<p>My high school is an Early College, so we have a special partnership with a community college that's sponsored by Bill Gates and the Annenberg Foundation. We are literally in their parking lot! By the end of this semester, I'll have 25 credits total. (I'm in my sophmore year now) All courses are Pre-AP and AP. This semester I'm taking 15 hours, and have got straight A's so far. I'm graduating early, essentially because the community college only goes to the sophmore (college level). That's where the problem arises--the only essential college classes that I haven't taken would be Calc III, calc-based physics I/II, and that's it! Why stay another year just for those clases?That means when I leave, I'll have at least 67 hours. Sigh of contentment.
I think a lot of these early start programs have a lot to do with maturity levels of students. For me, it was always college, college, college. Be a doctor, doctor, doctor. And I'm glad I've always kept my grades to a 4.0. </p>
<p>Esentially, the formula to get into any good college is this:
*Superb essays
*High test scores
*High GPA
*Tons of leadership positions
*Tons of awards
*Tons of ECs</p>
<p>And yes, I just did my pre-cal hw. My diction isn't its best right now!
Good luck to all you early get aheaders!
Sj</p>
<p>It's funny you should ask about Blake, because I was just in a conversation about it recently with a parent of a student there, and overnight have had a request for information about it on a local email list. The short answer is that Blake is a private school that by policy is about one year advanced, but NO MORE, over the meager curriculum expectations of Minnesota, which means it is about a year behind most of the average public schools I have seen overseas. It is also not the strongest private school in Minnesota for admission to top out-of-state colleges, by general consensus, although far from the worst either. It is arguably the best private school on its side of the Twin Cities, but I would rather have my child go to U of MN PSEO than Blake, for equal or even greater out-of-pocket expense.</p>
<p>Tokenadult, I have to disagree quite strongly about your evaluation of Blake. In rankings of Minnesota high schools over the past two decades, Blake consistently ranks #1 in about every academic measure. It is followed by St. Paul Academy and then a toss-up between Breck and Edina. (Blake, St. Paul Academy and Breck are all private schools; Edina is a public school in a wealthy suburb.) The biggest issue with Blake is its cost. In the Twin Cities, we are fortunate to have many public schools with strong AP and IB programs. (And for the record, since IB is an international program, I would disagree with your estimation that Blake and many other public and private schools are so far behind European high school programs.) </p>
<p>The U of M is an excellent university and world-class in many areas. However, many of my kid's IB courses were often harder than comparable U of M classes that her friends took via PSEO. </p>
<p>Again, we are very fortunate in the Twin Cities to have several first-rate options for our high school kids.</p>
<p>Actually I wasn't talking about European schools in the international comparisons I had in mind. </p>
<p>There are a lot of interesting choices for parents in Minnesota, and a variety of schools here that feed into [insert name of hard-to-get-into-college] out of state. Over the years I've become acquainted with willing customers of each of the private schools you mention, and with parents whose children are enrolled in the various public school districts here, all of which are available to me, under Minnesota law, by open enrollment. (I grew up near where Breck is, and now live pretty close to where Blake is.) In what I said to the questioner (who apparently lives in Maine) who asked me about Blake I was simply distilling some recently expressed opinions of parents who have children at one or another of those schools or who used to. Personally I've always homeschooled, and I try to stay active in various volunteer activities that improve public education here in Minnesota. </p>
<p>Best wishes to your child in her (?) future endeavors.</p>
<p>I am already in PSEO, and a freshman, so i still got a long way to go… the problem is we might move. I know PSEO isnt offered in all 50 states. i know it is offered in Ohio, duh, but What other states offer PSEOP? or is ohio and minnesota the only ones
thanks</p>