<p>No different than other private schools that admit students by test scores. They don’t re-test their existing students again.</p>
<p>Ds school that required testing is apparently more selective than Harvard for admission, but I didn’t know that at the time. We didn’t apply cause it might have been a feeder school, we applied cause it was the best school for her at the time.
Trying to make the kid fit the school instead of the other way around doesn’t seem very child friendly.</p>
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<p>Still an improvement over HCHS’ policy before when entering HES was a practical guarantee of admission to HCHS so long as one didn’t flunk out altogether. That part was done away with considering I’ve heard if an HES student is passing, but not doing reasonably well, HES won’t be recommended him/her to continue on at HCHS and said student must find another junior high. </p>
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<p>During my HS years, I recalled many BxScience and Stuy classmates/friends…including some who left HCHS used HES autoadmits as a way to rag on “HCHS” for maintaining a “legacy”-like system for Manhattan students with higher SES parents who prep their students from diapers onwards and lower SES parents who are part of that same social set due to professional or social reasons. </p>
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<p>I feel so unspecial. Despite being curious by nature and quite social, I could not describe the “career” or lateral moves by ANY of my classmates, let alone their parents SES or legacy status. We talked about the Cowboys, soccer, lacrosse, or the girls. What a sheltered life we endured! </p>
<p>Must be a New York thing! </p>
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<p>It’s not very different from friendly sports rivalries between say UT-Austin and A & M or academic ones I’ve observed between MIT and Harvard students while living in the Boston area*. </p>
<ul>
<li>You should have seen the ribbing one friend got from his MIT frat right before graduation when word got around he accepted admission to a natural STEM PhD program at Harvard. It either took the form of joking ribbing accusations of him “selling out”/“betraying MIT” or some others “consoling” him at “only being admitted to a “finishing school” for grad”.<br></li>
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<p>Cobrat, there are indeed rivalries in Texas, but few middle or high schoolers get involved in Aggies vs Horns unless their parents bring it up. I remember the Red River battles in the Cotton Bowl, but that is about it! </p>
<p>I had friends whose parents owned the local MLS and NHL franchises as well as others who made it by selling the hotdogs during the games. But, I am sure we never discussed SES and legacies around the campfire. </p>
<p>I also never met anyone with so many cousins and friends who discuss so many subjects. You should consider starting your own talk show. </p>
<p>I feel quite deprived.
One parent was an only child, the other had two half siblings, neither had any children, so I had zero first cousins.
:(</p>
<p>I don’t have first cousins either, eK! (Well, I have two, that I’ve only met a handful of times) </p>
<p>Good thing I’ve had to form my own opinions on things vs waiting to see what my cousins “regard.”</p>
<p>“recalled many BxScience and Stuy classmates/friends…including some who left HCHS used HES autoadmits as a way to rag on “HCHS” for maintaining a “legacy”-like system for Manhattan students with higher SES parents who prep their students from diapers onwards and lower SES parents who are part of that same social set due to professional or social reasons”</p>
<p>People of high SES really bother you, don’t they, cobrat? Guess what. They exist. They want to do the best by their children, like any parent. They use these resources to do so. Get over it. You’re always so obsessed and resentful of the moves they make. </p>
<p>“You should have seen the ribbing one friend got from his MIT frat right before graduation when word got around he accepted admission to a natural STEM PhD program at Harvard. It either took the form of joking ribbing accusations of him “selling out”/“betraying MIT” or some others “consoling” him at “only being admitted to a “finishing school” for grad”.”</p>
<p>God, I so wish I had been there! I’m so jealous you got to see this and I didn’t!</p>
<p>$500,000 house in our town $13,500 in taxes for one built in 1955. Older house might have slightly lower taxes, we do. Housing costs are the biggest part of our budget by far, because we aren’t making millions. My car is 12 years old, and Dh’s is even older. Oh and we pay income tax too!</p>
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Absolutely not. And being at or near 40 and still obsessing about this ancient history isn’t a New York thing, either. My son is going to be a junior this year and I couldn’t tell you where many of his actual friends got in just two years ago, and my D graduated from college this year and I was surprised all over again when I heard where her friends had graduated from even thought I had actually known at some point where they were attending. For most New Yorkers, life moves very quickly, it doesn’t stand still for decades.</p>
<p>I have an enormous extended family and we are all extremely close. - Colleges and where all the kids are going or have gone is a constant topic - because someone’s kid is always in the admission cycle - but we don’t debate the topic or do “my school is better than your school.” </p>
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<p>Not always. </p>
<p>However, I do have problem with those who seemingly deny that being from a group who overwhelmingly tend to be part of the very higher SES group or those associated with them on a professional/social level confers a substantial advantage along with Manhattan residency to gaining entry into a quasi-private elementary school…especially when doing so used to automatically lock in one’s admission to a magnet middle/HS like HCHS. </p>
<p>Especially considering the only way to gain entry to HES is to pass an exam giving before kindergarten. Most parents outside of that bubble either won’t even know of such a school or feel the high fees(Even $35 is a lot of money for many lower income Manhattan residents) and/or having to tackle an exam in pre-K is ridiculous. </p>
<p>It’s also a bit interesting as it touches on the recent contentious G & T issues I’ve been reading and hearing about from parents with kids in NYC public schools as it also locks students into a track a bit too early and fails to allow for substantial fluctuations in one’s IQ as one develops into an adult. </p>
<p>What if they don’t deny it? What if they say - hey, having money and connections helps in life, and it sucks not to have money and connections?</p>
<p>Yes, many lower income NYC residents may not know of such a school or may not be able to afford even modest test fees. Is that the fault of the higher SES people? Should they not do what they think is right for their kids because some other kids don’t have those advantages? You always seem to have this belief that because poor people can’t do things, rich people shouldn’t do them. </p>
<p>At the same time, almost every Asian immigrant in NYC know about Stuyvesant. Even if they have scrub floors they make sure they have money to pay for their kid’s tutoring to take those entrance exams. My friend’s son (Korean) was admitted Stuyvesant, but decided to go to Dalton because SH had over representation of Asians.</p>
<p>And give me a break about people can’t afford 35 exam fee. Cobrat - you are pushing a bit in trying to make your point. Sheesh.</p>
<p>I would like to see one example of anyone denying such privilege outside of cobrat’s fevered imagination. </p>
<p>And lower income residents absolutely know about the various schools because NYC public schools generally have excellent guidance. Admission is nearly impossible, of course, but knowing of the existence of these schools is almost universal among all but the very newest immigrants. Even in my area, kids routinely take (and sometimes succeed on) the HC exam. </p>
<p>Someone who is old enough to be a parent to a high schooler is generally too old for his experience to be currently relevant.</p>
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<p>That statement’s ROTFLOL-worthy, especially in light of what I keep hearing from fellow Stuy and SHS alums who do outreach to underserved communities in NYC. </p>
<p>They are still finding many parents and students in underserved areas of NYC who don’t know about what it takes to be on track to prepare for such schools, are given misleading advice or strongly discouraged by school admins, etc. </p>
<p>It is even more laugh worthy considering the disturbing news report of a high proportion of NYC public HS graduates whose “guidance” is so “excellent” they require academic remediation upon entering a CUNY college:</p>
<p><a href=“Officials: Most NYC High School Grads Need Remedial Help Before Entering CUNY Community Colleges - CBS New York”>http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/07/officials-most-nyc-high-school-grads-need-remedial-help-before-entering-cuny-community-colleges/</a></p>
<p>And that’s considering the opt-outs from the CUNY remediation on the basis of SATs or other factors is abysmally low. </p>
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<p>One thing about recent immigrant communities, they tend to bond and provide mutual support to each other. This has been the case with practically every immigrant community since the beginning of the Republic. </p>
<p>One major factor in the increasing levels of tutoring/preparation* is the fact unless one is entered into one of the few public G & T school early in elementary school, the quality of academic preparation won’t be enough to be ready for such exams. </p>
<p>That and the quality of NYC public K-8 has amazing deteriorated even when compared with when I attended middle school in the late '80s. </p>
<p>Those increasingly early tutoring sessions are meant to compensate for those factors. </p>
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<li>Back when I was in middle school/HS, most students prepped a few months before the exam or went in cold. It was unheard of for students to do much more than that unless they were recent immigrants boning up on English or American-born students stuck in underserved areas due to poverty & immigrant parents’ lack of insider knowledge in navigating the byzantine NYC public school bureaucracy.<br></li>
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And are they as far out of touch from the process as you are? Because you almost never know what you are talking about… Perhaps back in the 1980s things were different, but any child of the calibre or even close to the level of being a serious candidate for a specialized school or HC knows all about it. Educators who find children with the ability to succeed at the top levels in places where they aren’t expected move heaven and earth to help those kids get every possible advantage.</p>
<p>I agree with cobrat on some of his positions. Wealthy NYers (say, the top 10 percent) spend a lot of money prepping their kids for the allegedly unpreppable ()but really not) G&T testing for public school. They sue the Department of Education to get their kids with special needs placed in private school at the city’s expense. And they pay big bucks to the PTA to hire extra teachers (called aides because it’s against the rules to pay for real teachers, but clearly they are real teachers) to mitigate the ridiculous class size in many NYC public elementary schools. I agree that by 7th grade all students know how to register for the specialized high school exam, but poor and working-class kids with parents who are not in the know are not ready at that point to attend a high school at that level.</p>
<p>It starts with pre-k. By middle school it is mostly too late.</p>
<p>We’ll see if some of this improves during the administration of our new mayor.</p>