Deciding Between High Schools...

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Hey guys!</p>

<p>This is going to be a long post (probably rambly and grammatically incorrect as well!) and I would appreciate any advice!</p>

<p>I am entering my junior year in high school; I live in a small town, and up until this year, I have not been challenged to my full potential at my mediocre school. I was really looking forward to this year because I would have many leadership roles (pres of JSA, potentially VP of NHS and an involvement in a student leadership group), and 4 AP classes (more than anyone has ever taken, to get a perspective). So all is well, my teachers, guidance counselors, and the administration are fond of me, my counselor has fixed my pain-in-the-ass schedule and I am self-teaching 2 AP's as well as an algebra class (that one is complicated). In my small town, our school day is specifically catered to student athletes: only 5 classes in a day, no budgeting for anything non-sports related... This has provided a lot of stress in my schedule, forcing me to do excessive of outside of class work. I was ready to grin and bear it until I had a long chat with a few friends who recently transferred to a local charter school.</p>

<p>This school is an "aviation academy;" this means that students have a ton of opportunities to explore all aspects of aviation (flying planes) and that is what a majority of them are there for. However, this charter school is also specialized for students interested in STEM (me!!!). There are 7 classes in a day and many of them are unavailable at my current school. One of the major draws for me is that it is more academically oriented than my current school... I would be around more like-minded people (many people at my school do not understand my love of all things school-related).</p>

<p>There are definitely pros and cons to each (feel free to weigh in with your own opinion) but I have a few specific questions...</p>

<ol>
<li><p>This charter school doesn't have as many AP's as my current school; they do however have honors classes... are AP and honors looked upon in the same way or would I have to dual enroll (that is still a possibility)</p></li>
<li><p>Would a more specialized school increase my chances of getting into upper-level colleges? I'm talking ivy league here... I would love to go but realistically at my current school, only two or three students have gone ivy.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks :)</p>

2

<p>Another thing to add:</p>

<p>I want to go to college for bio medical sciences and I I will probably be doing some volunteering in a bio medical lab at a local college this year, regardless of which school I attend. So while my school doesn’t specialize in STEM, I would at least have this out-of-class experience</p>

3

<p>bump</p>

4

<p>Hi there!</p>

<p>I don’t think that honors classes at the charter school will be looked down upon if that’s the highest level they offer. In the same vein, if you exhaust all your options at your current high school and are taking the most rigorous courseload possible, colleges won’t count it against you even if you’re only taking 5 classes a day. At the end of the day, the most important quantitative things on your application are your GPA, SAT score and class rank, so if that’s going well for you right then I might stay put. </p>

<p>How well-regarded is the charter school? And what’s your end goal? I feel like unless the charter school is very well known, transferring and doing well there probably wouldn’t be much different than continuing to do well at your HS right now, so I don’t think there’ll be a big difference in admissions decisions. However, it does sound like the charter school would give you more opportunities to explore your interests and get to know more like-minded students, so that’s something else to keep in mind. So I guess it boils down to whether you’re considering switching schools because you want a better shot at a top college or a better chance to pursue your passions.</p>

<p>Best of luck! </p>