Small Town vs. Big City - Pros and Cons Living and Educating

[soozievt]

<p>mythmom wrote:

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Ideally, healthy children can adjust and thrive in a variety of settings.

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<p>This is how I feel. We didn't pick our children's schools. Were they ideal schools? No. But they thrived anyway. I am sure my older one would have have really enjoyed an elite prep boarding school but we never considered it, though some families here send their kids off to one. My younger child surely would have loved a performing arts high school but we have none in our state and so again, she'd have to be sent off. We never could have afforded those private schools but also never would have chosen to send our kids away (not putting down those who do but it wasn't something we wanted to do). But they surely didn't suffer because of not being in the ideal educational setting for high school (frankly our elem school was close to ideal, however). They made the most of it and we were also able to arrange academic accomodations such as acceleration, independent studies, long distance courses, going into the HS in MS, etc. I'm not saying it was great, but they thrived. </p>

<p>Calmom, you speak about ECs and what my kids did. Let me say that they did many ECs THROUGH school. Older D was on three varsity sports teams through school. She happened to also do a weekend program outside of school in one of those sports but didn't have to at all. And in one sport, seasonly, she took some private lessons locally too. But her EC was through school. Band and jazz band for her were at school too. She took private lessons on two instruments but those can be arranged to take place during the school day here too (one of her instrumental lessons was during the school day and one was at night). Student government was at school. But it is true that her dance classes were at a dance studio not at school. Frankly, I know lots of kids at really good high schools in other states who also took dance at dance studios. I even think your D took dance at a studio. I don't think that was just because my kids went to a rural public school. It so happens that in recent years, our private dance studio which is 25 miles away, was hired to teach dance classes at the high school as part of the school curriculum. My girls did not take those classes because they were meant for students with no dance experience and they had danced their entire lives. </p>

<p>My second child did some of her ECs at school and some outside of school. She had band, jazz band, and chorus at school. She also studied two instruments. One of her private lessons was during the school day (our school has professional instrumental teachers come into the building to give private lessons) and one of her instrumental lessons was privately at night locally. My D also did the school musicals. She also initiated, created and directed two musicals there at school. But she did take dance at a private dance studio. And she took voice privately 50 miles from where we live. However, our school does bring in voice teachers for private lessons during the school day. And she did participate in theater productions outside of school as well. Again, I know many students who have attended well known high schools who also did theater productions and voice lessons outside of their schools. So, this was really NOT a situation specific to attending a rural public high school.</p>

<p>My girls did ECs AT school and some outside of school.....truly not all that unusual. What we DID have to do that those in urban or suburban areas don't have as much, is that we had to drive FAR on a daily basis to any of the outside of school activities (usually AFTER they did the school based ECs) and put a lot of miles on the car and a lot of parental time. There is no public transportation here and things can be very far away. While my kids went away to programs in summer.....that again is not a product of being from a rural public school. The other kids in their summer programs came from wealthier communities, not rural, and better (often private) high schools. So, even those kids also go away to summer programs for enrichment. </p>

<p>I think the OP wasn't thinking about small town school and doing nothing enriching vs. well known high school in suburbia and doing enriching things. I think a parent who is into enrichment and kids who seek such enriching endeavors, can do that no matter where they are at. So, the OP could still send her kids to an unknown small town school where they participate in school based ECs and perhaps also do out of school activities just like they would have done at a well regarded school in suburbia. </p>

<p>In my line of work, I meet families from around the country attending a variety of high schools. For instance, I have clients whose public schools offer drama/acting classes. We don't have that at our high school and in fact, we have no acting classes in this region. I have clients who live where there is youth theater in their area but we don't have that here (other than school shows). So, my D didn't get those things here but still succeeded in being admitted to some of the top theater programs. I can tell you of several rural Vermonters currently attending not only her BFA program but many of the other top ones. So, kids can succeed coming from places like this. </p>

<p>Mythmom wrote:</p>

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PROS: Kids were not competitive with each other. Neighboring school district is cut throat. Kids sabotage each other. We had none of that.

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<p>Exactly the same for my kids. When I read of the cut throat atmosphere in other regions, I am grateful my kids didn't have to be in such an environment. </p>

<p>
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School was not clique-y. Jocks, musicians, geeks all socialized together. Often one child wore all these hats.

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<p>I especially agree with the wearing of many hats. For instance, one of my D's was both an athlete and a performing arts student, as well as first in her class. I noticed among the kids in the NHS, the top kids in her class....almost all were on sports teams and many were also in the music program. Jocks, musicians, and geeks all mixed. I have to say that my kids were not as social with the kids who were not college bound who were not in any of their classes or activities. At our HS, 66% go onto college. They mixed with anyone in that grouping but less so with those who were not too academic or didn't partake in ECs.</p>

<p>
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No cut policy for extracurriculars. Kids were needed for sports, plays, academic teams etc. If a kid wanted to do something, she could.

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Our school didn't quite have a no cut POLICY but for some sports teams, anyone could make it. For some teams like soccer, there were cuts but not huge cuts like you would have in a very large HS. I think most kids who want to be in the shows can be but once my D didn't make it into a play. Basically, being able to participate in ECs is easier in a small school. There are not hundreds trying out for the musical or team. </p>

<p>
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Teachers, guidance counselors etc. knew all kids and their siblings. In terms of elite colleges, recommendations were fabulous.

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<p>I can totally relate to this as well. While our GC doesn't have the ties to elite colleges that can be had in a well known high school and doesn't really have the expertise with regard to elite colleges or in the case of my younger D, performing arts college programs (and we did it all on our own), what he and the teachers could offer is that they really really knew our children and could write excellent recommendations. I read a lot on CC of people saying their GC doesn't know their child, etc. Our GC had both of our girls starting in middle school and he knew them VERY well. Their recs were very personalized. </p>

<p>
[quote]
Only one section of French, physics, etc. Scheduling is hard to do and choices sometimes had to be made. Although advanced offerings were numerous, there were no "exotic" offerings: AP statistics, Art History, Music Theory, Psychology, Economics were not offered.

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<p>This was true here as well in that there was just one section offered of the harder classes. So, when my younger child was a junior and was accelerated beyond even the normal acceleration offered here and had to take AP Calculus, it was offered when the highest level interdisciplinary English/History class for juniors was offered that she needed to take. They normally wouldn't create such a schedule conflict for the seniors who take AP Calculus who also take the hardest classes in the other subjects but she was the only junior taking AP Calculus so the schedule wasn't created to accomodate that. However, she took independent study AP Calculus under the supervision of the math dept. head one period per day. So, yes, these things happen in a smaller school with the schedule. And there are less of the more unusual courses offered here as well. I think we do have Psych though. Our music department is very well regarded and won a Grammy award. </p>

<p>
[quote]
On the other hand, the music program was flexible and excellent so one child did band, chorus, chamber choir and jazz band during school hours (all in slot of one period) and the other did the same substituting orchestra for band. This was possible because the teachers were willing to share the kids.

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<p>Our music program also worked things out. They made it so that jazz band could be at the same time as band and where those in jazz were pulled out on certain days. Those in jazz theory (my kids did all these) were scheduled around the science lab days (Honors/AP science requires double periods two days per week and a study hall three days per week and so they slotted jazz theory into those three days/ week study halls as usually the better students were the ones involved in jazz band anyway). We were able to arrange to have D2 pulled out for Jazz band during chorus period. </p>

<p>
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My daughter said she didn't really feel she had like-minded friends when she was going to school but that she now realizes how close they were. They have alkl gone off on adventures, some international, but they all come back to spend time together.

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<p>When my kids grew up and lived here, they had many friends through school and activities. I have to say that their friends at college are of a different sort (this was also true of summer friends in programs out of state) and surely from a different background. They have more in common with their college friends now. However, my girls seem to be able to be friendly with both sets of very different friends. When they come home from college, they still see certain friends from home, and then there are some from home with whom they have drifted apart as their experiences are just so different. But they do maintain friendships and see certain home friends when home on a break. Their college friends are more their type. But prior to college, this was not a problem ever. I just see them as having a different kind of friend in college.</p>

[Ivy2B]

<p>Sooz--enjoy your slice of paradise--sounds fabulous!</p>

<p>I was thinking that it would be so wonderful to be in a place where my kids can just be kids--if they have soccer then they just walk there with their buddies. This town we are considering doesn't have a stop light and most people drive golf carts. I am tired of the running to soccer, scouts, swimming, art class, spanish class, etc. Momma has permanent car seat butt--getting off work at 2:30 and not getting home until 7 or 8. All the running around is part of what I want to escape from. But it sounds like colleges don't give credit for "just being a real kid" anymore....</p>

[paying3tuitions]

<p>In our family, there came a moment when the kids had to choose between the performing arts and sports. This is sad but each time, the demanding sports programs lost our kids because we would not give over our dinnertime to them. My H returns to work most weekday evenings for meetings with volunteers, so if we didn't all gather at home for our 6:00 dinner, they wouldn't see Dad the entire school day. </p>

<p>Hmmm, relationship with Dad versus chance at a soccer scholarship, hmmm.... no brainer.</p>

<p>While theater groups have an occasional "hell week" immediately before a show to do technical rehearsals, that was one week of wrecked dinners instead of the entire term. </p>

<p>I wish schools would emphasize more personal sports and fewer team sports, so that everyone can stay healthy. </p>

<p>In 9th grade, my S decided to quit soccer because they began practicing mid-August, our family's only chance at a vacation all year. Ironically, he auditioned a few weeks later and was in an independent film where he played a soccer match in the script. Things have a way of working out.</p>

<p>I teach middle-school aged kids Hebrew class on Tuesdays from 4:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
I had assumed, since they were up before the roosters crowed, that afterwards they go home to dinner, but I was so wrong. A few leave l0 minutes early, eat pizza in the car on the way to Swim, which starts at 6:00, I guess. When they return for homework, it is 8:00 p.m. and they have been programmed for the previous 12 hours of their lives. It is exhausting. </p>

<p>Why?</p>

<p>Perhaps you are considering putting the brakes on some of these afterschool activities. I'd hate a schedule such as you're describing. One time, I did find a program in theater that had classes for all 3 ages of my children, so it was relatively
a one-stop program. Generally, though, each class has its own level at a different hour. </p>

<p>We also paid an extra surcharge for music teachers who'd come into the house when I had small babies. I rebelled at the car seat scene with the babies, while the big ones (ages 7,8) went inside homes for 45-minute lessons and I drove around in the freezing Canadian winters...too much.</p>

<p>Generally, each kid had 2 afterschool activities apiece each term and I tried to consolidate, even if it wasn't the "best" teacher for this or that. A lot of time we were just trying things out. Once they got serious and knew which EC's they liked a lot, the h.s. was providing a lot of them, and it was focussed on one or two areas per child, not all over the place. But it was a problem all through middle school because we wanted the kids to demonstrate what they liked most, not us choose it for them. </p>

<p>It's not easy. I sympathize.</p>

[paying3tuitions]

<p>^^Timed out, obviously...</p>

<p>To conclude, I looked at your list. Perhaps scouts is redundant, if your family already goes camping, hiking or does crafts and church work. Boy Scouts was founded in the l9th century for boys without fathers, so that other men could teach them necessary outdoor skills in hunting, fishing and so on. Perhaps you are already teaching many of these skills yourself, and scout badges, while motivating, aren't worth all this. </p>

<p>Arts and crafts classes? I don't get that at all! Can you set up a table in the kitchen and buy them rotating kits to work on? Or put out scraps of paper, fabric, magazine pics and glue -- let them do collages and other open-ended forms of art? If they don't learn how to do slip-clay pottery in their entire life, they'll be okay, even if your town has the best pottery class, ever.</p>

<p>And if, through home and school, you discover one child loves doing artwork, then focus on that around 8th grade and up, with some great studio teaching outside of school -- as her one important EC.</p>

<p>I think the talents will show themselves as long as there is some vehicle for them to emerge, at home or at school. Then focus in around middle school on some quality teaching. That's plenty good enough for college applications, unless you have a child prodigy in piano at age 6 or something.</p>

<p>And believe me, I'm not so special. I am now sorry I didn't cook more at home with my kids. That's the most enriching opportunity of all; market the food, plan some recipes, do fraction math while you halve the potatoes, etc. If I could go backwards, I do much more of that. My college grad D just came home for the summer to learn to cook better before she begins her new life. So there are some essential life skills we're missing with all this academic enrichment!</p>

[garland]

<p>I can't discuss the small town life, as we didn't live it, though it sounds very appealing to me. But I would like to argue against the idea that you have to go to a "good" HS that colleges know, or you have to make up for it with special programs and out of this world EC's, in order to go to good colleges.</p>

<p>My kids grew up in a inner surburban, city-ish, blue collar town. There's one high school, and they attended it. They also attended the nearest elementary, and the one middle school in town. So they knew many of their friends from K-12. The school is not "good" by CC standards. Allmusic said something about kids having to go to college courses to get math beyond Calc BC at her kids' school--ours only goes to Calc AB, and no one takes it before 12th grade. We have about 6 or 7 APs besides that. </p>

<p>The school averages in the 900s old-style SAT. Most kids here, if they go to college, go to a CC or a local state school. Many go into trades or armed forces instead. But for those who aspire differently, it's do-able. This year saw acceptances to Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Barnard, Cornell. My own kids attend(ed) an Ivy and a top ten LAC. Neither took part in any EC's more exotic than the Marching Band, and didn't do any out of town summer programs.</p>

<p>I agree with Soozie--colleges accept individuals, not high schools. Live where it makes more sense to you, rather than where it "might" get your kids in to the "right" college.</p>

<p>If I had to do it over, I might have done the small town life with them too. Though our not-so-striving regular Joe town worked out pretty good for us, too.</p>

[PackMom]

<p>Our high school is a large suburban (3000 students) in a huge consolidated sch. district (20 high schools total, I think). It has not been good. It's overcrowded. There are lots of behavior problems. There are just too many kids for the administrators to have any idea who they are unless they are the trouble makers. Teachers are overburdened and burned out.</p>

<p>The tippy top students do well because they would do well just about anywhere (my S1) and can take refuge in all AP classes with good teachers. . The average students (my S2) are mired in mediocrity with the worst teachers and are lost in the system. The teachers with the lowest end kids spend most of their time just trying to maintain control in the classroom. There is a definite divide between the haves and the have nots.
There is no real school spirit/unity because it's just so big with kids from all over the place. School events are poorly attended. Nobody really cares.</p>

<p>Both S's had plenty of athletic and other EC opportunities and school is very close to home so I've had no complaint there.</p>

<p>H and I both went to small town high school (not tiny though, I had 175 in my grad. class) and we have wished many times that our kids could have had a different high school experience. </p>

<p>If we had it to do over, we would have moved to a smaller district when they were young. I think they would have enjoyed high school more. Both can't/couldn't wait to get out of their school.
S2 is a rising senior and we are counting the days until graduation already.</p>

[danas]

<p>A good friend of mine grew up in northern New Hampshire. He attended a one room schoolhouse. The teacher identified him pretty quickly as a smart little boy and left him alone in the back of the class to read whatever he wanted.
He later attended Exeter on scholarship, Harvard, and became a Rhodes Scholar.
He feels his one room schoolhouse experience was by far the most important to his development, and is critical of conventional education.
How about big city tiny school? My kids have been raised in Chicago and are homeschoolers/unschoolers. Intimate (in comparison with schooled kids) relationships with diverse people of varying ages, but a large world to operate in in regard to neighborhoods, arts opportunities, museums, etc.
I don't think many people would choose this. People I know who admire my kids and have been close to doing the same (and who spend $25,000/year per kid on school and tutors) just can't bring themselves to make the break.<br>
I think too many people believe in experts and don't trust themselves and their own kids.</p>

[sly_vt]

<p>I now live about 30 minutes from Soozie; I grew up in NYC. My graduating class had 750, my daughter’s 110. I agree with many of the comments made here already; in the end I am glad we live here and my daughter went to school here.</p>

<p>I don’t know yet how she’ll do in college (also Brown), so I can’t comment on that part of your question. Most students in recent memory from her HS have done well at top colleges. </p>

<p>Every year, a handful of kids get into the Ivies and top LACs. I agree that colleges accept great students, irrespective of their high school. </p>

<p>This is why it worked for us, and what I would look for in a small town: our community, while small (8000 people), has a cosmopolitan flavor to it, with many professionals living here. So there are a lot of smart kids with involved parents. My daughter had no problem finding friends that she could connect with intellectually. Yet there is also subsidized housing, so there is socio-economic diversity. </p>

<p>With one elementary, middle and high school, the kids knew each other for a long time. They were a family, and that’s a wonderful feeling. Yes some kids get sick of it. Some leave. Some stay and complain. That’s life. </p>

<p>Academically, the situation was bad in elementary and horrible in middle school. The high school was an improvement. Still, our HS drives some kids crazy, since there are a handful of APs, few honor courses, etc. Some parents give up and send kids to private school. The guidance staff, though, is wonderful. Because of the community’s demographics, they understand college admissions, and will help kids find challenge in courses either at school or outside school. The personal attention my daughter got was phenomenal.</p>

<p>I could go on and on about all the drawbacks to her education, and the lack of opportunities. There were many. </p>

<p>But she developed close relationships with teachers. There was no cutthroat academic environment – she had fun in high school, and got plenty of sleep. She and her friends scored 4’s and 5’s on AP exams, which tells me they got a quality education. By senior year, she and a handful of other kids practically ran the school. She was never a number. </p>

<p>Life is a compromise. We definitely sacrificed some aspects of her education to live here. But I think we gained others. At graduation, being able to watch kids who I knew as toddlers get their diplomas – that was a special experience.</p>

<p>As for me – I’ve adjusted fine from living in a city of 8 million to one with 8,000. I can walk to town, so I don’t have to rely on a car all the time. Most important is the place that I live in has some large-city amenities, like a movie theater that shows independent films, good restaurants and bookstores, and is populated by people who left big-city life but still have a sophisticated approach to life. And we visit big cities regularly. Not having an hour-plus commute in traffic or crowded trains helped my transition, too. </p>

<p>Now if only I could adjust to the long winters.</p>

[danas]

<p>Just to touch base with some posters, I used to live in Stony Brook, NY, where my kids started school inn Three Village, and was a hair's breadth of taking a job in Montpelier, VT, which was mighty appealing.
In either case my kids would have been unschooled/homeschooled in form or another.
I'm still amazed at the number of stars in the sky in Vermont.</p>

[mythmom]

<p>Hi Danas! That's one of the reasons my son gave for choosing Williams.
I'm here in Port Jeff.</p>

[danas]

<p>And my son, Dartmouth!</p>

[paying3tuitions]

<p>While raising our kids, we moved from a big city (Canada's beautiful capitol city) with excellent schools, to a poor, small town in the mountains of upstate NY with horrible schools, to suburban upscale Buffalo with a fine, if competitive and sheltered, high school experience for the youngest who just graduated.</p>

<p>For college admission, I believe it was helpful to come from a rural community and stand out from the crowd academically. Home support, like the Vermonters describe, keep kids on track with enrichment opportunities generated by the family if not the schools.</p>

<p>What I liked most about small town living, in terms of kids' educations, is that they gained a lot of leadership confidence by knowing the mayor, police chief,
judges, and so on since everybody's kids went to one school. They understood how a community works, from top to bottom. In their classes were the kids of the dad who'd gotten arrested the night before, the cop who arrested him, the lawyer who'd defend him, AND the judge who'd hear the case.</p>

<p>Consequently, everybody learned not to oppress each other with generalities but to actually know the person right in front of them, warts and all.</p>

<p>It is essential to act in an accountable way in a small town. If you complain about the school lunches while getting a haircut, watch out! Likely the haircutter's sister is the school dietitian and will take offense. Next thing you know your H will hear at work that big city newcomers shouldn't be expecting their town to be like X city, after all. So understand that you own anything you say in public, especially criticisms of institutions. You can't hide in a small town, and disgruntled comments will come back to bite you. </p>

<p>My kids picked up on this, somehow, and always speak very positively in public, although at home we can be more honest and analyze things pro and con. When we moved to the suburbs from this small town, people complimented to me often about their "great manners." </p>

<p>In the small town, when at age 10 and 12 they walked together to school and had the unusual bicker under the windows of village neighbors, I got three phone calls from neighbors asking what was the matter. They were astonished to come home with me asking them about it. Absolutely no privacy! </p>

<p>So, when one went to study abroad in a small city and was told to stay out of the bars, he listened while the suburban kids did not. That first day, the program advisors went in and out of the bars and grounded all kids who disobeyed. I asked my kid why he didn't follow them. He said that, growing up in a small town, he assumed his actions would be noticed and didn't think he could "hide" on Main Street in the foreign country. The suburban kids figured they were "far away" so nobody could know them.</p>

<p>Our small town was not as charming as the Vermonters describe, because the economy was terrible in the town, with high unemployment and much bitterness. I'd say, if you move to a rural area, try to pick a place with some economic base or charm. Emotionally it was rough sledding in the small town we lived in for 9 years, and I was relieved to move to the suburbs. When I went to school plays and concerts, I didn't have the smell of beer and smoke all around me. My youngest was accepted and welcomed into the suburban school here. The older two, equally friendly, just were never really accepted by the small town; always the outsiders. They envy their youngest sib's suburban h.s. for its many academic offerings and wish they went here instead. Academically, however, the older two performed stronger academically, on SAT's especially, even though they were attending the mediocre rural high school. </p>

<p>Many contradictions in my story, true, but that's life. It's not a simple choice, to move to the country. It's not all Bob Newhart the Innkeeper. </p>

<p>I think if the town you're considering sounds more like what the people from Vermont and Maine/New Hampshire are describing, it will be good. If it's a scruffy, angry, depressed small town, don't go there. If you stay in the suburbs, cut down on the number of afterschool activities and reinstate more family time, since that is JUST as enriching. (Since your OP asked for advice, I felt free to give it!)</p>

[danas]

<p>Excellent post, paying3tuitions, and honest. I think you and your family were the likely determinants of your older kids development. It is hard to be lonely in one's school setting. But it sounds like your kids identified with your worldview rather than the worldviews found in their school. Love triumphs.</p>

[mythmom]

<p>I second danas. There's a novel in there somewhere. I know it.</p>

[Allmusic]

<p>Just for the record, there are as many economically depressed, angry townies in some areas of Maine/NH and Vermont, as P3T found in her small town. Most of those areas rely on tourist industry, and tourism has not been such a swell business of late. It is very very poor, in many areas of those three states, and not at all Bob Newhartish.</p>

<p>I think there is always a fantasy of small town or rural living, that some people are lucky enough to realize, but it remains a fantasy for most people.</p>

[bookworm]

<p>Allmusic,
How true. The path not taken for me was not moving to Keene, NH. I could so imagine myself working in that college, surrounded by beautiful Victorian houses.</p>

[sly_vt]

<p>P3T and Allmusic are right. I love where I live in Vermont, but there are plenty of Vermont towns where my family would not have been happy. There are only a handful of places here that have an economic profile and demographic base that meet my criteria.</p>

[soozievt]

<p>^^^ All that is very true. While I live in a very very small town, it is not a typical Vermont community. Because it is a resort area, we have an eclectic mix of folks here. Some are natives. Some are blue collar workers. Some work in the tourist service industry. Some have not been to college. But we also have many, many who elected to live here but who grew up in other parts of the country and were educated (often well) outside the area. We have many professionals who live here. There is a mix of socio-economical levels. Actually the mix of people is one thing that makes it interesting instead of all people of the same class. While this area is not for all people, some have chosen this for the lifestyle and love it. Our small town, however, is worlds apart in a cultural sense than some small towns just 15 miles away (as well as many others in the state), where I would not wish to live. Sly_vt lives in a bigger "town" (small city) that has the elements she described (and we have access to it frequently) and bethieVT lives outside another VT city (small by other states' standards) which is also not a typical small VT town. My town is more rural and smaller than their towns but all are not typical of many VT small towns at all, in terms of who lives here and what cultural things are available and so on. </p>

<p>In some earlier post, someone said something about living in a small town and being close to all the kids' activities in terms of convenience. But where I live, that is not necessarily the case. While some of my kids' activities were through school or in the local community nearby (still requiring a car!....no walking, no public transportation), many of their activities involved LONG car drives on a very regular basis all over the region. I would say that both my husband and I put 100 miles per day on each of our cars easily when our children lived at home. So, in a small town, you may have to drive further for all the enriching activities, plus you can't walk and there is no public transportation. Where sly_vt lives, you can walk to some things. My kids did one activity her D did and we went to that (not the only activity they did!) five days per week and it was 25 miles away and entailed my staying during the activity (and my kids also had activities on a regular basis that were 50 miles or more away). </p>

<p>I have to say that I live in a very beautiful place and so whenever I go to cities and bigger places, which can be fun, it sure is always nice to drive through the mountains and come home to this gorgeous place.</p>

[jmmom]

<p>From reading these posts, it is obvious to me that towns which can be very similar in some ways can be very different in others. "Known" schools can be much more like "unknown" schools than we might first imagine.</p>

<p>For example, garland says that her town's hs
[quote]
is not "good" by CC standards. Allmusic said something about kids having to go to college courses to get math beyond Calc BC at her kids' school--ours only goes to Calc AB, and no one takes it before 12th grade. We have about 6 or 7 APs besides that.

[/quote]
Now, my small town's hs is "good" by CC standards with excellent acceptances to top-ranked schools. Almost no one goes to cc, very few even to our state flagship. Yet we, too, only go to Calc AB in the regular curriculum. Maybe one kid every 10 years goes beyond that via starting college math way early. Our graduates might have ECs which make them standouts (athletically, in theater or music) in our small town; but would not put them on any "map" beyond our state or even our town borders.</p>

<p>So I join Soozie et al --colleges accept individuals, not high schools. Live where it makes more sense to you, rather than where it "might" get your kids in to the "right" college.</p>

[soozievt]

<p>We didn't pick to live here with regard to the high school. And like some others have said, our HS would not be considered "good" by CC standards. In math (which is one example being discussed), the highest course is AP Calculus (which is really AB) and which the accelerated students take in senior year. However, my children accelerated beyond the usual acceleration here and thus reached AP Calculus in Junior Year, but were the only students doing that. We just worked it out. Older D took it with seniors. Then in her senior year, she wanted to continue with math and is a very strong math student, and did AP Calculus BC through a long distance course with Johns Hopkins CTY. My kids do well in independent study situations. My other child took AP Calculus also as a junior but again, was the only junior and she ran into a schedule snafu because the only Calculus class was offered at the same time as the highest level English/History class for juniors she needed to take (they would not normally schedule this overlap for top students taking the hardest track classes but with one class meant for seniors and another for juniors, this happened for her). So, she did AP Calculus as an independent study one period per day under the supervision of the HS Math Dept. head. She then graduated after junior year. While good at math, she could care less about it and will never be taking a math class again. </p>

<p>In some areas, high school students take classes at colleges but that is harder to do here as the colleges are not that near my community and there is the drive time but also their EC schedules would not have meshed with college classes outside the school day. Smaller high schools have less courses and less sections of a course but there are ways to work things out. It may not be ideal but my kids did just fine. They certainly did all right with college admissions and so I don't think they were hurt by which high school they attended. They are still who they are and would have been had they attended elsewhere.</p>