High School Guide: Admissions, reviews, and advice

mellowskipper said:It’s funny—it only really hit me this year—but apparently, since elementary school, students have always been pushed toward competitions in just about every subject. There are heaps of kids involved. It’s basically a race for extra credit points.
The PE teacher, for instance, is obsessed with two specific sports and drags kids off to various school athletic meets, but beyond that, there's zero effort.
I guess you have to wonder if those teachers running the prep and the actual competitions get some kind of stipend or extra pay—I assume they do, though—since it's technically extra work that isn't strictly required by their contract.

But why would anyone care about chasing extra credit?
When my child signed up for a recent competition, I asked what the point was, and they gave me such a lovely answer: "What's wrong with learning something extra?"
Plus, those points are incredibly hard to come by. Only about twenty students nationwide actually make it to the national level, and it’s usually the same group of kids over and over. I have a feeling those kids aren't exactly being handed straight A's for free, either. 😏

Where we live, out in the suburbs, you don't really find elementary schools offering Latin or Greek. I would love to enroll my child in a program like that; there's something so wonderful about studying things that might seem "useless" right now. They'll have plenty of time to specialize later when they're older and can do anything they want. Specializing so early in life doesn't seem to make much sense to me—you might become great at one thing, but you risk being limited to just that.

Anyway, I guess I've officially come out of the closet on this one. 😃

Scott Booth said:But why would anyone care about chasing extra credit?
When my child signed up for a recent competition, I asked what the point was, and they gave me such a lovely answer: "What's wrong with learning something extra?"
Plus, those points are incredibly hard to come by. Only about twenty students nationwide actually make it to the national level, and it’s usually the same group of kids over and over. I have a feeling those kids aren't exactly being handed straight A's for free, either. 😏

Where we live, out in the suburbs, you don't really find elementary schools offering Latin or Greek. I would love to enroll my child in a program like that; there's something so wonderful about studying things that might seem "useless" right now. They'll have plenty of time to specialize later when they're older and can do anything they want. Specializing so early in life doesn't seem to make much sense to me—you might become great at one thing, but you risk being limited to just that.

Anyway, I guess I've officially come out of the closet on this one. 😃

The whole "point chasing" thing happens because people say, "maybe I'll pick up a few points." In major cities like New York or Chicago, the competition for certain magnet schools is so fierce that even a single point can make a massive difference. That doesn't mean some students don't join competitions just for the joy of learning something new, though. There are definitely kids like that.
I wanted to enroll my daughter in German classes back in fifth grade, but she refused. She told me she wanted to learn a language based on her own choice.
So much for my plan of getting free German lessons.

In my school district, the administration couldn't care less about competitions. If someone actually decides to participate, they end up studying entirely on their own while the teachers simply swoop in to collect the accolades at the end...

Anyway, I'm curious. If you manage to score, say, one point in a competition, does that count toward your GPA threshold, or do you still need enough regular credits to hit the mark regardless of that extra point?

Kate Jackson4 said:In my school district, the administration couldn't care less about competitions. If someone actually decides to participate, they end up studying entirely on their own while the teachers simply swoop in to collect the accolades at the end...

Anyway, I'm curious. If you manage to score, say, one point in a competition, does that count toward your GPA threshold, or do you still need enough regular credits to hit the mark regardless of that extra point?

It’s based on the total points earned. For instance, if someone has 79 points plus that 1 point from the competition, they hit 80. I rounded that up, though usually, they use two decimal places.
In our district, they offer after-school tutoring for the subjects that have these competitions.

You can't just count every single competition toward your GPA—it doesn't work like that. Looking at my high school's policy, it's pretty clear—extra credit for the general track comes from things like HJ, mat, or foreign language competitions, while the STEM track looks for HJ, mat, fiz, or computer science stuff. (I might not have the exact list memorized, but you get the idea...) Basically, winning a sports trophy won't help you if you're aiming for the academic tracks, and a history award means nothing for a math major. Only the competitions that actually align with your chosen field carry any weight.

northerntiger9 said:You can't just count every single competition toward your GPA—it doesn't work like that. Looking at my high school's policy, it's pretty clear—extra credit for the general track comes from things like HJ, mat, or foreign language competitions, while the STEM track looks for HJ, mat, fiz, or computer science stuff. (I might not have the exact list memorized, but you get the idea...) Basically, winning a sports trophy won't help you if you're aiming for the academic tracks, and a history award means nothing for a math major. Only the competitions that actually align with your chosen field carry any weight.

That makes sense. I mean, obviously, a theology award isn't going to help you get into Miami.
I think those athletic points are strictly for school-sanctioned sports competitions—usually just for the top three finishers. I'm not entirely sure how much weight the school actually gives them, but I suspect it's quite a bit.

mellowskipper said:That makes sense. I mean, obviously, a theology award isn't going to help you get into Miami.
I think those athletic points are strictly for school-sanctioned sports competitions—usually just for the top three finishers. I'm not entirely sure how much weight the school actually gives them, but I suspect it's quite a bit.

Yeah, that's right—though you need some luck to actually get a team together at school. Most sports are organized by teams rather than individuals, which makes things tricky. 😬 My kid has a county medal, but they didn't make it to the state level because there were only two of them when they needed seven. 🤣

Bome, I didn't see anything on the school list I was checking that explicitly mentioned recognizing sports achievements. 🤷 Maybe if a school doesn't specify what they accept, they just take everything—but for specialized sports academies, this isn't really a deciding factor. They focus on national league competitions, not this messy, makeshift system that's totally unfair to actual athletes. 😬

My take is that those athletic points are automatically added to the totals for all schools. I’m specifically talking about school sports here.

Kate Jackson4 said:In my school district, the administration couldn't care less about competitions. If someone actually decides to participate, they end up studying entirely on their own while the teachers simply swoop in to collect the accolades at the end...

Anyway, I'm curious. If you manage to score, say, one point in a competition, does that count toward your GPA threshold, or do you still need enough regular credits to hit the mark regardless of that extra point?

It's the exact same story where I'm from. Plus, they’ll slap a post on the school website acting like they’re some kind of geniuses just for showing up.🤦

In computer science classes, this stuff is totally standard—it's a joke. Most kids spend half their time playing Just Dance or gaming, and the other half just filling out some mindless workbook...😬

They don't know a single thing about actual programming.

northerntiger9 said:Yeah, that's right—though you need some luck to actually get a team together at school. Most sports are organized by teams rather than individuals, which makes things tricky. 😬 My kid has a county medal, but they didn't make it to the state level because there were only two of them when they needed seven. 🤣

Bome, I didn't see anything on the school list I was checking that explicitly mentioned recognizing sports achievements. 🤷 Maybe if a school doesn't specify what they accept, they just take everything—but for specialized sports academies, this isn't really a deciding factor. They focus on national league competitions, not this messy, makeshift system that's totally unfair to actual athletes. 😬

Michelle Nelson4 said:My take is that those athletic points are automatically added to the totals for all schools. I’m specifically talking about school sports here.

I think Michelle Nelson4 is right.

redmason4 said:It's the exact same story where I'm from. Plus, they’ll slap a post on the school website acting like they’re some kind of geniuses just for showing up.🤦

In computer science classes, this stuff is totally standard—it's a joke. Most kids spend half their time playing Just Dance or gaming, and the other half just filling out some mindless workbook...😬

They don't know a single thing about actual programming.

It's a shame. At our school, they cover Office, Python, and obviously some theory, like how Wi-Fi works, routers... Cybersecurity stuff.

Michelle Nelson4 said:My take is that those athletic points are automatically added to the totals for all schools. I’m specifically talking about school sports here.

Then why do certain schools highlight specific competitions for extra credit? It feels pointless if sports are just an automatic addition while other subjects—equally irrelevant, really—don't get that same treatment.

The grading for sports and assemblies should be scrapped entirely—not the events themselves, just the points. There's zero logic in awarding credits based on team competitions, especially for things like assemblies where you can basically just mumble from the back row. 😬

I suppose sports are generally viewed as being universally beneficial, though I suspect that "value" really just depends on which school of thought you follow. Just my two cents. Most things seem to follow whatever set of rules happen to be in place at the time... if anyone online actually cares about that sort of thing. Anyway, I'm planning to dive into some reading on the subject next year. 😁

mellowskipper said:It’s funny—it only really hit me this year—but apparently, since elementary school, students have always been pushed toward competitions in just about every subject. There are heaps of kids involved. It’s basically a race for extra credit points.
The PE teacher, for instance, is obsessed with two specific sports and drags kids off to various school athletic meets, but beyond that, there's zero effort.
I guess you have to wonder if those teachers running the prep and the actual competitions get some kind of stipend or extra pay—I assume they do, though—since it's technically extra work that isn't strictly required by their contract.

Sometimes you might get an extra hour added to your official workload specifically for prepping students for a competition. But more often than not? You’re just doing supplemental hours, or better yet, you're prepping them entirely on your own time—just out of the goodness of your heart—because you can't stand the thought of those kids who actually want to compete being left behind just because others aren't as driven. So, you end up working for free during your own downtime.

Susan James said:That school in Oakland actually shares a building with the agricultural and veterinary schools.
To be honest, the high school itself isn't bad, but if you don't live in that neighborhood, it's not exactly convenient.
And I think because of the area, it starts off with a bit of a negative reputation...

Back in my day, a huge crowd from the classical track went into medical school.

Personally, I don't think Latin and Greek are hard languages, they just feel pointless.
Especially for kids in middle school.

As for those bilingual programs, I think the concept is great, but I doubt the actual execution works (aside from English). How many teachers do you actually have who can teach math in French or chemistry in German?
In the end, it usually boils down to history or art, since those were the subjects offered in the bilingual tracks at the local university.
But as an idea for language learning and practical application, it's wonderful.🙏

Starting this September, the twelfth grade is moving into a brand new spot—they built this absolute beast of a facility over in Smalltown, USA, I think it's right near Central Park, and I heard they're even putting in an ice rink.

Michelle Nelson4 said:My take is that those athletic points are automatically added to the totals for all schools. I’m specifically talking about school sports here.

Actually,
these state-run school competitions are incredibly well-organized, and honestly, the kids have a blast regardless of whether they walk away with points or not. 🙂
The points usually end up going to the kids who are already playing these sports through private clubs—assuming the school can actually pull a full roster together—whereas the casual, recreational players rarely stand a chance at landing in the top three.

I think I have a pretty good idea of who usually comes out on top in these kinds of athletic competitions. For instance, my local high school has this really impressive swim team. Given that the campus is situated just about half a mile from the municipal aquatic center, and so many students are competitively swimming, I’m sure it’s nothing more than a complete coincidence 😁

The only thing I can't quite wrap my head around is how they handle the points for team sports? Like, say, basketball or volleyball... if a team wins, does everyone just get the full amount, or is it some kind of percentage-based split?
With individual sports, it’s all pretty straightforward—it's every man for himself—but for teams, I suppose it might depend on something like playing time or minutes logged... I haven't the slightest clue, really.

In this setup, every sport is scored on a team basis rather than highlighting individual winners; everyone is essentially competing to earn points for their high school athletic club
take volleyball, for instance, where the entire squad walks away with three points for a first-place finish, whereas in individual sports, the scoring follows a team-based format tailored to that specific discipline

I managed to dig up some info in the meantime: those extra points don't actually count toward the minimum requirement. Basically, if your grades alone don't hit the cutoff, you aren't even eligible to apply to high-demand schools...

The whole situation with sports club points is a complete joke, too. It just screws over kids who aren't into the specific sports offered at their school—for instance, our local programs only cover soccer and basketball...

For anyone interested in the scoring breakdown or the official regulations, I've linked them here...

https://www.highschool-sports.gov/certifications/high-school-credentials

It’s a shame because you end up sidelining kids who are actually national champions in an individual sport, simply because their high school doesn't happen to field a varsity team for that specific discipline.

To me, prioritizing athletic achievement makes far more sense than obsessing over things like dyslexia trends during a pandemic🙄 or other issues sitting in that ambiguous "gray area"
of educational policy. School sports are fantastic; they bring together the athletes and the student volunteers in the host cities where the competitions take place.
It really is one of those rare elements within the American school system that actually functions smoothly and stays well-organized.