<p>maybe determining "top" school should take into account extra-curriculars and sports that are offered at a school. I go to a school where there are no sports, which puts more emphasis on the learning part of school as opposed to the football and cheerleader part.</p>
<p>I'm glad there is standardized testing, because alll this high-school ranking stuff makes someone who goes to a normal school like me feel out of the loop</p>
<p>Standardized testing is a good indicator, but there are tons of other things.
The Fraser High School Report Card for my Area: <a href="http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/books/chapterfiles/AltaHigh04Complete.pdf#%5B/url%5D">http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/books/chapterfiles/AltaHigh04Complete.pdf#</a>
My school is one of the top 5 in my city.
It is a public school, but I think it has a lot more to offer than the other schools. This ranking is based almost solely on standardized testing scores (the Alberta High School Diploma). My school, however, offers the IB program, French Immersion, the Fine Arts Certificate and many more selections. We also have the most clubs of any school in the city, the most sports teams and the highest ranked debate competitors, model un team and junior achievement kids in the city. We are the only school to offer MUN for credit and we are the first school since 9.11 to take an international school trip (for MUN - it's going to be during easter break). For these reasons, I think my school should be ranked higher than it is. Most of the private schools are tiny and don't have the capacity or numbers to provide such amazing opportunities.
I think the school's test scores and number of kids who go to elite colleges are probably some of the least important factors compared with how satisfied these kids are with the education and opportunities provided to them and how much effort the school puts into developping these opportunities. But that's just me...</p>
<p>NJres, you're right about strength of high schools being important to real estate agents. The neighborhoods with good schools cost a <em>lot</em> more than the neighborhoods with crummy schools. We rented for years just to be in a good school district that we couldn't otherwise afford.</p>
<p>I think that everyone would like to know that the high school that they attend is highly regarded.</p>
<p>My D's high school is very well regarded, and it did not make the Newsweek list.</p>
<p>We are in the midwest, when we went to visit colleges on the East coast, she was asked by people in the admission offices and on tours what school she attended. Everyone knew about her school and had a good opinion of it. </p>
<p>At one school she was told that they will "dig deeper" into the class, i.e. not top 10% for admission. She was also told that graduates from her school do well in college. They are well prepared.</p>
<p>A good friend of hers, from the town that we moved from, who had similar stats to her was rejected from a school that my daughter was accepted. I spoke with her mother and she said that her school is not well known outside of the area.</p>
<p>I think that there are a lot of great schools--however if an applicant is the first to apply from that school, they may have great scores, etc., but may have a difficult time if the college is not familiar with the school</p>
<p>i think thats horribly unfair...</p>
<p>you are right, it's not fair.</p>
<p>I am going thru this process for the first time as a parent. I am curious to see what happens April 1st. </p>
<p>Although my d's school is well regarded, I know a lot of top students who were deferred from their top choice school. The kid who is ranked #1 was deferred by his first choice school. Some of the schools that my daughter applied to, she was in a group with 50 other kids applying to the same schools.
She has close to 1000 kids in her grade. </p>
<p>So while her school is well thought of, graduates have a lot of competition from classmates.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what you consider not fair. We all have a lot of choices as to where we send our kids to school. Many in my community are like thedad, who rent to be in a better school dicstrict then they can afford to buy in. Or like me, living in a much smaller house than what I could have had had schools not been important. There's competition at top public schools and top private schools. A well done application from anywhere will be well received. What's not fair?</p>
<p>"if an applicant is the first to apply from that school, they may have great scores, etc., but may have a difficult time if the college is not familiar with the school"</p>
<p>Perhaps this may be an opportunity to talk with the GC at the school and suggest they put together a School Profile to send with transcripts, introducing the school, its stats, percentage of students attending 4-yr colleges, etc. These are really good overviews of an unfamiliar school and would help putting a good applicant's data in context.</p>
<p>I scanned the "Challenge Index" list and finally found one of our community's high schools listed. Even though it happens to be the one closest to my home of all three, if I had been limited to selecting from public schools, I probably would have chosen to home school my children before sending them to this school. While families frequently transfer their children out of this hs to attend one of the other two, in my experience only those whose students are interested in a particular specialized curriculum tend to transfer into it.</p>
<p>These lists bring to mind the "100 best places to live" lists, which, when you take well-intended criteria like "cost of living" and put it head-to-head with "weather", you end up being told that everyone needs to move to that well-known paradise of Kokomo, IN.</p>
<p>(No offense to any fellow Hoosiers...but I spent many years in the state and other than Rte. 46 into Bloomington, I don't recall being struck with the sense that I had died and gone to heaven.)</p>
<p>here is whats unfair: having a disadvantage in admissions just because your school isn't in an area with a well known public school</p>
<p>edit: of course, classes are harder, but if someone scores better on my SAT's, works hard at the EC's, and does well with what is offered to them, they shouldn't have a disadvantage because another student (who hasn't achieved as much) goes to a better-recognized school.</p>
<p>Students at Whitney HS in CA must qualify through an entrance examination.</p>
<p>Phillips Exeter Academy average SAT, 1400.</p>
<p>This is the school that most regard as the best, when it comes to boarding schools.</p>
<p>A well known high school can often be a disadvantage. Take the above mentioned Exeter and it's peer schools. Almost all of the kids score at the top of US high school students, yet not all can get into HYP. Granted, most all go to top colleges, but most would have had a better shot at the very top schools coming from a high school in a disadvantaged area.</p>
<p>my high school is number 26.</p>
<p>KIRMUM you are CORRECT!!!
if i went to another less well known/competitive hs, i'd be able to get a 4.0, and there on move on to ivy/or good college, but now i go to a school where the top student has a 3.7/8, it's sooo messed uP!!!!!</p>
<p>i'm moving on to a decent college, but i know if i went to a neighboring hs i'd do so much better.</p>
<p>especially i was looking at BS/MDs, who have colleges that arent as well known and the program just filters GPAs and SATs. People who go to these regular HS and get a 3.8/4.0 with minimal work move on to these successful programs.</p>
<p>This is an interesting thread, and one that is near and dear to my home. I have an older son who is attending an extremely rigorous private boys prep school, and I have a slightly younger son who is attending a highly regarded public school in our area. My younger son is in all honors and AP classes. That being said, there is absolutely no comparison in the quantity/quality of work expected from each of them. My older son is not top 10%. He is smart, but you have to be a genius to be near the top 10%! He is a NMF and scored a 1510, 800V, 710M, on the SAT. He is in the top third of his class! My younger son is working really hard at the public hs and is currently tied for 1 in class (probably with about 50 other kids). My older son sees the kind of assignments that my younger one has and scoffs! There is very little analysis, very little writing, etc. It is driving my older son crazy because it has hurt him, scholarship-wise, because of his class rank. While he knows that he has been very well prepared for college, he sometimes kicks himself for not attending the public high school for the class rank. Both schools send kids to ivies, prestigious privates, and highly ranked state schools. Sometimes I wonder why did I pay for 4 years of private hs!!!</p>
<p>Hopefully for a great education that will serve him for life.</p>
<p>i have the same situation ag 54, not because i got to a vigorous private, but because i chose a vigorous public high (30-35 sent to ivies a year) over a decent public high. i just know now that when i go to college next year, i'll be able to compete with the best because i've learned more /and learned it in-depth.</p>
<p>thats basically the only consolation.</p>
<p>I'm kidding about questioning the decision to send him to the high school we did. We know that he has gotten a really great education. But, another BIG reason that we sent him there is because he is surrounded by people that are more like him. One day after picking him up freshman year, he turned to me and said, "It is great being at a school where it's cool to be smart." That was worth all the money we have paid.</p>