Well I know at my daughter’s public high school a handful (maybe 6+ - one Harvard) went to Ivys and they were all from regular public middle schools before that. A friend of my other daughter just got accepted to Harvard from a regular public. Plus, I know a couple of kids who made it from community college as well. So it does happen. Certainly way more often at freshman level.
Let me add, there is often maybe one who gets Stanford, but we’re in the Bay Area.
I attended a basic public HS in upstate NY that was near the middle of the 8 ivies. It was 2.5 hours from Columbia and Yale; 3 hours away from Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, and Brown; and less than 4 hours from the others. Even located in the middle of the ivies, only a small minority of students seemed into applying to ivies instead of SUNYs/publics, nothing like the common attitude on this forum. I’d expect extremely few students could even name the 8 ivies. According to Naviance, few students from the HS apply to HYP, but Cornell does get a significant number of applications. The HS had more applications to Cornell than to the other 7 ivies combined. I suppose this relates to students from upstate NY favoring the upstate NY ivy, even if others are closer As would would expect with the applications and overall acceptance rate, there are a far larger number of acceptances to Cornell than to the other ivies combined. Students applying to Stanford or other more distant selective colleges were almost nonexistent. Some years none apply to Stanford.
Not all magnets are alike. Look at their reports. Many include a chunk of kids who won’t get to a 4-year. And whether or not a state has top magnets varies, of course, by state. And not all private hs are special.
We have to get away from this thinking that top stats and some person’s idea of “lots of leadership” is all it takes. So, there must be some disinclination to take kids from your hs because it doesn’t have the standing of some other. You’ve got a whole app to fill out.
Personally, I think TJ creates a difficult situation for all N VA high schools. But take a look at the level of courses offered and the wealth of opportunities the best of them pursue. Contrast that with what it takes to be top 5% in other areas.
It’s not the only route, but it makes things easier. That straight A student from Stuyvesant who goes to an elite college will find an abundance of job opportunities available through on-campus recruiting, many of them with employers who recruit ONLY at elite colleges.
My daughter went to Cornell, which I think we will all agree is elite but not absolute-top-of-the-pack elite. The number of companies that recruit there, especially for tech or business jobs, is amazing. My daughter got an excellent job when she graduated, and she got it through on-campus recruiting. At the company where she ended up working, almost all of the young employees came from elite schools because these are the only places where the company recruits.
My daughter is now back in school, working toward an MBA at a graduate business school that is top-of-the-pack elite. It’s recruiting season right now for summer internships–many of which will lead to full-time jobs a year later. Again, the opportunities were amazing, and she just got an internship that she is very pleased with.
Is any of this fair? No. There are many, many students at less prestigious schools who deserve the career opportunities that my daughter has. But the harsh reality is that those opportunities are readily available to her and not to them.
“The HS had more applications to Cornell than to the other 7 ivies combined. I suppose this relates to students from upstate NY favoring the upstate NY ivy, even if others are closer”
I also live upstate and our public high school in upper middle class community send kids to all the Ivies, except Princeton (no one seems to get accepted there.) Kids also go to MIT, Stanford, Seven Sisters, top LACs, etc. A ridiculous amount also apply and get accepted to Cornell - especially since certain schools are less expensive then CAS because they are part of the State system - though there are also those who go to CAS and the other non state colleges at Cornell.
There are also many who go to SUNY and most kids apply to at least one or two.
I have a friend who lives in another local large district and very few kids even apply to those schools. I think her son was the first kid who applied to MIT (he wasn’t accepted.) He is graduating from Cornell COE in May.
I’m am a sophmore too in a high school, and i am thinking of applying to stanford university actually i have always wanted to go to stanford university since 4th grade. What advice can you give me relating to the fact that i dont always get straight A’s
My daughter went to Cornell, which I think we will all agree is elite but not absolute-top-of-the-pack elite. The number of companies that recruit there, especially for tech or business jobs, is amazing. <<
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The number of companies that recruit at Rutgers, especially for tech or business jobs, is amazing too. But only the best students get these better jobs. Many doors are still open and it all depends on the student.
Our rural school got its first non recruit ivy admit in recent memory this year. They’ve sent one or two to the SUNY part of Cornell recently and since this is a farming community, that makes sense. Of the 3 kids I know at Cornell, two were recruited athletes and the other had top ag prizes. All are in the life sciences college.
There’s an occasional top 20 admit. I think this is primarily because some years, not a single senior breaks 2000 on the SAT. And when there are some who manage 2100+, it’s often not the kids with top grades. Most of the kids aren’t prepared for four year SUNY schools, much less anything in the top 50 or so.
This school graduates about 80 students a year. They don’t use naviance.
“My daughter went to Cornell, which I think we will all agree is elite but not absolute-top-of-the-pack elite. The number of companies that recruit there, especially for tech or business jobs, is amazing.”
My friend whose son is graduating in May had an internship at GS last summer (hated it) and got job offers from both Facebook & Yahoo. He turned them down to take a job with a high tech security firm in DC area. $120K to start, plus a $50K signing bonus!
It always surprises me the lack of love on CC for Cornell.
“MiamiDAP - I can tell you why students from Stuyve are more focused on Ivies or similar schools. Students from Stuyve are very smart students from middle to lower income families. They could get better FA at schools that meet full need, therefore cheaper than going to other schools.”
-Believe me, the straight A student from Stuyve (who is also into everything else in a world that you can only imagine, so no problem with all ECs, volunteering…etc.) will have mny full tuition and full ride Merit offers from other schools. And in our case, it is highly unlikely that any Need based will come her way. And she is NOT the only straight A kid, we have been there, we know the “right” path, and Ivy’s in our particular financial and otherwise situation is NOT the way to go. It may be the best way for other family and for other kid, not here. Our family does not need to send our straight A kids to Ivy’s, they can reach their stars the other ways.
pskzorm,
In regard to straight As question, all three in our family used the same easy method, do your homework very well and on time, there are no tricks, no magic, it has worked. Also, all 3 are very very busy people, involved in many un-related activities. They help, brain works the best when it is relaxed. Keep it in mind for the rest of your life! This type of life also develops great time management skills. Best wishes!
uh…nm
Are you the kind of person who loves learning more than they love the concept of going to Stanford? If that’s the case, you should find some other school that will serve as a safety or backup when you do apply.
You can PM me if you want some other clues.
"That straight A student from Stuyvesant who goes to an elite college will find an abundance of job opportunities "
-The same for the kid from in-state public (from our experiences, several of them). It is UP TO a KID, not the place. D. mentioned that she witnessed many just passing by opportunities where she would jump in.
I am saying that Ivy is not for us becuase we know exactly how it is done without Ivy. Believe me, job places and Grad. Schools and even selective Med. Schools will be happy to have a college straight A kid, no matter where she came from, Harvard or in-state public. And while at her college, she will have many doors open for her that are not widely availble to the general student body. Ivy will create a huge burden and knowing her, not only financial. My D. was very sensitive to that when she ruled Ivy’s out. She was right, she did without just fine. Unfortunately, another one is too brain washed.
Again, everybody is different with the different experiences under their belt dealing with the different type of kids.
“As a percentage, I’m sure Harvard takes way more kids from Exeter’s graduating class each year as compared to Topeka Regular High School. That doesn’t mean that it is harder for a smart, driven, talented kid to get into Harvard from Topeka High. It just means that a much higher percentage of Exeter’s class are Harvard-ish kids than you likely find at Topeka High.”
I know this is shocking to those who are unsophisticated enough to think that Ivy/similar luster is equal in every part of the country because they are incapable of thinking anything other than what they see in their own backyard, but there are going to be kids in Topeka High who may have been Ivy/similar caliber for whom the Ivies just aren’t on their radar screen. Their friends are all going to U of Kansas so why shouldn’t they, and they’ll get just as far as they need to with a KU degree.
I think some of you really don’t understand that in parts of the country, these schools are viewed as “for others … not for people like me.” Yeah, they’ve heard of Harvard, but all they know is that it’s in Boston, that’s an unfamiliar part of the country, and I bet all the people there are a bunch of prep-school uppity snobs and I bet it costs a fortune and I’d stick out like a sore thumb. They don’t idolize (or idealize) these places as being the Pinnacle of Where You Should Want to Go.
To be fair, it works both ways. Some of you also don’t seem to understand that in parts of the country, going to the good state flagship really IS enough to get you pretty much any place you want to go and can easily lead to a nice, pleasant, upper middle class lifestyle.
It’s just shorthand for a group of superb schools with a long tradition. As we all know, and frequently say, there are other schools that also share those characteristics: U of C, Stanford, et al. Are they diverse? Yes, to some degree. (Less, I think, than some people would have you believe.) But they also share a long undergraduate tradition of focus on liberal arts education, something that is not the case at many other fine institutions.
Look, you live in Michigan. You have access to one of the finest universities in the nation at in-state tuition rates. Other people don’t. U of M would have cost my kid far more than we could possibly have paid. He needed a school where he could get very, very close to a full ride. For the most part, that’s the Ivies, the most elite LACs, and a few others.
“t’s just shorthand for a group of superb schools with a long tradition. As we all know, and frequently say, there are other schools that also share those characteristics: U of C, Stanford, et al. Are they diverse? Yes, to some degree. (Less, I think, than some people would have you believe.) But they also share a long undergraduate tradition of focus on liberal arts education, something that is not the case at many other fine institutions.”
It’s very northeast-based. I get it. I’m from the northeast. That’s how I grew up, too. But now that i"m a grown-up, it feels like a meaningless, arbitrary designation to take top / elite schools and classify them into Ivy vs non-Ivy.
When I was younger, I thought it meant all the oldest colleges (which would, of course, have Ivy covering their buildings.)
Our local public high school sends few students to the elite schools. Due to the town’s demographics, more should attend. I think the school (and parents) overemphasizes STEM skills and sports participation, while underemphasizing the humanities and AP participation.
Scheduling is a mess. There is no excuse for not allowing strong students in honors courses to continue taking honors level classes. It seems every parent I talk with has a story of core academic classes in which their kids have had to take courses at lower levels, just because the scheduling department couldn’t put together a schedule. As a result, I suspect many students are knocked out of competition because their transcripts don’t “look” like those of other strong academic students.
In my opinion, many of the problems trace back to the administration and the guidance department. They are very well staffed in the guidance department. They don’t seem to know what they’re doing, but they have the staff to do a good job, if they saw it as an essential part of their job. I have the impression that a number of the parents use private counselors. I don’t blame them.
I wonder if the history of a high school’s applicant’s success or failure plays a role. At our school after the kid who was viewed as having once in a decade stats got turned down it might have had an effect for years to come. Other schools who have seen kids get admitted probably have plenty of new applicants and then the law of averages kicks in and some of them get in too. Or, the top colleges become familiar with those schools and the success of its applicants and the HS surpasses the numbers you would expect from the law of averages.
That seems to be going around these days.
It takes parental support to turn around a mediocre school culture.