Just how much does a good high school help?

[PBush]

<p>Lol @ OKHYPSM: You’re pretty off. </p>

<p>Let’s look at what you say point by point.</p>

<ol>
<li>“For students from average family/middle class, attending elite prep schools is definitely disadvantage.”</li>
</ol>

<p>It’s not clear if it is a disadvantage, let alone a “definite” one.</p>

<ol>
<li>" First one forth students are wealthy or hooked and another one forth or less are URM. No matter what their GPA ranks are, they will get into any school they want."</li>
</ol>

<p>Do you honestly believe this? ANY school they want? No matter how they do at school? Bottom of the class goes to Harvard?</p>

<ol>
<li>The rest from average family or middle class get into second tier schools at best though they have higher GPA or academic achievements. </li>
</ol>

<p>This is obviously not true. I know plent of middle class people from my school that got into great schools. For example, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Amherst, etc.</p>

<ol>
<li>Don’t forget the prep schools’ GPA is UW and a lot of hooked/athlete/URM take easy courses and still get same or even higher GPA though the schools encourage students to take hard courses. </li>
</ol>

<p>This is dangerously untrue. At my school, GPA is still weighted and besides, many colleges will recalculate all applicants’ GPAs for comparison. It is obvious to them when ppl take the easier course.</p>

<ol>
<li>So very often you see Asians with top GPA go to lower Ivy schools and hooked/URM go to HPYSM.</li>
</ol>

<p>Is this why Asians are ORMs? I understand that we’re talking about URMs from an elite prep school, but still…</p>

<p>Also…</p>

<p>You seem to really hate on CA and Asians. All 3 (three!) of your posts hate on Asians and two hate on CA.</p>

<p>Responding to a post about a 2400 SAT score and its impact on admissions, you write: “It depends on where you are. If you are in California and an Asian, then you got an excuse for Ivy’s to reject. I got 800 in both CR and M but I am in Oklahoma. I think admissions treat perfect scores based on region. Too many perfect score in CA. I heard admissions are not impressed by perfect score especially if it’s from CA and Asian.”</p>

<p>Your assertion does have some basis in the fact that there are more Asians than there should be (based on percentage of students) getting 2400, so it may not have slightly less (same with Caucasians). Also, CA does have a lot of 2400s but it’s a big state If you mean a lot relative to population, other states do better (I think CT has the highest).</p>

<p>In another thread you make the claim that all Asians get 5s on their AP tests. And you question if you should put a score of 4 down because “it may become a disadvantage” because (you’re Asian?) and all the (other?) Asians are so perfect. </p>

<p>Way to devolve into stereotypes.</p>

[ChoklitRain]

<p>

For students from average family/middle class, attending elite prep schools is definitely disadvantage. First one forth students are wealthy or hooked and another one forth or less are URM. No matter what their GPA ranks are, they will get into any school they want. The rest from average family or middle class get into second tier schools at best though they have higher GPA or academic achievements.

</p>

<p>Most students are wealthy. There are kids whose parental assets total 20 million who can not be described as hooked because their parents haven’t donated to any colleges. They face the same admissions process as everyone else(or as hmom says, a slightly harder one.) And URMs generally get bad grades. It’s not until they perform in the top quartile of the class that they start getting in to Ivies. </p>

<p>

Don’t forget the prep schools’ GPA is UW and a lot of hooked/athlete/URM take easy courses and still get same or even higher GPA though the schools encourage students to take hard courses. So very often you see Asians with top GPA go to lower Ivy schools and hooked/URM go to HPYSM. BTW, even you are not hooked to ivy school but your family are very involved with the prep school (big donation - 10k/year), you still have a big edge over the rest from middle class who pay full tuition but unable to donate as much as other wealthy family. Those students usually work hardest but don’t have chance for HPYSM. But if you want to a doctor, you had better go to JHU, WU at St Louis, or even WU (Seattle). I guess there is less URM or hooked in medical school admission.

</p>

<p>At most top prep schools I’ve seen, unlike most public schools, all the classes are hard. There’s no easy way out. And 10k is a small donation, though even when parents make big donations, students don’t get special treatment academically, so I don’t see much relation to admissions.</p>

[peacein345]

<p>… I don’t think that, at least in my case, that I have hurt my chances by going to a prep school from a middle-class background</p>

<p>At my previous school, I would be having AT MOST 2 AP classes my junior year. The AP classes I could have would have zero interest to me, i.e, AP Language and APUSH, I want to do math and science.</p>

<p>My new school allows me to take 2 math classes as well as AP physics and computer science. </p>

<p>I do see where you are coming from, however.</p>

[hmom5]

<p>

My S goes to a school falling into that category. We had 12 asian students in class of 2008. College enrollment results was like HYPSM 1 each, Cornell 2, Columbia

</p>

<p>There are varying levels of prep schools, this matriculation list would not fit my description of an elite prep school, so we’re not all comparing apples to apples.</p>

[FiddlinEcon]

<p>homom5, I did not write the matricilation list of the school. I wrote the college enrollment results of 12 “asian” students in the school. The school sends 15% to HYP and 40% to ivies+SM+ASW.</p>

[FiddlinEcon]

<p>What I wanted to say in #20 is that even not super rich and less connected “asian” students can do well in college admission from the school where many super rich and well connected families send their kids. In my example, 5 among 12 asians (40%) went to HYPSM while the whole class sent only 18% there. So I don’t think being in a good high school is not disadvantageous in college admission. Having classmates from privileged families and strong URM classmates is not necessary a disadvantage. Rather good schools help academically ambitious students by many ways.</p>

[FiddlinEcon]

<p>Let me correct #25.
“So I don’t think being in a good high school is disadvantageous in college admission.”</p>