This thread is so interesting to me because my kids attend the best public in our rural area (school is large, but region is rural), and our top kids each year tend to go to the same places over and over. Out of this year’s class, I know that the Val is headed to Westpoint, but otherwise, all others in the top ten or so are headed to one of our two largest public state schools. I think there’s a lack of vision here. A few others (including my son) are headed to regional or nationally known LACs, but they’re not in the top 10.
Oh and @CottonTales I by no means know where every top student is matriculating to (and certainly not their intended majors) but when you have a kid in the class, you tend to know a lot of their friends, know their friends’ parents on social media, etc, and word gets around. It’s hardly a secret where kids are going; usually, everyone is happy to shout it from the rooftops.
There are 93 kids in my graduating class. The top 9 are going to: Tufts (1), Stanford (2), Harvard (1), UPenn (1), WashU (1), Northeastern (2), and Berkeley (1).
The remaining students are going to schools like UCLA, Berkeley, Harvey Mudd, Cornell, etc.
For my youngest daughter (who went to a well-regarded MA public high school–typical class has 95-105 students ) the top two kids went to Yale and Tufts. Other top kids went to: Swarthmore, Davidson, WPI, Smith, MIT, NYU, Amherst, Harvard, Penn, Colorado College, Hamilton, Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, BC, Reed, and BU. The kids who went to Harvard and Amherst were athletic recruits as were the kids who went to BC and Bowdoin. A few of the top kids also went to UMass Honors College. All but 2 kids in the class went to college. We’re in a small town and the local newspaper used to publish a photo of each graduate and where he/she was going to college. The paper stopped that practice a few years ago.
University of Washington
One of the Claremont Colleges (usually Pomona)
Brown
Carleton
University of Southern California
Whitman
Occidental
Stanford gets the most applications but I don’t think anyone was admitted.
Heres the top 6:
1st: Dartmouth
2nd: Brown
3rd (tie): UChicago
3rd (tie): UCLA
4th: UC Berkeley
5th (or 6th, not sure): Columbia
6th (or 5th) (me): UC Berkeley Regents
after that not sure
Wow this is really not the world my family lives in. We have an “honors top 10” banquet where the top 10 kids from each school in the athletic conference all get together and they publish where the kids are going.
In my daughters class, 1 to Pitt (my D), 1 to Macalester, 1 to Carleton, 1to UW La Crosse, 1 to UW Eau Claire, 5 to UW Madison.
Of the 14 schools there, I saw 1 kid heading to Yale. No other Ivy Leagues. I saw no NESCAC. A very few to Carleton, St Olaf, Grinnell, Wash U. The catholic school in the league sent 4 kids to Notre Dame, but by far most kids choose to stay in Wisconsin.
We have very strong colleges and unis in the midwest and most kids aren’t happy wanderers. This year looked pretty normal at our public. Out of 250 we always have about 3 that wander east or west but most stay close to home.
@CottonTales - sometimes knowing results in detail isn’t a result of nosy-ness. I know where the top kids from my HS are going b/c I am a teacher there, and I teach AP… I had 6 of the top 10 in class this year… and I wrote their rec letters… so I saw their Naviance/Common app. Plus, as noted in other posts, many schools do a recognition dinner/ceremony for those kids (mine does) and in the speeches it is common for various acceptances to be mentioned (which gave insight into the 4 I didn’t have in class) - and the speeches CERTAINLY discuss intended major. So all the parents/family members of the top 10 would be privy to much of the same info if they were listening
Point is- not everyone with lots of info gets it by stalking
“At my Sons school they post the info on the top 30 kids on the School website.”
What do people think of practices like that?
It certainly wouldn’t help ease the pressure to choose the school that sounds most impressive to peers rather than hidden gems that may both make the most economic sense and fit a student the best, I would think.
No stalking needed. At my D’s school the school newspaper publishes a map of the colleges where each senior is going in the last edition of the year. The college where the student is matriculating is listed in the graduation program and announced as the student walks across the stage to get his/her diploma. The cum laude students are also recognized in an assembly and listed in the school newspaper, the headmasters newsletter to the parents, and the graduation program. As the admission decisions roll in, word spreads. The kids post on Facebook, etc. and talk to each other about their school choices.
Everyone knows the results in our private Texas school too. They did 40 years ago too when I attended a large public school in NY. It is a major decision for most of the kids and the subject of much discussion among them. I think it would be almost impossible to be in high school and not know where one’s classmates are attending. They talk about it all the time.
Our kids go to a small private school which posts all colleges attended by recent graduates (goes back 5 years I think.
The “top” end are the usual suspects, but I think it’s healthy and educational that they show ALL schools because there is a lot of diversity and quality at the “bottom” end. To be clear, only colleges are listed, not student names.
@Houston1021 - now that you mention it, the school paper published my D’s entire graduating class’s college choices - in a full color center spread with the logo of each school, AND the graduation program had a smaller version of the same thing. I thought it was cool to see at the time.
