<p>My children attend a public high school in rural VA - approximately 34% of our students go on to attend 2 and 4 year colleges. I am curious to know how this compares with other high schools, public or private. Thank you!</p>
<p>My 4 Ds attended a variety of schools because we moved a couple of times over the years. The two that we experienced for the most years both had post-secondary rates of over 90%. Both are public, both in Toronto. The school in MA had a similar rate, also public.</p>
<p>How I'm counting: Start full-time college within 15 months of graduation. Gap years followed by full-time studenthood count; trade schools, military, part-time community college while working full time don't count, even if eventually followed by full-time college.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Large (class = 600@) urban public academic magnet: About 92%. (They would love to say 100%, and sometimes do, but it's not true. Closer to 96% if you count kids going into the military but planning to go to college later as going to college.)</p></li>
<li><p>Mid-size (class=95@) private Quaker school: 99%. (They say 100% all the time, but it's not quite true.)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In our public HS, 97% go on to 2 year or 4 year colleges. We're a suburban Florida HS, with 400+ students in the senior class.</p>
<p>I guess my concern is how this will impact the children when applying to colleges- how the low rate will be perceived by admissions. Will that have any impact or will it vary depending on the school they are applying to? Sorry for being so general, but I'm fairly new to all of this.</p>
<p>Sabaray, there are two schools of though it answering your question. One is that it would benefit a good student because of the class rank issue. THere are a number of kids at rigorous schools that have a lot of college bound students, many elite college bound students, who do not fare well in gpa, class rank, getting into the top classes, participating in ECs at a leadership level because of the intense competition at such schools. I know a family whose kids had marvelous high school experiences, participating in athletic teams, become active in student government, perceived as top of the class, etc, in a school district that is not perceived as "good". The kids loved their highschool years, went on to colleges that they enjoyed as well, and life is good. There has been PR about private college counselors advising kids to transfer to less competitive school districts, so they can stand out more. So there is that line of thought.
On the other hand, if your student could do better academically, wants to do more, and is not challenged by his highschool, feels odd man out since most of the kids are not looking at the type of colleges, if any that he is, it isn't such a great idea. The resources of a good high school dedicated to preparing students for high levels of college work is excellent. You are more likely to have the courses, teachers and counselors to help your student in this course. He would be more prepared for an intense college. The more selective colleges are more likely to have these schools on their radar screens. From what I can gather (mostly info from GCs of rigorous highschools, so the info is biased), statistically, kids from these top schools have a better chance than kids from mediocre highschools in getting inot the more selective colleges. Especially if the kids is not considered disadvantaged. I know that kids with gpas that are not so perfect get into the HPY and peers from highschools with reps that are stellar. And looking at the 5 year college graduate rate from our highschool which is a private college prep where very close to 100%go to a 4 year college in the year or two after graduating highschool, these well prepared kids do well in college. When I went to college, there were a number of kids who were tops in their highschools academcally who struggled mightily with rigorous college academics. The writing and research assignments were particularly painful for them. Those who were motivated did get through a rough semester or year initially, but water did eventually rise to its own level, and some of these kids ended up doing better than their better prepared peers. But some of them could not get over the hump, and those that did got hit with lower grades, less advanced courses in college which quashed a number of law and med school aspirations.
The impact of the quality of highschool will vary on the school where kids apply. The schools with IT in their names and traditional workhouse schools will be much harder on kids who are not so well prepared, and as colleges do consider the likeliness to succeed in their programs when admitting students, it can be harder to get into those schools or those with very selective admit rates where every little thing is scrutinized. But for the vast majority of colleges, the grades and SAT scores are about all that the schools consider, unless there is some real flag in the records, positive or negative.
30% is not a good percentage for going on to college.</p>
<p>My son's school is a huge (700 kids in a graduating class)
public suburban school. Well in excess of 80% go to colleges.</p>
<p>My D's high school-large (2,000) suburban parochial-96% go on to 2 or 4 year colleges. Contrast that with my niece's high school; small (under 300) rural public-just less than 50% go on to college. My niece was 3rd in her class, over 1400's on SATs, #1 female athlete in her class and received 2 full scholarship offers; one to an elite private city university and one to an large public university as an OOS student! (She chose the public university).</p>
<p>cptofthehouse, thank you for that thorough and well thought out reply- great information. We've gotten really creative with scheduling for my daughter (currently a sophomore) to duplicate as closely as possible the schedules of friends she has made through the JHU CTY program- with a lot of pushing in the guidance department, I think her schedule will stack up well against other students nationally and I'm hoping that will factor in somehow during the process. Last year, 4 students from the school applied to Duke- all were rejected. Recently we've had students accepted at Harvard, Princeton, Amherst and of course UVA so I'm hoping it's not an impossible dream for her to attend a more selective school.</p>
<p>Being involved in CTY and learning what kids from more competitive highschools are doing is great. I also will recommend good pre college courses in a summer, or a solid college course so that a college can see that she is competitive in a tougher academic environment. You can see the colleges' viewpoints on this; it does not do anyone a favor other than a short lived high to accept someone to a school where he is likely to fail when there is not much there to support his success.</p>
<p>My school's rates for the year I graduated were 25% at a 4-year college and 35% to community college. Apparently that was somewhat of a peak year for 4-year students because the latest class was 18% for 4-year and 40% for community college. Around 450 in the graduating class...about 100 drop out between 10th and 11th.</p>
<p>There were students who went to Ivies and whatnot, but they tended to be students whose parents were very knowledgable about the whole admissions process - the school guidance counsellors didn't give that kind of help. There are plenty of people here who have kids who've taken more AP classes by their junior year of high school than my school even offered. I wasn't one of those lucky students whose parents knew all about the admissions process and I didn't have anyone to compare myself with, and I honestly thought that there were only about 10 AP tests total, until I came here and heard people talking about AP Basketweaving and whatnot. These are the kinds of issues that you're going to run into...the school being more focused on getting people to pass while other schools are focused on getting everyone into college.</p>
<p>Most schools send an info brochure along with the transcripts so the student's transcript can be evaluated in the context of the school itself. I would imagine that they take that into consideration...it'd be rather unfair if they didn't. I know the information is there for them to look at but I really have no idea if they use it or not.</p>
<p>I'm hoping she'll be in good shape- she's working on lining up an internship for next summer. This year as a sophomore she has Honors Pre-Calc, French III, AP Euro, AP Chem, AP Psych, Honors English 10 for her core classes (Art, Gym/PE are the others). I hope that's comparable to what other students are doing. Until she's 16 (next July) options for true college courses are limited. Her SAT's in 7th grade were over 700 for each (old test)- wish those would carry over! I've heard somewhat mixed reviews on the merits of pre-college programs but it's definitely something we'll consider. Realistically, though, I think her senior year will find her taking advanced math at our local university- won't be any other options at the high school!</p>
<p>OUr local suburban hs (40% Hispanic, 40% Caucasian) sends 25% to 4 year colleges, 50% to the local community colleges.</p>
<p>My son goes to a rigorous prep school where about 25% of the kids go to a highly selective college, and his schedule is very similar to your D's , but he is a junior. He went to a easy going middle school where he did not have foreign language and the most advanced math offered was Algebra. So he is taking the Pre Calc, language 3, Ap History, AP chem, and AP English as core classes. I am surprised that there is an AP chem at your school, as it is a rare class taken at S's school, that requires a year of Honors Chem as a Pre Req.<br>
Her SATs are terrific, and I am sure she will beat those numbers. I just said precollege, because some of those programs tend to have a lot of top students in them, and to do well in one show how a student performs relative to peers. Sort of like a CTY. But a local college that has good solid courses would be just as good. I am a little leary of community college or weak college courses because they can give a false sense of accomplishment. Our CC science courses are not the level of our highschools', private and public in our area, AP courses. Nor is their calculus very thorugh--it would not pass muster as a building block for a competitive college's math courses. Your D is looking good.</p>
<p>I attend a HS in an upper-middle class, suburban community northwest of Cols, OH. I'm not sure the stats between 4 years colleges to 2 year colleges, but about 98% of graduates attend one or the other (class size varies years to year, about 200+).. most of the students who do not go to cc/university drop out before they graduate, hence the high %.</p>
<p>edit: with your daughter's coursework, if she keeps on heading in that direction, it won't have a bad impact. Does her HS rank? I imagine with her stats + student body that she would be up in the percentages, which is always a good thing.</p>
<p>Big 3000+ public school in NYC inner suburbs. We send 70% to four year colleges, 26% to two year colleges, 1% to military sevice, 2% to employment and 1% to "other". It's about 4O% African American and 15% Hispanic and 15% free lunch by the way.</p>
<p>I'm not sure where she is the ranks...I don't want her to pressure herself too early by comparing herself to other students. I guess what started this whole thread for me was hearing somewhere that the number of students going on for post-hs education would impact how the HS was perceived. Can any of you share what type of information is included on the secondary school report for your high school so I can see how ours compares? Is this a fairly standard report or is each school's different?</p>
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Her SAT's in 7th grade were over 700 for each (old test)- wish those would carry over!
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<p>nah, you don't - there's an excellent chance her scores will go up even from there. My son's 7th grade scores were just under 700 and his verbal score went up 120 points to an 800, and his math went up about 70. (Strangely math is his strong suit.)</p>
<p>Your daughter's schedule sounds very rigorous, I really think she'll be fine.</p>
<p>Yeah my school had more people go to 2 year colleges than 4 year colleges last year. It was about 30% to 4 year.</p>
<p>about 85% went to four years.</p>
<p>i forgot the % that went to community college but we had like 50% going into the UC system.</p>