High School Guide: Admissions, reviews, and advice

I’ve actually stopped driving to work altogether—mostly because I’m working remotely now—so the whole idea of carpooling even part of the way is pretty much off the table. I was initially open to that option, but given my current setup, he’ll just have to take the subway or walk (though an electric scooter would be great for certain stretches, I know they probably won't go for that)

As for the traffic in Cleveland, I’d rather not go there. Every single time we head that way and hop off the bypass, I find myself staring at those bizarre intersections thinking, "What on earth is happening here?" 😁 And whenever we run into a cyclist out on the road, my only honest thought is that they must have some sort of death wish...

Michelle Nelson4 said:How could she not know how much time she needs? She has Google Maps at her fingertips. My daughter uses it religiously, and she’s even been using it to scout out schools and stuff 😁

Honestly, it bugs me how today's younger generation seems less resourceful than we were at their age, despite having way more tools to help them navigate life. So, I make a point of pushing her to figure things out on her own 😁 When we were recently in New York City, I was the one giving all the directions on our first day. But by the second day, it was suddenly—"Check Google, find which train goes to which platform, see where we need to transfer, which stop to get off at, how to actually find the platform, which train is arriving, making sure we don't miss our exit, where the stairs are, where we head once we're out..." and wouldn't you know it, after just three trips, she had it all figured out 😬

Now, she’s planning the whole trip from the house to the hotel, including everything from check-in procedures and luggage rules to navigating the airport itself ☕

But how is she supposed to know about traffic jams or construction? It doesn't matter if the app says it'll take 15 minutes to get to downtown Cleveland when it actually takes 45. 😂
They aren't really city people; this winter was our first time heading into the city, and they don't find it particularly exciting or interesting.
When we got lost on the way to downtown, she found her way using the maps, so I'm not worried about her sense of direction. 🤣

My only gripe with vocational schools is how heavily gender-segregated they can be.😁
Technical tracks are mostly guys, while nursing or medical programs are almost entirely women.

Because of that, I’d actually prefer a traditional high school setting where there's at least some social mixing, even if my eighth grader isn't exactly interested in girls yet...😵

It’s honestly baffling why girls wouldn't consider computer science; it's an incredible field, and so many girls from prep schools end up studying at MIT or Georgia Tech anyway.

Sarah Hall53 said:Well, things work pretty much the same way here in the States—you can actually jump from any four-year vocational program straight into taking the SATs and heading off to a university. It’s also possible if you finish a three-year technical track to just tack on an extra fourth year to get that high school diploma, sit for the exams, and then move on to college. Actually, I think if you enroll in that fourth year immediately after finishing your third, it might even be free? But hey, don't quote me on that, I could be totally off.

Fair enough. But if someone finishes a three-year program and then (according to what I've seen online) has to put in two more years just to catch up to a standard four-year high school graduate so they can actually take the SATs, what does the curriculum for a four-year vocational school even look like... is it identical to a regular prep school? And what happens with all those specific subjects a university demands that aren't part of that particular trade... can those kids just sign up for them as electives? Or do they have to commit to an entire additional year if they want to be ready for college entrance exams?
E: It's mostly an issue when a kid wants to go to college for something completely unrelated to their vocational training. Like, say, they finish a program focused on business or IT, but then decide they actually want to study chemistry at a major university.

Michelle Nelson4 said:I’ve actually stopped driving to work altogether—mostly because I’m working remotely now—so the whole idea of carpooling even part of the way is pretty much off the table. I was initially open to that option, but given my current setup, he’ll just have to take the subway or walk (though an electric scooter would be great for certain stretches, I know they probably won't go for that)

As for the traffic in Cleveland, I’d rather not go there. Every single time we head that way and hop off the bypass, I find myself staring at those bizarre intersections thinking, "What on earth is happening here?" 😁 And whenever we run into a cyclist out on the road, my only honest thought is that they must have some sort of death wish...

That doesn't change much, honestly. You can only drive them in the morning anyway; for the afternoons, they'll just have to rely on public transit or walking from school.

Kate Jackson4 said:My only gripe with vocational schools is how heavily gender-segregated they can be.😁
Technical tracks are mostly guys, while nursing or medical programs are almost entirely women.

Because of that, I’d actually prefer a traditional high school setting where there's at least some social mixing, even if my eighth grader isn't exactly interested in girls yet...😵

It’s honestly baffling why girls wouldn't consider computer science; it's an incredible field, and so many girls from prep schools end up studying at MIT or Georgia Tech anyway.

See, this is exactly why I wanted to hear from moms in Chicago—to see if things have actually changed here or if it's still the same old story. Because honestly? There isn’t much of a real STEM choice in our school system. You either go the math and science magnet route, or you pick one of those vocational schools that looks great on paper but was a nightmare in my day. Back then, those places were filled with unruly kids, almost exclusively male, with zero extracurriculars to speak of. Most teachers avoided them because the behavior was so bad you could barely get through the bare minimum. So, unless there's been some massive overhaul lately, there really isn't an option for a bright STEM kid who doesn't want the traditional prep school vibe. 🤷 Please, tell me it's better now. 😬

rowdypanther12 said:That doesn't change much, honestly. You can only drive them in the morning anyway; for the afternoons, they'll just have to rely on public transit or walking from school.

I suppose the only real sticking point is the morning routine, 😁

My daughter heads downtown quite often, and honestly, she’s been navigating her way to practice solo since the fifth grade, so she knows her way around the city pretty well. It’s a small comfort, I guess... she even knows exactly how far she needs to walk if the city buses miss her usual stop at the plaza.😁

Michelle Nelson4 said:I suppose the only real sticking point is the morning routine, 😁

My daughter heads downtown quite often, and honestly, she’s been navigating her way to practice solo since the fifth grade, so she knows her way around the city pretty well. It’s a small comfort, I guess... she even knows exactly how far she needs to walk if the city buses miss her usual stop at the plaza.😁

Yeah, for my kid, everything interesting is still pretty far from our neighborhood. There isn't really any reason or desire to trek all the way to the downtown core just yet 😁
but I'll say this: they've gone into the city before and managed fine. They don't know every corner yet, but they'll learn. I actually got lost in downtown Chicago back in seventh grade, so I eventually figured it all out 😂

Terry Martinez10 said:Fair enough. But if someone finishes a three-year program and then (according to what I've seen online) has to put in two more years just to catch up to a standard four-year high school graduate so they can actually take the SATs, what does the curriculum for a four-year vocational school even look like... is it identical to a regular prep school? And what happens with all those specific subjects a university demands that aren't part of that particular trade... can those kids just sign up for them as electives? Or do they have to commit to an entire additional year if they want to be ready for college entrance exams?
E: It's mostly an issue when a kid wants to go to college for something completely unrelated to their vocational training. Like, say, they finish a program focused on business or IT, but then decide they actually want to study chemistry at a major university.

I think there might be a slight misunderstanding of how the system works here in the States. Which specific high school you attend is actually pretty irrelevant when it comes to college admissions. The main thing is that you need to graduate from a four-year high school (any kind) and hit the required scores on the standardized tests like the SAT. If a university requires an entrance exam, you just have to pass that. That’s why so many people sign up for prep courses; once you have those test scores, almost any door is open to you. For instance, if you're aiming for a place like MIT, they’ll look at your GPA from all four years of high school combined with your SAT results. No one really cares which specific subjects you took in high school or even which school you graduated from.

From what I gather, if students didn't actually take a specific subject required for their college major while they were in high school—like, say, taking chemistry during freshman year at a business prep school—they're basically on their own when it comes to studying for those entrance exams. They just have to teach themselves everything from scratch.

So, you end up in this weird situation where you can supposedly take an elective on your high school graduation exams that you didn't even actually study during your senior year, assuming you just handle all the prep work entirely on your own—and it’s the same deal if a university decides to run those prerequisite entrance exams. It makes you wonder, though, how many applicants actually have the guts to pick a subject they’ve never even touched before?
I mean, isn't it pretty much impossible to pull that off in the real world if the college explicitly demands certain prior knowledge, or if you walk into a major with zero background and immediately find yourself at a massive disadvantage compared to everyone else?

So, regarding that distance issue...🙄
it’s just one more thing in a long line of topics that seem to attract way more hype and unnecessary drama than they actually deserve.
I suppose I can somewhat empathize if someone finds early mornings to be a massive struggle, but everything else feels like a bit of an exaggeration, honestly.
And I say that from the perspective of someone who has spent thirty years commuting through cities—taking the subway, driving, riding the light rail, catching buses, or hopping on a train—back when I was a student, then an employee, and now a parent... truthfully, those thirty minutes sitting on the train right now is probably my favorite part of the day, just letting my brain settle while I get lost in a book. It’s quite literally how I unwind.
I know plenty of people who pick their schools based entirely on how close they are to where they practice sports or whatever. Personally, if I had to make that choice, I’d rather skip the training sessions altogether than compromise on the school just because of the commute.
It’s not really a huge deal if you’re deciding between two decent public high schools, but it does feel a bit much when parents refuse to send their kids to the only specialized academy in town just because it’s "too far away."
🙄
But hey, I guess there's a bit of everything out there.

Terry Martinez10 said:So, you end up in this weird situation where you can supposedly take an elective on your high school graduation exams that you didn't even actually study during your senior year, assuming you just handle all the prep work entirely on your own—and it’s the same deal if a university decides to run those prerequisite entrance exams. It makes you wonder, though, how many applicants actually have the guts to pick a subject they’ve never even touched before?
I mean, isn't it pretty much impossible to pull that off in the real world if the college explicitly demands certain prior knowledge, or if you walk into a major with zero background and immediately find yourself at a massive disadvantage compared to everyone else?

I don't know what the current system looks like, but I assume if you nail the specific state standardized tests the colleges demand, you're set.

Take me, for example. Twenty years ago, I tried applying for an English or German major right after graduating from a technical vocational school. Thank God I failed. I applied, sat through the entrance exams, took the language proficiency tests... but since I only had one year of History and Geography compared to the four years the liberal arts kids had, I lost massive points. Not that it mattered much in the end. 🙂

urbantinker8 said:So, regarding that distance issue...🙄
it’s just one more thing in a long line of topics that seem to attract way more hype and unnecessary drama than they actually deserve.
I suppose I can somewhat empathize if someone finds early mornings to be a massive struggle, but everything else feels like a bit of an exaggeration, honestly.
And I say that from the perspective of someone who has spent thirty years commuting through cities—taking the subway, driving, riding the light rail, catching buses, or hopping on a train—back when I was a student, then an employee, and now a parent... truthfully, those thirty minutes sitting on the train right now is probably my favorite part of the day, just letting my brain settle while I get lost in a book. It’s quite literally how I unwind.
I know plenty of people who pick their schools based entirely on how close they are to where they practice sports or whatever. Personally, if I had to make that choice, I’d rather skip the training sessions altogether than compromise on the school just because of the commute.
It’s not really a huge deal if you’re deciding between two decent public high schools, but it does feel a bit much when parents refuse to send their kids to the only specialized academy in town just because it’s "too far away."
🙄
But hey, I guess there's a bit of everything out there.

When I was enrolling in high school, proximity was my absolute top priority. I knew I wanted to go to a prep school—could have been anything from a language academy to a classical liberal arts track—and I decided right then that I'd pick whichever one had the shortest commute. 😬
To be honest, nobody actually gave me a list of which schools I was allowed to choose from.

Call me a snob if you want, but I wouldn't want my kid enrolling in a vocational trade school. It’s not because I think being a carpenter is somehow "lesser" or shameful—not at all!—but it's usually the case that those programs take kids who didn't have the grades or the drive for the academic tracks.

I don't think she'll have any trouble picking a school that works for her from the 10 or 15 options within an hour or so of our house.
If she’s absolutely set on going to the campus in Palo Alto, I'll make sure she spends two weeks during the break getting used to waking up early and making that commute. ☕
But if she still insists on Palo Alto after that, then fine, let her go there.

rowdypanther12 said:I don't think she'll have any trouble picking a school that works for her from the 10 or 15 options within an hour or so of our house.
If she’s absolutely set on going to the campus in Palo Alto, I'll make sure she spends two weeks during the break getting used to waking up early and making that commute. ☕
But if she still insists on Palo Alto after that, then fine, let her go there.

So, my dad—bless his heart—decided I should enroll in this winter math intensive program right near the high school I was eyeing. It was only supposed to last a few days, but honestly, by the second morning, I already knew... like, I just knew deep down... that there was absolutely no way I was dragging myself out of bed at 5:00 AM just to make it to class by 8:00. I mean, come on. So, I ended up dropping the language track entirely and just signed up for the local general high school nearby instead. Much better. 😂

Sarah Hall53 said:So, my dad—bless his heart—decided I should enroll in this winter math intensive program right near the high school I was eyeing. It was only supposed to last a few days, but honestly, by the second morning, I already knew... like, I just knew deep down... that there was absolutely no way I was dragging myself out of bed at 5:00 AM just to make it to class by 8:00. I mean, come on. So, I ended up dropping the language track entirely and just signed up for the local general high school nearby instead. Much better. 😂

Your dad sounds pretty smart. 😁

Emily Brown81 said:When I was enrolling in high school, proximity was my absolute top priority. I knew I wanted to go to a prep school—could have been anything from a language academy to a classical liberal arts track—and I decided right then that I'd pick whichever one had the shortest commute. 😬
To be honest, nobody actually gave me a list of which schools I was allowed to choose from.

Call me a snob if you want, but I wouldn't want my kid enrolling in a vocational trade school. It’s not because I think being a carpenter is somehow "lesser" or shameful—not at all!—but it's usually the case that those programs take kids who didn't have the grades or the drive for the academic tracks.

Signed. Same here. I considered MIT or maybe studying under Isaac Newton, but I passed because I really didn't feel like trekking across town. On a Saturday morning when traffic is light, it’s a 45-minute bus ride. But during the weekday rush? If the subway or a bus gets stuck, that trip turns into over an hour one way. In the end, I just enrolled in the same local prep school that's only 15 minutes from my house. Instead of dragging myself out of bed at 6:00 AM, I can sleep until 7:15. And yeah, nobody dictated which school I had to go to either.

@Mart28

Yeah. You take the SATs. Some colleges require extra subjects, so if you didn't take them in high school, you're basically studying and testing on your own. For instance, if you want to move from, say, a technical high school to a major like Chemical Engineering, but you only took chemistry for one year, it’s going to be much harder than it is for someone coming from a traditional prep school—not just getting in, but surviving the coursework since you'll be missing foundational knowledge. I can give you an example from my own college experience. During freshman year, kids from tech or vocational high schools had a huge leg up in things like drafting or CAD because they’d already done it in class. Meanwhile, students from heavy math-focused prep schools had the edge in calculus and mechanics because some schools just don't cover derivatives and integrals thoroughly enough. By sophomore year, things usually even out. Theoretically, the system is set up so that someone with a cosmetology diploma who passes the equivalency exams could get into med school, or someone who never studied music could get into a conservatory. In practice, though, that rarely happens.

Man, he really had some brilliant ways of dealing with the smartest person in the room—I honestly have to tip my hat to him.
Back when we were figuring out his college major, since he was totally lost and didn't really know how to approach me about it, he actually went to a buddy of his at a local staffing agency. He asked him to pull a list showing exactly how many unemployed English professors were out there versus how many job openings there actually were for foreign language instructors—right in the middle of the school year. Then, he just left that printout sitting on the table for me to find when I walked in, without saying a single word. Man, THAT was a massive reality check... it basically took my naive idealism and smacked it right in the face with a giant pillow.
If he hadn't done that, who knows if I’d even have a steady career today, fifteen years after graduation. I ended up landing a gig teaching two different languages just the day before my final thesis defense.

northerntiger9 said:See, this is exactly why I wanted to hear from moms in Chicago—to see if things have actually changed here or if it's still the same old story. Because honestly? There isn’t much of a real STEM choice in our school system. You either go the math and science magnet route, or you pick one of those vocational schools that looks great on paper but was a nightmare in my day. Back then, those places were filled with unruly kids, almost exclusively male, with zero extracurriculars to speak of. Most teachers avoided them because the behavior was so bad you could barely get through the bare minimum. So, unless there's been some massive overhaul lately, there really isn't an option for a bright STEM kid who doesn't want the traditional prep school vibe. 🤷 Please, tell me it's better now. 😬

I can't speak for what's happening in Seattle, 63 miles but the local vocational school nearby isn't actually a bad place depending on the specific program; most graduates come out feeling pretty satisfied. The real issue is the shortage of qualified teachers, though I suspect that's less of an issue in Seattle given how many people study math, physics, and electrical engineering locally.
But aren't prep schools facing the same struggle? Kids who excel in academic competitions usually end up studying on their own or finding mentors outside of the school system anyway.

If you take a look at the school's website, you'll notice they actually have a decent number of girls enrolled.