<p>A competitive HS is one where there’s a fairly high number of “top students” aiming to go to “top schools”. A lot of kids take the toughest courseload possible taught by qualified teachers intending a rigorous curriculum and get mostly A’s. A lot of kids have high SAT scores. These kids <em>want</em> to do well and <em>want</em> to go to an elite college. kwu and JBVirtuoso pretty much hit the mark. </p>
<p>Someone said earlier in this thread that a sign of a school’s competitiveness is if HYP visit… I disagree. Outreach efforts shouldn’t be taken as equivalent to an indication of a school’s caliber. That could be the case I guess, but it’s not always. HYP might visit a school in a not very well represented region, for example. Where I live, colleges like HYP don’t even bother with individual school visits. They just hold big info sessions, and I really doubt this is a reflection on the competitiveness of schools here.</p>