<p>When I have been in your situation, OP, I have looked at what courses the high school offered, like what were the top math and science APs offered, and how many National Merit Scholars were generated. I also looked at sports offered and the fine arts programs. </p>
<p>Can you get in touch with parents who live in each area and chat with them about the culture and atmosphere? I emailed PTA presidents before one move and chatted with them. </p>
<p>Are there private schools in the area? Magnet schools? That makes your choice less all or nothing. </p>
<p>As has been mentioned, your child is young and so this may not be your final house. Would buying in the better area make it easier to sell your house should it become necessary? Or are those houses so much pricier they sit on the market longer?</p>
<p>Good luck. It is a hard choice. One move we chose the best school district. We were lucky in that it also had a great neighborhood feel. Kids were always playing outside after school, we had block parties, parents watched out for each others’ kids in an old fashioned way, like driving a kid to school if he missed the bus. Our house was older, smaller, and more expensive, however. The high school was very competitive. It would have been harder to make sports teams, and tougher to be at the top of the class. (We moved before high school.) The next neighborhood we had a great house, but not as nice a high school or community. We did make friends, we found those good neighbors eventually, and the kids were able to join lots of teams and activities. </p>
<p>I would just say you aren’t locked into your choice. You can always move!</p>
<p>Good schools are always preferable even if your kid does not make top 10%. Most if those schools are better known and already have students attending good colleges. The test scores of their students tend to be better too. My son was at a very competitive HS. The lowest ACT by far was a 26 and she was a B student. She still managed a Spring acceptance at a top 50 college. All the rest got above 28 to many perfect scores. 25% attending top 10 schools. My friend whose kids were very bright also went to great schools but they were the only one on their grade to achieve that so you can say that they were the outliers. If your kid is a top student he will do well anywhere, if he needs good guidance a better school and their more dedicated students will help him go further.</p>
<p>Thinking about college before junior year of HS is a waste of time. Focus on current events in child’s life, give as much support as possible. Choosing school strictly based on college possibilities is also incorrect. If a kid feels that she does not belong there, it will back fire, no matter how successful other kids are at this particular HS. And a third point, the reason for going to Ivy’s should also be evaluated very carefully. The are valid reasons and there are other reasons that also may backfire if a student does not feel that she belongs in any specific UG. Match of student personality and wide range of interests is the best way to choose your HS and UG and even further, like Grad. School, Med. School,…etc. No statistics will ensure the success of a specific student at specific place. But careful consideration given to the best match between student and the academic place will do it. i am talking from experience. And we went thru process of choosing HS very carefully. But while choosing HS, we did not think about potential college as weel as while choosing college, we did not think of potential Med. School. We only consider the happiness of our kid. Happy kid will produce results.</p>
<p>If we’re talking about a very high ranked district vs. a good/average district (as opposed to a poor performing district), I’d probably choose the house I could better afford. I’d be worried about sub-standard schools, though and would make a different choice to avoid those.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that schools in affluent areas often are highly rated because the kids have excellent scores on standardized tests. This is not necessarily because the instruction is better than it is everywhere else. Affluent areas have a lot of successful, well educated professionals. Many of the students have won the gene pool lottery. They have involved parents who can and do pay for extracurriculars, tutoring, special programs, etc. Some of the kids are driven, others are pushed, to succeed. A lot of the success of the students in such schools isn’t necessarily because of what the school is giving the kids, it’s what the parents are giving them. </p>
<p>There is a very highly rated district in Chicago’s north shore suburbs that we avoided when we were house hunting. Why? Because to be in the top 10% of the school you’d need to be a genius. To make the high school sports teams or win a role in the school productions you’d need to be a star - there are a limited number of spots and a great deal of competition. The district was large and the student body so accomplished that a mere above average child could get lost in the shuffle. Yet I’m sure colleges love that school. It can work both ways.</p>
<p>I had the same question few months ago. Everyone (!everyone!) suggested me to go to the best school. However, I am not sure they are right. I think OP is right in her concerns.</p>
<p>Briefly,
The admission chances are better with A-GPA from normal HS.
Top HS are too competitive and stressful. As a result, child doesn’t have enough time for EC, which hurts admission, again.
Personally, I don’t understand the argument “best fit for the child”. Most children are comfortable in most HS. Unless HS is outstandingly bad (I have never seen such HS in my life), it works.</p>
<p>Saying all this, my D went to magnet HS instead of an easier HS. However, I am ready to transfer her at any moment, if she would struggle to get As. </p>
<p>I would never recommend living in an expensive neighborhood, because of the HS. Make the math … private school may be cheaper than an expensive house in an expansive neighborhood. Plus, private school provides flexibility, you can change it at any time. Plus, there are many cheap online options to get excellent education.</p>
<p>I’ll suggest buying house in a cheaper area. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Many “mediocre-bad” school districts have charter or magnet schools. In fact, the best academic magnet school in California is located at the Anaheim school district (mediocre, at best), and the top artsy magnet schools are located in the poor school districts (Los Angeles and Santa Ana).</p></li>
<li><p>“mediocre” school districts are far more flexible and accommodating than the snobby ones. Your child would have option of taking classes at community college, for example, and incorporating them into HS curriculum. </p></li>
<li><p>“mediocre” school districts may be great for partial homeschooling (a great opportunity to combine school with online classes).</p></li>
<li><p>You can always switch to private school, if you feel like. Check the price of private school, I was positively surprised to find how cheap and accommodating they may be.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>We made this decision years ago. In our own school district there are 3 good high schools and 2 that aren’t. The difference in housing costs is a little bit but more importantly the over all scores of the kids in the 2 not so great high schools is not very good. The county pays about the same to run all the schools and they have the same books but for whatever reason the quality of the education at the other 2 schools lags way behind. They did some redistricting for this school year and our house was on the bubble. Some plans had us moving to one of the not so great high schools. I would have immediately put my house on the market and moved. Why? Because even if my kids don’t get all A’s I believe the education they are receiving is better. You can’t blame the lower test scores year after year on the kids. You need to look at the teachers,support staff and parent involvement at both schools you are looking at. There is a reason one school is rated higher than the other and it may not be because the houses are more expensive.</p>
<p>I think the high school needs to have a critical mass of high achieving students. Many high schools look worse than they are because of significant populations of immigrants or low income families, but still have many students doing very well. Just like large public universities may have great honors programs, high schools in diverse suburbs may have hundreds of high achieving students even if their average SAT scores are in the 1500/2400 or lower range.</p>
<p>Well, “mediocre” is relative, but I have found repeatedly that the so-called best schools can be extremely inflexible in dealing with the needs of truly exceptional students; they are just too full of themselves due to having high median test averages to believe that any student could need more than they are offering.</p>
<p>My son opted for the lessor high school (albeit with a small magnet program) over the public high school generally considered the best in the state. He did so because it was clear that they were willing to work with us by waiving prerequisites and allowing dual college and online enrollments. Taking more advanced classes sooner played to his strengths – he was energized and engaged in those advanced classes and was graded primarily on his test results, not how well he managed to turn in endless busywork assignments.</p>
<p>He did well due to the school’s flexibility and developed a great relationship with his guidance counselor who seemed to meet him every week over something or other. He finished high school in 3 years at the top of his class and got accepted to 4 elite schools and was offered $71,000 in merit aid over 4 years at our state’s flagship. He opted to go to Brown and loves it there.</p>
<p>However, this strategy may not be quite enough for HYP; my son did not get into either Yale or MIT, despite academic stats that could not have been better (1/400 rank, 36 ACT, dual 800 SAT II’s, National AP Scholar).</p>
<p>The missing component, beyond academics, that can sway HYP is state- or national-level academic competitions or ECs. Unfortunately, you need to be part of a strong team with dedicated adult mentors – and such peers and mentors are most likely to be found in the highest-ranked schools.</p>
<p>My son won 7 individual ribbons at math team competitions, but the team had no true depth. He used to go into these competitions having never seen certain types of questions and frequently invented his own solutions on the fly. The other team had study guides based on every type of question ever presented and how to solve them. He was also captain of the Scholastic Bowl team – they won like 10 or 11 out of 16 games during the years he played, compared with 0/16 the year before he started and the year after he left. Comparatively speaking, this was great but the team as a whole was not state-award material.</p>
<p>So the better school might offer better ECs and those ECs could mean the difference in getting accepted to HYP – but great ECs won’t matter unless your child can also get nearly straight-A’s throughout high school. The safer strategy – geared toward the top 25 schools rather than just the top-5 – is to become the top student at the lessor school with exceptional letters of recommendations from its teachers.</p>
<p>A top kid “standing out” at a mediocre school is only part of the story. The kids who get into top colleges are viewed not just on standing within their hs, but on the valid experiences they accumulated, academic and other. In this discussion, it’s a mistake to just look at the potential for stats and rank. For holistic, there has to be that “more.” When the student at an ok high school can achieve the breadth and depth, take on higher challenges, engage in activities with responsibility and impact, (and yes, this often this rests on how the family identifies and promotes this,) then they can be quite good. But you can’t just decide based on the high school’s apparent rep or what happens with the bulk of the students there. </p>
<p>In that respect, the chances are not better just with a high gpa from a “normal” hs- not when you think you may be aiming for a tippy top college. I agree with mathmom on the “critical mass of high achieving students.” (I don’t know if we can divine what that is, in all cases, but it was part of our decisions.) That is what affects our kids’ academic goals, the lust they may develop for academics, how they become competitive in class, and the ways in which they can learn to time manage. There can be a very real difference between the kid who is simply top in his hs pool and the kid who raises himself to the level the top colleges seek- that’s academics, activities and the quality and impact of both. It’s not enough to stand out in the hs. You have to show you will fit and thrive at those colleges, with the sorts of challenges they present.</p>
<p>But, we’re also forgetting that “family” is also an important component. Where will your family thrive? If it is in the less accomplished district, can you then make up for the academic and activities lacks in the high school, or the missing influences? The good of the whole matters, too.</p>
<p>I truly think it partially depends on your child. My son, who is not competitive with others but more internally competitive, would not have thrived at a cut throat competitive high school. He loves to learn new things and wants to do well, but he doesn’t looks at life as a competition against the other people who are out there. </p>
<p>My daughter is much more competitive and wants to score higher than the other students. I think that she would thrive in a more competitive school. For example, my daughter was used to getting the highest scores on the SRI tests in school. This year a new student is at her middle school and she received a SRI score lower than the new student in her class. If that had been my son, he would have been happy for the other student and moved on to the thing that he was interested in learning at the moment. I never would have even known this took place. My daughter, on the other hand, came home, told me she had a lower score, and started strategizing on how she would be able to score higher than the other student. She noticed the other student was reading the classics. So she went to the library and checked out a couple of the classics, started using a SAT vocab book to improve her vocabulary etc… Her goal, to out score the other student on the next round of SRIs. </p>
<p>Both of my children are successful, but I joke that my daughter is a future CEO! :D</p>
<p>Someone noted,“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>Respone: Check out Yesdee’s prior post. Moreover, my daughter graduated from a very top high school. We did a Naviance check for SAT scores for kids that got into Ivy schools such as Brown. I always assumed that kids graduating from top high school would have a big edge. I was clearly wrong! Our kids needed 50-100 point higher SAT scores that that of other high schools that weren’t highly ranked. There is no question that it was harder to get into ivy schools from our high school than from lower ranked places. Thus, grades and scores trump almost everything. Moreover, some places place a LOT of emphasis on class ranking too. Thus, if a kid could have gotten into a top school like Thomas Jefferson High School, which is a nationally renown magnet school but chooses to go to their ordinary high school, they would probably have a better shot at a top college if they can not only get a very high GPA but get into the top percentile of their high school. From what I can tell , this would trump someone who gets a much lower class ranking and lower GPA from a top high school assuming SAT scores would be the same. For the naysayers who don’t believe me, just check out Naviance GPA and scores to get admitted to top colleges from top high schools vs. lower ranked high schools. Higher grades, plus higher class ranking plus> lower grades and lower class ranking , assuming same SATs. AT least this is my experience.</p>
<p>I’m not necessarily a naysayer but my experience has been different. Highly ranked schools take a LOT of kids from our HS and they take them with lower GPAs than the “lower ranked” (state report card, etc) schools in our area.</p>
<p>However, I compare our school vs national average on Naviance and anecdotal evidence locally. If the other schools in our area use Naviance, I am not sure how I’d get into it to compare. How do you?</p>
It’s interesting that you used Brown as an example for grades and scores trumping everything since Brown’s CDS marks several categories as more important than both grades and scores, including non-academic criteria, such as character and level of applicant’s interest. Consistent with this, Brown has lower test scores than other highly selective colleges with a similar admission rate.</p>
<p>At some highly selective HSs, I suspect Brown’s low admit rate relates to the importance of level of applicant’s interest. For example, Boston Latin is a top magnet HS that has a reputation as being a feeder for Harvard. Being a selective magnet full of top students, the admission rates to selective colleges are expected to be high. Reported college admissions for the past 4 years shows HYP apps from Boston Latin have had about a 20% acceptance rate. However, Brown was less than half of that. Brown had the 2nd lowest acceptance rate among all colleges with a significant number of applicants, and I believe it was the only college with a significant number of applicants where Boston Latin apps had a lower acceptance rate than overall acceptance rate. I expect the acceptance rate for Brown was so low because a large portion of apps were primarily interested in Harvard and using Brown as a backup, indicating a lower level of interest.</p>
<p>Definitely ask both schools for this info. My DS attended one of the best public high schools in our area and they have a very informative and helpful “Senior Survey” with all acceptances with SAT/ACT and GPA ranges of kids accepted to each school, and how many kids eventually attended each school. Arguably, the average GPA and test scores of those accepted from your own high school is a better indicator of where you’ll get in than what is posted on colleges’ websites, guidebooks, or other places.</p>
<p>If your family spends less money on “house” than you would qualify for, that presumably leaves more money for your child to explore ECs and outside-of-school activities to a greater depth. Successfully following a passion can help your child stand out from the other applicants; unfortunately, it can be expensive giving your child the opportunity to follow many of those passions.</p>
<p>If you intend to be a hands-on parent regardless of the school your child attends and your child is self-motivated, then the school itself will matter less than if your life is too hectic to stay involved or if your child needs the benefit of a project mentor to accomplish great things.</p>
<p>There is one important factor that I don’t think anyone has mentioned: unless you assume that the student body in the elite school is better than that of the colleges you hope your child will get into, if you don’t think your child will do well enough in the elite high school to get into a top college, what makes you think he or she will do well enough in that college to put him or herself in the best position for jobs, professional schools, etc?</p>
<p>A student who has done very well in a competitive high school may not do as well, comparatively, in college simply because she’s at a college populated almost exclusively by people who did well in competitive high schools. But she has a reasonable expectation that she’ll be able to hold her own. If she were getting Bs in the top HS - or even if she did better than that, but finished outside the top 10 percent, or top 25 percent, depending on how good the school is - how do you think she is going to do at HYP or other similar schools? </p>
<p>Now, if that same, top HS B student went to a mediocre school, maybe she would get straight As (maybe not - I think sometimes the assumption that a given student would have been a star at a lesser school is a comforting lie, although it is sometimes true), and that might, MIGHT be enough to get her into the dream school. But she isn’t going to do any better than the elite school B- student would have - in fact, she’ll do worse, because she’ll probably be less prepared for the rigor of the materials.</p>