<p>I look on all these "What are my Chances" treads and I see this phrase.
Yeah, this term is foreign to me. My high school is distinctly not competitive. Are these schools really public? Can you guys give some examples of them, preferrably in NJ.</p>
<p>or the mid-atlantic region...i hear in maryland :churchill? how about severna park in severna park md? also if people care aboutlists, there is the newsweek annual top high school list also to be found on the washington post jay mathews class struggles column.</p>
<p>bump . . . .</p>
<p>It's a public school with a lot of really smart kids and AP classes. An unusually high number end up at top universities. </p>
<p>There's no set number it's just a loose, subjective term</p>
<p>competitive high school is a made up term for this website for people to justify why they arn't in the top 10% or 5% or 20% or whatever n% they think they should be in.</p>
<p>It usually goes like this. "I have a (whatever) GPA and am ranked 47/400. I know its not top 10% but I go to a REALLY competitive high school. Do you think colleges will notice?" </p>
<p>The answer to that question 100% of the time is yes colleges will notice you're not in the top 10% of your class.</p>
<p>The only thing that a "competitive" high school is...is actually just a feeder school (or just a school that sends a lot of kids to great colleges). For example in New Jersey, there is Delbarton which is a feeder school into Georgetown or ND. St. Peter's is generally seen as a feeder into Boston College. Theres Lawerenceville (sp?) in south jersey that feeds into like princeton. Also theres Peabody, MKA, Newark Academy, Kent, and several other private schools in new jersey that feed into top colleges. Unfortunately for NJ, there arn't magnet schools because NJ is a very wealthy state and most parents will just send there kids to the plethora of private schools in the state.</p>
<p>As for public schools in NJ that send kids to a lot of great schools - off the top of my head there is Glen Ridge high school which generally sends a lot of kids to good schools. Montclair hs sends a lot of kids to good schools.</p>
<p>hope this helps</p>
<p>Wootton>churchill... in everything.</p>
<p>Many public schools that require apps and tests are considered competitive. One example is TJ which is located in NoVa(Fairfax). If a school matches TJ in stats, rigor, and prestige then IMO it is a competitive HS school. But schools like that are few and far between.</p>
<p>bump.....bump...</p>
<p>I think Connecticut should improve it's education system. It is the richest "state". With all that money they could at least improve us and maybe get our High Schools into Higher ranks. We already have great schools.</p>
<p>One word: IMSA :P</p>
<p>how can your school not have any competition? It isn't possible</p>
<p>From NJ here and Delbarton definitely feeds into Georgetown [old middle school friend going there, though he is a baseball superstar, so...], but yeah there's also let me think McNair Academic which can usually send kids to a few top tech schools as well as Ivy's and then there's High Technology I think it's called, but yeah they have some very successful applicants.</p>
<p>To stuck, don't know some schools just don't have much competition, I know that other than a group of ten of us, nobody could ever really come close to us so I guess this would be considered limited competition, but hmmm, though this top ten is really successful in college admissions so I guess it's worth ti.</p>
<p>Maybe, but the whole idea sounds wierd. Competition in my school is like a contagious disease.</p>
<p>Hmmm, yeah people just aren't motivated enough to want to succeed academically, so...</p>
<p>"Wootton>churchill... in everything." ~Cheapseats</p>
<p>Haha, OMG YES!</p>
<p>Although in regards to this thread, I think both would be regarded as competitive schools in comparison to the rest of America. They're both in one of the best educational counties (hence the label "competitive public" for schools in the area) nationwide. And students here would never believe it.. until they hear from people hailing from elsewhere in the US.</p>
<p>I know I was horrified to find out from friends in other states tell dismal stories of their school systems. People with incredible acheivements really stand out at their schools, but may not seem that way so much at a 'competitive,' where a majority of students have great grades and special accomplishments or extracurriculars.</p>
<p>We don't even have valedictorians or rankings because too many people get good GPAs on very difficult courseloads. And it takes something vicious to make yourself stand out.</p>
<p>I live in NJ and don't really agree with everything above.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Lawrenceville is in central Jersey, not south. There's a difference. =P</p></li>
<li><p>NJ private schools are not really better than public schools. Because of rapid development, land is becoming increasingly scarce and therefore valuable, meaning both greater revenue from property taxes and more dense development (btw, the average house worth in NJ in twice the national average). This, plus the fact that many Jerseyans have high-end jobs, especially in NYC and Philly, means municipalities get a lot more money than in most other states, a lot of which is spent on education. NJ has one of the highest average incomes, a top ranked educational system, and the most dense population in the country. The point is that public schools have a lot of money going into them, and students are advantaged accordingly.</p></li>
<li><p>I live in Mercer County, and just about every public school here - including Nottingham, Hopewell Valley Lawrence, Princeton Steinert, WW-P North, and WW-P South - is as good as or better than any private school here - including Hun, Lawrenceville, Nottingham, Peddie, and Princeton Day. Virtually all Northern NJ suburbs - especially places like Bergen and Morris counties - have very good schools as well.</p></li>
<li><p>There ARE a few magnet schools in New Jersey, including the Bergen County Academies and Science High in Newark.</p></li>
<li><p>As for naming competitive public schools in NJ... there are simply too many. I hope nobody makes a huge deal if I say that there is some correlation between average wealth of an area and students' performance. It's especially true in NJ. And, since there is a lot of wealth, there are many competitive schools. As an example, I went to NJ Governor's School (a free, competitive summer program) in the past few weeks. The most represented counties by far were Bergen, Morris, Mercer, Middlesex, etc. with usually only 1-2 people coming from southern NJ counties (with the exception of Camden, which includes Cherry Hill and Philly suburbs). Make of that what you will.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>mikenthemaddog66 - where exactly do you live? Ocean City High School is near you, right? I think they're a pretty good school, too.</p>
<p>Oh, and living on LBI must be great. I hear that half the houses there are expensive summer homes that contribute property taxes to the school system that don't need to be spent because the kids of the families that live there go to school back in their academic year hometown, meaning you guys get more money to spend per student. Well, I guess having half your neighbors' houses be empty through most of the year must be kinda depressing...</p>
<p>Yeah hit it up for Morris County, yea we send so many kids to governor's school, perhaps you met some of my friends. Yea, and I have to agree that NJ has so many freaking competitive schools it's ridiculous [though our school really isn't]</p>
<p>Which school do you go to, Tonyt88? PM me if you want.</p>
<p>As a sidenote, my school's mock trial team lost to Severna Park this year by 1 point. Grrr!!</p>
<p>I know 2 in Florida, but thats only cause they are in my town. Stanton College Preperatory ( once ranked number one ) and Paxon School for Advanced Studies ( ocne ranked number 7 )</p>
<p>Both schools are either Honors Ap or IB classes only. Not quite sure how its goes as far as honors and AP entrance, but i know the IB admissions is like college admission. Ok since they are both compeptitive high schools in the same country, on your application you had to select a first choice and a second choice school. And like they did all this BS and it was really challenging, but i got in this year at Paxon School for Advanced Studies.</p>
<p>Just recently near graduation time, they had a special report on like these top students from high school in my city, and they had this girl from Stanton College Preperatory, and she was accepted at MIT, Duke, Hardvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and i think 1 or two more. She ended up going to UPenn.</p>
<p>But yeah HS's around here are competitive.</p>