I totally agree!! They go everywhere. What you aren’t seeing is the schools they DID get into. Lots of families can’t afford to go OOS to Michigan (my son did and I am one of the regulars on that thread… Go Blue ). In my son’s class 45 got accepted to Michigan out of a class of 200 (not sure how many applied) but only 14 went. 2 were on full rides and 1 had the Quest bridge scholarship for a full ride. Many kids got this over the 4 years my son went there plus many other ones like it.
The schools match to kids to scholarships not schools per se. When they suggest (Gulp) to my son to apply to some “lessor” schools we were taken back but after he got 1/2 ride to larger merits we got the point of what they are trying to do. It’s actually really smart. At Northside, the theory is to get you into a college and from there you will excel!..
But as you can see applying to high school in Chicago is like applying to college. There is tons of stress to families /students. Applying to college was a piece of cake after this example. Even though my son was a direct admit if you will. It took him to the longest time to decide between Northside /Payton. Payton wanted him for Football and most of the people he knew were going there vs NS at the time #1 (it was for 14 years till some senators daughter went to Payton then they beat out NS by like. 00001😂… True story) to play chess. Top ten chess team won out and as an 8th grader took him to Supernationals with them… Lol.
It’s a crazy process indeed but as you stated there are sooo many great suburban schools. Any school can be great, just like college. It’s up to the student and how they take advantage of what they have. Both of my kids were as active in high school as they were in college and making themselves stand out led to college and job acceptances. That doesn’t change
I am only guessing here but there are cultures that go that extra mile to go to the best “x”… Regardless where it’s located. Usually the parents drive this. We see this on this website daily, right?
We hear stories all the time about families who immigrated to create a better life for their children. Sometimes they are leaving their home countries because of safety issues. Many times it is because of the education and opportunities available in the US. In those cases, the children are very aware of the hard work and sacrifices that their parents made. Do they carry it as a burden? Maybe. Would they do the same for their children? Probably.
That’s not always valid, as one can see on the prep school subforum. And as a data point of one, I certainly drove the secondary school process, although I did not drive the car to visit them.
That said, even in my case, impacting parental lifestyles was never an option.
You sound as if were a precocious child. This is not my experience of most eighth graders to even propose a change to a school that is an hour and a half away, that they’ve never previously seen etc.
I am really trying not to post but in Chicago from what I saw from both of our kids is some parents have no clue about the selective enrollment and yes it’s put into the kids heads at a very early age. They use the 7th grade scores for admittance. If your not close to all As for Tier 4 then your not going usually. Principals used to be able to offer others like 10 open slots a year so yes bribes etc happened
Crazy. The kids did drive a lot of this. There are open houses for each school just like college and thousands of families show up. Often group of kids went with friend’s. Each school is more amazing then the next. The pressure to get in is real. They would hand out the scores to get into each school while you were waiting to get in. Many just left after seeing the scores. Crazy. From what I saw these kids are that driven to a point of course.
Most of the kids showing up for interviews at BS are driving the process. Not all, but most. And for residential schools, a kid who’s getting dragged along through the process is a pretty big risk to the school.
I think a lot of this depends on what’s the norm in your community, school, family, etc. I can imagine that in areas where kids are watching the classes ahead of them heading off to these magnet schools, it’s much more of a “thing”. Not unlike kids who are playing soccer in rec leagues agitating to try out for travel teams.
We constantly talk about how toxic it is that kids are under immense pressure to “take the RIGHT high school classes”, “do the RIGHT ECs”, so that they are “good enough” to be accepted to “a prestigious college”. It is so so so much worse if the kid knows that their parents actually moved in order to increase their chances to get into a “T-20” college.
So no, if you value your kid’s mental health, please do NOT move just to increase their chances to get into a T-20 college.
Walter Payton is an amazing school. However, the best part about Walter Payton is that it provides a wide education, including in fields and streams like art and humanities. It has amazing students and amazing opportunities for kids to grow and explore all sorts of intellectual spaces, rather than simply focusing on “getting into a T-20”.
On the other hand, Naperville has an excellent high school, and a strong student from Naperville has just as much chance at getting into a “T-20” as a students with similar attributes who attends Walter Payton. If that’s the primary reason that you want your kid to attend Walter Payton, do not move.
My child completely drove the educational process. Granted his school ended at 8th grade so he’d have to go somewhere, but he is the one that asked to look at boarding schools. Granted, someone told him he’d be a great candidate, but he is the one that wanted to look. I gave him a list of options and he researched them on his own and came up with his own list. Kids that want something “different” absolutely know it.
But also, some kids just swim with the tide. My kids’ school ended in 8th grade, so they knew they’d be going somewhere. About 80% of their class went on to boarding school, so it was a routine thing. Plus my spouse worked at a boarding school. So no, my kids didn’t drive the boarding school decision. Nevertheless, they thrived, and turned out ok.
No way would I do this. Naperville schools are sought after and people move to Naperville all the time for the schools. Save the money you’d spend to move into Chicago for college. That is a LOT of money to spend and a LOT of pressure to put on a kid for a slightly higher chance at an Ivy.
). In my son’s class 45 got accepted to Michigan out of a class of 200 (not sure how many applied) but only 14 went. 2 were on full rides and 1 had the Quest bridge scholarship for a full ride. Many kids got this over the 4 years my son went there plus many other ones like it.
but in Chicago from what I saw from both of our kids is some parents have no clue about the selective enrollment and yes it’s put into the kids heads at a very early age. They use the 7th grade scores for admittance. If your not close to all As for Tier 4 then your not going usually. Principals used to be able to offer others like 10 open slots a year so yes bribes etc happened