<p>LasMa: I’m not sure but why do you think keeping record of public information is creepy? All the information was from the monthly news letter from the DD’s HS and the student run news paper including the year end edition listing matriculating college of senior student.</p>
<p>Yes, I also got an email from the HS about where seniors were going to college; it was mildly interesting and then I deleted it. Of course, I know where her best HS buddies are now, but beyond that, why should I care?</p>
<p>But your research seems much more detailed than just who went where; you’ve mentioned factors such as valedictorians, student body presidents, and a showcase, and how all of those correlate to matriculation. Do you keep a spreadsheet? Because it would bother me if another parent at my D’s high school had tracked her activites, achievements, ECs, etc. as relates to her college choice. I stand by my word: it is creepy. </p>
<p>Why is this so important to you? And back to the original question, why does it matter to you that Harker fell out of the top 20?</p>
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<p>It is certainly of interests to me to co-relate publicly known awards/position to college matriculation.</p>
<p>You can read newspaper every day and read about murder/crime in different part of the city and do nothing about it.
While I can keep track of all that information and move around with the knowledge which parts of the city to avoid at what hours and be more safe.
Another analogy is the megan website, you might not know about it but I do visit it frequently and would explore the information about the neighborhood.</p>
<p>It might be creepy for you but for me it’s first safety lesson I taught DD. I believe in knowledge is power.</p>
<p>I never thought of keeping knowledge being creepy. </p>
<p>And DD’s school didn’t fell out of the top 20 as it’s a new HS but I think it deserve to be in top 20.</p>
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<p>Crimes rates and the Megan website are safety issues. Matriculation statistics are not.</p>
<p>And what “power” do you feel you gain by keeping track of matriculation stats?</p>
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<p>Let’s revisit why we all are here at CC. You want to get some information and then co-relate that to admissions at colleges to reach decisions about your own children schooling or college choices or majors or what ever you are interested in doing with that information.</p>
<p>Having the knowledge provides you some power and that is the reason you are here on this discussion board.</p>
<p>If not then first tell why are you here on CC to begin with?</p>
<p>I believe in knowledge and that is why I’m here on CC. What I do with this information is up to me.</p>
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<p>If matriculation statistics are useless then why we need to even discuss about it. You can find large number of threads about matriculation and the ECs, Courses and all the activities students have gone thru to make that matriculation happen.</p>
<p>Any you are telling why I even bother about matriculation statistics?</p>
<p>Do you keep some kind of spreadsheet with individual students’ names?</p>
<p>^^^: Why do I need to do that, I can scan information in my mind and co-relate? If I can’t do that then I can’t keep the information from crime statistics and megan website also. I’m not that old yet that I need to keep spreadsheets for these.</p>
<p>POIH seems to get a lot of abuse on these boards. People need to get off her back. For one, she’s not a native speaker, so quoting her use of phrases like “tracking her friends’ progress” as an example of being “creepy” is not warranted. I wouldn’t expect her to be familiar with the connotations of all words if they differ from synonyms.</p>
<p>Anyway, it kind of makes me laugh how POIH has evolved in the last few years, shedding her “wrong” and “misguided” point-of-view resulting from her experience with Asian admission system and blossoming into the most enlightened American ivy p.o.v. we all take pride in. Get real, people. The American ideal is just as warped, just in a different way.</p>
<p>In the end, 75% of the parents on CC just want their kids to be able to “hobnob with snobs.” Their language is just couched in more socially acceptable phrases.</p>
<p>Not that it matters, but just fyi, POIH is a “he”, collegealum. The “hobnob with snobs” line was from his wife, not him.</p>
<p>I read the whole list. There are a lot of wonderful prep schools that are not in the top 20. These aren’t: Choate or Loomis or Hotchkiss. This doesn’t diminish the quality of these schools one bit. Harker is a fine school.</p>
<p>So what if these schools didn’t make the “top 20”…it’s not a big deal.</p>
<p>And while this is a bit off topic, I believe POIH is a well educated individual with a very good command of the English language…and yes…a dad.</p>
<p>IMO, this thread is but another opportunity to brag about the greatness of Harker. Thats fine, but lets be honest and acknowledges that it is what it is. Sure, it is a very, very good prep school. No one disagrees. Many Intel finalists come from Harker. But, for example, Fieldston is also, IMO, a very good prep school too, and it didn’t make the “top 20” list either. But so what? These types of lists lists are all silly, as is debated annually when the USNews or Kaplan lists come out, or when someone starts, for the umpteenth time, a “which college/university is ‘better’ than the other” thread. These prep schools are MEANT to feed students to the top colleges and universities. Even though the original intent of the east coast Ivy prep school league was, like the ivys, a sports conference, [Ivy</a> Preparatory School League - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Preparatory_School_League]Ivy”>Ivy Preparatory School League - Wikipedia), it too evolved into a scholastic one, and its members, like other top prep schools (eg the ones listed in Forbes) will continue to be feeder schools for the ivys. This is not news. </p>
<p>To me post#30 is another opportunity to brag about what schools POIH’s daughter applied to. But again- so what. While POIH gets ragged on for threads like this and giving his daughter $750/mo allowance so she can pay her sorority dues and eat out nicely on weekends, I respect him for being a full-pay parent and not complaining about that.</p>
<p>*** cross-posted with thumper</p>
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<p>You think? These schools deny acceptance to 90% of those who apply and many of them are applicants from top prep schools. These colleges can fill their ranks many times over from the applicants each year. And there are tons of other fine prep schools with fabulous applicants who will fill the ranks if the “wronged” prep school stops sending applicants.</p>
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<p>I often agree with mathmom but not this one. I find it’s the other opportunities that give the kids advantages. For example, they have more access to work/internship/observer experience at hospitals, research facilities and companies because of their parent network. It’s that kind of experience, research, clinical or commercial, that the top universities pay attention to. Are these kids better at those things? Who knows. At least, they have something to show while the public school kids don’t.</p>
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<p>LOL POIH, sorry – I didn’t mean to imply that. I’m an accountant, so when I think information, I think spreadsheets.</p>
<p>So, just out of curiosity, what other data and characteristics do you keep track of? You mentioned student body elective office, val/sal, and a special showcase.</p>
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<p>I, too, am of the “I don’t particularly care, beyond my kids’ immediate circle of friends” but I do have to say, I do think there are <em>quite</em> a few parents on CC who seem to know other kids’ GPA’s, SAT’s, EC activities / awards, applications and acceptances to a very high (and to me, intrusive) level, and I don’t think that POIH has been one of those “offenders.” I haven’t seen anything over the years to suggest that he’s a stalker about it, and I can’t say the same for other parents on CC.</p>
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<p>My D is potentially looking to room with a Fieldston girl at her LAC. Amazing, how they both wound up at the same place even though she’s from a good-but-not-outstanding public hs! NYChomie must be falling over in his chair at the thought!</p>
<p>.* I find it’s the other opportunities that give the kids advantages. For example, they have more access to work/internship/observer experience at hospitals, research facilities and companies because of their parent network… At least, they have something to show while the public school kids don’t.*</p>
<p>One of my daughters took a trip to the Ridgefield National wildlife refuge for a week as part of a biology class. She also worked on the Disappeared Project with [Mary Claire King](<a href=“Mary-Claire King, Part 2”>http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/sept96/king2.html</a> )from the UW & went to Costa Rica for immersion Spanish & sea turtle rescue.</p>
<p>Another daughter took a marine biology field trip, to Hawaii ( in middle school), as part of her high school marine science class, she found fossilized shells on the top of a mt range ( the Cascades) One of the chaperones was the author of [Mac’s</a> Guides](<a href=“http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/showproducts.cfm?FullCat=96]Mac’s”>http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/showproducts.cfm?FullCat=96) who was amazing. . She refurbished computers in a year long class and took them to a developing country( Ghana) where she helped to teach the village to use & repair them. She took swing dance ( in middle school) while studying the history of WWll ( & went on to finish their history study to D.C/NYC) & last year her high schools jazz band won ( for the unprecedented 4th time in it’s 15 year history), the Essentially Ellington competition at Lincoln Center.</p>
<p>Both of these schools prepare students to attend some of the finest universities in the world, & every year most of the graduating students do so.
However one school is a private prep & the other an inner city public school.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, when my D went to Brown, her freshman roomie (who she chose to room with again soph year…but didn’t know one another until initially assigned roommates) went to a well known prep school in your city and her fairly small class sent 8 freshmen to Brown just in the ED round I believe. My D’s public school sent one kid only in her class to ANY Ivy. The girls are good friends. Also, while my D was not a recruited athlete, she did play a varsity sport throughout college and her teammates were all from private schools, some of which are a specialty high school in her sport. She did just fine anyway.</p>
<p>Guys, I’m not saying it’s impossible to get into an elite college from a public HS or to be recognized as a leader coming from such school. Obviously, it happens a lot since most elite colleges are now made up of public HS students. However, what I’m saying is that ONE SINGLE leadership position at a prep school carries a lot more weight than that same position at a regular HS (or at least for the latter, you have to be vetted a little bit more, whereas the former is impressive right away). By regular HS, I mean like you average American HS (maybe 50% going onto college?). Don’t pretend that becoming president at these regular high schools is not a popularity contest that is based more on superficial traits than intelligence, eloquence, and charisma. There are some exceptions, but it’s probably those with a high concentration of bright students in the first place (TJHS, Stuyvesant, Westchester county schools, etc.). I have to say, if you’re elected president of Brearley, that’s far more impressive right away than being president of some random HS out there. The elite colleges are immediately familiar with what the former connotes, whereas they have to investigate the latter a little more, especially if he/she’s at a school that hasn’t produced a lot of great students.</p>
<p>Gosh, nychomie, for a Princeton freshman, you sure know a lot about how the real world works. In fact, based on your other threads, you sure know a lot about how everything works! Like wealthy communities and prep schools. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that you were claiming credit for the privileged background your parents were able to provide for you.</p>