High School Guide: Admissions, reviews, and advice

skyfall, I haven't read it yet, but on the third version, page 13 😉

We'll see. One thing to consider is that everyone switched over to this "reformed" curriculum in the meantime—and from what I’ve gathered in the comments, the old one was actually more comprehensive and rigorous, requiring grades to be based strictly on averages. Now, that's not really the case; there's enough wiggle room to turn a 4.3 into an A just by padding it with a few good assignments during the year. That shift, combined with the COVID era, explains why we saw such a massive surge in honors students.

But seriously though: what are you actually planning to do with all this data?
Are you just digging through these spreadsheets out of pure curiosity, or is there some deeper motive at play here..?
I mean, what does it really prove when you link someone's high school to the college they eventually attended? What kind of insight is that actually supposed to provide...? 😵

It’s hard to get anything concrete out of them—you just sort of observe from a distance. To me, this feels like a senior capstone project or some polished programming and database assignment 😬 Back in my day, if you needed an app to pass a class, you ended up building a "video rental store manager" 🤣 This is textbook stuff for learning data organization, databases, tables, UI, clicking around... great for practice, great for a group project. You end up with a pretty product to show off, but practically zero utility 🤣

I’m looking at the average grades for schools in my neighborhood and the surrounding suburbs... strictly by the numbers, it looks like everyone has similar GPA distributions and failure rates. In reality, though, one school is a grind—it's rigorous, and you actually have to work your tail off to pull a decent grade (which means the struggling kids either drop out or don't even apply in the first place). That leaves the second school to naturally attract more average or underperforming students because passing there is easy. Long story short—on paper and in the statistics, they look identical, but those colorful charts fail to capture how it actually works on the ground.

Kate Jackson4 said:skyfall, I haven't read it yet, but on the third version, page 13 😉

Quotes

urbantinker8 said:But seriously though: what are you actually planning to do with all this data?
Are you just digging through these spreadsheets out of pure curiosity, or is there some deeper motive at play here..?
I mean, what does it really prove when you link someone's high school to the college they eventually attended? What kind of insight is that actually supposed to provide...? 😵

Curiosity. At least for me.

Look, there’s some interesting data here. For instance, students from certain elite prep schools almost exclusively funnel into economics or a few other predictable paths—it's a bit one-dimensional. Meanwhile, kids from smaller, more diverse public schools end up exploring everything from STEM to the arts... I’d argue the latter might actually be superior because it provides a much broader foundation rather than forcing everyone into a single mold.

Some people are preoccupied with the gender ratio in the classroom...

Then there's the discrepancy between GPA and standardized test scores. Take a high-end academy where the average math grade in junior year is a 2.9, yet they score a 3.5 on the SATs. It suggests the professors are incredibly tough graders, even if the students ultimately master the material...

Fascinating stuff, at least to me... 😉

I don't really have the time to dive deep into this right now (not like I need to), but honestly, I find this kind of data pretty interesting. Like what wanderingbadger77 said, you can pull a ton of useful info just by looking at how schools are selected.

Are kids seriously studying Snoop Dogg to decide which school to go to?
I haven't heard anything about that, to be honest.

I haven't heard anything about Snoop Dogg myself, just seeing it here now.
It's good to have them on hand; if someone actually cares, they'll make use of it, and if they don't, then whatever.
If he's weighing his options between a few different schools, this data should definitely make the decision easier.

wanderingbadger77 said:I haven't heard anything about Snoop Dogg myself, just seeing it here now.
It's good to have them on hand; if someone actually cares, they'll make use of it, and if they don't, then whatever.
If he's weighing his options between a few different schools, this data should definitely make the decision easier.

That's exactly it. If you aren't interested, then don't look.
Those who *are* interested can dig up all sorts of fascinating insights, and they might even draw some meaningful conclusions based on what they find. 😁

Personally, life has taught me a valuable lesson: never take someone's word at face value until I've had a chance to verify the facts myself whenever possible. So often, I've found that people who speak with absolute certainty—especially when they're acting from a position of authority, using that "trust me, I work here, I know how things run" tone—frequently have no clue ☕

So, are you trying to jump down my throat again?🤦
If that question rubs you the wrong way, you really don't have to answer it.
I guess I was just wondering if this is all driven by pure curiosity, because I can't quite wrap my head around why anyone would bother studying a massive pile of data if those numbers don't actually impact anything.
I suppose if someone uses them to decide whether to move a kid to a different—maybe better?🤔—elementary school, or if they want to map out a list of realistic or totally unreachable colleges five or ten years down the line, then fine, that makes sense.
But, I don't know, it feels more like that endless, somewhat pointless cycle of comparing and analyzing which school is supposedly better or harder and which one is worse or easier.

urbantinker8 said:So, are you trying to jump down my throat again?🤦
If that question rubs you the wrong way, you really don't have to answer it.
I guess I was just wondering if this is all driven by pure curiosity, because I can't quite wrap my head around why anyone would bother studying a massive pile of data if those numbers don't actually impact anything.
I suppose if someone uses them to decide whether to move a kid to a different—maybe better?🤔—elementary school, or if they want to map out a list of realistic or totally unreachable colleges five or ten years down the line, then fine, that makes sense.
But, I don't know, it feels more like that endless, somewhat pointless cycle of comparing and analyzing which school is supposedly better or harder and which one is worse or easier.

I wouldn't use SAT scores as an enrollment parameter for anything else, ever. My little one cares even less about them; she couldn't care less about the SATs. I was honestly just looking at those charts out of curiosity...
But I did find something interesting. I was looking into what students from vocational graphic design programs typically enroll in next.
And it turns out most of them head toward the University of North Alabama in Columbus, Ohio.Actually, very few go to our local state graphics program. I decided to dig deeper to see what the catch was. It looks like the local state program is stuck in the 19th century, whereas the University of North Alabama offers modern studies that actually align with the high school graphic design curriculum.
I found that to be quite interesting and actually useful.

It might seem fun to dive into these statistics and try to draw some comparisons, but honestly, I think they're pretty much irrelevant.
At the end of the day, if someone actually wants to learn, they’ll find a way to do it regardless of which school they attend.
My daughter could have easily enrolled in a much more prestigious institution than the one she chose—but after a bit of back-and-forth with us, we decided it made more sense for her to go where it's just more practical.

I don't think it's wise to get too caught up in all these different theories and "conspiracies."

Alright, so I'm going to grab that list of fax numbers she wants to use and check which schools they're actually applying to. 👍 😬

rowdypanther12 said:Alright, so I'm going to grab that list of fax numbers she wants to use and check which schools they're actually applying to. 👍 😬

Exactly, the fundamentals 😂

And honestly, if anyone thinks it doesn't matter whether a kid goes to a school where the average math SAT score is a 2.3—assuming they'll just "learn enough" in class if they try hard enough—well, that's certainly one way to look at it. They can always find out how that works in practice! Personally, I tend to believe that averages are actually quite reliable indicators of what's really happening, especially when you compare them against other metrics and baseline data. People usually jump in with arguments like, "Well, every kid is different," which is true, but it's like saying, "Not every batch of chili is the same." Sure, some batches are loaded with beef and others are mostly beans, but you still get a pretty good idea of what you're eating based on the recipe. There's a much higher chance the kid will end up being roughly in the same range as that specific "batch." 😁

Or, if a student is already certain they want to aim for the Department of Defense or MIT, it definitely wouldn't hurt to see where their odds are highest by the time they finish high school. This isn't just about one weird year where "luck was just out of reach"; there's years of data available, and certain trends regarding which colleges recruit from which schools remain remarkably consistent over time...

Still, it's fascinating to dive into this stuff, even if it's just to test out various theories you stumble upon online. It’s a good way to see if people are actually basing their arguments on hard facts or just making things up as they go. 😁

Dana Smith2 said:It might seem fun to dive into these statistics and try to draw some comparisons, but honestly, I think they're pretty much irrelevant.
At the end of the day, if someone actually wants to learn, they’ll find a way to do it regardless of which school they attend.
My daughter could have easily enrolled in a much more prestigious institution than the one she chose—but after a bit of back-and-forth with us, we decided it made more sense for her to go where it's just more practical.

I don't think it's wise to get too caught up in all these different theories and "conspiracies."

I'm right there with you. 👍For me, the absolute priority is making sure my child ends up in a school where they’ll actually be happy and fulfilled. My goal is just to find a solid school, and I'm really happy with the choice he made (even if I might have picked differently myself, but I refuse to make his decisions for him 😁). Plus, even an adult can't predict exactly what kind of peer group or teachers they'll end up with. It’s a bit of a lottery in any single school, let alone when you're looking at the endless sea of options out there. A kid can thrive even in a "bad" school, and they can certainly struggle even in a "top-tier" one.

Michelle Nelson4, I was looking into it, and it seems like most of those kids come from language academies, right?
I guess it just makes sense that students who aren't big on math tend to lean toward language schools.😁
Jokes aside, I’m actually going to look into where those kids are heading based on what she wants (for now); maybe that'll help her make a decision.

rowdypanther12 said:Michelle Nelson4, I was looking into it, and it seems like most of those kids come from language academies, right?
I guess it just makes sense that students who aren't big on math tend to lean toward language schools.😁
Jokes aside, I’m actually going to look into where those kids are heading based on what she wants (for now); maybe that'll help her make a decision.

Wait, you already know which college she's aiming for?

mellowskipper said:Wait, you already know which college she's aiming for?

Actually, she does know what she wants to do😁
though her list includes a few different career paths.😵

It’s not just about linguistic nuances, either. I mentioned this earlier—take a standard high school, for instance, where the GPA is absolutely devastating.

I always find it funny when people look at statistics and immediately try to dismiss them by saying, "Oh, that's just an average," or "Well, individuals vary, so it doesn't really mean anything." It’s such a common way to dodge the data! But, I don't want to go off on a tangent here and drift away from the main topic.