High School Guide: Admissions, reviews, and advice

It’s not like anyone’s being reckless here. Colleges mostly just look at your overall GPA, and they weigh it however they want. Honestly, your grades in Microsoft classes carry way more weight.

hiddendriver34 said:Proab, how many kids from that specific generation actually went for AP Calculus at each school? You can't really compare the data if one school only had three students in the pool while another had a hundred. Plus, just because someone opts for a lower level doesn't mean they're struggling with math—sometimes they just don't need it for their career path.

But looking at this average for the thirteenth grade— 😲 is it even realistic for a non-STEM focused high school to pull such a massive average on math finals? 🤣 They’re clearly falling into that category I mentioned before—they’re doing a huge disservice to both the students and themselves.

About half of them split ways (specifically at schools XIII, III, IX, and XII), while the vast majority head toward the advanced track (at II, I, X, Titus, Luciana, and even XI, most go for the advanced level)

So, my advice is this: if someone isn't aiming for MIT but wants to pursue something in that field—and prefers a traditional prep school over a technical vocational school—they should look for an academic high school where most students take advanced math and maintain strong grades through senior year.

In any case, it becomes quite obvious which academic schools provide a solid mathematical foundation and which ones don't. You can also look at their physics, chemistry, and biology programs... or simply follow where the graduates end up heading for college. That tells you everything you need to know about which schools have a strong STEM component and which ones lack it. Numbers are facts, after all; I'm just sharing what the data shows.

Yes, digital mining is just wonderful. You can see exactly where kids are heading with those degrees... though there’s always an outlier, someone from a top prep school who ends up at MIT or Harvard University instead 😁

stormymarlin22 said:So, is that with elective math, or... ? Do they offer different programs, similar to what you'd see at UCLA?

You don't really get a choice. You just follow the set curriculum—it's the same for everyone in your grade, obviously, though the specific subjects and weekly hours shift as you move up.

I've got no clue how they do things in New York City.

In New York City, certain STEM-focused high schools offer specific tracks rather than just electives. You can choose either an additional foreign language or an intensive math track, or even a combination of advanced math and computer science. It’s not really an elective choice; it's a set curriculum. This mostly applies to the more rigorous upperclassman tracks like the 10th or 12th grades. Depending on the school, they might only have one such class per grade, or everyone follows the exact same path...

(I’m bringing this up because we were just discussing how all high schools are supposed to require two foreign languages—but those STEM academies often skip one if you opt for that heavy math and tech programming)

stormymarlin22 said:School is basically a mine 😁

https://www.dol.gov/school-is-a-mine/3419

thanks. none of this is loading right for me—I'll have to try a different browser if I want to actually see the data for the Mississippi River😬

Kate Jackson4 said:In my opinion, the worst part is how active this thread is—high school discussions happening on a parenting subforum... that says everything we need to know.
I’ve tried asking questions in high school threads where actual students or alumni post, but there's absolutely nobody there...

It used to be that parents barely knew which school their kid was heading to, and most kids handled the whole process themselves... nowadays, we're fighting their battles for them, obsessing over GPA and admissions... that's why this isn't working.😢

🤣 It really comes down to this: the ultimate responsibility for a child's education rests squarely on the parents, which means they have the final say in whether or not to follow their child's specific interests or even their level of ambition.

You likely believe that the "child's right to an education" is a right held by the child themselves, though I suspect the reality is somewhat more nuanced than that. 🤦 Of course parents are going to discuss this privately, at the office, and right here on the forum—it’s only natural. I have always had a soft spot for these kinds of articles that attempt to label entire generations as incompetent or incapable, especially when their supposed "logical arguments" invariably begin with "when I was younger." 🥱 I can't say for certain what kind of household you grew up in, but looking back at my friends from middle and high school, I don't recall ever meeting a family that didn't constantly discuss their child's academic future. Just as a quick disclaimer, though, I graduated from high school quite some time ago, yet those discussions remained the primary topic of conversation throughout seventh and eighth grade, just as they did during our junior and senior years.

Even today, kids spend a significant amount of their time discussing these matters, and you see them debating where they want to go for college as early as seventh grade, not to mention all those intense conversations about their high school ambitions.

northerntiger9 said:thanks. none of this is loading right for me—I'll have to try a different browser if I want to actually see the data for the Mississippi River😬

Wait, what do you mean it isn't working? Are you using Safari? It runs perfectly fine on Chrome for me.

Does anyone know if there's a corner of this wonderful e-mine containing data that compares undergraduate s college enrollment? I can see the section providing elementary and high school statistics, but I haven't been able to find anything regarding how many eighth graders eventually enroll in college—or specifically which institutions they choose. They seem to expand this e-mine every year, so I imagine these extra layers of data would be quite fascinating to see.

If you check out the Series 3 materials, specifically page 4, you can see the success rates in the fourth screenshot and the graduation stats. Then on page 5, it lists which high schools they attended, and by page 17, you'll see where they ended up for college.

Just to give you an idea, I was looking back at the Series 2 data from last year. Out of the 104 students in my kid's middle school class, 85 graduated high school, and 69 of them successfully enrolled in college.

You can also dive into their grade averages and see the different levels of achievement they reached during graduation... there's really a lot of great info to dig through here.

Dennis Alvarez2 said:🤣 It really comes down to this: the ultimate responsibility for a child's education rests squarely on the parents, which means they have the final say in whether or not to follow their child's specific interests or even their level of ambition.

You likely believe that the "child's right to an education" is a right held by the child themselves, though I suspect the reality is somewhat more nuanced than that. 🤦 Of course parents are going to discuss this privately, at the office, and right here on the forum—it’s only natural. I have always had a soft spot for these kinds of articles that attempt to label entire generations as incompetent or incapable, especially when their supposed "logical arguments" invariably begin with "when I was younger." 🥱 I can't say for certain what kind of household you grew up in, but looking back at my friends from middle and high school, I don't recall ever meeting a family that didn't constantly discuss their child's academic future. Just as a quick disclaimer, though, I graduated from high school quite some time ago, yet those discussions remained the primary topic of conversation throughout seventh and eighth grade, just as they did during our junior and senior years.

Even today, kids spend a significant amount of their time discussing these matters, and you see them debating where they want to go for college as early as seventh grade, not to mention all those intense conversations about their high school ambitions.

Dennis Alvarez2, my comments stem from pure frustration... at home, we spend more time discussing where a child *can't* get in than where they can. 🤣

Yeah... back in my day, the whole process was much simpler—you just talked about which schools you could actually get into. Of course, that was during an era when entrance exams accounted for about 40% of your total score, if my memory serves me right... Nowadays, you’re stuck crunching averages and telling a kid, "Well, last year you were short by 0.05 points, and here you would have been just 0.1 above the cutoff..." then you just toss in a little, "but who knows how things will shake out this year?" ☕

Michelle Nelson4 said:Wait, what do you mean it isn't working? Are you using Safari? It runs perfectly fine on Chrome for me.

It wasn't working on my phone—had to track down a laptop just to check. 😬 All these numbers are giving me a bit of a headache. 😵

I’d love to be able to pick a specific high school and see which middle schools feed into it—then compare those grades. We could finally see whose A's were earned and whose were just handed out.

I’ve always had a thing for spreadsheets and data, so I think I got a little lost in this 😵. It actually seems pretty interesting to me, though—I want to try my best to wrap my head around everything you're seeing and what it all implies. 😂

The people around me are driving me crazy; they can't understand why I'm not getting in, but they forget some of these folks enrolled years ago when the bar was much lower...
The computer technician role—back in 2017, you only needed 67 points, but this year it looks like it'll hit 77. That's quite the jump...

I don't know... personally, I find the whole thing quite easy to follow, and there's just so much great information to dig into.
Of course, we have that wicked old hag Divjak to thank for how accessible this data is—just more proof of how outdated our digital infrastructure and public information systems really are. Instead of having everything laid out clearly for the public, we're stuck relying on "experts" to interpret everything for us.☕

Looking at the SER data—at least from the perspective of RI—it’s clear that grades spiked across all grade levels during the COVID era; they definitely weren't this high before. But since last year, things have been trending down again, and now that we're fully back to in-person learning without any isolation requirements, everything will likely just settle back to normal.

Kate Jackson4 said:The people around me are driving me crazy; they can't understand why I'm not getting in, but they forget some of these folks enrolled years ago when the bar was much lower...
The computer technician role—back in 2017, you only needed 67 points, but this year it looks like it'll hit 77. That's quite the jump...

Has anyone else experienced what northerntiger9 is talking about? It’s definitely happened here in the States, though I suppose we should have seen it coming.

northerntiger9 said:Looking at the SER data—at least from the perspective of RI—it’s clear that grades spiked across all grade levels during the COVID era; they definitely weren't this high before. But since last year, things have been trending down again, and now that we're fully back to in-person learning without any isolation requirements, everything will likely just settle back to normal.

Michelle Nelson4 said:I don't know... personally, I find the whole thing quite easy to follow, and there's just so much great information to dig into.
Of course, we have that wicked old hag Divjak to thank for how accessible this data is—just more proof of how outdated our digital infrastructure and public information systems really are. Instead of having everything laid out clearly for the public, we're stuck relying on "experts" to interpret everything for us.☕

I can't stand using Excel, probably because I never use it for anything useful, and trying to navigate it on a phone is a total nightmare.
proab, which SER and what specific page were you looking at to find those mid-term enrollment numbers for specific colleges?

northerntiger9 said:Looking at the SER data—at least from the perspective of RI—it’s clear that grades spiked across all grade levels during the COVID era; they definitely weren't this high before. But since last year, things have been trending down again, and now that we're fully back to in-person learning without any isolation requirements, everything will likely just settle back to normal.

That was actually kind of expected, I guess...

northerntiger9 said:Looking at the SER data—at least from the perspective of RI—it’s clear that grades spiked across all grade levels during the COVID era; they definitely weren't this high before. But since last year, things have been trending down again, and now that we're fully back to in-person learning without any isolation requirements, everything will likely just settle back to normal.

My high school professor actually explained this exact thing to me once—he was predicting that general GPAs would drop during admissions season because we had spent an entire year stuck behind screens. And honestly, based on what I'm seeing, average grades are definitely taking a hit this year compared to those online years.