<p>i'm just wondering wehther anyone knows any sites which tells you how competitve ur highschool is in the eyes of the colleges. there's alot of posts by ppl saying they're attending "highly-competive" highschools or w/e, i'm just wondering whterhe theres like some backing for that or what... i mean i goto a public highschool in ct which is one of the better ones in the state but it doesnt really even compare to some private schools around here like choate. however we do have alot of students going to ivies and top schools. last year class of about 420, 3 or 4 got into cornell, 2 mit, etc... do i goto a competitive school?</p>
<p>Hmm I'm not really sure if there is a site like that, but your GC will send a "school report" with your application that tells all about your school. In my public high school in central florida, medium sized (1700), few if any students end up going to Ivy League schools. Most college bound kids attend UF or UCF. But your school sounds somewhat competitive, although I don't believe it's as cutthroat as some of the others in area. I'm not really sure though-
:-)</p>
<p>Graduation rate and how many students go onto four year colleges factor into competetiveness, as do average SAT score of your classmates and such.</p>
<p>CT has alot of competitive high schools, mostly in the suburbs. The prep schools (ie Choate) are easily the most competitive schools in the country and therefore treated different as such but compared to most other states CT's public schools are high quality.</p>
<p>Here is one set of national rankings:
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/education/challenge/2006/challengeindex01.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/education/challenge/2006/challengeindex01.html</a></p>
<p>doesnt work, they didnt do rating for the top privates,for example, hotchkiss, choate, deerfield...these school own any shcools on that list</p>
<p>I would say that the Washington Post ratings are an extremely good example of how a bad, bad, bad formula can still get attention as long as something is ranked. I sincerely doubt college admissions departments pay any attention whatsoever to those rankings.</p>
<p>85% of students in a class of 450, going to 4 year college - is that competitive or not really?</p>
<p>Is your counselor supposed to put stuff like average SAT scores on the school report?</p>
<p>Tarhunt, According to information that I have gleaned through gcs in our hs, this ranking actually does have the attention of some admissions offices. I also know from one adcom that I spoke with, that their office is not interested in this ranking. This is also an admissions office that for merit aid, considers all high schools as equal, which is also bad, bad, bad.</p>
<p>Our counselors put the avg SAT scores in the school profile.</p>
<p>Also, those rankings are complete BS. What are they even ranking? The percentage of kids who take AP exams.. with no regard for how they actually do on the tests</p>
<p>"Washington-area magnet schools with SAT combined verbal and math averages higher than 1300, the highest non-magnet school average in the country, are not included, since they do not have enough average students who need a challenge." What?!
"The rating is not a measurement of the overall quality of the school but illuminates one factor that many educators consider important."</p>
<p>As a basis for comparison, my HS is considered pretty competitive (but not extremely, although that could be changing). Avg SAT score last yr was 1340, with 18% of the class going to Ivies and 100% going to 4 yr colleges/unis</p>
<p>Those newspaper and magazine rankings are pointless and irrelevant to college admissions. The regional admissions officers of colleges have a much better guage on how competitive and what the grading systems (because of grade inflation, etc.) are like at the area high schools then a magazine.</p>
<p>northeastmom:</p>
<p>I'm really surprised to hear that. Considering that admissions offices usually have a good line on the schools that feed their departments, and considering that the ranked schools tend to be heavily represented in that group, I just don't understand what those rankings add to the picture.</p>
<p>Unwritten 02:</p>
<p>Any high school with an average SAT of 1340 has to be very competitive. And the 18% going to Ivies is also way up there.</p>