<p>Exactly! All the parental education in the world has not helped our daughter in dealing with the college application odyssey. I think her gang infested HS pretty much fits the definition of horrible. API is somewhere in the low 700’s, 35% go to a 4 year college. One or two NM semifinalists per year, 4 or 5 commended in a class of 650. I am constantly providing friendly information e-mails to her counselor, who is up to her ears in suspensions and other disciplinary issues. We never met at all to discuss college, because her pipeline extends only to the local cc, CSU and UC. It will be a miracle if the “counselor report” is ever submitted to the Common App file. That said, we have a core group of outstanding teachers for the AP and honors classes and every year 1 or 2 students go to Stanford and 1 or 2 to HYP. So yes, this web site is more than an enjoyable diversion.</p>
<p>PVPHS isn’t “ordinary” at all. It has one of the best placement toward HYPSMC for a non-magnet CA public, better than for example, Mission San Jose (highest API and highest percentage of NMSF in CA for non-magnets) and San Marino (highest API and highest percentage of NMSF in SoCal for non-magnets). By the way, PVPHS and PVHS are different HS, neighboring each other.</p>
Well that may be more a function of “It’s worth it to travel to the East Coast for Harvard, but not for an LAC.” or it may be a function of fewer LACs on the West Coast meaning that fewer kids even think in terms of LACs.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth our big city school - a few years of data combined.
36 applied to Harvard, 11 to Amherst, 17 to Williams, 11 to Swarthmore. Quite a different proportion.</p>
<p>LACs aren’t very popular – or known – on the left coast. Sure the Claremont Colleges count, but note the plural in ‘colleges’. Given the 5 colleges and total student size, it can be more of a small Uni environment. And the rural LACs add 2+ hours of local travel on top of a minimum 6 hour cross-country flight (non-stop), or 8+ hours if one changes planes to save a little cash. In contrast, a mid-tier UC (safety) at half the cost feels ok.</p>
I repeat. I use “ordinary” to mean that it is not a magnet or selective admissions school, not to imply some sort of average across some population.</p>
<p>Even so, if you insist on equating my use of the word “ordinary” with some sort of statistical average, it depends on which population of schools you are examining. I assure you, it is possible to select a group of schools out of which PVPHS would be considered “average.” It is also possible to select a group of schools out of which PVPHS would be considered substandard.</p>
<p>Since I posted this on the Parent’s Forum of College Confidential, I suggest that would be the most appropriate set of schools to consider when determining where PV falls statistically, not the population of every school in the country, or in the world for that matter. Neither you nor I have that data about that subset of schools. That’s why I didn’t write “average” (or even “typical”), I wrote “ordinary” - to mean specifically what I’ve clarified twice in separate posts.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is a balls-y, lucky, or brilliant move (maybe all three), but #291 only applied to Yale. Accepted. 4.285 GPA. 2060 SAT. I’d love to know the whole story on this student!</p>
Or they just didn’t feel like listing every school they applied to. I mentioned upthread that I beleive this is voluntary submission. So take things with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>They are probably not too popular overall – after all, they are small, so their total student population is likely dwarfed by that of the various state universities (and bigger private schools).</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this Bovertine! I have looked at it in years past and couldn’t find it this year. While it may not be representative of all areas, it is certainly one indicator of what schools are looking for- it is fascinating to see what stats were admitted and rejected!</p>
<p>I am surprised that more kids did not take the ACT. I remember reading that more kids on the west and east coast were taking the ACT and that it was catching up to the SAT but the data from this school certainly doesn’t show that.</p>
<p>I know a kid, '2012 at a CA public HS, almost 4.0 uwGPA, 2100-ish SAT, URM, and holds a CIF record. She’s only applying to Yale, and the app is a formality because she already has an offer from them. Maybe PVPHS student #291 is a story like that.</p>
<p>For the Class of 2010, they report: 6 Stanford, 1 Harvard, 5 Princeton, 2 Yale. None to Amherst, Williams, or Swarthmore. But 4 to Pomona, 1 CMC, 0 HarveyMudd, 5 Pitzer, 4 Scripps. </p>
<p>Note, these are self-reported acceptances, not matriculations.</p>
<p>child #2 is a rower (underclassman) and has a teammate who received likely letter from Yale this fall - I’m sure he is not applying anywhere else as he meets all the academic criteria as well.</p>