<p>The problem with your methodology of assessment is that you don't consider high schools that don't use the AP curriculum.</p>
<p>The scores on this list are rather outdated, but whatever:</p>
<p>worried_mom -- I agree the "Accepted" measure is better, but it would be really hard for anyone to gather that information from their school. I think it is more common for schools to publish, or for students to find out, where students actually matriculate. It's just a data gathering issue.</p>
<p>kwu, my question would be -- how competitive could a school be that doesn't offer AP at all, or at least 5 AP classes?</p>
<p>I would think schools that have a high achieving (another phrasse for "competitive") culture would also offer lots and lots of AP classes. Even OK but not great high schools in CA offer at least 10 AP, some as many as 25.</p>
<p>kwu, thanks for that link to schools averaging over 1300 on SAT.</p>
<p>I should think those 152 would at least triple with the measure being 1275, and would increase 20 fold with the number at 1200. If the 20x holds, then about 3,000/20,000 high schools in the country would be "competitive", and about 500 would be "highly competitive".</p>
<p>I like that list kwu. Any school that has an average SAT > 1300 is definately a competitive if not super competitive school.</p>
<p>Knights09 -- I think that 152/20,000 (<1%) is too small a group to be considered "competitive". That would be "elite". I can't imagine when posters use "competitive" that they mean top 1%, or even top 5%.</p>
<p>Competitive to me means there are enough students who really care about their academic performance (don't cut class, take a college prep course load, are hoping to get into a Top 50 college) that it affects the culture of the school, and motivates other students to do the best they can.</p>
<p>Knights09 -- if your school has 35-40% going to private Top 50 schools, and another 20% to flagship State Schools, your school is very, very, competitive. Those stats would match a lot of private prep/religious schools.</p>
<p>I never said only those 152 are competitive, by all means I would say 1250+ average would be competitive. I like kwu's list for determining what level your school is at. A school that offers no APs or IB program probably isn't competitive, anyways. Perhaps new guidelines should be posted in the chances forum..</p>
<p>Dunn -- that's good, because it is a private prep school. :D Independant, not religiously-affiliated though.</p>
<p>cptoftheshouse -- what you describe is more than competitive to me... it fits into my "highly competitive" category.</p>
<p>I realize it is common to downplay one's own school in the interest of politeness, but the school you describe would not describe 99% of the schools in the U.S.</p>
<p>Kingts09 -- my bad, I do see you wrote "super competitive", which I agree with.</p>
<p>All schools are not on that list. I know a number of them with average SATs way up there that are not there. Look at where the bottom of class is going to college. The top kids of many different school go to the top schools. It's where the bottom kids, or the bottom half end up going that is the telling thing.</p>
<p>In one public district where we lived, the realtors loved to say how great the school was. Hardly. The bottom quarter went to community college, tech schools or did not go to college. But there was a strong top 10% at the school that did go to the name brand schools and a goodly number who went to flagship school which was highly desirable. Every AP class in the book was offered and the kids in that group were as strong as any I have seen, but the high school is not regarded a competitive one according to the top colleges. Considering that there are more than 2000 colleges in the US, what percentage is considered top 25? So it goes with the high schools.</p>
<p>
[quote]
kwu, my question would be -- how competitive could a school be that doesn't offer AP at all, or at least 5 AP classes?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My high school =P</p>
<p>Mean SAT score (2007): CR+M 1428, CR+M+W 2139
Mean unweighted GPA: 3.5</p>
<p>12 percent HYPSM (2008)
11 percent HYPSM (2007)
24 percent Ivy League (2008)
21 percent Ivy League (2007) </p>
<p>Who needs APs?</p>
<p>Does it have IB?</p>
<p>dang Kwu, if you're not super smart you probably feel like a failure at your school. I assume students test into the school, or it is private, yes?</p>
<p>My high school =P</p>
<p>Mean SAT score (2007): CR+M 1000, CR+M+W 1500
Mean unweighted GPA: 2.8</p>
<p>0.5 percent HYPSM (2008)
0.5 percent HYPSM (2007)
1 percent Ivy League (2008)
1 percent Ivy League (2007) </p>
<p>I go to a poor, cheap, and underperforming HS. Woe is me.</p>
<p>kwu...your location says NYC. and you have no AP. So I assume you go to ECFS? Or another non-AP school (I think that Chapin, Spence, Brearley, Trinity, Horace Mann etc. are all still AP schools?)</p>
<p>A competitive HS is one where there's a fairly high number of "top students" aiming to go to "top schools". A lot of kids take the toughest courseload possible taught by qualified teachers intending a rigorous curriculum and get mostly A's. A lot of kids have high SAT scores. These kids <em>want</em> to do well and <em>want</em> to go to an elite college. kwu and JBVirtuoso pretty much hit the mark. </p>
<p>Someone said earlier in this thread that a sign of a school's competitiveness is if HYP visit... I disagree. Outreach efforts shouldn't be taken as equivalent to an indication of a school's caliber. That could be the case I guess, but it's not always. HYP might visit a school in a not very well represented region, for example. Where I live, colleges like HYP don't even bother with individual school visits. They just hold big info sessions, and I really doubt this is a reflection on the competitiveness of schools here.</p>
<p>Is my school "competitive"? I know its not amazing, but is it decent enough?
AZ; not private; poor area; 50 kids
college prep; no AP/IB
Median SAT: 1280/1600 (CR + Math)
Median ACT: 27
88% go to college; 60% instate</p>
<p>sprialclout -- that is a very high median SAT for a school in a poor area. The teachers must be doing a fantastic job.</p>
<p>From what I've noticed, a competitive high school is one that is located in a rich suburb where many highly-educated parents live. Inner city schools and rural schools are usually kept out of this equation.</p>