small high school vs large high school

<p>Many small schools I know of do not rank. The reason is simple – the small class skews the ranking. In my son’s small class, the top kids are all within <.01, but they consistent of 25% of the class. If ranking is important to you, I suggest petitioning the charter school to not rank.</p>

<p>One of the small school benefits is that if your son wants to do something he is not very good at (say, a sport), he can have that opportunity because the pool is small. Our kids get to do a lot of activities that they might not get a chance to do at a bigger school because of this. Every kids does LOTS of extracurriculars at our school (the challenge is to keep the number reasonable so they have time for homework!).</p>

<p>Turkish, in itself, won’t necessarly be a plus to adcoms- they see a lot of kids taking Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, even Swahili. It is NOT a disadvantage- especially with the trip- and also if there is more than sightseeing and language practice involved. (Eg, if there is public policy learning included- or something of equal value.)</p>

<p>As I see it, his big plusses will be his strength in math, participation in competitions, the APs he does take and his scores on those tests, plus the usual gpa and SATs. No point having a larger selection of APs and getting 3s. Sports helps the star players. For others, long term involvement is proof a kid can stay committed. That’s all- and there are other (sometimes very valuable) things that can replace this.
He may miss the range of ECs at a smaller school- so it’s very important he go for leadership roles (or create responsibility- eg, running some particular activity within a club or elsewhere) AND that he have EC/volunteer work outside school- stuff that takes him out of his ordinary comfort zone.<br>
Re: ranking- if you look at Ivy profiles (on their own web sites,) you will see what % come from schools that do not rank. It can be a high %. So, don’t choose the magnet just because he could get a high ranking. Make your decision based on the quality of the education he can receive and his own satisfaction with the environment. </p>

<p>I graduated from a hs near DC that, at the time, was always ranked #1 or 2 in the nation. 650 kids in my class. I had a superb education that serves me well. But, it was a uniformly motivated group and the teachers set work levels accordingly. Now its rank has dropped (still great/top 50, just not awesome) because the demographics in the district have changed- there are more academically needy kids. This affects the school mission, how they set the bar and teacher attention. Keep that in mind. My daughters went to a school of less than 500- and that’s k-12. They also had a superb education.</p>

<p>thanks so much for all your thoughtful comments… this is really helping the family make a better and less emotional decision</p>

<p>The small charter school seems like a risky venture to me. It has no track record in placing anyone in college. Nor does it have a history of successful AP classes – with 3s or 5s or whatever. Nor is there a guarantee that it will ever offer an 11th or 12th grade. Turkish as a foreign language is at best quirky, and puts into question the criteria used to decide on the core academic program. Schools that are as small as this charter school have very little flexibility with class offering and selection. And if anything goes amiss – social or academic – what then? It doesn’t add up, and I wouldn’t want to be part of an educational experiment. </p>

<p>Go with the mainstream.</p>

<p>fogcity, I believe the school is one of many run by a group of Turkish-American educators with possible ties to a Turkish guy living in the States named Fethullah Gülen. The schools are public, but they teach Turkish and Turkish culture along with the standard subjects. They seem to have garnered a good reputation as far as academic success, although there is some question as to whether the guiding philosophy is purely secular. Since the op has mentioned that they go to Turkey, perhaps then they are Turkish or Turkish-American as well.</p>

<p>IMO, if OP’s son “is state ranked in math and internationally/nationally/state and regioanlly ranked in science competitions,” the charter has already proven beneficial. The current trend, in my part of the country, is exactly this sort of “educational experiment.” And, plenty of us on CC have experience with small schools- my daughters had less than 50 in their graduating classes, at a tough private here. (One got 4 years of Arabic.) Often, small selective schools work harder to make diversity work through friendships and lots of social interaction- and offer a better level of attention- than the big guys. The trade-off is no big football games, no long list of APs, no endless stream of potential friends. A determined kid can succeed at either.</p>

<p>my son does go to one of the Gulen schools. they have been amazing teachers and so committed to the kids’ successes. spanish is also offered while turkish is taught as a ‘club’ since the county does not give credit for this language. we are just plain mutt americans but enjoy learning about different cultures etc.
i agree there is little flexibility with classes but luckily he has qualified for cty and can take those classes as well as going to umbc with a scholarship he got from doing well on sat’s.
my first son is at the stem as a sophomore. he is doing ok although the work ethic and self motivation is not as strong as son 2. son one loves lax and all the girls and doesn’t want his ‘nerd’ brother to come to ‘his’ school!!</p>

<p>Sorry, I have no opinion just wanted to say the 1300 is hardly a large high school. My high school had 4600 students with 1200 in my grade alone! Gave me a little chuckle this morning.</p>

<p>“Many small schools I know of do not rank.”</p>

<p>-Yes, they do not…but this does NOT mean that colleges do not calculate rank. Most of them do, based on applicant GPA and high school class profile, which schools have to provide. That was explained to us during one of Honors college information session. This Honors program required certain rank and I asked what they do when HS does not rank.</p>

<p>Fethullah Gulen: a true “man of peace”. If you ever see a “Friendship Dinner” advertised, or receive an invitation to an Islamic celebration of some sort through a Turkish Cultural Center, this is the work of Gulen followers who believe in interfaith dialogue and friendship.
However, is this the school where the principal was removed amid some controversy? If so, I would be wary. If not, it seems like it is working and why fix if it isn’t broken?</p>

<p>wow 4600! that must have been a powerhouse of a school…some colleges are smaller than that!</p>

<p>it is that school but they have had a new one for 4 years now and things have settled down esp since the school has been performing so well across the board for so many different kinds of students. i love the school ;just after reading (too much) cc posts i was concerned that son 2 would get dinged for not having enough kids in his graduating class (AI index?).</p>

<p>I feel opposite, very small schools are usually “powerhouse of a school”, the large ones are where kids cannot possibly get the same type of attention to their individual needs from each teacher. While having 4 kids in class was way too small for my D., 33 was a perfect size.</p>

<p>If the small school has been academically great and the atmosphere likewise great stick with it. The student body will be the same and continue to perform. The advantages of a large school over small can be the availability of more AP courses and top students to fill them, but this is not your case. Go for the school that offers the best education for your child- do not worry about trying to beat the college admissions game. </p>

<p>Example- two boys in different states/years, public HS’s. One got the A in his AP Chemistry and despite studying, got a 3 on the AP test, the other disliked his teacher, got a C final senior semester after the AP exam he got a 5 on in Chemistry. Both NMF-one got $. Not all HS’s teach as well, even for AP courses. The known peer group is likely to continue to push teachers to excel.</p>

<p>The better knowledge base and thinking ability will serve your son more than being top of a less stellar class. You want to best prepare him for life and college, not just look good on paper.</p>

<p>Finally- what is your son’s preference? Does he want a change? Does he want more activities, more students to get to know, etc? If so let him go to the midsize/larger school. The Turkish is not a factor.</p>

<p>^Yes, very few AP’s and taking classes outside of school was not allowed as well as taking more than 3 AP’s in one semester and taking them before junior year was not allowed either. However, D’s regular classes apparently were much more rigorous than others’ AP classes, which was evident when she started college. She would be consistently getting over 100% where others (including the ones who had AP classes) were struggling. She ended up to be offerred Supplemental Instructor job by one of her profs because of that, and being told by prof later that she is doing terrific job bringing grades up for those who come to her sessions on a regular basis.</p>

<p>Those small private K-12 just do not belief in AP’s too much, they know their classes beat rigor of AP’s.</p>

<p>In regard to activities. My D’s school did not have a sport team in her sport. So, she started it. Her PE director registered the team in our state. When another teammate at her sport club tried to do the same, his much larger HS PE director just would not do it for him, too many responsibilites to cater for one person. Small school charish every single student, they accommodate needs of every one of them.</p>

<p>Elite schools do understand that small high schools are different, and rank is definitely not always required. My child’s school does not rank since it would be impossible to properly weight courses (kids commonly take a lot of classes at a local university - how do you weight those?) and kids get into great schools all the time.
A small school may have better college counseling. A big school may only have one or two counselors for everybody which means about 15 minutes of attention.</p>