<p>I don't have time to read this entire thread right now, but I did want to say this - University of Texas (UT) does NOT offer a full-ride to valedictorians. The 1st year of tuition ONLY is waived for vals (This is true for all Texas public universities.) </p>
<p>However, you practically have to jump through hoops even for this. D applied to UT (but had zero desire to attend - did it for financial reasons) and they lost her honors application TWICE (the 2nd one was sent overnight - they lost that one too). Never acknowledged her val status and eventually offered a total of $1,200 for the 1st year - nothing guarateed for the following year. The entire application experience at this school left us with a terrible impersonal impression. T</p>
<p>Texas A & M does have decent aid for NMF's though. But most of their paperwork for these scholarships says "you MAY qualify". I know someone personally who lost a large chunk of this after the 1st year due to the 3.5 GPA cutoff and he was literally right below the cutoff. There was no leeway and the money is gone forever, even after bringing the GPA up to a 4.0 the next semester.</p>
<p>You're right maysixmom. There is a financial aid link on our HS website that says something like "tuition waiver for valedictorians." I always thought this was a full waiver until I looked it up.</p>
<p>It's always better to hand-deliver documents to admissions staff if you live or work close enough. One admissions officer mentioned to me that it's better to hand-deliver transcripts because they often get sent to the wrong department in that U.</p>
<p>CC is a bubble just like the area I live in. Certainly, what we experience in this community in not the norm in the state. Folks outside this bubble think our big state U is fine - and most are worried about their children getting in the main campus since admissions standards are getting tougher. I run into people on planes and in other areas of the state who are clearly impressed when I mention where my son goes to school. Such a nice feeling after getting the quiet stares (and sneers) around here! I actually was with a group of parents last week when one of the piped up that "sending her kid to our state U would be like sending him to the dentist for a root canal". Nice. No she didn't know my son went there (large group - not everyone knows each other). Unbelievable. It's kinda like those hyper brand driven CC folks are right here in my neighborhood!<br>
Packmom, your neighborhood sounds cool!</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't have time to read this entire thread right now, but I did want to say this - University of Texas (UT) does NOT offer a full-ride to valedictorians. The 1st year of tuition ONLY is waived for vals (This is true for all Texas public universities.)
[/quote]
Thanks for clarifying that, maysixxmom. I had been thinking it was for all four years!</p>
<p>Even though I considered my suburban public high school to be really quite good in the grand scheme of thing (many many AP classes which are generally quite well taught, over 90% graduate), I am always surprised by some of the examples people give of schools with ostensibly more moderate college admissions results--ie, when people say that "only a handful" of students go to Ivies each year. I would guess that my school, which is quite large (my class was 800 students and each class is larger than the last), we average 1 or maybe 2 students to an Ivy each year. And I'm sure someone else could post right beneath me saying that their high school hadn't sent anyone to an Ivy in memory. Now, in all fairness to my school, each year a few people go to UChicago and Northwestern and assorted other top private colleges (like Wellesley :)), but it truly is a few--maybe 15 or 20 tops out of 800 students. Of course, a very significant portion attend the University of Illinois and other excellent Big Ten schools, but overall I would not call our college admissions results especially impressive, especially given the fact that it is a school with a reasonably large amount of resources, at least compared to the lion's share of public high schools. </p>
<p>I think a few things contribute to these results. One is that unlike our surrounding high schools, including the sister high school in our district, our high school is a place of much greater ethic and socioeconomic diversity. Furthermore, even of the people who were doing quite well, we are not an old-money town. When I think about my classmates, I realize that many of them, while comfortably middle class, have parents who were not necessarily super-educated (or who did not attend very prestigious schools). Most of my classmates were very skeptical of the cost of private colleges and universities vis a vis the career value of a more prestigious degree. Additionally, my family was relatively unusual in that my parents did not grow up nor attend school in the midwest. In all of these ways, my parents instilled in me a desire for a private college education that my classmates tended not to share. Furthermore, while quite good academically, I do not feel that my high school set its graduates up to succeed in the competitive admissions process in terms of extracurriculars and advising. The only ways in which one could really use school extracurriculars to distinguish themselves in a competitive admissions process was through music and sports--and as we all know, it is exceedingly difficult to do so in either activity. Not that it's easier in other things, but being that our school didn't have a debate team and had very uncompetitive academic type teams, opportunities for extracurricular excellence were more modest than at other schools in our area. Guidance was also quite minimal in terms of highly competitive admissions--I had 4 different guidance counselors in 4 years and while none of them impeded my applications, none added anything either. As a student who was very driven, very educated about the process, and very lucky to have parents who had some idea of what college admissions is like, I did fine, but I certainly don't feel that students with fewer resources were set up very well. </p>
<p>Of course, it's not impossible to rise above a less-than-supportive school--my parents' guidance counselor attempted to convince them to settle for their community college and not waste time with Ivies, and they both graduated from Princeton, but I would definitely call them the exception to the rule.</p>
<p>JHS wrote "At my kids' large urban public academic magnet, about 20% of the graduates go to the local community college, another 20% go to the largest local public commuter college (although many of those kids decide to live in dorms there rather than to commute), and maybe another 20% attends local colleges to which they could commute. Something like 25% goes to public colleges elsewhere in the state, and the remainder go to private universities or LACs, or out-of-state public universities, usually (but not always) within a couple of hundred miles of home"</p>
<p>Our kids graduated from the same HS last year. I am surprised that you say that only 15% of the class of about 550 kids (~70) go away to college (outside the city). damn I'm glad my kid got to be one of them! I think a couple went off to Ivies last year too.</p>
<p>In my son's class last year, 21% went to a local commuter public school; 39% went to an in-state public; and only 6 students (1.6%) went on to a college listed in the top 30. The school is considered one of the best in the state, (85% of the class went on to 4-year colleges) and it is mostly upper middle class. But when it comes down to shelling out the money, most kids end up going to the state U's.</p>
<p>Actually, sue, it's better and worse than that. In my impressionistic rendering, I had 25% going to PA public colleges outside the city (including, of course, Penn State, Pitt, Millersville, West Chester, Stroudsburg, etc.), and 15% other, which included Penn (i.e., not a local college to which they could commute). I just checked that impression against the class numbers. I was way high on community college -- it was only 10% of the class -- and it's probably more like 20% that goes to colleges outside the city other than PA publics, and only about 20% at PA publics outside the city. Three kids went to Ivies other than Penn, and 17 to Penn -- but those numbers are very low historically (prior to last year I had never seen a year with fewer than 30 kids going to Ivies).</p>
<p>Our three high schools graduate between 400 and 500 seniors each year. In 2006, the year D graduated, and therefore the one I am most familiar with, kids were accepted at the following schools:
American University
Amherst
Arizona State
Art Institute of Colorado
Belhaven College
Boston University
BYU
Cal Poly SLO (CA)
Carnegie Mellon
Case Western Reserve
Chicago technical Institute
College of Santa Fe
Colorado Christian University
Colorado State
Cornell
Dartmouth
Dennison
Duke
Eastern New Mexico University
Evergreen State College
Embry-Riddle
George Washington University
Georgetown
Grinnell -M
Hampshire
Harding College
Harvard
John Hopkins
Johnson and Wales<br>
Kent State
Lambuth University
Macalester
Marquette
New Mexico State University
New Mexico Tech<br>
NM Highlands
Notre Dame
Notre Dame de Namur
NYU
Occidental
Oklahoma City University
Penn State
Pitzer
Reed
Rice
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian College
St. Cloud State University
St. Mary’s College (IN)
San Francisco Art Institute
Stanford
Swarthmore
Texas Christian University
Texas Tech
Trinity University (TX)
Tulane
University of Arizona
UNC Chapel Hill
University of Alabama
University of California, Merced
University of Chicago
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Dayton
University of Debuque
University of Maine
University of Nebraska
University of New Mexico
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Puget Sound
University of Redlands
University of Texas, Austin<br>
University of Washington
University of West Florida
USC
UT Austin
Vassar
Western New Mexico University
Whitman
Willamette
United States Naval Academy
West Point Military Academy
The vast majority, however, stayed in state.</p>
<p>My d's school, fairly small, rather costly to attend, doesn't weight or rank.</p>
<p>I looked at the stats for 2 years total, 245 graduates over 2 years. </p>
<p>5 went to Ivies, 85 went to expensive private colleges, like Columbia, Duke, Vanderbilt, Hopkins, Boston College, Gettysburg, Wake Forest, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Bucknell, NYU, Richmond, etc. 75 went to in-state publics of varying levels (40 to state flagship), 25 or so would be commuting to in-state publics. Around 80 went to public OOS uni's in the medium price range (UVA, Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Penn State, etc), or privates in the medium price range (I consider this to be around 25-30k)</p>
<p>Very hard to know how many got merit or fin aid to go various places. The school is a mix of very wealthy, middle and low income students. It is probably heavier in the wealthy and upper middle category.</p>
<p>Missypie, for financial comparison purposes I looked at Stephen F Austin. Factor in their generous AP credit policy, and it is entirely possible to earn credit for a full year.</p>
<p>In our HS magnet (rated in the top 25 in the Newsweek rankings, fwiw) only 13 out of 93 seniors chose to go out of state. VAST majority is heading to various state U's. Many were probably accepted out of state. The dollars just don't add up for many families (including mine - son #1 was accepted some great out of state schools. And our state flagship U. Only one school - George Washington U - offered anything like good merit aid. He's at state U.) Son #2 didn't apply out of state. Son #3? looking mostly at the state U's.
All three boys have similar stats - 9-10 AP courses, 4.3-4.5 weighted GPA, around 1450 M/V SAT.</p>
<p>I go to a tiny school of 40 students, mostly upper-middle class immigrants from places like South Africa and the former USSR. 100% of students go on to four-year universities, usually a mix of local universities and selective American schools, and most years a student gets into the Ivies.</p>
<p>Does anyone think things will change significantly due to the financial aid initiatives at several top schools? In my economics class we discussed that before this happened, people considered upper middle class could not afford to send their kids to expensive private schools. Paying $50,000 (after tax dollars) on a salary of $150,000 would be impossible for families in high cost of living places-where most of the live.</p>
<p>Ds school in rural eastern Washington usually has 1-4 going ivy and another 4-8 going to top LACs, military academies, Northwestern, WUSTL, Duke, and the like. Most go to WSU or Eastern WA, several go to UW, Western WA, BYU and BYU - Idaho. A few will go to U Idaho, Lewis Clark State (Lewiston), Lewis and Clark (Portland), U Montana, Montana State, Gongaza, Whitman, Whitworth, UPS, Seattle U, Evergreen State, U Oregon, Oregon State, Portland State, U Portland, U Arizona, Arizona State, and CCs in Spokane, Walla Walla, and across the state. A few will join the Army or Navy or go straight into the work force.</p>
<p>Because of the western states (not CA) reciprocity more seem to be going to state schools outside of WA. Two students, who were special WA state scholars, received full-rides (4 years) to any WA state school and chose UW over generous offers from several privates. This year there were 3 NM finalists (usually only 1 or 2). Two were the special WA scholars and the third is going to Georgetown.</p>
<p>Although money is probably a factor in where students apply and where they eventually matriculate, I believe the bigger consideration is distance from home. Most of these kids (and their parents) wont apply to or attend schools outside the northwest. Also Washington has great state schools and good CCs.</p>
<p>Our very good public high school, in a comfortable Milwaukee suburb, has a graduating class of about 300 students most years. It is reasonably ethnically diverse and highly economically diverse, although that would be reflected in a bell curve with just-above-middle income students dominating much smaller populations of wealthy and poor students.</p>
<p>Each year the last issue of the school paper lists where all the seniors go to college, a feature I very much enjoy reading. By far the largest contingent (perhaps 65 students) goes to UW-Milwaukee, a very good urban University (and my alma mater) but one that would qualify as a commuter school. Twenty five or thirty attend the University of Wisconsin (my other alma mater), the state flagship. Probably another 125 attend other state schools in Wisconsin and Minnesota (tuition reciprocity). Maybe a dozen go to Marquette, a solid, mid-sized Catholic school in Milwaukee. Another dozen or so to the local Tech school. A handful go directly to work or the military. 10 or so to Junior colleges (CCs). (Wisconsin has such a good and extensive network of 4 year public universities that 2 year colleges have never been very prominent here). A smattering go to other out of state publics and to lesser known private or religious colleges. At most, 10 or 15 students each year go to well-known, expensive private colleges. Two or three to Ivy level schools, the same to top LACs (Carleton, Colgate), a handful to very good midwest LACs (e.g. Knox, Beloit, Lawrence, Kalamazoo), and a very small number to other large first tier Universities (e.g. CMU, WashU). </p>
<p>My son graduated last year and at the ceremony when the academic awards were given the Principal also announced where the recipients were attending school. With the exception of one young lady attending MIT, every top graduate was going to Wisconsin. I have no doubt that money is the overwhelming factor.</p>
<p>When I lived in the midwest, I lived in what was considered a "good" school district, one that realtors liked to show to upper middle class company transfers. 85-90% of the kids went to college. However only 70% went to a 4 year college, and most of the kids went in-state or to a few nearby schools in the tristate area. State U was the biggest goal for most kids, and many of the top students strived for local LACs. Only a handful of kids went to the ivies.</p>