<p>Not really, JB. There are a number of inner city specialty schools on that list that are pretty high up there.</p>
<p>I'm just wondering, what are these high schools? I haven't heard of anything besides Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Technical, which are all in New York City.</p>
<p>Many CCers claim to go to a "competitive" high school because they are. One way to look at the "competitiveness" of a high school is to look at student ambitions (as someone posted above). Schools with many students striving for top universities are competitive, because a relatively high percentage will go to top universities compared to a normal high school. On CC, this designation is fairly meaningless, though when chancing someone, I always ask just to make sure. Since CCers are obviously aiming for admission into top colleges (not necessarily HYS), nearly all CCers go to a competitive high school.</p>
<p>@shravas: There is no good list for these high schools. I don't like any of the ones currently floating around. You should look at median or mean SAT scores of previous years of students, percentage of students that go on to college (i believe that if private, it should be around 95+ percent, public 90%), and actual college placement. For example, here is a link to my school, which I consider competitive, though not as much as say, Andover. Notice that the first two quintiles are chock-full of UCs, Ivies, and LACs (once again, not like some elite high schools with numerous Harvard acceptances, but still competitive). UCs are dominant because the school is in CA. Even at the very bottom, there are admissions to UCs (though not Cal, LA, or SD) and the military academies.</p>
<p>kwu is correct about AP's. There are some competitive HS that are considering dropping AP courses, or don't give them in certain areas because the school feels its current curriculum and courses are actually better without having to conform to AP.</p>
<p>My high school one of the top 10 best public schools in the state, of course that's not saying much considering that state is Tennessee...We send some top grads to HYP. Lots of good schools visit, like Duke, MIT, UMich, etc.</p>
<p>Here are the average ACT scores for all the public schools in the county.</p>
<p>Houston High: 23.6 <-- where I go</p>
<p>White Station High: 23.6 <-- even though the ACT average is the same as my school, mine is not listed in newsweek top 100 and this one is simply because they have a couple more AP classes...total BS.</p>
<p>Collierville High: 23.3
Bartlett High: 21.5
Bolton High: 20.7
Germantown High: 20.5
Cordova High: 20.4
Central: 19.5
Messick: 19.5
Ridgeway High: 18.8
Millington High: 18.7
Overton High: 18.6
Whitehaven High: 17.8
Craigmont: 17.4
Middle College: 17.2
Treadwell High: 16.9
East High: 16.8
Kirby High 16.7
Westside High: 16.6
Wooddale High: 16.4
Raleigh-Egypt High: 16.2
Kingsbury High: 16.1
South Side High: 16
Northside High: 15.9
Trezevant High: 15.7
Frayser High: 15.7
Carver: 15.5
Memphis Job Corps: 15.5
Hamilton High: 15.4
Hillcrest High: 15.4
Sheffield High: 15.3
Fairley High: 15.1
Yo! Academy: 15.0
Melrose High: 14.9
Westwood High: 14.9
Manassas High: 14.8
B.T. Washington: 14.7
Grizzlies Academy: 14.6
Mitchell High: 14.6
Oakhaven High: 14.6</p>
<p>Given the large number of schools in the area that fall well under Houston in terms of test scores, I would call my school competitive, though not near as competitive as, say, a NY boarding school.</p>
<p>
Doesn't Harvard visit a bunch of college fairs?</p>
<p>(My school had one, and Harvard was there -- and my school is only a year old...)</p>
<p>PBailey - Sorry, I was talking about the "inner city specialty schools" that cptofthehouse was mentioning.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Or when HYP tells the school to stop ranking because it's hurting the students' chances.</p>
<p>
<p>Trust me, colleges and universities can deduce where you stand among your classmates simply by looking at scatter diagrams that your HS guidance counselors will send them. Even if your high school doesn't rank, and faithfully stands by its commitment to fairness and non-competitiveness... GPA will continue to thwart Ivy League aspirants.</p>
<p>A good number of high schools these days no longer rank their students, because it's rather pointless--especially at the most competitive schools.</p>
<p> [quote] I would call my school competitive, though not near as competitive as, say, a NY boarding school.
</p>
<p>Ah, just to clarify, there are only and handful of boarding schools in New York, and none of them are as competitive as the Specialized High Schools and the private schools on the Upper East Side. The former are public schools, and the latter offer generous merit and need based scholarships to a good number of their most qualified applicants. My own school offers full scholarships to all accepted students. "Boarding school" just makes me think of "rich" and "privileged," and many schools in NY are remarkably diverse in all senses of the word.</p>
<p>PBailey -- I don't have time to look up the rest of my metrics, but your schools sent 3 students to CHYMPS.... 1/0/0/0/1/1</p>
<p>It looks like you had 128 matriculating to college, so that is 3/128, or 2.5% matriculation to CHYMPS.</p>
<p>To me, and in line with my metrics posted way above, that is a "competitive high school".</p>
<p>How has it been in prior years?</p>
<p>kwu, at least for my school, the GC's scatter chart is actually a simple table of percentages per GPA range. Which is vaguely like decile/quartile rank, except that if you make a certain GPA, you're guaranteed to stay in that category.</p>
<p>And my point about non-ranking at a "competitive" HS (for various definitions of that) still stands.</p>
<p>i would consider a school competitive if its sends at the bare minimum 15-20% of its graduating class to the Ivy league. So basically boarding schools and private schools in New York.</p>
<p>^ That definition will essentially exclude almost all public schools, except those with artifically deflated class sizes. Out of a 500-person class, it's pretty hard to consistently send 75 kids a year to the Ivies. And anyway, there are more top colleges than just the overrated Ivy League.</p>
<p>Wow. My school=not competitive at all. (Of course I knew that.) In fact, last year's top ten featured a student pursuing their education at THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE!</p>