<p>You people. as soon as ranking comes up you all need to jump in and voice your opinion about how great you did, or if you didn't, how unfair the ranking was. this thread jumped up to what, like 12 pages already? for chirssakes. no other thread has nearly as much viewing. but as soon as the word "rank" appears you swarm around like moths around a lightbulb or fat kids around a free sample stand.</p>
<p>I'm not convinced that we need another thing ranked. Especially when such arbitrary measures are used. it makes some sense with colleges, because you pick one to go to. it's not like you do that with public schools. </p>
<p>i guess it sells magazines though, to insecure little brats like you all who need to feel validated by a number. Does #56 actually give you more self worth?</p>
<p>Some people do have a choice of high schools. For me it was either the public high school, the Magnet school in my county, or some Catholic schools. I chose the Magnet school. Maybe others do not have the luxury of a choice, but I sure did.</p>
<p>The reason why people are mad is because they have a high amount of pride in there school. That should be rewarded as being noble.</p>
<p>no, they have a high amount of pride in their selves. well, sort of. they need to constantly reaffirm themselves through ridiculous posturing. you don't need to be in newsweek to be proud of your school. </p>
<p>huh. i go to paxon as well. in the past 5 years, we were as high as #3 or 4, i believe? well, anyways, because of this ridiculously inaccurate ranking scale, AP exams MUST be taken at the end of any AP course, rather than a teacher recommending worthy students to take the test. </p>
<p>as is, students are required to take at least 4 AP courses at Paxon SAS. any school without the funding would not be able to make AP exams mandatory. honestly, it's a waste of money because some students just aren't up to the challenge of AP exams, but are forced to anyway. many students i know simply "christmas tree" their tests and leave their essays blank because frankly, a lot of high school students don't like sitting through 4 hours of testing. </p>
<p>put simply, the more money a school has access to, the higher they are on this ranking list. of course, other factors are not accounted for, but money is a big factor.</p>
<p>I was incredibly surprised to discover that my school was even ON this list. Freaking amazing if you ask me. Never really though my school was all that great in terms of academics.</p>
<p>My school ranked high and I still don't agree with the ranking system. More importantly, rankings mean nothing if you put no effort into your education.</p>
<p>Here's Jay Matthews's excuse about why TJ --and similarly top-notch schools--are not on the list: </p>
<p>"We are trying to measure which schools are challenging their average students. If you have few or no average students, there is no point in putting you on the list."</p>
<p>we're 418, but NY is seriously overrepresented on this list.
When I was looking for us, I came across at LEAST 20 schools from NY, and at LEAST 15 of which are within 1 hr of me, and about 10 of which I have friends going to or have played soccer there (all before #418). There's nothing exceptional about them, and I think my school is about the same as them. IDK how to compare my school to others, as I don't personally know how great those top schools actually are. I think ours used to be in the 400s, then dropped down a year or two ago, and then went back up this year, probably b/c they introduced the IB programme this year (probably for that purpose). The programme pretty much sucks right now anyways, very limited options.<br>
IDK. As many people have said, it's not a great ranking. But I do think that the list includes the top, say, 800 high schools (some may be on the list that shouldn't be). Just not in that order.</p>
<p>Edit: ahahah. Love This. I just checked the list of "Public Elites," which are excluded from the list or whatever. The school that I would have went to had I not moved is on there. You have to apply, but I got in. Its not really that great though (BCAcadamies), I think I get just as good an education at my school. I have friends that go there. And my bf's cousin's school is on their too, from NYC (Stuy). It is supposed to be really nice though.</p>
<p>Hm. I don't think my school is even on the list... but the school the next town over from mine is somewhere in the 800's- but I know that's not a very good school. They let their students retake tests if they do badly. </p>
<p>I don't know. I'm sure that some schools are ranked properly, but there are probably some on there that don't deserve to be.</p>
<p>Yup! Lowell high school (#26) is definetely one of the best public schools in the nation! And the best public school in San Francisco! Go Cardinals and congrants "sfgiants." Damn I coulda applied to Lowell, but I was only able to apply to private schools! Oh well, I still like the school cause I know it's one of the best.</p>