[ND_Irish]

Originally Posted by lvmensch

Disagree. Our family used the NYC selective schools for a couple of generations. My mother in fact was President of the PTA at Bronx High School of Science when my sister went there. The general view there was you could not make Ivy League unless in the top 20 and you would be better off going to a regular high school where you could be valedictorian rather than Bronx. Now understand these are kids with 750 plus SAT scores. So 780 SAT, Valedictorian and some other community service was considered far more likely to hit the Ivys than 75th at Bronx. Not that such a thing would get you into all the Ivys...but one or two.

And Asian and Jewish kids with 4.0s and 780s were routinely rejected by the Ivys.

We'll have to agree to disagree. I am an Ivy League grad, and what you have related above was not my experience when I was in college and what I hear now.

[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by ND_Irish

We'll have to agree to disagree. I am an Ivy League grad, and what you have related above was not my experience when I was in college and what I hear now.

Was involved in a discussion a couple of years ago about the kids in the current generation. Same story...and one of those involved was the retired head mistress of a feeder school to Columbia. All her kids went to Columbia on a faculty free ride. Her great grandkids were part of the subjects.

The consensus still was that the Ivy bias against the elite public schools was same as ever and the bias against orientals still active. I believe that bias has been well identified elsewhere. Some of the kids are half Korean and have a Korean surname.

I would note there are a number of studies have substantiated this bias and suits have been filed.

[Nn2036]

Originally Posted by ND_Irish

I disagree that being a valedictorian at any school ensures your children can go anywhere they want. For example, Ivy League schools do pay attention to the schools your children attend, and not being the valedictorian at a prestigious school likely will not have a significant impact on admission provided your children did fairly well academically and took challenging courses. I think a more appropriate statement would be that if your kids get excellent scores on the SAT or ACT, they likely will be able to go anywhere they want.

There are too many high schools in the US and the world (international students) for the admission officer to know all. Besides some very well known schools, some goods schools in the suburb of Dallas or Detroit will not gonna give them ooh ah.

[Nn2036]

Originally Posted by ND_Irish

We'll have to agree to disagree. I am an Ivy League grad, and what you have related above was not my experience when I was in college and what I hear now.

I went to a non-Ivy but prestigious school and I have been working with admission officer as well as interviewing students as an alum. The school name won't hurt you but it doesn't impress us ( unless it is Phillips Exeter, etc..) . We are actually more impressed with excellent students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.

[foundapeanut]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

Believe only half of what you see, and nothing of what you hear.

Daddy?! My old man used to tell me this all the time

I know some very successful Las Vegas public school educated kids. it isn't so much the schools as the parenting.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by mmgoodies

The best private high school in Nevada - The Meadows School - had not had a single student go to MIT or CalTech in the past 6 graduating classes. Coming from a highly educated background, this is not acceptable. I think we are moving before school age...

I understand your concern and it is valid. At the same time the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Our daughter went to a private school in Silicon Valley where 12% of its graduating class that year matriculated as freshman at MIT. One senior, accepted to Harvard, received a job offer from Facebook (where he worked as an intern) to skip college & instead just go to work full time. The offer was $125K for an 18 year old kid. He took the offer; now he makes nearly $300K as a 25 year old and his pre-IPO stock is worth a bundle. He's exceptional, of course, in every sense of the word. Stanford was the back-up school for many of my daughter's high school peers who set their sights on Ivys (my own kid chose an Ivy).

Please note that in Silicon Valley, it is called the HYPS syndrome: if a high school student isn't accepted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford, it is almost an insult against their ancestors and a cause of shame for the parents.

While some of it is the school, most all of it is a combination of coming from the deep end of the gene pool, the family's values, and the local environment.

For most children, their most important role models are their own mothers & fathers, and the mothers and fathers of their close friends and relatives. In Silicon Valley, it is very common for both mom & dad to have PhDs in a technical discipline. When I asked my daughters friends and peers "what do you want to do when you grow up?" the answers I received were expected: "I want to be an engineer." "I want to be a scientist."

When my daughter matriculated as a freshman at Columbia, I recall taking the suite of students to dinner when I visited. These young women -- very bright, articulate, and polished -- mostly came from very affluent/wealthy families where dad worked on Wall Street (or a Connecticut-based hedge fund or private equity fund). When I asked them in an age-appropriate way "what do you want to do when you grow up?" the responses were amazing.

"Do? What do I want to do? Eventually, I'll get married to an investment banker, and we'll have 2 children, and I'll volunteer on the boards of a few charities."

These bright young women's role models were their own mothers and the mothers of their friends, and those adult mothers were married to investment bankers and sat on the boards of charities and took Pilates classes and tennis lessons.

[Nn2036]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

"Do? What do I want to do? Eventually, I'll get married to an investment banker, and we'll have 2 children, and I'll volunteer on the boards of a few charities."

These bright young women's role models were their own mothers and the mothers of their friends, and those adult mothers were married to investment bankers and sat on the boards of charities and took Pilates classes and tennis lessons.

What is so amazing about that answer? Married a banker, took Pilates classes, etc.

That is an answer of privileged girl that wants an easy life. I wouldnt want my daughter to think that way.