<p>I'm posting this because we always tend to hear from high schools where there are a gazillion NM finalists and everyone scores super high on the SATs and everyone seems to be going to an elite school. Here's a dose of reality with top students at a more typical school.</p>
<p>My son's HS is a suburban school (but with small town, rural roots) with a graduating class of about 340. Our "valedictorians" are those students who have a perfect 4.0 uw GPA and have taken at least 2 AP classes. Here is where they are attending and the major - if known:</p>
<p>[ul]
[<em>]Lawrence University - music performance and music education
[</em>]Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (also had a USAFA appointment)
[<em>]University of Arizona - dance major
[</em>]Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University (NM Finalist)
[<em>]Dartmouth College (NM Finalist)
[</em>]Boston University
[<em>]Northwestern College (Minnesota)
[</em>]University of Northern Colorado - education
[<em>]Gustavus Adolphus College (Minnesota)
[</em>]Colorado College - mathematics
[<em>]University of Virginia - engineering
[</em>]Notre Dame
[<em>]University of Colorado - integrative psychology
[</em>]University of Colorado - mathematics
[<em>]University of Colorado - major undeclared, but goal is medical school
[</em>]Colorado State University - art (2 students)
[/ul]</p>
<p>Several on the list received acceptances that may have been more highly ranked, but money made the difference in selecting where to go. One thing I did find interesting is that we had four Academy appointments this year (3 USAFA and 1 USNA). I found out (after the announcements) that our HS is considered sort of a "feeder school" for the Academy.</p>
<p>My daughter's small (138 grads) private high school looks really similar. Almost all the top ten students are going out of state, but about half of those are going to contiguous states. One Naval Academy appointment, one to Dartmouth, one to Culinary Institute, one free thinker to Bard, 3 to W&L (a large number for us), 2 to Rhodes, 1 to Sewanee, 3-4 more to assorted LACs, handful to community colleges (both of our famous state unis has an associated community college in town that serves as a tune-up for kids that can't quite meet the numbers, so it is almost like going to the state uni), and the bulk of the rest to one of 4 SEC schools.
Last year we had a famous finances/cold feet decision, but this year I don't know if anyone turned down a higher ranked school purely for money - the one possiblity I know of, I think preferred the lower ranked school.</p>
<p>wow..my high school is nothing like either of yours... I attend a public school in rural Alabama with an enrollment of 390, 99% being African American. Of the 67 students in my graduating class, I am the only one going out of state for college. There were no NMS, only 1 Ventures Scholar and it wasn't me. I was ranked third in my class but was still allowed to give a speech at graduation. However, I did gain admission to a number of prestigous institutions and was awarded more scholarship money than the vals and sals of all the schools in my county. I was highlighted in newspapers around the county for it..Though my school was not the best, I received the Gates Millennium scholarship ( $36,000) the Wal-Mart scholarship ($1000) NFIB Scholarship ($1,000) tuition and fees from my university ($48,000) and some local awards as well..</p>
<p>Threepoint - the small rural Alabama high school I went to was more like yours (except up in North AL, there were no black students at my school, even post-desegregation). PM me and tell me what county you're in and where you are headed next fall.</p>
<p>I'm not really sure where the top students in my class went.. heck, i'm not even sure who the top students are. I know the top two went to Stanford and Lafayette.</p>
<p>For the second year in a row we had a student admitted to Stanford (first student just admitted last year)</p>
<p>I don't think there were any UPenn admits (usually school sends 1 to 2)</p>
<p>A Harvard waitlist (in past students got rejected) </p>
<p>Second year in a row student admitted to Brown (first student admitted 5 years ago 1- 2004, 1-2005)</p>
<p>2004 no students got into Columbia or Cornell (first time that happened) but they got in this year showing admissions can be fickle from one year to the next.</p>
<p>Small Texas rural public. Val-NHS-TAMU, Sal-NMF-UT-Dallas, McDermott Scholar (I think free everything, including summers and research, and a new diesel pickup truck. JK). One Tulane not top 10%, one Sewanee not top 10%, one Maryville , Tenn. not top 10%. The rest? Just alternate Texas, Texas A+M, and the local JC. That'll be close enough.</p>
<p>We have a slightly bigger high school but still 3 from our top 10 (including numbers 1 and 2) will be going to the state university (University of NH). One will be going to Dartmouth, 2 to BU. WPI is in there. I believe Holy Cross will also get one. These kids are super bright, but either wanted to stay close to home, got ripped off by that "just 2 from each school at an Ivy rule" or decided the scholarships to the state university were worth it. I'm 24 in the class and will also be going to UNH next year.</p>
<p>dig are you in Co springs?
My nephew graduated from co springs in 2000(1?) was accepted at Duke but decided to attend Boulder- he just graduated with a degree in aeronautical engineering.
( he wanted the Academy as well but wasn't accepted)</p>
<p>medium-sized town, suburban - school doesn't rank, but the kids know who the two are with straight A's in all wieghted courses (no grade inflation in our school):</p>
<p>top 2 - Yale and Columbia</p>
<p>Others top kids: Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Pomona, Berkeley, UCLA</p>
<p>Other-other: 2 athletic recruits to an Ivy</p>
<p>btw: first year anyone achieved the Ivy status from our school. Perhaps they just found it when they got lost on the way to a SoCal prep school.</p>
<p>My son's senior class is 193--a suburban school. Top ten kids: Harvard, U Penn, George Wash (full ride athletic scholarship), Tufts, B.C., Cornell, Amherst, Oberlin, Cornell, Skidmore.</p>
<p>Small town PHS with 129 seniors: top 10% going to: Yale, Stanford, Tufts(2), Holy Cross(2), MIT, Dartmouth, Haverford, Harvard,UPenn(Wharton), Queens(Ontario),Williams. Obvious Northeastern "bias" here compared to cangel's similar sized school. Next 10% in our school similarly Northeastern-based, for the most part: eg, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Colby but add Northwestern, Tulane.</p>
<p>Suburban public HS in northern NJ - only 75 students in class:</p>
<p>Valedictorian: Got into Columbia but couldn't afford it; going to Rutgers on full ride (like me, except I didn't get a full ride, but still some merit and grant aid)
2nd: UVA
3rd: Villanova (baseball scholarship)
4th: Wake Forest
5th: American University
6th: NYU
7th: Gettysburg
8th (me): Rutgers</p>
<p>CA Bay Area. Catholic private, ~100 kids in senior class. Top 15% kids.</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
Brown
Dartmouth
Cornell
UCLA
Berkeley</p>
<p>It's odd. We are not supposed to be a feeder school. Traditionally not regarded as one of the more hard core prep in area - more social conscience etc. So this year I guess we must be one of those other schools you talk about Dig.</p>
<p>Berkeley (3)
UC Riverside (2) <- sal is here
Boston University (1) <- val is here
USMA (1)
Azusa Pacific (2)
Emory (1)
UCSD (4)
University of Hawai'i - Manoa (2)
Liberty University (1)
USD (1)
Pepperdine (1)
UCSB (2) </p>
<p>(Yeah, it adds up to 21. So?)</p>
<p>Kids going to college from graduating class: 60%
-> percent of those going to 4-year: 35%
-> percent going to 2-year: 60%
-> percent of those going to local CC triumvirate: 95%
-> percent going to tech: 5%
Kids going to military (not military colleges): 10%
Kids that typically go out of state: <10%</p>
<p>In the past 5 years, my school has sent about 5-10 people to Ivy League schools. No one has ever gotten into Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, or MIT, but we have sent a few to Cal Tech, Brown, Columbia and Cornell. We're really big with the military: every year, we send at least one (sometimes more) to one of the military academies. My year and the one before it (class of '04 and '03) sent to USMA, this year is sending a kid to USAFA. The recruiters for each branch all have an officer assigned to my school alone to handle all the recruiting effort that goes in, which is weird because my school has <1200 students.</p>
<p>An overwhelming majority of college kids stay in the state or very close to it (ie, going to Arizona). The counselors aren't really knowledgeable of places out of the state, and are terrible with elite admissions -- the kids who got into the Ivy League did so because they were amazing (the kid going to the USAFA is very much a CC kind of kid) or had outside help (a few students had local government connections, lots of money, and other family connections).</p>
<p>Suburban TX school. 4 yrs old. 609 in grad class. Of top 10, val to Rice, sal to Amherst, #3 to MIT, #10 to Stanford, rest to TX A&M or UT. Top three had waitlists to Harvard, Princeton and Georgetown. MIT didn't give much $ at all. Rumor has it they aren't very generous. Val is in a combined pre-med/bio/med school program with Rice/Baylor Med. Sal got nice FA from Amherst. #10 basically a free ride - Hispanic National scholar, lots of scholarships she admits due to permanent res status and considered a minority, although white collar financially stable family (came from S. Am. with 2 other languages from schools there). In top 10% had one USAFA appointment. A few going to OU, Tulane, BYU, and basically all the rest to TX schools.</p>
<p>We have not yet had graduation so I am not really sure with this year's class at our rural public high school where kids come from six towns and the graduating class has about 168 kids in it, I think. Also, the kids in this class are not really my D's class because she is a junior but is graduating early and is considered now in the class of 2005 but these are not all her classmates/peers. I don't know who is the top ten yet but I know the top 10% or so as I know who is in NHS which is likely similar to the top 10% here. </p>
<p>Of those kids, I know the val is going to Syracuse and the Sal is going to Emerson (BFA in musical theater) and a few are going to University of Vermont, one to Middlebury, one to Bates, two to Colby, one to Pace, and my D is going to NYU/Tisch. I don't know about the others but none are going to Ivies. </p>
<p>Last year in my older D's senior class....the top students went to: Val (my D) to Brown, Sal to Middlebury, several to University of Vermont (some to Honors College), one to USNA, another to Middlebury, one to McGill, one to Skidmore, one to Norwich University, and one to Elizabethtown, one to Johns Hopkins, two to Smith. So, there was just one Ivy admit. </p>
<p>The prior year's val went to UVM and there were two Dartmouth admits. </p>
<p>The prior year's val went to Brown.</p>
<p>Two thirds of the school is college bound.
Susan</p>