<p>I will confirm @3scoutsmom’story. It does happen in TX. You are right, folks are obsessed with getting in UT Austin, so kids do transfer to lower performing schools, in order to gain automatic admission to UT</p>
<p>“You forgot about Wilbur Cross HIgh School.”</p>
<p>You’re right I did. IIRC, Lee was only opened in the late 60’s - so before that only the two. WC & HH.</p>
<p>“What city? Parents feel safe sending their kids to a “war zone”?”</p>
<p>Albany NY. </p>
<p>The kids in the IB program who are overwhelming high SES (it’s been that way for years) are fine. It’s pretty segregated from the rest of the school what I have heard - like going to school in a bubble. I know several people whose kids went there. A lot of people with kids who live within the city limits send their kids to private school. There are a lot of parochial schools (always has been from what I have been told) which lower income families send their kids too. City of Albany property taxes are very high - even higher than surrounding suburbs, do to the fact that so much of the property in Albany is tax exempt since it is the Capital. It’s population has really plummeted in the past few decades. There are several suburbs who have larger population then the city. </p>
<p>From 2010 but still pretty much the same. </p>
<p>lloveralbany.com/archive/2010/07/01/tough-report-for-albany-high-school</p>
<p>@3scoutsmom, @partyof5 - We have a rule here in West Virginia too - any kid can enroll in a WV state college or university as long as they’re a bona fide state resident with a measureable pulse …</p>
<p>Lee is now closed or it was actually turned into Career High School. The old Lee High building now houses the Yale School of Nursing. I hear they are moving soon. </p>
<p>^ I doubt it’s been missed. </p>
<p>Lol no. Not at all. Career is a smaller magnet school. Which truly focuses on health careers or those interested in business. Lee was a school that was poorly run by administrators who only cared about their biweekly pay checks. Their focus was not on the students. </p>
<p>Lee was bad from the day it opened. </p>
<p>Harvard’s federal payroll taxes, etc. do not support the Boston area schools. Public schools in Massachusetts are largely funded through local property taxes, and Harvard’s voluntary payment reflects a fraction of what its tax bill would be. Harvard’s stated reason for giving a tip to Boston-area kids is that it gets a lot from the community and feels an obligation to give back in this way.</p>
<p>Sales tax at the Coop is paid by shoppers, not by Harvard, and the Coop is an independent organization and not part of Harvard (or MIT) anyway. But while we’re on the subject of the sales tax, Harvard, as a nonprofit institution, is exempt from paying sales taxes when it purchases goods and services, which run about $690 million per year in the enumerated budget (carrying a potential tax liability of about $45 million). So that’s another significant subsidy from the Commonwealth that may be motivating its policy.</p>
<p>I thought it was top 7%, not 10% for UT Austin. I have nephews that missed the cut; neither got in there and one goes to a highly selective east coast private. </p>
<p>As for advice to change a surname, that isn’t going to help unless the student wants to lie on the on the part of the app that identifies ethnicity. Your name can be Ridgeway and you can still be Latino if you check the box that so identifies you. That is info for the feds, so I don’t know what ramifications there are in not representing oneself truthfully. I know kids with surnames from adoption and other situations that do not reflect their ethnic make up at all. My guess is that advice is do to Asian quota paranoia. </p>
<p>What is sad is that there is so much time trying to game the system & not enough energy into being ones authentic self. What so many people fail to realize is this, is that adcoms can smell the BS a mile away. </p>
<p>@VSGPeanut101 it does happen down here though. You send your kid to a lower performing school for their last two years of high school. But after school, the kid is self-studying for the AP and attempting to stay on the same track as their peers at the former high school. </p>
<p>Making top ten (or top 7%) would be beneficial in that, the kid would only have to apply to ONE school (the UT-Austin app is only 70$) instead of multiple school 70$ x3 other schools. So instead of applying to a reach a match and a safety. The kid only applies to one school, where there is guaranteed admission.And if the kid got valedictorian, then they are eligible for plenty of scholarships, therefore saving even more money</p>
<p>For those who don’t follow the Texas top 10% rule …</p>
<p>The original legislation called for automatic admittance to any Texas public university if you were in the top 10% of your graduating class. Because so many wanted to go to UT and it began to have so little discretion in selecting its freshman class, it got an exemption to the top 10% rule so that it only had to fill 75% of the freshman class with the top HS graduates. Sometimes, that number means UT only takes the the top 7% or 8% to get to that 75% cutoff. It has been 7% for a couple of years but could change. The UT cutoff is announced a year or so prior to the application season so kids know where they stand.</p>
<p>The Admissions directors at the highly selective schools do not always smell the manure. It does work, as many who have so succeeded can tell you. The high priced admissions counselors depend upon the word of mouth success stories that result in this business niche growing in some areas. My guess is that in order to get into high stakes colleges from competitive areas, one will almost have to get services of such counselors in the near future to get a fighting chance of admissions. Just as one now pretty much HAS to prep for the SATs and ACTs. For years, the word was that test prep did not work. Well, it’s pretty clear those so saying were dead WRONG. So it is with admissions counselors. </p>
<p>Living in an area rife with them, I can tell you that there are a lot of people who swear by them. Maybe their kids would have gotten into those schools anyways, but the word on these streets is that it can make a world of difference. </p>
<p>Having a kid in a school where it could make a difference such as in TX and then using tutoring and other such services instead of paying for pricey schools could pay off. Personally, I think high school and life itself should be a journey enjoyed rather than a journey just to get to a certain place, so I have always looked at a school choice from nursery school to college as getting the best possible enjoyment, meaning a place my kids could enjoy as their new homes since they spend so much time at these schools. So teh idea of putting one of mine in a school that is not one desirable in any other way than to get into, say a UT Austin type deal would not happen here. Didn’t with my BIL and his kids either. Most parents do want the best school for their kids in the present, so that there is not exactly a rush to those schools where making top 10% or getting high class rank, easy grades, would be easy.</p>
<p>@Youdon’tsay Is the rule the child has to spend at least 11th grade at the (inferior) school to qualify for the 7-10% rule? Are kids in the 8-12% range at really great schools getting rejected from UT?</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse The interesting thing is that if a kid can’t hustle into the 10% at their home school, and is forced to transfer, what’s to become of that student once at college? Does UT really change their life outcome? Doubtful. When I made this thread I was more-so talking about a student that is going to be top 10% anywhere, but is flirting with top 1-2 overall at an inferior school. Valedictorian at an inner-city school certain looks sexier than #19 at some bland suburban school for HYPS admissions.</p>
<p>I think I said up-thread that it’s a district decision. In my district, they won’t count you in the top 10% of the new school unless you spend junior and senior year there. No switching senior year. But I don’t know how other districts do it.</p>
<p>I can’t name any, but I would imagine some 8%-12% kids do get rejected from UT, sure. But at really great schools, plenty of kids well below that cutoff get in, including my ds1, who wasn’t even in the top quarter of his excellent HS. He decided not to attend.</p>
<p>Aren’t GPAs calculated in the last few months of junior year typically? </p>
<p>Re: “The old Lee High building now houses the Yale School of Nursing. I hear they are moving soon.”</p>
<p>If you are referring to the move to the West Campus, I believe they have already moved (some time last year.)</p>
<p><a href=“New nursing school opens on West Campus - Yale Daily News”>http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/10/07/new-nursing-school-opens-on-west-campus/</a></p>
<p>I just skimmed, so maybe I missed this, but was it made clear if the student in the original scenario transfered to get into that school, or actually lived in that district?</p>
<p>Because if it’s the latter, I don’t think it’s nefarious or scheming to send a child to the local school, even if we want to sniff at it for being too mediocre.</p>
<p>My kids went to our local, barely adequate by CC standards HS (lots of poor kids, Title ONe, etc) because it WAS their home school; it’s where their friends and neighbors went. Why wouldn’t we send them to their own town’s school. (note: their parents were, at the time, a physician and a college instructor, in case that mattrs.)</p>
<p>@NewHavenCTmom here kids are given their GPA and class rank (if they are in the top 10% our school is officially non-ranking but they have to rank the top 10% by law) at their sophomore conference January of 10th grade. GPA and rank is calculated after every semester after that. Students can check their GPA and rank on Naviance. Final class rank is determined with grades through the third nine week period of the senior year. This may vary by district but it’s this was at my daughter’s school.</p>
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<p>That pretty much describes D’s school, too. </p>
<p>I don’t think that the scenario that the OP was suggesting as a “tactic,” though. Instead, it was this: “I couldn’t help but wonder if sending your child to an inner city school for a semester or two, i.e., 6th and 7th semesters, is a “thing”. With the benefit of dual enrollment, you could likely avoid the majority of on campus time during 11th and 12th grade, while still retaining that sought after zip during the admissions process.” Which suggests transferring into the school almost “in name only” to take advantage of a statistical “loophole” to make a better presentation for college admissions considerations. </p>