The IUSD education

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
B

banstick

New member
We're considering a move into a rental in Irvine given its renowned academics. We do value academics. I also hear it's hyper competitive with affluent families who put their children through all sorts of extra tutoring and kumon type of support.

Question: will my children struggle to be average or excel if we just try to avoid the supplemental support? It's going to be a stretch for us to spend extra on top of just paying the premium to live here.
 
We don't live in the IUSD school district, but our school district zone is very similar to IUSD. The High School my boys attend is made of 50% Asian students and 36% White. Buying Real Estate in this highly rated school zone was great for Home appreciation, but if I can do it over again, I would rather have my boys attend a 7 or 8 rated high rated and shine vs being in an ultra competitive 10 rated school.

One of Seniors I play tennis with at this high school had a 4.4 GPA, 1530 SAT scores, applied to 11 colleges and got rejected from 10 colleges and just got into early admissions to UGA. Rejected from Georgia Tech with no conditional offer. He is an ABC (American Born Chinese) and if he applied from any other high school in GA, he would have easily gotten into Georgia Tech with his stats. He will be attending UGA in the fall.

My boys are targeting to study business at either Tech or UGA. If your son or daughter is targeting IVY Colleges, I would not recommend IUSD. Let them shine in a less competitive high school. An Asian kid with a 1500 SAT score, 4.2+ GPA, 30-45 credits in AP DE by time they graduate high school is a dime a dozen in the high school my boys attend. If your kids are only in elementary school, dont make the same mistake i did. Choose to compete in the Blue Ocean, not the Red Ocean (IUSD)
 
Last edited:
panda said:
We don't live in the IUSD school district, but our school district zone is very similar to IUSD. The High School my boys attend is made of 50% Asian students and 36% White. Buying Real Estate in this highly rated school zone was great for Home appreciation, but if I can do it over again, I would rather have my boys attend a 7 or 8 rated high rated and shine vs being in an ultra competitive 10 rated school.

One of Seniors I play tennis with at this high school had a 4.4 GPA, 1530 SAT scores, applied to 11 colleges and got rejected from 10 colleges and just got into early admissions to UGA. Rejected from Georgia Tech with no conditional offer. He is an ABC (American Born Chinese) and if he applied from any other high school in GA, he would have easily gotten into Georgia Tech with his stats. He will be attending UGA in the fall.

My boys are targeting to study business at either Tech or UGA. If your son or daughter is targeting IVY Colleges, I would not recommend IUSD. Let them shine in a less competitive high school. An Asian kid with a 1500 SAT score, 4.2+ GPA, 30-45 credits in AP DE by time they graduate high school is a dime a dozen in the high school my boys attend. If your kids are only in elementary school, dont make the same mistake i did. Choose to compete in the Blue Ocean, not the Red Ocean (IUSD)
Click to expand...
Thanks for your insight. We'd be ecstatic if our kids can get into an upper tier UC (including Irvine, SD, etc). Do you think being a "dime a dozen" yields a good chance at that? If not, that's pretty discouraging.
 
banstick said:
Thanks for your insight. We'd be ecstatic if our kids can get into an upper tier UC (including Irvine, SD, etc). Do you think being a "dime a dozen" yields a good chance at that? If not, that's pretty discouraging.
Click to expand...
Unless they’re at the top of their class in IUSD they’ll be lucky to get into Cal St Fullerton if they have an Asian last name.
 
Here the GPA breakdown of the high school my boys are zoned for which I am sure is similar to the top IUSD high schools : Uni and Northwood. With a 4.00 - 4.10 GPA weighted, your child ranks in the top 40% of his or her class. Let that sink in for a moment. I don't know about you.. but If was ranked top 40% in my high school class and studied really hard, I wouldn't feel very smart, possibly thinking I am idiot.

The ABC senior I play tennis with was ranked 67 out of 777 students in his senior class. Rejected from Georiga Tech, No condition or Wait List. He told me that a students needs have 4.5 GPA to get into to Tech from this 10 rated Asian Majority High School. He would have been close to a valedictorian at a 7 or 8 rated High School opening up many more offers including Georgia Tech and couple second tier Ivys. I am sure ABC's story is very similar of how difficult it is to get into UCLA or Cal straight from Northwood or Uni.

1st Decile: 4.37-4.76 (Top 10%)
2nd Decile: 4.24-4.36 (Top 20%)
3rd Decile: 4.11-4.23 (Top 30%)
4th Decile: 4.00-4.10 (Top 40%)

1st Quartile: 4.17-4.76
2nd Quartile: 3.86-4.16
3rd Quartile: 3.43-3.85
 
Last edited:
Liar Loan said:
How sad that we limit opportunity for such hard working, smart, and driven people in America. That's not the way it should be.
Click to expand...

I wonder if there's a silver lining to getting into a lower tier school despite being a 4.0 student in iusd. Maybe it will set that person up to do very well in undergrad and give better opportunity for grad schools.
 
banstick said:
I wonder if there's a silver lining to getting into a lower tier school despite being a 4.0 student in iusd. Maybe it will set that person up to do very well in undergrad and give better opportunity for grad schools.
Click to expand...
There is a great book that discusses exactly what you talking about here. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers has a study comparing students who attended Hartwick College (Lower tier College) vs Harvard University and the percentage of students who drop out of their STEM Major.
 
your kid may have a harder time
getting into a selective
college from IUSD versus a less
competitive
school district, but they will be very well prepared to actually succeed once there. As opposed to going to an easier high school,
and then not being prepared to handle the rigor/pace of a selective
uni. You know how many kids
drop out/can’t finish their college
degree or switch to easier “soft”
majors?
 
regarding the UCs specifically, since they are test blind (no SAT or ACT), weighted, capped UC GPA along with certain factors like performance relative to the peers at your specific
high school, being low income or first generation college student are given much greater weight. If your focus is specifically on gaming chances for UC admission, IUSD is probably not the most strategic
move. I’d
recommend attending high school
in Santa Ana or Orange school
districts to be evaulated for “ELC”—excellence in local context. Maybe attend elementary/middle school in IUSD to get a good foundation and switch to Santa Ana for high school.
 
Liar Loan said:
How sad that we limit opportunity for such hard working, smart, and driven people in America. That's not the way it should be.
Click to expand...
what’s sad is that the current system encourages Asian Americans to
view each other as foes/competition and sows division, as opposed to
other minority groups which are encouraged to stand together with solidarity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top