<p>"UC's giving 300 pts edge to students from low achieving schools...". </p>
<p>How do they catch people who try to game the system? I mean if you live in a metro area and your student has been a good student in grade-school, and you want him/her to attend eg, UC Berkeley, you stay away from the special chartered, high academic high schools and enroll your student in an average or even below avg HS, and have a spouse take a year's leave of absence in child's senior year, that would knock down your family income to better fit the socio-eco profile of your child's HS. Of course your child will excell in this diminished environment, and admission to Berkeley is greatly enhanced. Is this fair game ?</p>
<p>...on top of this, because the low rank HS doesn't offer many (if at all) AP programs, you enroll you child in community college summmer classes to show motivation and willingness to overcome hardship. And because your student is so unchallenged at school, that leaves EC opportunities abound. </p>
<p>edvest, almost everyone will agree with the statement that "parents want the best for their kids." the opposite of what you suggested is actually true; parents want to send their kids to the BETTER schools and may move to better districts. conventional wisdom says that going to a more competitive school will help you raise your standards, help you meet friends who have similar goals, have extracurriculars that are strong, prepare you better for AP/IB exams, challenge you more to prepare you for college, etc. i mean, what's the point of getting A's if your AP scores aren't great and worse thing is, if you can get into a good college but end up dropping out? also, these lower socioeconomic status schools have big class sizes, teachers on emergency credentials, concerns of safety with maybe some gang culture, friends who aren't as motivated or may be bad influences, etc. at the end of the day, parents want their children to get a good education. </p>
<p>you're from norcal... isn't there much more talk of getting into lowell than transferring to a low performing school in say, oakland? why do so many parents want to live in the south bay? so their kids can attend schools like monta vista, gunn, etc. </p>
<p>I'm sooo glad that the UC's take the new grade(when u retake a class that u received a D or lower in)...cuzz my gpa would be horrible without that rule. Oh i was wondering how my schedule looks for next yr...does it look rigorous enough so it doesnt look like i'm slacking? Will it be too hard?..because i really would like to coast, and relax senior yr.
Jazz Band
AP Calculus AB
AP Gov/Econ
AP Lit
Symphonic Band
AP Spanish 5</p>
<p>Nice of your to notice my profile, KFC. Indeed in san francisco, the public school of choice is Lowell. But the truth of the matter is you can leave anywhere in SF and apply your children to Lowell. An entrance exam is given and only the high scorers get in. So if you want to game the system, you would just move to like somewhere in the Richmond / Sunset and forget about trying for Lowell. Let your sons or daughters enroll in local HS and follow the reverse MO i outlined above. That should give your child a definite advantage. Sure,there is risk of joining the gangs, and lowering one's std by association -- I mean you would put your child in the company of low-performing students, and teachers who don't care (on emergency creditials like you say). There must be a few families who gamble on that to try to win the prized university. The article of the Chinese girl who chose to attend a HS 10 miles away and 300 SAT points below and got into Yale,MIT showed some people will put aside their scrupples and risk everything. What if she got pregnant?</p>
<p>By the way, we went the traditional way of moving from the 'burbs' to SF and enrolled our children in Lowell. Amidst the fierce competition, we now have one S in an Ivy, and another D (junior) eying the likes of eastcoast LACs. I just hoped to be continually employed :).</p>
<p>i understand your concerns. i dont think the UC's or any other college can catch those who try to game the system. but i just personally think that most parents dont play this game and that they'd rather have their child grow up in a good environment. but yes, there are exceptions, but they are only that, exceptions. gaming the system doesn't even guarantee that your kid will get into an ivy. at the end of the day, there's still much more talk of kids from a place like lowell getting into ivies. we don't hear schools in richmond consistently sending kids to ivies, which either means a) not enough parents want to game the system or b) gaming the system doesn't even have any guarantees.</p>
<p>If you earn a D in any subjects; you have silm chance of getting in. There is a fine print that states that you can't apply to a UC school with a D or F. You need a 3.0 GPA or higher to apply to UC's and you can't get any D's or F's senior year........you need at least B- or higher in all your classes.</p>
<p>Cal Poly Pomona is easy to get into. A 3.0 GPA or higher and you don't have to take SAT2's, you get in. Cal State Schools guaranteen acceptance with a 3.0 gpa or higher and you don't have to send in any SAT tests.</p>
<p>My friend is a 4 year basketball and track member at his high school; 4 year Ex. Board/Class Council; Prom King, and got into Cal Poly Pomona with a 3.17 gpa and didn't NEED to take the SAT 2 test. BTW, he's an Asian-American.</p>
<p>FOR UCs....
5 important FACTORS that would be consider in admission process besides GPA/SAT scores</p>
<p>-low income family
-low API;ghetto high schools
-1st generation to attend college
-extra community services or volunteer/time involved at school
-personal life challenges; disability problems & struggles</p>
<p>if you have all 5 in your checklist, you have a decent shot at UCLA or UCB with ONLY a 3.5 GPA & 1250+ on SAT.
If not then you have NO CHANCE at it unless you write a really PERFECT essay.</p>
<p>PROS/CONS of a bright student switching to ghetto school</p>
<p>You become socially depressed because most of your friends won't attend college or are high school dropouts. Yeah, you may have a high gpa but the teachers don't teach or care. You don't learn anything and you become totally unprepared for college. In your freshman year of college, you will start getting D's and F's. On the SATs, students from ghetto schools don't score very high. The reason is because they didn't learn ANYTHING from their teachers. Teachers don't care about their students and don't put the effort to teach 30-40 kids/per class. Undergrads become unprepared. Many students at these HS are trouble makers and gangsters that disrupt the day when teachers try to teach. They give the teachers a bad time and bad attitudes. At the end of the day, teachers don't get to finish their lesson plans and are like 3 to 4 chapters late. It's hard for teachers to teach students at a low API school than it is for a teacher to teach at a rich, wealthy school. Teachers waste time trying to leccture and displicine the kids. It takes at least 20 mins to write a referral and send kids to the principal/deans office for disruptive behavior. A student that got a 4.0 with high SAT scores in these ghetto schools must have underwent GREAT lengths and struggles to learn "on their own" to achieve that goal. It is easy to get high ranks in ghetto schools but it is HARD to get a HIGH GPA and HIGH SAT SCORE in ghettos schools. </p>
<p>Take my advice. Go to a wealthy, competitive HS.</p>
<p>"My friend is a 4 year basketball and track member at his high school; 4 year Ex. Board/Class Council; Prom King, and got into Cal Poly Pomona with a 3.17 gpa and didn't NEED to take the SAT 2 test. BTW, he's an Asian-American."</p>
<p>cal poly pomona doesn't even ask about ECs nor do they require the SAT II.</p>
<p>mrxalleycat your posts are kind of weird/confusing. Even though i got a D my GPA/SAT II/EC's scores are better then yours..i think i have a better chance at the UC's then you do..but that is just my opinion</p>
<p>Just to clarify what alleycat said, you will recieve admission to ONE cal state school if you have a 3.0. It's the same as being in the top 4% for the UC's. At least one school will accept you. However, this doesn't mean that ALL cal states will accept you. For SDSU and SLO, for example, you must have way above a 3.0 to be considered.</p>
<p>As for purposely going to a bad school, i don't think it's such a hot idea. My bro was a star student in middle school, but befriended some slackers in high school(school that Dangerous Minds was based on). His grades suffered and he lost motivation. As a result, my parents wouldn't even let me go to public high school. The kids that you meet at good publics and privates are almost all going in the college direction. Friends will influence personal development, especially in the teen years.</p>
<p>Mrxalleycat said i didnt had a slim chance of getting in, but my UC gpa is a 3.89w and his is a 3.1w..so i know that D will probably keep me from the top UC's but i think that 3.1 will keep you out of the running for virtually all of them</p>
<p>I don't mean to offend you bro but my counselor told me that you should not get any D's or F's in school if you are applying to UCs..... </p>
<p>D or F grades regardless of GPA (even your GPA is a 4.8 or 2.2) or watevers keeps you out of the running for admission to ANY UC....... </p>
<p>you got to makeup that D somehow.....im not sure how that works </p>
<p>If you go to the UC website, it will tell you that you must earn a C- or higher in all your "A-G" subject courses taken in 10th and 11th grade of your high school in order to be ebligible to apply to any UCs......</p>
<p>I actually have already made up the D at my local CC and got an A...so the A makes up for the D so my grade in chem is now C/A. You're counselor is WRONG, I know sooo many people that are going to UCD,UCSD..etc with D's as their semester grades, but their GPA's are 3.8+...they got in over ppl that have 3.5's or less and have had no D's or F's. It all depends on your GPA,SAT, and EC's...if your GPA is better than someone elses..but your sat/ec's were the same, you would still stand a better chance..because your gpa is better regardless of wether or not your received a D or an F</p>
<p>hmm i'm wondering what would be a good ACT/SAT score for schools like USC UCSD..and below..because i know that no matter what score i get on my sat/act UCB/UCLA will still be high reaches. So i'm just wondering what score would be exceptional considering the school i go to. and also how much does race factor into USC's admissions decision?</p>