Hello All,
Wanted to check this for my soon to be high school bound DS.
Our High school is average at the best. (225 out of 400 state school).
In middle school, my son is in the honor classes and has A’s - but would consider him as above average in studies. He plans to go into computer science engineering at a good school (he wants to go to purdue/georgia tech).
Is it a wise decision to move to a good location where the high schools have good rating and have good robotic/computer clubs ?
to give a premise : my daughter is a current high school senior in a magnet school trying for medical schools (BS/MD). What we observed was, her high school did not help her much and what mattered was GPA, SAT/ACT scores, Extra curricular, number of AP’s etc.
Is it the same for Engineering too ?
Should we move to a good high school district, where school ranking is far better or stay in the current location and invest more in outside coaching for AP classes, extra curriculars.
Is the current high school inferior in that students who earn A grades in AP courses do not get 4 or 5 scores on the associated AP tests without needing additional outside preparation for the AP tests? The AP course by itself is supposed to be the preparation for the AP test.
A similar question can be asked for regular high school courses – when A students in those courses take the associated SAT subject tests, do they score in the 700-800 range?
Where high school may matter for college admission beyond academic content taught is whether the counselors (especially if there are dedicated college counselors) have connections or relationships to desired colleges, as is apparently common with elite prep schools and elite or almost elite private colleges.
I don’t think you should move to a particular district because you think it well help in getting in to “good colleges”. There are various benefits to attending a quality high school, but those benefits often are not reflected in a better chance of getting on to a highly selective college.
Whether there is an increased chance of attending a highly selective college depends on the student. Some students thrive in a magnet type environment while surrounded by a group of talented and interested students and/or take on negative habits when surrounded by less motivated students. Others students would be miserable and stressed out of their mind at a magnet and instead thrive as the big fish in a small pond… accomplishing far more amazing things when a top students in their high school than when just above average. This can also have implications on things like options for taking advanced courses, LORs, availability of school sponsored ECs including sports, how prepared the student is for college, etc. There is no one size fits all answer.
Let’s just say, hypothetically, money and geography were no object. If you could design a school from the ground up for your son, what would that school be like? Where would your son thrive the most? What would be a deal breaker if the school had or didn’t have a particular attribute?
Big fish small pond, lots of athletes, lots of arts, lots of stem, vibrant extracurricular opportunities, etc. what is on the wish list?
Is your son a “bloom wherever he is planted” kind of kid or one who specialized attention will matter? Does intense competition excite him or intimidate him? How important is a strong college counseling office to you?
I don’t have the data to back it up, but I deeply believe that kids who thrive in high school have better results in college. So figure out what your kid needs to thrive, and see what your realistic options are for giving him those things. For some that is a huge public school walking distance from home and some it is boarding school across the country - and others something in between. It has to work for your family financially and geographically, too.
Let’s assume your son ends up in the top 10% of your average high school? Are you certain he would be able to rise to the challenge and end up in at least the top 15% of a top tier high school? I went to a below average high school and I learned how to excel in a less competitive environment. I was still admitted to a competitive college, but had a rough Freshman year - but then got back to achieving success as a sophomore. I do not know enough to give you an answer, but I do believe students from regular schools get into great colleges. I bet from knowing your son, you know whether you should make the move or not. My impression is that this has less to do with the school and more to do with him. I like the thinking that if you stay, use the savings on outside enrichment to include activities, tutoring and pursuing his passion for engineering.
There are plenty of programs to engage kids in robotics and engineering outside of school. You don’t need those things to be through school.
What I think does help is having access to honors and AP courses. For a CS/engineering student, AP calc and AP physics. If your home school has those offerings, I would leave him there and supplement. If the academic class offerings are bare bones, you might want to consider a move.
FWIW, we pulled our D out of our public HS when budget cuts decimated the course offerings (they cut APs, arts, music, electives, and many sports) and sent her to a private STEM focused HS. She was extremely well prepared for the rigors of college. (She’s a junior chem e in honors college at Purdue).
“Soon to be high school bound-?” So he’s in 8th? Never to soon to evaluate different high schools, but awfully soon to expect a declared major or name the dream colleges.
The competition among appplicants is often fiercer from top high schools. That’s a consideration. At this point, not sure you know the level of the better school(s) or just how advanced peers there would be. Nor whether the less competitive high school nonetheles offers what HE needs. Don’t just look at a state ranking. That includes all kids and their needs.
Agree with CateCAParent that this is more about what works for your son, allows him to thrive.
I am a high school senior in this position. My hs ranks ~ 430/470 schools in the state. I essentially stopped taking classes at my high school in my junior year to go full DE because of the quality of education and overall apathy towards academic achievement.
I think what really matters is developing a passion that you prove through your actions. Finding unconventional ways to succeed in a bad academic situation can be very helpful on a college app.
Move to an area with the right, excellent high school for him. He has potentially four years of stimulating learning ahead of him, or four years of boredom. Don’t do it because you think he’ll get into a better college. Do it because he will get a better education in high school (which will also probably open up doors to him for a better college education).
DS was 1 out of 550 at his high school at the end of 10th and switched to a more competitive HS that does not rank (if they did he would be in the top few % for sure). From a college admissions standpoint it probably will hurt his admissions to a top college, hard to say. It was definitely the right choice for him though, as the cohort and classes are exactly what he wanted.
I agree with many of posts above. Selecting the right high school (or college for that matter) is about having the appropriate environment for your student. School is a place to learn and be challenged, so the key is that s/he is appropriately and sufficiently challenged.
It is at least theoretically possible that a counselor who is known in a bad way* to colleges will be seen as a negative if they are the counselor doing the student’s counselor report.
Yes, just as any recommender can hurt a kid’s chances. In our district, the counselors are assigned by child’s last name, so we had the same one for ALL our kids. Didn’t like him, found him to be not very bright, lazy, oppositional, several times was overruled in meetings by the principal. We asked for manadated services for our special needs child, was told by that counselor that it couldn’t be done, and the principal turned to him and said, “Of course we can do that! Just do this and that, and it’s done!”
Anyway, I figured that he would screw my last kid’s chances on his application, since I figured (rightly) that he had no understanding whatsoever of my kid’s outside of school achievements, which were I’m sure what got him in. We seriously considered asking for the vice principal or principal to write the counselor letter, but just never got around to it, plus we had never heard of anyone doing such a thing at our kid’s school. And if the request was declined, there’d be a very angry counselor writing that letter! Counselor said he would focus on kid’s ability to achieve under stress of a family problem, which we did not feel was very important to kid’s application, but, whatever, since kid certainly wasn’t crying anywhere in his application, “Poor me, someone in my family has a problem, so let me in!” I’m sure the letter was very nice, and kid got in.
The fact is, at any school, and especially at private schools, the school is heavily invested in getting kids into the best colleges, because this reflects well upon their schools. So a kid would have to REALLY have behaved egregiously for the counselor not to write them the best letter possible.
Do you know what the counselor rec looks like on the common app? Do they just write a general recommendation or are there specific questions? I might be in a similar situation…
For our D, clear advantages in being in a very good public school have been the following: 1. the school is known to AOs at many top colleges - they admit our students every year; 2. applying to the very top schools is common there, and even though counselors are hopelessly overworked, they are diligent with deadlines and supportive.
That’s beyond such obvious advantages as a large selection of APs, decent fundraising that actually pays several teachers’ salaries (it’s in a large city school district with a very small budget), and learning among very smart and interesting kids.