[quote=bearishgurl]
Absolutely true, AN. I’ve known kids like that, too. You would be surprised how many kids from ALL Sweetwater and ALL SD high schools have multiple-choice offers from not only “ivy-league” schools but USC and multiple UC campuses.
All CA public high schools MUST teach to the same standards. It’s up to the student to avail themselves of everything that’s offered to them in HS and to excel to their highest ability in A-G subjects, as well as prepare properly for the SAT exam before taking it. This applies to the kid attending Crawford HS from his/her grandparent’s back bedroom or LR futon and the kid living in a single-wide trailer in the middle of a lettuce field in Stanislaus Co. the same as it does for the kid living in their parent’s “granny flat” next to their backyard pool in LJ.
Admissions officers in CA public colleges are far more interested in HS performance than personal circumstances of the student.[/quote]
The one advantage I see with going to schools with high API scores is the level of competition that you get introduced to from early on. If you take a look at the average GPA in UC of schools like MMHS and Sweetwater, and compare them to TPHS, you will see that kids who graduated from TPHS does have a higher average GPA in UC. So, maybe that’s due to the fact that they’re exposed to higher level of competition early on, so they are used to working at 100% of their ability, vs coasting through HS and still get 4.0+ GPA.
BTW, this is all talking about the average number as well. If your kids are smart and driven, I don’t think it matters, since your kids can go to JC can compete w/ HS graduates when they’re 16. Which mean they’ll be exposed to much higher competition level early on.
