Big difference. Here in our school diverse school district ( both ethnically and economically), the top 10% go to top 30 schools. I say top 30 rather than top 20, because a lot of very popular schools don’t make this year’s top 20 cut. Expand it to the USN&WR top 50 Universities and LACs and I’d say 40% of the kids go to that group of schools. our SUNYs do figure heavily but not like one would see in many states. There is no clear flagship in the group.
The youngest kids Catholic school has top 10% going to very much the top schools. Those few not going have generous awards to the schools they have chosen. Curiously, the Excelsior and STEM awards do not figure heavily in this group. As expected, throughout the class Catholic colleges show a strong presence. I think every kid had several, at least one, on acceptance list.
Selective Independent school has about 25% of class going to top schools. Almost no in state schools. Very few public schools. UMich, UVA, UNC occasionally make an appearance. Few Catholic schools. I had pushed and gotten an independent financial aid consultant to work with kids and families there, but the outcomes do not seem to have changed. Again the SUNY initiatives do not feature heavily here
Our neighboring school district is well known as one of top in country. Not at all diverse. Might as well be a private school. Their results are somewhat in between my school district and the independent school’s. Not much of a Catholic school presence or SUNY one other than Binghamton. Very few OOS public’s though more than the independent school, but then this is s very big school. I do see a number of pure academic admits to HYPSMC— mainly Asian kids. I had a close friend there, and her 2 sons netted acceptances at those schools with one going to Harvard and the other to Yale. No hooks, pure academic excellence.
Boy, it’s hard for me to comprehend that only 13 kids in my high school class would have gotten into UT automatically! That is so tough.
I also can’t believe that NONE of the next generation in my family will graduate from the school - my son was the only one to attend, and he had to withdraw after falling ill.
@MaineLonghorn, where I used to live, nearly half the class of a very large public school went to the state flagships, Pitt and PSU. All but few went to directional state schools or local schools. Big change when we moved here.
None of our kids even applied to our alma mater. Even with it being firmly in Top 20 ( or maybe because it is) and with them being double legacies. 3 would have been strong contenders for acceptance. They had no interest whatsoever even with the familiarity of visits over the years
@cptofthehouse (love the name - now I can’t stop humming the tune!) Interesting to see the difference. You’re in NY. I’m in FL. Originally from the northeast with no predetermined allegiance to FL schools (big rival situation mostly caused by sports).
As I mentioned, the overwhelming amount of public school kids (including many IB kids) end up in FL. A large percentage of private school kids end up in private. We see the split happening in middle school, but certainly in HS. I can’t speak for all of FL. Hillsborough County (Tampa and surrounding areas) and Pinellas County (St. Pete, Clearwater) have major resource issues. Combination of poor planning at the district level and large population growth results in very large public HSs in desperate need of physical maintenance (AC, leaking roofs, etc - it’s really ridiculous to not have AC in a school for most of the yr with no money budgeted to fix the problem). Busing is still an issue, so the more affluent neighborhoods are full of parents looking for alternatives to their neighborhood school. Once they go to private middle or HS, they seem to be in the private school vortex.
Will never know but wonder what the conversations are between teachers / GCs and the students at each. Like I mentioned previously, son attended a public charter. Was very low socioeconomic demographic full of many first time college kids. (but better academically than our local school). Many many many simply went to CC for AA and then on to local state (non flagship). Val / Sal typically went to flagship. S was essentially the only kid who focused and eventually attended a fine school OOS.
Not looking to start a turf war or anything like that, but after living in several regions of the country (NY, MA, DC, CA, FL) , feel like there is a different emphasis on education and a different set of outcome based goals. Very typical for FL kids to go to FL schools and stay in FL for their career. Certainly some venture out. Just my limited observations.
@homerdog I saw your post #161. I admit I was surprised to see none of your top graduating seniors are going to Illinois. I’m in a western suburb and I’m seeing more ‘top’ students choosing UIUC. It’s interesting to observe trends, but so difficult to understand the complex reasoning contributing to them. Within our large metropolitan area, there seem to be different opinions about our state flagship. For instance graduates from our high school are acutely aware of the difficulty of getting into UIUC’s CS/Engineering/Business majors. It definitely carries some prestige.
@88jm19 something like 55 kids did choose UIUC! Just not the top 12 kids. The only one in the top 12 that is interested in engineering is going to Carnegie Mellon. None are majoring in business. We’ve got 700+ kids in the class.
In my mid to late 80s in Massachusetts public school with 500 grads. Maybe a 100 went to a four year college. 25 percent commuted via the commuter rail or car. 25 went to a private college of various levels of selectivity.
All the rest were flagships or state directionals.
I went and counted. 9 went to the university of Massachusetts at Amherst. A few to Lowell. None to Boston. Unh UVM uri uMaine Orono had a few each. SE Maine has 2 and the rest were the state schools like Fitchburg Salem Bridgewater.
Overflow may be forcing kids out, but I’ve seen a lot of top in state kids turn down T15-25 schoools for UT, particularly in business, CS or engineering. That $10k tuition is hard to beat.
Yes it is a state wide scholarship… the highest ranking graduate (public, charter or private school) is offered a tuition waiver for their first 2 semesters at a Texas public college
@chai1vhh yes and no. D20’s public high school’s demographics do not look anything like any of the CA state public colleges. In fact, it looks more similar to a private college than a public one.
One other point -to equate going to an instate school with stunting your “social growth” is offensive. The idea that you are going to a flagship type school with " many of the people that you used to know" is strange if that is seen as a problem. It is not hard to avoid any kids from your high school if you feel you need to. And most families still need to strongly consider community college and instate schools, unless they are wealthy or want to aggressively pursue merit or need based aid elsewhere.
I’ll just say that state universities tend to look like the high schools in the state, its a natural affect, as most kids stay in state, so the majority of kids will be from that state.
Large states are very diverse! Amarillo TX or Brownsville is nothing like Austin, Miami is nothing like Tallahassee, San Diego is very different from Berkeley. Just because you stay in state doesn’t mean your university will be at all like your high school experience. Heck, some schools in the same states are in different time zones!
Not really, the cultural differences are muted being from the same state. California culture is quit different from Texas, which is quite different from Maine, etc. It usually only takes me a couple of minutes talking to someone to figure out what state they are from or at least the region.
@cu123 I strongly disagree. Graduating from FSU and moving to Miami for my first job was a huge culture shock the difference wasn’t like moving to a different state, it was more like moving to a different country!
Just skimmed this thread, but I was thinking about it: people like to say that private schools give you a more “well-rounded education” than public schools because private colleges usually have more core curriculum requirements – but the public university I’m attending, like most public colleges, awards enough credit for APs and dual enrollment that I actually have a lot more freedom to explore different subjects than I would at a private school. There’s some flaws to this system, obviously, but I’d rather not retake world history, for example, when I could just as soon take American history or something else I haven’t studied.