Best feeder school list in West Plano (Allen, Frisco: 2013, new home)

[TheOverdog]

Are we really suggesting that going to school with 60 more Asian kids and 75 less white kids gives students a better chance to go to an Ivy League school?

I don't see why this would be hard to believe. You pay more in the margins for horsepower, for land, for everything else. Why should education be any different? Tiny differences at the margins matter.

And the person didn't ask about Plano Senior in any case so how its scores compare are totally irrelevant. Maybe they want to live next to the Tollway rather than Central Expressway. The restaurants are better over there.

[coltseaver]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

I don't see why this would be hard to believe. You pay more in the margins for horsepower, for land, for everything else. Why should education be any different?

And the person didn't ask about Plano Senior in any case. Maybe they want to live next to the Tollway rather than Central Expressway. The restaurants are better over there.

Well it is different. I'm paying for all 3 schools and I don't have kids in any of them.

And I totally agree...restaurants are much better on the far west side.

[TheOverdog]

Well it is different. I'm paying for all 3 schools and I don't have kids in any of them.

Is this just a tax whine thing? So move somewhere else then.

[coltseaver]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

Is this just a tax whine thing? So move somewhere else then.

I'm not whining. You made a comparison to buying a car or a piece of land. It's not even close to the same.

[fastfingers33]

Another question. Do parents have a serious influence on teacher's standard? I know this thread has been a lot of how Plano West and Plano East teachers are roughly the same. But shouldn't Plano West teachers be strong due to these tiger moms? If I look at more affluent school districts, generally parents have a fairly big influence on what teacher stays on and who stays off. IE, if a teacher is underperforming, they're more like to get fired from a school with lots of involved parents than if the school has no involved parents.

Would you say this effects comes into play in Plano schools?

[Big G]

Short answer: no, especially not at the MS level and above.

Long answer: If the principal likes you, you're golden. If not, you're toast.

Even longer answer: Any parental influence on the principal is almost completely controlled by the school's PTA. Those are the country club moms, not the tiger moms.

[Peter5457]

Yes plano west has great sports teams but Jasper for 9-10 grades suck from what i hear. their football team gets creamed every week. So, yes you can make the football team at jasper, no problem. That is why at Jasper you have a better chance to make the football team than other plano schools.

But when you get to West for 11-12 grade, dont expect to be starting over Sosa at running back or defensive captain over Jim Jeffcoat's son.

[PISDstudent]

I haven't been active on this forum for quite a while, but I stumbled on this thread and thought I'd opine. For background, I went to Shepton and Plano West, where I graduated with the class of '13 and was one of the 2% that ended up at a "US News Top 20 School." I really don’t think deciding between Plano West vs. Senior vs. East is an incredibly important choice – they are all top-notch school, and the high school feeder is certainly less critical than the elementary and middle school feeder. But I suppose I just disagree with some other posters on how to think about a competitive high school, especially as relates to college admissions.

As many have mentioned, there are tradeoffs with any of the schools in Plano (and indeed with every school in an imperfect world). I was at Plano West before the changes in feeder alignment that made it more competitive, and even then there was a high degree of peer pressure. My younger brother is in high school now, and I can confirm it's only gotten more intense. Quite frankly, I think that the race to load up on AP classes and test out of lower level science and math borders on the silly and absurd. I imagine that two years of this at Jasper would provide ample material for a Monty Python sketch.

That having been said, I'm am incredibly grateful that I went to Plano West and had the high school experience that I did. Looking back two years out, PWSH prepared me well for an "elite" college, but more importantly, it provided me with an education and experiences that were stimulating and on the whole have helped me lead a more interesting life. While the stereotype of Plano students as high achievers without many distinctive qualities certainly bears some truth, given the large school size and mass of intelligent peers, there was a large pool of students who were thoughtfully engaged with the world around them. While conversations about politics, world affairs, art, literature, music, and history were by no means the norm, they were easy enough to seek out. IMHO, it's these conversations and questions that allow you to grow as a unique self, the very characteristic that colleges are generally looking for.

In many AP and Honors Courses at Plano West, homework and assigned reading aren’t graded, so to a certain extent, they are “optional,” and it’s up to each student to decide what he/she needs to do to get high marks on tests. When I entered junior year, I took advantage of this and made a conscious decision that I wasn’t going to be burning the midnight oil every night in hopes of ending up as Valedictorian. I still worked hard enough and was engaged in my classes, and I was content to end up among the top 20 students instead of the top 5 or 10. Instead of reading every chapter of all of my textbooks, I spent my time on independent intellectual pursuits (and procrastinating a fair amount on this forum). And when it came time for college admissions I faired better than most students ranked higher than me, and ultimately ended up at Stanford.

This is a rather lengthy post, but what it ultimately boils down to is that the various quantitative measures that have been thrown around on this thread, while helpful, don’t paint the full picture of how a high achiever would fare in a given school. In addition to a demographic profile or mean SAT score, consider how a school’s culture will inspire a student. Will it drive high-achievers to develop what Stanford’s admissions office refers to “intellectual vitality” and “non-academic achievements?” In my experience, Plano West is a challenging environment, but it does just that.


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Two notes:

I: You may find this site interesting - it compiles student reviews of their experiences at their high schools. Not everyone had a fantastic experience at Plano west, but the vast majority seem to think it's a great place.
https://k12.niche.com/plano-west-sen...hool-plano-tx/

II: Regarding college admission data, I think someone was referring to the numbers from this past spring. For that year (college classes of 2019), Harvard admitted 6 students from Plano West. The only other metroplex school with more than 2 admits was St. Marks, with three acceptances. Make of that what you will.

[Johnhw2]

Pisd student your insightful posts with your insider viewpoint have been missed. Hope college life is going well and you see your path clearly as one can.

[Emc62]

It is refreshing to hear insightful perspective of someone who went through these schools and has a nice vintage point to look back and reflect on his experiences.