Is there a big difference in education quality?

[irvinehomeowner]

Since everyone is saying the best way to an Ivy (or "good" college) is to be the big fish in the small pond, seems like the auto answer is 90th percentile at Irvine or Woodbridge.

Do college admits really know the difference between Uni/NW/Irv/WB? The other thing about the "lesser" IUSD high schools, they have better non-educational programs... sports, performing arts etc... which may go towards a more favorable admission.

 

[bones]

Do college admits really know the difference between Uni/NW/Irv/WB?

Maybe UCI and some of the other California colleges do. But definitely not the Ivys. Why would they? None of the 4 irvine high schools are academic or athletic powerhouses.  It all gets lumped together as "another upper middle class high school in Orange county".  On the other hand, they know CDM HS.  Lots of kids there go to Ivys for sports.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

Do college admits really know the difference between Uni/NW/Irv/WB?

Maybe UCI and some of the other California colleges do. But definitely not the Ivys. Why would they? None of the 4 irvine high schools are academic or athletic powerhouses.  It all gets lumped together as "another upper middle class high school in Orange county".  On the other hand, they know CDM HS.  Lots of kids there go to Ivys for sports.

I don't think HS ranking is significant at all...feeder schools are feeder schools because they essentially congregate all the top tiered candidates anyways...it's a self-feeding cycle.  The hiring of former admissions officers helps but you can get private advisors if that makes you feel better.

Richard Bischoff, director of admissions at the California Institute of Technology, says parents overestimate the importance of a high-school name. He recently received a letter from a parent of a toddler wanting to know where the child needs to go in order to get accepted at Caltech. Mr. Bischoff wouldn't indulge the question. "I don't have the formula," he says.

But the real key is to move to South Korea:

The 10 schools that performed best in our survey are all private schools. Two top performers overall are located in South Korea. Daewon Foreign Language High School in Seoul sent 14% of its graduating class to the eight colleges we examined -- that's more than four times the acceptance rate of the prestigious Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, N.Y.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119638146482608732

 

[bones]

Do college admits really know the difference between Uni/NW/Irv/WB?

Maybe UCI and some of the other California colleges do. But definitely not the Ivys. Why would they? None of the 4 irvine high schools are academic or athletic powerhouses.  It all gets lumped together as "another upper middle class high school in Orange county".  On the other hand, they know CDM HS.  Lots of kids there go to Ivys for sports.

I don't think HS ranking is significant at all...feeder schools are feeder schools because they essentially congregate all the top tiered candidates anyways...it's a self-feeding cycle.  The hiring of former admissions officers helps but you can get private advisors if that makes you feel better.

Richard Bischoff, director of admissions at the California Institute of Technology, says parents overestimate the importance of a high-school name. He recently received a letter from a parent of a toddler wanting to know where the child needs to go in order to get accepted at Caltech. Mr. Bischoff wouldn't indulge the question. "I don't have the formula," he says.

But the real key is to move to South Korea:

The 10 schools that performed best in our survey are all private schools. Two top performers overall are located in South Korea. Daewon Foreign Language High School in Seoul sent 14% of its graduating class to the eight colleges we examined -- that's more than four times the acceptance rate of the prestigious Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, N.Y.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119638146482608732

You mean johns creek right?

 

[woodburyowner]

I went to a lower tier HS, but graduated top 3% of my class of 700.  I thought I was smart until I got to my tier 1 "big name" college and then realized how unprepared and below average I was compared to everyone else.  Everyone around me was top 3% of their HS school (with many being the valedictorian or salutatorian).  Lots of Uni and other Irvine HS graduates seemed much more prepared than I was.  For example, I was only used to doing about 30 minutes of homework with some days not doing any homework.  Most other students I talked to that went to Tier 1 high schools were used to a few hours a night.  It definitely made for a tough adjustment.

With that said, I think any Irvine HS will do a good job of preparing your kid for college.  It's the only lower tier schools outside of Irvine that I would worry about.

 

[jmoney74]

I went to a lower tier HS, but graduated top 3% of my class of 700.  I thought I was smart until I got to my tier 1 "big name" college and then realized how unprepared and below average I was compared to everyone else.  Everyone around me was top 3% of their HS school (with many being the valedictorian or salutatorian).  Lots of Uni and other Irvine HS graduates seemed much more prepared than I was.  For example, I was only used to doing about 30 minutes of homework with some days not doing any homework.  Most other students I talked to that went to Tier 1 high schools were used to a few hours a night.  It definitely made for a tough adjustment.

With that said, I think any Irvine HS will do a good job of preparing your kid for college.  It's the only lower tier schools outside of Irvine that I would worry about.

Seems like you HS prepared you for resl world work.

 

[doremi]

IMO, the main point of high school is to get into a good college, b/c the admissions process is such a numbers game these days.  The responsibility of preparing your child for the rigors of college, and life overall, fall mainly with the parents. 

With that said, here is my quandary.  Do I put my child in a good high school (IHS) with a great chance to succeed?  or do I put my child in a 'great' high school (Northwood) with just a good chance to succeed?  By 'succeed', I'm referring to GPA, class rank, and other quantitative measures that I'm guessing admissions offices put heavy weight on. 

GPA:
The academic rigor is stronger at Northwood/Uni.  Some students thrive in this type of competitive environment and some cannot handle it.  One perk is that you may not have to intervene with your child's academic performance because the pressure to succeed will be coming from their peers and not their parents.  Does your child work better with highly motivated students who are all trying to get to the top or does your child prefer to be one of the few students that stand out?  Let's just say it's considered cool to be a nerd at Northwood/Uni and it's considered un-cool to be a nerd at Irvine/Woodbridge.  So for GPA, your child can get 4.62 GPA at either school.  Some students thrive under pressure and some students prefer a more relaxed academic environment.  I think the question you may want to ask is what type of academic environment will set your child up for success? The answer will be different for every child.

Class Rank:
There will be more higher achieving students at Northwood/Uni compared to Irvine/Woodbridge.  However the academically rigorous environment could be the main factor that motivates more students to perform well at schools like Northwood/Uni.  So a student may perform better at a school like Northwood/Uni because of the need to succeed and that same student may not perform as well at Irvine/Woodbridge because the pressure to succeed is not as high.  So your child's ranking could technically not be as high at a school like Irvine.  Again the question is what type of academic environment will set your child up for success?  The answer will be different for every child.

Other Measures:
Aside from GPA and SAT scores you have your extra-curricular activities and the stuff that makes your child stand out.  An advantage that both Northwood and Irvine HS has is their rotating block schedule.  This allows students more flexibility in their schedules and also allows them to fit more classes into their schedules.  This is when classes like band, choir, orchestra, drama, ceramics, ASB, sports, etc. all stand out.  And yes these classes matter! I know of some parents that don't want their kids to take take these classes because they are non AP courses and will bring down their child's average GPA since it is a non-weighted course.  These parents are shooting their children in the foot because little do they know these are the exact things that colleges are looking for.  I have a friend who conducts the interviews for Harvard and he says that taking a music class for all 4 years of high school shows dedication and commitment and that is exactly the type of stuff these schools are looking for.

Right now Northwood HS is looking all shiny and bright because it is the newest school but my prediction is that 10 years from now things will not be looking so hot over there.  Portola will be getting all of the attention and then the praise will shift again over to the 6th high school and the cycle continues.  The reason why Uni will remain competitive is because a large portion of the school consists of children of UCI professors.  The majority of these parents have PHDs and come with very impressive academic backgrounds.  They also produce very smart kids that end up attending Uni .

My 2 cents.

 

[Legit949]

Where does Beckman HS stand in this debate/survey? Thank you as always...

 

[doremi]

Where does Beckman HS stand in this debate/survey? Thank you as always...

Hmmm my guess is that Beckman is similar to Irvine and Woodbridge?
I know that Beckman, Irvine and Woodbridge all do much better than Northwood/Uni with sports.

 

[qwerty]

Jesus Christ. You guys take this school shit way to seriously.

 

[doremi]

8) 8) 8)

 

[irvinehomeshopper]

Ivies and top private schools are interested in the top 1% (5 students per school)
Upper tier UCs are interested in the top 5%
Lower tier UC are interested in the top 10%
USC is somewhere in between.

90% of all IUSD students attend colleges somewhere between UCR and IVC or IHO Academy

Here is the secret in getting into USC. USC is highly selective in freshmen admission. It is the basis for Forbes and US News to establish their rankings. Don't apply as a Freshmen. 50% or more of all graduating seniors were transferred students from junior college or other colleges. Ranking websites do not track transferred students. A majority of the transferred students reside in affluent zip codes and their families are future supporters of endowments.

 

[eyephone]

Jesus Christ. You guys take this school shit way to seriously.

What I've seen, all races are enthusiastic about college. (I won't mention the race that will fit the scenarios below) Here are some examples:
1. My son got multiple offers to play Divsion 1 basketball.
2. I'm so proud that your the first one in our family to go to college.
3. My son got into a IVY school, how about yours?
4. All that money spent on tutors and extra curricular activities paid off, my kid is going to ____.

 

[irvinehomeshopper]

Jesus Christ. You guys take this school shit way to seriously.

What I've seen, all races are enthusiastic about college. (I won't mention the race that will fit the scenarios below) Here are some examples:
1. My son got multiple offers to play Divsion 1 basketball.
2. I'm so proud that your the first one in our family to go to college.
3. My son got into a IVY school, how about yours?
4. All that money spent on tutors and extra curricular activities paid off, my kid is going to ____.

My son is so filial he turns down east coast schools so he can be close by me.

 

[qwerty]

1- Asian
2- white
3- Hispanic
4- black

This is too easy man.

 

[eyephone]

1- Asian
2- white
3- Hispanic
4- black

This is too easy man.

Your too funny.

 

[irvinehomeshopper]

You got #1 right on Qwerty

 

[irvinehomeowner]

Isn't JLin all 4?

 

[Paris167]

Where does Beckman HS stand in this debate/survey? Thank you as always...

I think Beckman will do quite well in future years as all the kids behind the OH gates start going there. Because from what I've seen so far most of the residents behind the gates are highly educated professionals who will be grooming their kids for academic excellence. It'll be interesting to see what happens - I think Beckman will end up giving the Irvine high schools a run for its money regarding API scores and top tier college admissions

 

[nyc to oc]

Where does Beckman HS stand in this debate/survey? Thank you as always...

I think Beckman will do quite well in future years as all the kids behind the OH gates start going there. Because from what I've seen so far most of the residents behind the gates are highly educated professionals who will be grooming their kids for academic excellence. It'll be interesting to see what happens - I think Beckman will end up giving the Irvine high schools a run for its money regarding API scores and top tier college admissions

yeah, we specifically were targeting the beckman high zone as our desired school over IUSD. We have in the past nixed houses in Turtle Rock and Northwood Pointe due to the schools.  I think Beckman is up and coming and I hope its ethnic mix remains balanced over time.