<p>Sabaray, welcome. She sounds just fine. If things have not changed in the past couple of years, UVa is looking to recruit more good students from rural areas of Va (unless your rural area is just outside the DC suburbs ;)).</p>
<p>The party line from selective schools is that they evaluate kids based on what courses are available for them to take. You will hear a great deal on CC about taking CC classes or distance learning, etc, for students from high schools with limited course offerings, but I'm not sure how important that truly is. I worried about that a great deal when my daughter applied, because she would have rather had her teeth pulled than do any sort of extra academic work in the summer, and she pursued ECs in the school year. She did just fine with a classic set of college prep courses, and following her own interests on the summer. She actually ran out of courses at her high school senior year, she had arranged her schedule to do a community service opportunity that her school offered as a class, and they changed the class period on her, so she ended up with a study hall - she got into her first course college just fine, study hall and all.</p>
<p>If she runs out of math or foreign language classes, particularly, I would encourage her to take a college course, but that would be as much about continuity of learning as getting into a selective college. But, on the other hand, if it was her idea to take extra classes, I wouldn't discourage her as long as she's getting enough rest, etc. I think the key is that if they are purely academic, they pursue that with passion, if they are academic and musical, they pursue that with passion, if they do sports, they enjoy sports, and so on.</p>
<p>She went to a small private school, and about 95% of the grads go to a 4 year college, the others to gap years or CC. But easily 80% go to a large state school, and only a handful attend a selective college by the standards of this forum.</p>
<p>My son attended a private prep school with 200 graduates. All but 2 kids went to 4 year schools and the 2 went to 2 year college. My son is now at a top 20 school and he is well-prepared for the rigorous workload. </p>
<p>We could have sent him to the local public high school where most of the kids go on to 2 year schools although they do send some to top schools each year. It was more about the experience they enjoyed rather than which strategy would work best for getting them in to college. They felt more challenged and enjoyed being in an environment where most of the kids were achievers. Could he have gotten in to the college going to the public school...most likely. Would he have had the same experience...definitely not.</p>
<p>Well at my former elite private school (feels wierd to say that just graduated!) 100% of students went to four class university and the percentage has been pretty much constant for as long as I can remember...</p>
<p>public urban magnet (60% african american 25% caucasian 10% hispanic 5% asian) 1st graduating class was 98% going onto higher education and 86% going to 4 year college. 2nd graduating class had 100% going onto higher education and 90% going to 4 year school</p>
<p>Thanks for the welcome, Cangel. I've been a "lurker" and was getting a little worried given some of the students I've read about here. UVA is a great school, only about an hour away from us, and a lot of students from our area do end up over there. We're about 2.5 hours from D.C., so definitely not going to be a part of that competitive pool. The reassurance is definitely appreciated.</p>
<p>Our school has a folder that holds the transcript. </p>
<p>Page 1 has address, a kajillion counselor phone numbers and a description of the community and the high school. Infor includes town size, the fact that it's the only school in town, the size, an overview of prestigeous awards won in the past, how many kids in athletics, per pupil cost, size of staff. </p>
<p>Page 2 has a list of APs offered, how many took each one, and how many AP scholars there were. Also graduation requirements, National Merit Numbers, Percentage going to colleges, SAT average scores (both for SAT1s and various subject tests. </p>
<p>Page 3 descripes some of the special programs, arts program, a senior experience program, also explains some of the abbreviations on the transcript. </p>
<p>Page 4 has a listing of colleges where class of 2005 was accepted.</p>