Don’t blindly pursue the “Best of the best” when it comes to high schools.

Remember that many great universities often have policy to allow in the top few percent of each high school graduating class, with no regard to how low-achieving a school is. It helps to put your smart kid into a high shool that is well-stocked with dummies, or at least stocked with a good percentage of college-bound kids who are also UNDER-achievers!

Consider Silicon Valley. Parents are getting smarter up here, and moving to high school districts with schools just “good enough” to provide reasonable (college-bound) education..yet offer a LESS-competitive academic environment (compared to say Cupertine and Palo Alto districts). That way your hard-working kids can easily place themselves into top 5% of that high school’s graduating class, securing a place in elite universities.

Do not underestimate just how difficult it is for very smart, very hard-working kids to place in top 5% in the most competitive CA high school districts. It can drive kids right into psychological breakdown (or suicide), particularly when parents have high expectations for their kids yet place them in elite schools. This is a hot topic of conservation (and strategy-plotting) for the very demanding Asian parents all over Silicon Valley and Bay Area.