influence that. Worst case for college would be mediocre HS *and *mediocre grades.</p>
<p>I think what matters most is your home life and parenting…DS goes to crappy HS but scored 800 on his CR because he has grown up surrounded by language, music, and piles of books.
Your child will succed because you are caring and encouraging.</p>
<p>I disagree w/Taxguy. My kid is fortunate enough to go to the supposedly highest ranked HS in my state. It serves as a feeder school to one of the publics in the country (~72% admit rate for applicants from my kid’s school). The rep said if you have good test scores and a 3.6GPA, you’re in.</p>
<p>This school is one that is highly sought after by the CC crowd. Could my DD get higher than her current 3.8 at the HS that’s 1/4 mile away? You bet. I’m not sure she’d get a better education however. In my thinking, the school that can best push the kid and keep them hungry is the one I want them attending.</p>
<p>Op,
If you are picking the HS strategically solely for purpose of college admissions, then I would get the list of what colleges all the kids matriculated for each HS. Better yet, if you can get a sense of the number of kids that went to the colleges over a 5 yr period and if you and your kid know where they would like to attend college, I’d pick the HS that sends more kids (in % of total graduates) to the college you want.</p>
<p>@YoHoYoHo.</p>
<p>First I want to thank everyone for the replies. If I had to name everyone who gave wonderful advice and comments, then this thread would be much too long. Trust me when I say, I am truly grateful as I was reading every comment. I have already taken each of them to heart.</p>
<p>Second. As I already mentioned. I am greatly simplifying this entire process. Certainly, I have to consider the possibility that my child could get Cs at a mediocre high school. I have to also consider finances, researching what each high school offers regardless or rep, and the fact that I should be more concerned with education instead of getting into HYPS. The list goes on. I’m in agreement with pretty much everyone’s comments.</p>
<p>Finally. This is to YoHoYoHo. Do high schools provide that kind of information to parents upon request? Do they really give you a document that would report how many (or what % of) students entered so an so colleges over an X number of years?</p>
<p>If so. That would be exactly what I would like to see.</p>
<p>In the less academic environment, in which a student would be surrounded by kids who don’t work very hard academically and perhaps value other things – such as partying, sports, or part-time jobs – over school, there is a real risk that your kid could adopt the same attitudes.</p>
<p>This could lead to your kid getting lower grades at the less academic school than he/she would have gotten at the better school.</p>
<p>OP- Ask to see the School Profile of the HSs’ you are considering.
Some schools will disclose more information, some less.
Here is an example of the school profile for a private HS in NCal that offers the kind of information I believe you are looking for.
<a href=“https://www.menloschool.org/.../414-menlo-school-profile-20132014pdf[/url]”>https://www.menloschool.org/.../414-menlo-school-profile-20132014pdf‎</a></p>
<p>What grade is your daughter in now? I’m curious why you think she couldn’t achieve A grades at the “better” high school and yet you think she’ll be applying to the top schools? </p>
<p>Personally, I’d visit both schools with your daughter, talk to parents there, look at all the stats, look at the houses and other considerations that go into a new town and then decide which would best for all of you.</p>
<p>Oh link doesn’t work. I can try again.</p>
<p>@SoMuch2Learn.</p>
<p>Let’s just say my daughter is very young. Just a child and not near high school age. I’m asking this because I’m in the process of looking for a home. It’s kinda complicated in some ways, but in other ways, it’s quite simple. I’m deciding between two towns.</p>
<p>As I mentioned in the original post, one town has the “better” school district, but the homes are semi-expensive. The other home is in a “not-so-good” school district, but the homes are well within our price range. I’d rather not live in the semi-expensive area if I know the school district in the other town can still send their top kids to the best colleges (e.g. HYPS).</p>
<p>Of course, I want my child to do well no matter which district she is in, but I’m just asking because it has to do with a major decision in our lives.</p>
<p>Note: I keep saying one school is “better” than another. When I say better, I mean better in terms of reputation and not that the students or teachers are of better quality. Although I’m sure the two are very much related, that distinction has to be made because I cannot actually judge which town will have the better teachers or students. I nor anyone I know has attended any of the high schools I’m looking into. I only have reputation and some data to use.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>dvader, you can call up the high school in both towns and ask if they have a copy of the high school profile. It will list things like average SAT scores, number AP classes and possibly range of scores or number of AP scholars, and often will have a list of where recent grads have been accepted. Schools can change of course. Our high school would never win a blue ribbon any more but did sometime before my now 25 year old was born. It went through a period where it had a fabulous Science Olympiad team, and it’s had a great arts program for about ten years now.</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck, I remember feeling exactly the same way, was the school in the less expensive town good enough or not? In our case it was.</p>
<p>OP- You are going to get all types of opinion here. I will also put my experience based on one of the top HS in the country (TJHSST) and some 40+ students that attended this school in the last 3-4 years.</p>
<p>As most may be knowing TJHSST is a highly selective, sends around 100 students to HYPMS every year. So if your student can make to top 25% of the class in the top HS, this is the best possible outcome. Schools like TJ opens so many doors for the student. </p>
<p>But if the student is in the bottom 25% of the class, this will not be good from admission point of view. I personally know many students who could not get good GPA, had to settle for schools like GMU and VCU. Had these kids stayed in their local school, they would be top student, 4 gpa kid and easily gone to UVA. Again this is not a universal rule, just my experience with 10+ students from TJ who could not achieve top rank in the class. Clearly 3.9 from average school will trump 3.3 from a top HS with similar SAT.</p>
<p>Just my 2 cents!</p>
<p>Dvader123 wrote:</p>
<p>"Let’s just say my daughter is very young. Just a child and not near high school age. I’m asking this because I’m in the process of looking for a home. It’s kinda complicated in some ways, but in other ways, it’s quite simple. I’m deciding between two towns.</p>
<p>As I mentioned in the original post, one town has the “better” school district, but the homes are semi-expensive. The other home is in a “not-so-good” school district, but the homes are well within our price range. I’d rather not live in the semi-expensive area if I know the school district in the other town can still send their top kids to the best colleges (e.g. HYPS).</p>
<p>Of course, I want my child to do well no matter which district she is in, but I’m just asking because it has to do with a major decision in our lives.</p>
<p>Note: I keep saying one school is “better” than another. When I say better, I mean better in terms of reputation and not that the students or teachers are of better quality. Although I’m sure the two are very much related, that distinction has to be made because I cannot actually judge which town will have the better teachers or students. I nor anyone I know has attended any of the high schools I’m looking into. I only have reputation and some data to use.</p>
<p>Thanks!"</p>
<p>Considering that you may end up moving before she’s in high school, I wouldn’t worry about the high schools so much, but I’d check out the early childhood educational programs and the elementary schools. High school is a long way off and so much can change. With a young family, an affordable house would be more of a benefit than one which was a financial stretch but had a high school with a better reputation.</p>
<p>The problem is that it depends on a lot of factors. My oldest son moved from a very rigorous high school with unweighted gpas only reported and with most kids going to top schools. He was a solid B student,always scraping at C level, never quite able to get that A at that school. Half way through, he transferred to a more less strenuous school where became a high honors student taking the top courses there. In his case, it made a big difference, in that he got into far better colleges than his peers at his former high school. It was a subject of resentment and controversy, as a matter of fact. I know at least two other kids for which this happened as well. </p>
<p>However, that worked for the next level down from the top colleges. The rigoorous school sends about a quarter to a third of the kids to ivies and other higher selective colleges. So one can get accepted to those top schools with grades less than perfect there. The school is known to the top schools, particularly LACs, and they do use a diffferent grading/class rank index for those type of schools. The less strenuous high school is hard put to even get their top 5% of the class into such collegs. You have to really be in the top 3 kids, not per cent, or have some hook to even be considered for those schools. </p>
<p>So if a student can be one of the very top students, like val, sal, maybe one other person, which is not easy to do at any school that would put him in the running that may only require the top quintile at some of these rigorous schools, test scores all being equal. But for those kids who are in the bottom half or third at Rigorous PRep, getting into the top 10-20% is gradewise can make a big difference in prospects The problem is that one cannot predict how things will go with any given kid. My son’s one friend got into Brown (no connections) with very high test scores, but grades that missed the first quintile at Rigorous PRep. It’s my opinion that there is no way she would have been accepted to Brown or any such school from Regular High even if she were in the top 15%, and doubtful even in the top 10 %. She would have had to have made the top 5% for acceptance, looking at Naviance records for the past 5 years for that school. </p>
<p>So there are more parents and students unhappy, disappointed when they gamble this way, because more times than not, you get a miss. It’s more important that the school is the best match for the student. My kids would not do well at certain rigours pulbic high schools. Too cut throat, too competitive, the parents too pushy, the kids too high strung. Not their crowd. But some kids truly thrive in that environment and need that edginess in order to do their best. In a school less rigorous, they lose the sense of urgency they need to keep up the efforts and can fall into a lethargy of sorts. So the match can be very important.</p>
<p>Op,
The matriculation data is absolutely available at private, competitive College prep HS. The braggy ones list the total number of graduates over the past 5 years who attended H, for example. Others will just say, these are the schools where our grads have matriculated over the past 5 years, but don’t identify the number of attendees. The funny or sad thing is that some less detailed matriculation data is offered at private elementary schools, but that’s another topic.</p>
<p>As for public schools, some of them probably offer the data. An example that you can view is pennisula HS in Palos Verdes CA, a great public school. As others have said, all HS have a school profile, which they send to colleges which shows the HS’s hard data such as number of AP classes offered, ave sat or 25%-75% sat score, % of class that gets NMSF, etc. although they often don’t have matriculation data on it. I speculate that unless the school is a uber rigorous public, they might not keep track of their matriculation data but you should definitely ask.</p>
<p>I agree with yesdee who stated that the top 25% at a mediocre school usually gets into a more selective college than the bottom 25% at the uber rigorous program. But trying to parse into small bits like you are asking is impossible to determine.</p>
<p>If u really are looking for a shot a hYPs (wasn’t sure if that’s what u were looking for on your first post) then your best predictor of success is choosing a school that regularly sends kids to that college. If neither of the 2 publics that you are looking at regularly send kids to HYPS, then reality check is that it is extremely unlikely that your kid will be accepted to the school in question. If both do send to hyPs, then take your pick. If only the rigorous one sends to HYPS, then can decide if you can gamble with the higher mortgage for the chance that ur kid is the one. Uber competitive publics like some posters list here may send many kids to H, but most run of the mill great publics may send 1 per year.</p>
<p>this is to answer your matriculation question only. Of course you should consider all other factors as everyone else has posted.</p>
<p>It’s better to learn something. There is nothing going on - for you - today at HYPS, etc. than is happening in your own backyard.</p>
<p>
Estimating chance of acceptance based on historical number of students who later attend HYPS can be very misleading. Different HSs have widely varying class sizes, percentage of students who apply to HYPS, percentages of excellent students, etc. A better measure might be reviewing Naviance data and comparing rate of acceptances for similar students. A wealthier district usually has a greater percentage of top students that apply to top private schools, leading to a greater number of students attending. However, that doesn’t mean a particular student has better chances, if he attended that HS. In most cases with a statistically significant number of samples (few HSs meet this criteria), I’d expect you’d find little difference. </p>
<p>I expect that the OP is overvaluing the importance of high schools being “better in terms of reputation” in the admission process. HYPS and other selective colleges regularly admit students from HSs that don’t have great reputations. Aside from a few historical feeder relationships, the primary acceptance criteria is based on what the student accomplished within his environment and opportunities, not which HS he went to. If it were me, I wouldn’t bother with acceptance rate data as I listed above. Instead I’d think about which HS would be the best fit based on things like special programs (honors, music, or whatever is applicable), available courses, non-academic interests such as clubs and sports, unique school policies, or whatever else the student would find important.</p>