James Irwin High School (public schools, colleges, shop) - Colorado Springs - Colorado (CO) - City-Data Forum

mmoffitt · 04-10-2009, 09:33 AM

We are trying to get my daughter into James Irwin High School. She starts Freshmen year this year. We've heard some good things about this school but wondering if anyone has any recent opinions. Also, my daughter is not real excited about leaving her current friends to go to a new school...any advice or things I can tell her about this school to help her transition?

Thanks,

Mike

otowi · 04-10-2009, 04:10 PM

Have you toured the school and found out about course offerings, electives, extracurricular activities, policies, qualifications of teachers, sports, transportation, lunch programs (do they serve lunch and breakfast, what about free and reduced lunch qualifiers, etc.)?

otowi · 04-10-2009, 04:16 PM

You should also find out things like college acceptance, scholarship awards students have received. Do they have music programs, AP classes, vocational classes, what degrees do the teachers have, what are the discipline policies, and so on. Moving kids for high school it is well worth it to visit that school and get lots of information to make sure it is a good fit.

I couldn't tell you myself - I've heard both good and bad but I haven't visited it. It might be a good fit for some kids but a disaster for others.

mmoffitt · 04-12-2009, 11:29 AM

We have visited the school and she is shadowing a student on Tuesday. Hopefully she will like it because leaving her friends is hard.

unsmicck · 04-12-2009, 05:04 PM

I went there and was one of the first classes to graduate from there, in 2005. I at the time really hated it of course, because I was a student and students hate the school.

But looking back it was a really great school, the teachers are really good, they know what they are talking about, a few of them are just out of school, so are up to date about what is going on at the school, but most of them, are teachers from the 'field' of what they teach. They have been in the subject for a long time, and really know their material.

About 80% or more of the kids from my graduating class went on to go to college, anywhere from The school of mines, to Hawaii, to I think a few got into Ivy Leagues. Not sure about what scholarships everyone got, but I know there were a few full rides.

I don't know if they are offering breakfast now, but it was not an 'official' breakfast when I went there, and there was reduced/free lunch for some students, it was brought over from Sierra.

There are A LOT of AP courses, but few vocational courses, only art, and computers if you can even count those as vocational. There are a lot of cool projects that the school does.

ALSO VERY IMPORTANT, pretty sure they would still do it, but, at the beginning of every year the whole high school goes on a trip to Frontier Ranch out past Sout Park colorado, for a big bonding thing. It was very very cool. I loved it. The bonds at the school are very good, our boys soccer, and girls volleyball/basket ball teams do very well.

Anything else?

mmoffitt · 04-13-2009, 11:52 AM

Thanks UNSMICCK! It's good to read about your experience. My daughter's biggest problems are leaving her friends (which is why we are doing this) and the dress code. The dress code doesn't seem so bad to me, but she likes to wear jeans...

Fullback32 · 04-16-2009, 02:19 PM

My step-son is going there now as an eigth grader and will be a freshman next year. He and his mother have been quite satisfied with it. We have been impressed with the individual attention the faculty has shown to the boy. So far so good.

mmoffitt · 05-02-2009, 06:31 AM

Just an update...My daughter did get accepted and a friend of ours and hers got accepted as well. They have done some clothes shopping (this was a big deal for her...the dress code) and are encouraged about how they can dress even if it's more strict than public schools. She is even starting to look forward to attending. So if anyone else has any stories or recommendations, I'd be glad to hear them!

mmoffitt · 05-17-2009, 12:27 AM

My daughter just took her placement test on Saturday. She said she thought she did good. From what I've read, this isn't an admissions test, but more geared toward what classes they will be placed in. Looks like they have several advanced level classes.

Does anyone that's attended have advice on the advanced level classes? I've heard from others...some say put them in all the advanced classes you can and others say that sometimes the advanced classes discourage them and because they were advanced classes, they brought their GPA down...Do colleges look at the fact that your 3.8 GPA was based on 80% AP classes verses the other guy that got a 4.0 but had all standard classes?

otowi · 05-17-2009, 09:03 AM

As a person on scholarship review committees and a high school teacher, I would advise students to take all the advanced classes they can. We have turned kids down for scholarships because they took courses that were too fluffy to maintain higher gpa's, and we are more impressed by a kid with a 3.2 gpa in hard classes than a 4.0 kid taking the easy route. The harder classes also will do more to prepare kids for college. Colleges understand that too!