Difference in high school cultures

Pre-College Topics High School Life
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<p>I went to a competitive high school that’s 80% Asian in 7th and 8th grade. It sends half of the class of ~160 students each year to top HYPSM and Ivy League schools and the rest go to UCs. Only 1 or 2 people end up in community college.</p>

<p>Students there sleep at 2 AM almost everyday at the least. In middle school, it was just as stressful but on a lesser scale - usually 11 PM and 12 PM.</p>

<p>Every year at that school, there is at least one death or suicide from stress after college. Last year, one of the valedictorians who was accepted into Harvard died of lupus from extreme stress following graduation.</p>

<p>I transferred out to a school in a city nearby that’s definitely not as competitive. I couldn’t take it anymore. People at my other school were stressed, I was stressed, and definitely no one was happy. Everyone was either a *****y zombie or suicidal or depressed or just plain out weird as eff. Superficiality is also big there.</p>

<p>My current school does not send anyone to HYPSM or Ivy League schools. The “top schools” for students here are UC schools - UCLA, UCSd, and UCB. Even UCR is considered “prestigious” here. Most of the class goes to the local community college or to other state schools.</p>

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<p>People at my current school know how to treat other people with respect and consideration. And even if they don’t end up being accepted to top schools such as Harvard for undergraduate, they end up being accepted to top schools for graduate school which is really what matters. What I like about my school is not only do I actually learn to work with other people and communicate, but also that the academics is “balanced” sort of so it’s not too easy but not too hard. I have plenty of time to focus on piano, tennis, Chinese school, clubs (Red Cross, key Club, NHS, Mu Alpha Theta, SNHS), volunteering, family, friends. I can also take CC classes here to get ahead if I feel the curriculum is getting boring but at my other school it was too restrictive and the policies were changed because of obsessive parents and/or students pushing themselves and going crazy into getting far too ahead in classes. I also am getting into summer research at Caltech which I wouldn’t have time for at my other school. </p>

<p>Here, I can be more well-rounded and be exceptionally unique to adcoms, whereas at my previous school I would have just been a useless bookworm who can only study.</p>

<p>And more importantly: here, I am happy.</p>

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<p>^ Bravo for the post. Bravo, indeed.</p>

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<p>^^ </p>

<p>it’s never lupus?
unless you’re not trollin’</p>

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<p>^^^ 80% asian??? Thats insane!!</p>

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<p>at TJ it’s way worse than that.</p>

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<p>^^^^ ty MIT
^^^ it was lupus.
^^ that’s the city of Cerritos for you</p>

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<p>^ I would hate to be a black guy at that school</p>

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<p>Wow @ Truffliepuff - that’s insane! One of my classmates went to a school like that, whose only focus was getting people into the top college in India, and he’s not even academically oriented. I think it’s a disaster waiting to happen and I was disappointed that his parents would force him into it.</p>

<p>My school is open admissions (pretty much) and at least I think it’s not too competitive but a number of people go to decent unis each year. I dunno</p>

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<p>Congrats. I like this post (I’m saving it on wordpad). Few posts actually change the way I see stuff. Kudos Truffliepuff.
I see your point :)</p>

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<p>**1) Are schools such as these disadvantaged in the admissions process? **
I would say that average schools are disadvantaged, just that they have average chances while competitive schools have better ones, but I suppose that’s semantics.
2) Would you want to attend such a non-cutthroat school? What do you personally think about these schools?
Two summers ago, I was working at an internship that was hosted by a private school. So, there were a bunch of kids who had all pretty much gone to that day school or another similarly prestigious one, a few kids who had gone on to top 50 colleges from top suburban public schools which basically offered the exact same experience, and then the four students from my public, “inner-city” high school. While I was standing at breakfast with one of the other guys from my school, he remarked that he was glad we had gone to our school and experienced a socioeconomic and cultural diversity that wasn’t available here. Later that school year, he was waitlisted and then rejected at Harvard, but I’m still certain he would have never wanted to switch what sort of school he attended in order to have, perhaps, slightly better chances. (I don’t actually think that school has a better record at Harvard than we do. That school and and mine were the only two in the area to have two students accepted, but whatever.)
Perhaps, if there were a more cutthroat school that didn’t have such a monolithic student body, I would like it. I can’t imagine that I could have gone ti it immediately after nine years of Montessori school, but if I had gone to a somewhat competitive middle school and then such a high school? Even then, I don’t think so. I love collaboration.
3) What is the culture like at YOUR school?
I really can only speak for the top half or third of the school, since we’re almost totally separated from the others, somewhat by self-segregation, somewhat by our schedules. My school’s not competitive in the way that manny CCers’ seem to be, largely, I hink, because everyone knows what it takes to be valedictorian, and because there are multiples. There’s no game to figure out how many APs everyone is taking, one can’t take outside APs or dual enrollment to get a leg up, as it were. All one needs is straight A’s and a schedule where every class that can be AP/AA/Honors is (the school will make an exception for art and music classes). There’s no way to beat out all of the other students who do the same thing, and no purpose in doing so. My school also has a large Montessori population, and I can’t help but to think that Montessori kids are nicer.
So, there’s no scheming on how to get to the top. Though people do try to get ahead, as it’s usually a few B’s, not a few regular classes that result in a lower rank, it’s work that moves people. I guess most top kids don’t really have that much fun – in physics, we comment on how a certain student ranked “3rd” (officially 7th, as there were 5 vals) must have been the smartest, because he had perfect grades in addition to a social life – but we all seem happy or at least satisfied with the way we are. Obsession with grades is discouraged by both faculty and peers. People worry when one doesn’t smile.
I suppose, though, that the “top” at my school is not like the top at many of those CCers attend. Though my school is highly regarded in the community and, despite being public, only accepts those who pass a test (standards have been lowered in the last two years, but it previously guaranteed a minimum IQ of 108.5, so, not too hard at all), quite a few of our top students, as they don’t place too much value on prestige, are quite satisfied with heading off to the University of Cincinnati of Ohio State with a full or nearly full scholarship and sometimes a little extra.</p>

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<p>There’s a fine line between foolishly advocating happiness and simply bashing higher education. Too many bad connections being used as “proof” here.</p>

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<p>1.) Possibly
2.) I like competition, so I think begin in classes with smart kids.
3.) My school has a lot of laid back kids, and then about 20 or so smart kids who do well and are cutthroat (Our class is only about 60 kids).</p>

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<ol>
<li>More than likely</li>
<li>Competition is fine, but messing with other people to get ahead isn’t.</li>
<li>My class has a little under 700 people, so only the top 100-200 are even worth thinking about as far as not going to a CC.</li>
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