How do you all go to top high schools?

<p>what makes a school competetive</p>

<p>My school is 144 on Newsweek. I know it is not a top school. I think some people put down they go to a competitive HS to "compensate for their GPA and rank". For whatever school you go to, it will always become competitive when someone is trying to aim for the top 10% of the class.</p>

<p>Mine is 37th in the US week ranking 2 years ago. </p>

<p>We might have moved up a few places since then.</p>

<p>In my book a top school is one that required a test to get in. Where every student is a high achiever and the average SAT score is north of 1250. Those are the kind of competitive schools that colleges look at differently in terms of GPA and rank.</p>

<p>There are a few public schools, mostly in the very affluent suburbs of major cities, that come close if you're on the AP/IB track.</p>

<p>We require an application process, though to be honest isn't very rigorous. My school is looking for not only smart people, but people that are amiable and have morals.</p>

<p>uh...ok newsweek is crap..my school was number 1, 2, and 3 (last year) on newsweek and it sure as hell doesnt look like exeter..or even have people who can qualify for the aime(besides me and this other kid)</p>

<p>mines not ranked since were only 7 years old, but we had 19 national merit finalists, the top percentage of people accepted to the service academies out of any public in the nation, and were number 1 3 years going on something called wordmasters. wonder what we'll rank when they let us have one. were considered best in the area out of normal publics(nonmagnet) even compared to #12 highland park, #100 grapevine,111 colleyville heritage, 137 fw paschal, 179 garland, 180 plano west, theres tons more in there but most importantly we consider #965 marcus, our cross town rivals, as the biggest idiots on earth.</p>

<p>I think the whole idea of ranking High Schools is ridiculous. I go to a (public) school of about 315 students. We would NEVER make it onto a list like Newsweek simply because we're so small. Yet at the same time, we have quite good stats: 40% of kids take AP (even though only a few are offered), more than 80% participate in EC's. Sure, I know some dumb people, but ranking HS's is stupid. It's not a measure of how smart you are...</p>

<p>Mine is ranked 80-something.. it was 50-something the year before. Weird.</p>

<p>I dont go to these school but they definitly are some of the best public schools in NYC. These schools are your best bet to a good education.
The specialized schools(bronx science, stuyvesant, etc)
Beacon High school</p>

<p>my old school was liek 45 i think in the nation..and it was really good had liek 15 IBs u could take...sent a couple of kids to IVYS yearly...b4 Katrina everyone went To TUlane(i mean everyone applied... 2 of my old neighbors not only go there but were in the same grade...and kids went to Loyola Maryland..Villanova NYU..a bunch other good schools...then there were liek CW POst NYIT and The local CC Hofstra and the local college but there were more good schools then bad schools on those matriculation lists...) my new school is private so its not ranked...even if it was public it would be liek 1000000th place...YAh it sux...the rare CW Post NYIT CC molloy and HOfstra are normal schools for us to go to...IT stinks major time...I Will probably not go there for senior year and actually one of my local colleges allow u to finish ur hs requirements during your senior year i might apply it will look a lot better on my hs transcript and i think i would like to do that so i can get into a good college!)</p>

<p>We are 34th in the Newsweek and I think that place is well-deserved.
We have 21 AP classes and 91% of the students go to a 4 year college.
We have a highest SAT average in the state.
So I think the Newsweek ranking have some merit in them because people take more AP tests for a reason.</p>

<p>I don't even think my school is ranked by Newsweek, but I know it is a top school in my state. </p>

<p>How do I know this? Year after year we send students to top schools. Over 90% of my class will go to college, over 45% of those out of state. I'd say 10% will go to a highly ranked college (mostly LAC's cuz we're like that). Admissions officers know my school's name. Two years ago we had EIGHT get into Stanford, as well as a few to Harvard, Yale, Swartmore, etc. We have a respected IB program. </p>

<p>With all this said, budget cuts will destroy my school. I'm lucky that my school, even though it's public, is able to raise enough money on its own to support these programs to keep my school at the level it is at. </p>

<p>When I say I go to a top school in the state, I know it doesn't stack up against many schools in the nation. However, my school fills the niche of a strong public school that many of the universities like to draw from.</p>

<p>My school is also not rated by Newsweek. Almost half of our class is NMS. Over a third go ivy. But if Newsweek doesn't rank us, we must be crap!</p>

<p>Dont you go to Andover or some crazy private school, Suze?</p>

<p>Newsweek only ranks public schools, not manget or private schools.</p>

<p>They do rank magnet schools.</p>

<p>My school is ranked 22. Great Neck South High School.</p>

<p>Crazy private school? Our school has a lower per capita income than many,many suburban schools throughout the US. Millions of dollars of scholarships are given. Yet Newsweek doesn't rank us and many of the other truly top schools in the Country. So kids who go to schools where the average students takes 1.63 APs seriously think they attend top school.s Then we hear that at such top schools 4 kids go ivy!! I think the OPs point is a good one, how do all of us get convinced we go to a top school. How many top high schools are there in America? Would 70 be a lot? We could take the top 10 boarding preps, top 20 day preps, top 20 magnets and top 20 publics. The fairest measure would be average SAT scores.</p>

<p>So top high schools would have aprox one third NMS, 1300 plus SATs and a third into top 20 colleges. Anything under that can indeed be a fine high school, but not a top one.</p>

<p>where do you find where your school is ranked?
i go to plano senior high school in texas and its pretty competitive. i mean in our junior class we have 1300+ students.</p>

<p>go to <a href="http://www.newsweek.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.newsweek.com&lt;/a> go to education, look for the rankings.</p>