High School Guide: Admissions, reviews, and advice

I mean, if you want to get into MIT, you've gotta nail those math and physics scores on your SATs, so people definitely scout which high schools have the best track records. And trust me, actually getting accepted to a place like MIT is probably the easy part—having a solid math foundation is what really matters for the actual coursework. I even heard they started offering some kind of "bridge" math course because freshmen were struggling to keep up. Obviously, you don't need to go to an elite prep school to get into MIT, just like you don't necessarily need an MIT degree to become a programmer.

Susan Martin4 said:I just finished showing this all to my husband—he’s a software engineer.
He agreed. I didn't. I’m looking at this through the eyes of a kid who actually wants to code—someone hungry for hands-on exercises and real practical experience. Telling a kid like that, "Actually, you should spend four years in high school studying Latin, music theory, and art instead of computer networks, algorithms, or databases, and then just wait until college to finally do what you love," feels counterproductive to me. It's just a waste of time.

And what happens if those kids just hit a wall? If they struggle through even the best prep schools and end up missing out on their dream colleges? There’s an insane amount of pressure at places like MIT. It's relentless.

So, after we finished talking, we headed over to the digital mine to scope things out. Turns out, the MIT programs saw the highest enrollment numbers, specifically pulling from schools like Lincoln High and Westside Prep. As for the vocational kids, most were coming out of the local technical colleges and the big trade school over in Chicago.

My kid is still just an elementary schooler, but he’s already convinced himself he wants to be a programmer. Honestly, I’d much rather see him skip the prep school route entirely. If he doesn't make it through a top-tier university, at least he'll have a trade to fall back on. 🕺

That’s just how the system has always worked.
Basically, the kids from the elite prep schools breeze through the math requirements but struggle hard when they hit electrical engineering or circuit design. Meanwhile, the kids from the technical schools get crushed by the advanced calculus.
(And I’m speaking from experience here—this was twenty years ago, before everything got watered down by the modern credit system.)
Not everyone who finishes a degree at a place like MIT ends up as a software engineer; there are tons of different specializations where a kid might actually find their groove, but they won't know that until they're actually in the thick of it.

I’d actually agree with you that for a heavy-hitter school, prep school is better. To be a real programmer, you need that specific mental wiring and a knack for math.
Once you have that foundation, picking up any programming language is a piece of cake.
If a kid is driven, they can always tinker with coding in their free time; honestly, with everything available online today, there's zero excuse not to.

Is he involved in anything at school right now, like a robotics club or a STEM group?

redridge13 said:You mentioned earlier that there aren't any kids who don't struggle when transitioning to high school.
- Give me a break. There are plenty of kids who breeze through without the midnight cram sessions, the mental breakdowns, or parents losing their minds.

If we had actual entrance exams—instead of this current mess—my kid would have been able to enroll in the school they actually wanted. Instead, they got placed based on a GPA that shouldn't carry nearly as much weight, especially when you consider how inflated grades can be at some fancy private prep school in downtown Manhattan compared to elsewhere.🙂

And let me tell you, speaking as a parent of kids who didn't get into their first-choice schools, I have heard it a thousand times. I've dealt with people being incredibly condescending, claiming my "golden child" took a spot away from some kid from a rough neighborhood or a tiny rural town outside of Philly, with comments like, "Well, we all know what kind of grading standards they have over there," and other such garbage.

Honestly, I totally agree with you—going back to localized entrance exams is the only fair way to handle this.🙂

Ah, the parental whining about grading standards. Meanwhile, my colleagues from the suburbs pass their exams and then complain they're too hard, while in my class, one student gets a B+ on a test where another gets an A. The pressure in the city is insane. For me? No one's applying it. I've made it crystal clear: if a kid earns a C in my honors course, they should be happy with that. The next generation is just lazy—hardworking Cs are basically killing my subject...

Nosorog, I only tutor kids who had legitimate reasons for missing class—illness, athletes, musicians... strictly pro bono. They’re tougher than my own kid. He chose his path, he had all the support he needed, and I don't see him as any less capable just because he isn't a straight-A student. In fact, I think he's brilliant. Despite missing over 40 percent of classes due to health issues, and with minimal input from me when he asked for help this year, he managed to pull off an A. He hit four Bs in seventh grade despite every parenting tactic in the book, and now he's finding his own way. If you ask me, he wouldn't have gone to prep school at all. I don't micromanage; I let him experience life. I'll just drop a link here or there if I find something interesting and we'll talk.

redridge13 said:You mentioned earlier that there aren't any kids who don't struggle when transitioning to high school.
- Give me a break. There are plenty of kids who breeze through without the midnight cram sessions, the mental breakdowns, or parents losing their minds.

If we had actual entrance exams—instead of this current mess—my kid would have been able to enroll in the school they actually wanted. Instead, they got placed based on a GPA that shouldn't carry nearly as much weight, especially when you consider how inflated grades can be at some fancy private prep school in downtown Manhattan compared to elsewhere.🙂

And let me tell you, speaking as a parent of kids who didn't get into their first-choice schools, I have heard it a thousand times. I've dealt with people being incredibly condescending, claiming my "golden child" took a spot away from some kid from a rough neighborhood or a tiny rural town outside of Philly, with comments like, "Well, we all know what kind of grading standards they have over there," and other such garbage.

Honestly, I totally agree with you—going back to localized entrance exams is the only fair way to handle this.🙂

I didn't actually say that. Take another look at what you quoted.
I'm really trying to explain here that everything works out fine when a child stays within the standard framework—when they hit the averages and fit perfectly into what the Department of Education sees on paper, making the jump to high school without a hitch. The issue arises when a child doesn't fit that mold, and believe me, those kids exist!
It becomes a massive problem when parents start measuring themselves against the Department of Ed's metrics. In every case I've personally seen (even if it's not official data, just hearing success stories or seeing the statistics they push during open houses), that's gone way too far.

And you actually gave a great example of how certain "correlations" between middle school success and high school performance can make some elementary schools look amazing while labeling others as failing, even when some kids are actually thriving in a different way. We've talked about other threads regarding how little sense those connections actually make.
Plus, those kinds of conclusions are dangerous—they lead to false security or even bullying/mocking others (you wouldn't tease a kid if someone hadn't told you that their 'B' is worth more than your 'A' 🙄 just because they go to a school described by the Department of Ed as "rigorous"... or just rumored to be rigorous. The reality is often totally different.

The added reality is that kids who don't have as many educational resources at home can go incredibly, incredibly far if they happen to stumble upon an amazing teacher who recognizes their potential... much further than the kids who have everything handed to them on a silver platter.

mellowskipper said:Wouldn't that end up messing with our new vocational curriculum? Or maybe I'm just overthinking things—but I guess there’s a real chance it could throw everything off balance.

I guess I should probably weigh in here—though I’m not entirely sure if my perspective even matters at this point. It feels like everyone is talking over one another, and frankly, it’s getting a bit exhausting to follow. I mean, maybe I'm just being overly cautious, but there seems to be a certain... lack of clarity in how these things are being handled. It’s funny, actually—it reminds me of that time I was stuck in traffic outside of Chicago—just endless, circling, going nowhere while everyone around you thinks they know a shortcut that doesn't exist. That’s kind of how this conversation feels. We’re all just circling the drain of indecision. Anyway, I don't want to ramble too much—not that I ever seem to be able to help myself when I get started—but I think we need to look closer at the actual data instead of just reacting to the latest headline. Or maybe I'm wrong. It's hard to say for sure without more context, I suppose. kaže:
I guess I’m still thinking about those tutoring sessions for kids who are struggling—you know, where they aren't exactly hitting the mark—so the whole point of the instruction is just to scrape together a passing grade. It’s like, if someone manages to pull a 2 or a 3 out of thin air from some subject, fine. But then you have these people who already have a 4, yet they’re actually paying for extra coaching just to squeeze out a 5... it's a bit much, I suppose. 🤷
Is it because of parental ambition—you know, my kid pulling straight A's—or is it just this absolutely broken admissions system? Or maybe it’s both. I guess we could argue it's a bit of both. 🤷

I don't really support these kinds of mandates—I mean, I guess my take is that the curriculum in our elementary schools is already tailored to their age group... kids should be able to tackle it on their own, to whatever extent they can. If they can only manage a level 3, then maybe a level 3 is just where they need to be.
I honestly can't even remember when this whole obsession with private tutoring started—it feels like it came out of nowhere. Back when I was in school, we didn't have this culture of paying for extra help in elementary or high school, let alone college (though I hear even the professors at places like MIT are charging for one-on-one sessions these days, which is just... well, whatever). If you aren't able to wrap your head around the required curriculum, maybe—and I’m just saying this—maybe that specific high school or university isn't actually the right fit for you.

Back in 7th grade, my little girl had a vague idea of how things worked, but by 8th grade, she totally realized that most kids—some even focusing on three different subjects—are basically being coached. A good number of parents jump in to tutor them too, provided they actually have the knowledge and the patience to deal with it. Honestly, it’s rare when they’re just aiming for average grades, but it happens a lot when you're trying to polish those straight A's. And I suppose the reasons for this are pretty much what Kate Jackson4 and Michelle Nelson4 have been pointing out. There's a minimal amount of hysterical parents who already know their kids are headed straight for the Ivy League or MIT. Then you have the rest of them who are doing it just because the system is so fundamentally broken; they claim they don't care if their kids end up with B's or C's in high school, as long as they have more options when it comes to college applications. So, they go through the motions of intense prep courses during senior year to beef up those core subjects.
I suppose there are definitely some kids out there who are just completely self-sufficient—you know, the types who hit these incredible milestones all on their own without any parental hand-holding or constant direction. It’s a bit rare, I guess, but they exist.

No. They won't roll out the new curriculum for vocational schools until the 2024/2025 school year.

urbantinker8 said:You're misinterpreting my posts. I try to be very clear about what I think, so there really shouldn't be any need for reading between the lines or intentional misinterpretations, let alone attributing things to me that were never written.
I'm not getting worked up over anyone because I'm fairly confident in myself and how I'm raising my kid, so it doesn't really occur to me to compare myself to anyone, especially here on Reddit with anonymous users I know nothing about beyond what they choose to type.
I didn't say any of the things you're caricaturing. What I actually think is that you might be overdoing it with this whole academic project, giving the impression that your entire lives revolve around school assignments and tasks for "those who want to know more." Maybe I did misread your posts, I don't know.
But this whole thing about buying extra textbooks just so a child can be prepared for three state-level competitions seems pretty wild to me.

However, it seems you just can't help but take a jab at someone, can you? You were actually starting to sound somewhat conciliatory and less judgmental for a moment, I might say. But then you felt the need to pivot toward the end of your post to once again condescend to, judge, or insult your interlocutor. You tried so hard to ensure I wouldn't call you out for constantly patronizing anonymous users with negative biases, mocking them or treating them as inferior parents based solely on a few short comments. Yet, those last couple of sentences bring us right back to you lecturing from a position of perceived moral superiority.

Is my parenting "absurd" simply because I buy extra books and enjoy studying with my child? And what happens now? 🤔 Do you honestly expect me to change my approach because of your opinion? It hardly matters when every single teacher whose subject my child competes in suggests exactly this—that without using various publishers' materials, a student cannot achieve serious success.

-----> If someone came to me and said, they love working with their child, they spend quality time learning together, they engage in meaningful discussions about book content, encourage critical thinking, connect lessons to previous concepts, apply real-world examples, and print helpful resources from the web to discuss together, I would say that sounds absolutely wonderful! Truly impressive! I would genuinely welcome hearing about such experiences. But you won't. Instead, you lash out and judge this kind of engagement, labeling me "absurd." I am supposedly "overstating the role of schools," despite the fact that you have no idea who I am or who my child is. You don't even know my gender, my profession, my age, my education, or where we come from. Yet, you've decided that my methods of upbringing and education are harmful to my child. "Our lives revolve around schoolwork"? 😵 😁 Goodness, where on earth do you get these dramatic conclusions? Why does my experience provoke you so much that you persistently try to discredit me as an incompetent or even dangerous parent from one post to the next? And then there are your other jabs—insinuations that a child must have behavioral issues if they take tutoring, or that a child will end up in psychiatric care or struggle to finish high school because of an "overambitious mother." 😁It seems I have become the ultimate scapegoat for every flaw within our educational system, both at the institutional level and within society as a whole. It is truly staggering how many people remain trapped by basic stereotypes and deep-seated biases, remaining incredibly quick to criticize and condemn anyone who dares to present a different perspective or a unique experience regarding their child's schooling. ☕

redridge13 said:That’s just how the system has always worked.
Basically, the kids from the elite prep schools breeze through the math requirements but struggle hard when they hit electrical engineering or circuit design. Meanwhile, the kids from the technical schools get crushed by the advanced calculus.
(And I’m speaking from experience here—this was twenty years ago, before everything got watered down by the modern credit system.)
Not everyone who finishes a degree at a place like MIT ends up as a software engineer; there are tons of different specializations where a kid might actually find their groove, but they won't know that until they're actually in the thick of it.

I’d actually agree with you that for a heavy-hitter school, prep school is better. To be a real programmer, you need that specific mental wiring and a knack for math.
Once you have that foundation, picking up any programming language is a piece of cake.
If a kid is driven, they can always tinker with coding in their free time; honestly, with everything available online today, there's zero excuse not to.

Is he involved in anything at school right now, like a robotics club or a STEM group?

Mine is still in middle school, but yeah, he’s already diving into coding and all that.

Who knows what the landscape will look like by the time he hits high school and college.

I'll have to sit down and hash all this out with my husband.

Dennis Alvarez2, I honestly find it kind of wild how much an anonymous post on a forum can actually get under your skin. I’m not trying to judge anyone here, really, I’m just making an observation.
If you are truly that confident in your parenting philosophy and the way you approach education, then some random critique from someone calling a school "unqualified" shouldn't be enough to rattle you this much.🤷
At the end of the day, whatever she wrote or did, I think everyone has the right to their own opinion. Your views might seem totally nonsensical to me, just as mine might seem pretty foolish to you, but I certainly wouldn't take it personally.
So, I guess it seems a bit irrational to me that a parent would feel this attacked just for preparing their kid for a county-wide competition, regardless of how offended you feel about it.
It isn't really my business to go digging through which schools are the best or which universities students typically transition to from certain districts.
I also don't have any intention of steering my own kids toward specific paths just because I think it'll be profitable or what might be a hot commodity in the job market fifteen years down the road.
Feel free to call me the most narrow-minded person you've ever met; I won't even blink, because I’m pretty settled in my own views and methods, no matter what anyone else thinks of them.

I haven't let this get to me, as I remain quite calm and positive, making sure to read your words carefully before offering my own measured responses. I haven't said anything to offend you, yet in less than two pages, you have gone so far as to label my lifestyle and career as "abnormal" and "insane," while claiming that I am "frustrated."

Dennis Alvarez2 said:I am also in favor of implementing National Exams. Under our current circumstances, I honestly cannot think of any other reliable method to truly assess a child's level of knowledge. We need standardized tests across the entire United States to get an accurate picture. It remains a mystery to me why these National Exam materials are kept so secretive, to the point where even professors aren't allowed to see them; everything ought to be fully transparent and publicly accessible. Furthermore, if a specific school wants to implement stricter or higher standards alongside the national assessments, they should certainly introduce their own entrance exams. We could simply follow the model used by universities. While this might introduce additional stress and uncertainty for students and parents, it would drastically reduce the number of inflated grades and ease the pressure on certain institutions. Ultimately, parents would gain meaningful insights into teacher performance and overall school success. If children in a particular grade consistently show high proficiency in one subject but struggle significantly with another year after year, the underlying issue becomes quite easy to detect. I am confident that everyone would put in more effort if this were the case.

Another option would be to expand school capacities, though that is clearly an unrealistic expectation in today's climate. When you have an excellent school with top-tier professors, the logical step would be to increase class sizes to allow more children access to that education, rather than continuing to fund programs that no students are actually interested in attending. However, such a move would necessitate drastic changes to our educational system, and I highly doubt any administration would dare to touch the established programs and systems that have been in place for decades.

It seems they aren't just secretive, but perhaps entirely irrelevant as well; I fail to see why the government would squander such vast amounts of tax dollars on something so inconsequential.
Are these dismal results indicative of how poorly the actual instruction is being handled? One can only hope these outcomes spark some meaningful reform in our education system.
I have read your posts about admissions, and knowing several parents in my circle who feel similarly, I find your perspective quite reasonable. If a child possesses the drive and desire to excel in a specific field, it is wonderful for a parent to offer support and guidance. Without ambition, even a gifted child may simply settle into an average trajectory.
It is likely your child will head toward a Center of Excellence, where they can receive specialized development.
In many parts of the country, there are dedicated programs for such students, like the Talented and Gifted program or GATE. I am not certain if such options exist in NYC, but if not, it is a shame.

redridge13 said:I think you're blowing things out of proportion; there are plenty of kids who transition to high school without any issues, without studying day and night, or ending up in therapy.
I know a kid who came from a pretty rough middle school—bad neighborhood, zero structure—and ended up at one of the most prestigious high schools in Washington, D.C.
On the initial placement exams, this kid was one of the best, even outperforming the "legacy" kids from wealthy families and elite private schools.
In the end, they breezed through high school, finishing as one of the top three students in the class.
Nothing extra was done during middle school, and they didn't even go to private tutors.
So, it really comes down to the individual kid. Based on their background and social status, this student shouldn't have stood a chance.
What that kid actually lacked was confidence during testing compared to the loud, arrogant kids who walked in acting like they owned the place (even though they had zero foundation).

72 isn't terrible, but unfortunately, it's not enough for most of the major high schools in Washington, D.C.
I don't think high schools in any other American city have entry thresholds like this.

The same applies to Miami Beach Senior High School; with 72 points, there isn't a chance of getting in anywhere, not even at a vocational school like a Technical High School specializing in computer science. Is it not tragic? To show a fourteen-year-old that having four B's over five semesters essentially means they are underperforming—to the point where they are shut out of both academic and technical tracks—is disheartening. If we were in Switzerland, perhaps it would make more sense.

I don't quite grasp the distinction between a school's internal entrance exam and the results from the national standardized testing used for placement.🤔

Benjamin Johnson7 said:It seems they aren't just secretive, but perhaps entirely irrelevant as well; I fail to see why the government would squander such vast amounts of tax dollars on something so inconsequential.
Are these dismal results indicative of how poorly the actual instruction is being handled? One can only hope these outcomes spark some meaningful reform in our education system.
I have read your posts about admissions, and knowing several parents in my circle who feel similarly, I find your perspective quite reasonable. If a child possesses the drive and desire to excel in a specific field, it is wonderful for a parent to offer support and guidance. Without ambition, even a gifted child may simply settle into an average trajectory.
It is likely your child will head toward a Center of Excellence, where they can receive specialized development.
In many parts of the country, there are dedicated programs for such students, like the Talented and Gifted program or GATE. I am not certain if such options exist in NYC, but if not, it is a shame.

The same applies to Miami Beach Senior High School; with 72 points, there isn't a chance of getting in anywhere, not even at a vocational school like a Technical High School specializing in computer science. Is it not tragic? To show a fourteen-year-old that having four B's over five semesters essentially means they are underperforming—to the point where they are shut out of both academic and technical tracks—is disheartening. If we were in Switzerland, perhaps it would make more sense.

I don't quite grasp the distinction between a school's internal entrance exam and the results from the national standardized testing used for placement.🤔

I truly appreciate your understanding and all the support you've shown me. 🙂

I completely agree that without ambition, even a naturally gifted child can easily settle into being just average. On the flip side, so many bright kids fly under the radar, never coming close to reaching their true potential for all sorts of reasons. In a crowded public school system, they often get lost in the shuffle, or perhaps at home, parents are simply too overwhelmed by the grind of daily life and shift work to provide that extra layer of guidance. When I suggest that there is always room for growth—that any child could climb a few more rungs on the ladder with the right support—people immediately jump to criticisms about overbearing parenting or mental health concerns. Yet, we shouldn't overlook the impact of educators; a single teacher who truly believes in a student can be the catalyst that helps them flourish both academically and personally, much like the encouragement found within a supportive family. Personally, I find it quite surprising when people argue against higher education or claim that formal schooling isn't necessary, but I suppose everyone has their own perspective.

When it comes to the SAT, everything feels incredibly disorganized and lacks any real sense of direction or purpose, all while being shrouded in this strange, conspiratorial atmosphere. Professors are expressing frustration because students aren't taking the tests seriously, largely because the scores don't actually impact their overall GPA, making the whole ordeal feel trivial to them. It honestly seems like a massive waste of resources. Even the instructors aren't compensated for proctoring since it isn't considered part of their standard contract, and they’re even losing regular teaching hours to make it happen. In my view, there should have been much more foresight involved; after all, both teachers and students know four years in advance that their knowledge will eventually be evaluated this way. I can see the inherent logic and potential behind these exams, but the execution needs to be far more meticulously planned than what we witnessed this year.

Benjamin Johnson7 said:It seems they aren't just secretive, but perhaps entirely irrelevant as well; I fail to see why the government would squander such vast amounts of tax dollars on something so inconsequential.
Are these dismal results indicative of how poorly the actual instruction is being handled? One can only hope these outcomes spark some meaningful reform in our education system.
I have read your posts about admissions, and knowing several parents in my circle who feel similarly, I find your perspective quite reasonable. If a child possesses the drive and desire to excel in a specific field, it is wonderful for a parent to offer support and guidance. Without ambition, even a gifted child may simply settle into an average trajectory.
It is likely your child will head toward a Center of Excellence, where they can receive specialized development.
In many parts of the country, there are dedicated programs for such students, like the Talented and Gifted program or GATE. I am not certain if such options exist in NYC, but if not, it is a shame.

The same applies to Miami Beach Senior High School; with 72 points, there isn't a chance of getting in anywhere, not even at a vocational school like a Technical High School specializing in computer science. Is it not tragic? To show a fourteen-year-old that having four B's over five semesters essentially means they are underperforming—to the point where they are shut out of both academic and technical tracks—is disheartening. If we were in Switzerland, perhaps it would make more sense.

I don't quite grasp the distinction between a school's internal entrance exam and the results from the national standardized testing used for placement.🤔

The entrance exams are actually determined by specific schools or certain school districts, which means they might all have identical tests; they design their own assessments based on what they deem relevant for admissions, assigning their own weight to the results. Recently in Washington, D.C., they implemented a unified exam for about ten of those highly competitive high schools where the pressure is most intense, primarily because, from what I’ve read here on the Forum, students used to struggle with having to cram for one or two different entrance exams in just a day or two. On the other hand, you have the SAT, which is standardized nationwide and administered to everyone at the end of 8th grade and 12th grade. You can think of the SAT as being similar to a high school senior's graduation requirements, whereas an entrance exam for a place like MIT would be more comparable to the specialized medical school entrance exams. The SAT scores don't actually impact admissions or carry any weight in that sense; as you suggested, it feels like a bit of a waste of time, and the results aren't even recorded in your official academic transcript for the time being. At least, that is my understanding of what you were asking. 🙂

Are there any high school entrance exams being held in Miami?

Dennis Alvarez2 said:I haven't let this get to me, as I remain quite calm and positive, making sure to read your words carefully before offering my own measured responses. I haven't said anything to offend you, yet in less than two pages, you have gone so far as to label my lifestyle and career as "abnormal" and "insane," while claiming that I am "frustrated."

I wrote that I personally find those methods to be crazy and abnormal, and that your posts seem to scream frustration regarding school, which I suppose is why you feel this need to go around correcting things that aren't even wrong.
Please notice the distinction.
I still don't quite grasp why you view all of this as an insult. I mean, I assume I know, but it really doesn't matter.
You could easily claim that I’m being negligent or a bad parent who isn't thinking about my child's future, simply because it doesn't occur to me to make a kid study history or physics using four different textbooks or spend hours analyzing data tables from some mining company.
It doesn't really bother me either way.🤷

Honestly, why would I even go there, urbantinker8? I have absolutely no desire to insult you or tear you down, nor do I feel the need to label you a bad parent. Even if we had met in person, why on earth would I judge you so harshly when I don't actually know you at all? Everyone is just doing their best to navigate life given the circumstances they find themselves in.

It seems that for you, healthy communication involves labeling someone’s parenting style as "insane and abnormal" while simultaneously calling the person "frustrated," all while claiming to view them as intelligent, positive, capable, and sane. 🤔 Where I come from, if you tell someone their work-life balance is "insane" and then follow it up by saying they are "screaming with frustration," you generally shouldn't expect a relationship built on mutual respect and understanding. If you involve a child in that kind of dynamic, those kinds of "compliments" usually trigger a call to Child Protective Services, if not something even more serious. 😁

Let's just move past this now; as far as I'm concerned, we can move on, urbantinker8. 🕺 I'm almost waiting for someone to jump in and tell us to drop the subject, so let's just put this entire exchange aside. We have already said everything that needs to be said. There are much more pressing issues within the education system than me and my child.

Dennis Alvarez2 said:I truly appreciate your understanding and all the support you've shown me. 🙂

I completely agree that without ambition, even a naturally gifted child can easily settle into being just average. On the flip side, so many bright kids fly under the radar, never coming close to reaching their true potential for all sorts of reasons. In a crowded public school system, they often get lost in the shuffle, or perhaps at home, parents are simply too overwhelmed by the grind of daily life and shift work to provide that extra layer of guidance. When I suggest that there is always room for growth—that any child could climb a few more rungs on the ladder with the right support—people immediately jump to criticisms about overbearing parenting or mental health concerns. Yet, we shouldn't overlook the impact of educators; a single teacher who truly believes in a student can be the catalyst that helps them flourish both academically and personally, much like the encouragement found within a supportive family. Personally, I find it quite surprising when people argue against higher education or claim that formal schooling isn't necessary, but I suppose everyone has their own perspective.

When it comes to the SAT, everything feels incredibly disorganized and lacks any real sense of direction or purpose, all while being shrouded in this strange, conspiratorial atmosphere. Professors are expressing frustration because students aren't taking the tests seriously, largely because the scores don't actually impact their overall GPA, making the whole ordeal feel trivial to them. It honestly seems like a massive waste of resources. Even the instructors aren't compensated for proctoring since it isn't considered part of their standard contract, and they’re even losing regular teaching hours to make it happen. In my view, there should have been much more foresight involved; after all, both teachers and students know four years in advance that their knowledge will eventually be evaluated this way. I can see the inherent logic and potential behind these exams, but the execution needs to be far more meticulously planned than what we witnessed this year.

The entrance exams are actually determined by specific schools or certain school districts, which means they might all have identical tests; they design their own assessments based on what they deem relevant for admissions, assigning their own weight to the results. Recently in Washington, D.C., they implemented a unified exam for about ten of those highly competitive high schools where the pressure is most intense, primarily because, from what I’ve read here on the Forum, students used to struggle with having to cram for one or two different entrance exams in just a day or two. On the other hand, you have the SAT, which is standardized nationwide and administered to everyone at the end of 8th grade and 12th grade. You can think of the SAT as being similar to a high school senior's graduation requirements, whereas an entrance exam for a place like MIT would be more comparable to the specialized medical school entrance exams. The SAT scores don't actually impact admissions or carry any weight in that sense; as you suggested, it feels like a bit of a waste of time, and the results aren't even recorded in your official academic transcript for the time being. At least, that is my understanding of what you were asking. 🙂

Are there any high school entrance exams being held in Miami?

In education, much like any other profession, you encounter those who truly love their work and pour their hearts into it, and then there are those who simply show up from 8 to 3, strictly adhering to the curriculum with absolutely zero creativity.
In my view, the system itself is flawed; it places all the pressure on the children, where some will naturally excel while others struggle to stay afloat, yet teachers face no accountability for their lack of effort—there is simply nothing you can do about it. I was fortunate enough that during my children's elementary school years, they had at least three or four teachers who actively encouraged them, pushed them forward, and found ways to motivate them to reach their full potential; they were few, certainly, but they were invaluable. A High Schooler is given surveys to evaluate their teachers, but that option wasn't available back in the eighth grade.

I have friends quite similar to you, including two teachers who follow the exact same routine; they just don't bother buying extra textbooks because they borrow them from colleagues, and yes, they recycle last year's tests for exam prep. They actually prepare materials for every single test and lesson, which they diligently forward to me 🤣 though my son never bothers to look at them. I have no issue with parents raising their children according to what they deem most appropriate; that is perfectly acceptable to me. We are all different, and it is a good thing that we are, which is precisely why we are here—to exchange experiences and perspectives.

As far as I am aware, in Miami, there isn't an entrance exam for high schools, though there are specific ones for vocational paths, such as the School of Fine Arts.

I am curious, however, how many parents of those NYC high schools will REFUSE to print out last year's entrance exam tests for study prep if their child shows no interest? 😉

I know plenty of parents who take their children to Professional Career Orientation sessions for high school selection.
Well, there's a bit of everything in this world.

Just because a kid loves coding and is good at it doesn't mean they’re going to survive at MIT.
Getting in isn't even the hard part—they take in tons of students, but the weed-out rate during the degree, especially freshman year, is brutal. That's why some kids should just go for a technical associate degree or a vocational track; the curriculum is more manageable. You see so many people trying to transfer from the university track over to the technical one.

I was lucky enough that my kids figured out what they wanted to do early on, so they picked high schools accordingly.
I know plenty of kids who came from liberal arts high schools, top-tier students, who tried to major in CS, and it just didn't work. At least not during that first year. They eventually catch up, but those initial elimination rounds are everything.
As a parent, I talked to them a lot and gave advice on what would be best for their education. I honestly think that's a parent's job—to make sure things stay secure.
I don't believe there are many parents who actually give a damn about their kids' education. If you feel your kid has that drive, you support them and handle all the logistics needed to make it happen.
If school isn't working for some kids, thank God we aren't just leaving them to fend for themselves. You look at where their skills and interests lie, find where they can actually swim, and you push them in that direction.
I couldn't let my kid pick a school just because their friend from class was going there.
Whether I was being too positive or if there was some pressure I didn't notice... I don't know. I just did the best I knew how.
The kids never complained, so I guess they were fine with me.

redridge13 said:I think you're blowing things out of proportion; there are plenty of kids who transition to high school without any issues, without studying day and night, or ending up in therapy.
I know a kid who came from a pretty rough middle school—bad neighborhood, zero structure—and ended up at one of the most prestigious high schools in Washington, D.C.
On the initial placement exams, this kid was one of the best, even outperforming the "legacy" kids from wealthy families and elite private schools.
In the end, they breezed through high school, finishing as one of the top three students in the class.
Nothing extra was done during middle school, and they didn't even go to private tutors.
So, it really comes down to the individual kid. Based on their background and social status, this student shouldn't have stood a chance.
What that kid actually lacked was confidence during testing compared to the loud, arrogant kids who walked in acting like they owned the place (even though they had zero foundation).

72 isn't terrible, but unfortunately, it's not enough for most of the major high schools in Washington, D.C.
I don't think high schools in any other American city have entry thresholds like this.

Back in my hometown, there’s one high school with four different tracks, and back in 2021, you wouldn't have even gotten into the language track—which usually has the lowest cutoff—with a 75. So, with a 72, you'd probably be looking at a high school in a different county or maybe a Technical High School if the kid is more interested in STEM.

Susan Martin4 said:I just finished showing this all to my husband—he’s a software engineer.
He agreed. I didn't. I’m looking at this through the eyes of a kid who actually wants to code—someone hungry for hands-on exercises and real practical experience. Telling a kid like that, "Actually, you should spend four years in high school studying Latin, music theory, and art instead of computer networks, algorithms, or databases, and then just wait until college to finally do what you love," feels counterproductive to me. It's just a waste of time.

And what happens if those kids just hit a wall? If they struggle through even the best prep schools and end up missing out on their dream colleges? There’s an insane amount of pressure at places like MIT. It's relentless.

So, after we finished talking, we headed over to the digital mine to scope things out. Turns out, the MIT programs saw the highest enrollment numbers, specifically pulling from schools like Lincoln High and Westside Prep. As for the vocational kids, most were coming out of the local technical colleges and the big trade school over in Chicago.

My kid is still just an elementary schooler, but he’s already convinced himself he wants to be a programmer. Honestly, I’d much rather see him skip the prep school route entirely. If he doesn't make it through a top-tier university, at least he'll have a trade to fall back on. 🕺

Mine also wants to be a programmer. Of course, there's plenty of time to change his mind a hundred times over, and circumstances can always shift... But you don't necessarily need an MIT degree to be a coder. His current programming teacher graduated from a community college, and honestly, in this field, the most important thing is just knowing how to write code. I really should ask some people I know working in IT for their take on it.
High school enrollment is still a long way off for us, so we aren't stressing about specific schools yet, but he's already asking me what kind of grades he needs to pull to become a programmer.

I’ve seen plenty of kids from the liberal arts track at schools like Miami Beach Senior High who ended up obsessed with math, and then there are those from the STEM tracks who basically lived for foreign languages.
Honestly, I know people who went through the advanced math programs and couldn't even make it past freshman year in calculus or engineering. Meanwhile, you have others from that exact same math-heavy curriculum who went off to medical school, and then a third group who are straight-up PhDs in robotics. So, if you ask me... I guess you could say it isn't just about the high school or the teachers after all... 😉

Sarah Hall53 said:I’ve seen plenty of kids from the liberal arts track at schools like Miami Beach Senior High who ended up obsessed with math, and then there are those from the STEM tracks who basically lived for foreign languages.
Honestly, I know people who went through the advanced math programs and couldn't even make it past freshman year in calculus or engineering. Meanwhile, you have others from that exact same math-heavy curriculum who went off to medical school, and then a third group who are straight-up PhDs in robotics. So, if you ask me... I guess you could say it isn't just about the high school or the teachers after all... 😉

Look, it’s not all black and white. But let’s be real—back in my day, we absolutely crushed it during those first couple of years at MIT. Most people were getting absolutely wrecked by the math requirements. A lot of kids coming out of standard high schools hadn't even touched half the stuff covered in Calculus I or II; they were seeing integrals and derivatives for the first time and just straight-up dropping out. That freshman year is everything. It’s a total meat grinder designed to weed you out, and if you don't hit the ground running, it'll kill your momentum before you even realize what happened.
Exactly the same goes for construction and those STEM majors.
It’s the same deal for anyone who spends four years grinding through chemistry in high school versus some kid at a prep school who only gets two years of it—the kid with the four-year track is obviously going to have a better handle on the subject. Obviously, that's assuming they actually give a damn and keep pursuing it.

Man, construction engineering was always such a weird gamble—kind of like trying to pick a winner with Hugo, you know? You’re almost guaranteed to miss the mark. It was this funny split: the kids coming out of prep schools would breeze through math and physics, but then they'd totally tank their drafting classes and end up repeating a year because they couldn't draw a straight line to save their lives. On the flip side, the kids from the technical trades could handle a drafting board like pros, but they'd get absolutely wrecked by a calculus exam and lose a year there instead. 🤷

wanderingbadger77 said:Look, it’s not all black and white. But let’s be real—back in my day, we absolutely crushed it during those first couple of years at MIT. Most people were getting absolutely wrecked by the math requirements. A lot of kids coming out of standard high schools hadn't even touched half the stuff covered in Calculus I or II; they were seeing integrals and derivatives for the first time and just straight-up dropping out. That freshman year is everything. It’s a total meat grinder designed to weed you out, and if you don't hit the ground running, it'll kill your momentum before you even realize what happened.
Exactly the same goes for construction and those STEM majors.
It’s the same deal for anyone who spends four years grinding through chemistry in high school versus some kid at a prep school who only gets two years of it—the kid with the four-year track is obviously going to have a better handle on the subject. Obviously, that's assuming they actually give a damn and keep pursuing it.

What kind of prep school only offers two years of chemistry?