Moving to Plano, Which ISD is better now? (Dallas, Austin: transplants, 2015)

[praneeth900]

Hi All,

Moving to Plano in October from Vegas. I tried searching the forum and google as well. It appears like Plano ISD is better as per forums but online websites offer a different variety of stats and currently ranking Allen/Frisco above Plano. Did something change recently? Looking for current opinions on this topic as all the forum posts I saw were prior to 2015.

[arkroyal2223]

Originally Posted by praneeth900

Hi All,

Moving to Plano in October from Vegas. I tried searching the forum and google as well. It appears like Plano ISD is better as per forums but online websites offer a different variety of stats and currently ranking Allen/Frisco above Plano. Did something change recently? Looking for current opinions on this topic as all the forum posts I saw were prior to 2015.

You should post in the Dallas forum as there are countless threads involving Plano ISD. But in short, Plano ISD is one of the true powerhouse school districts in Texas and I would bet that very few people would consider Allen/Frisco schools "better" than the Plano schools. Not that there is anything wrong with Allen or Frisco. There has also been something with these rating websites when it comes to Plano. Since you are from Las Vegas.... in 2020, the whole Clark County produced 65ish National Merit semifinalists. By comparison, a SINGLE high school in Plano (Plano West) produced that same amount this past year. The schools in Plano are academic factories filled with hypercompetitive students and thus can be an environment where a student can be swallowed by it.

[Peter5457]

Fortunately Collin County doesn't really have bad or dangerous schools. But since you are a transplant and asking about Plano schools vs other towns, I will share some relevant info. All these schools are good if your kids eventually want to go to UT or A&M. But if they want to go to one of the top national universities Plano is your best bet.

Take for example Prosper HS, which is a great town and all the residents rave about their HS and how well it performs and how high their SAT scores are. Use google to find where top ten Prosper ISD graduates are going to college. They are all texas or neighboring state schools. This from a town with a lot of wealthy transplants??

The Frisco schools will have a few students going to top 20 Universites. Don't know about Allen but probably between Prosper and Frisco if I had to guess.

It may be harder to find this info for Plano unless you know some of the top Plano students. But top students in plano ALL want to go to a top 20 University out of State. They wear it as a badge of honor because all their friends are shooting for these top schools. And you'll see a bunch of Ivy League and of course a bunch of other top 20 universities represented every year (Except for Acadamy HS, tiny niche school).

Top students in Tx are at a big disadvantage to the kids in the northeast. Tx may as well be alabama for those college admissions offices. But fortunately Plano schools have a long history of producing top students every year so they have a fighting chance. Admissions offices don't give a schiit what Greatschools says about some school in Tx. But most people don't understand this.

[TheOverdog]

Agree with everything written above, but also want to include that Plano has 3 senior high schools, and they breakdown more or less like this:


Plano West

Frisco
Plano Central

Plano East
Allen



Frisco and Allen both have much better demographics (more rich people, fewer poor people) than any Plano school but still don't perform as well for top students as Plano West ISD. Plano East has the worst demographics (much larger number of lower income students) but still performs amazingly well. Plano West has the best demographics and outperforms them. Plano Central performs slightly below to in-line with its demographics.



If your kids are not among of the top students (ie: you do not expect them to be in the running for valedictorian/top 10%) then all the schools are equal.


If your kid has learning disabilities (like dyslexia), I've heard and anecdotally experienced that Frisco and Allen support that better than any Plano school.

[ChristieP]

Allen has one HUGE high school. For some kids, that is great. For others, they can get lost in the shuffle.

[turf3]

Realistically, it's all six of one or half a dozen of the other.

[Peter5457]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

Agree with everything written above, but also want to include that Plano has 3 senior high schools, and they breakdown more or less like this:


Plano West

Frisco
Plano Central

Plano East
Allen



Frisco and Allen both have much better demographics (more rich people, fewer poor people) than any Plano school but still don't perform as well for top students as Plano West ISD. Plano East has the worst demographics (much larger number of lower income students) but still performs amazingly well. Plano West has the best demographics and outperforms them. Plano Central performs slightly below to in-line with its demographics.



If your kids are not among of the top students (ie: you do not expect them to be in the running for valedictorian/top 10%) then all the schools are equal.


If your kid has learning disabilities (like dyslexia), I've heard and anecdotally experienced that Frisco and Allen support that better than any Plano school.

Jasper HS is definitely the most competitive HS in tx as there are hundreds of high achievers there. We first moved to that zone same as many other transplants with high achievers do. But I realized at some point the obsession with only academics was unhealthy for my kids. We moved to the Sr. zone and many of their friends also transferred out of Jasper.

That turned out to be a great decision for my family as my kids thrived and so did their friends at their new schools. They all got into Ivies and other top 20 national universities. If they had stayed at Jasper they wouldn't have been able to do some of the activities they enjoyed doing because Jasper is so competitive so you can only study. And new students will struggle to get any leadership positions there so getting into an elite college will be very difficult.

Those top Northeast schools aren't going to admit a bunch of kids from the same school in tx even if they kicked butt at a school like Plano West. It's not the same as a top hs in Princeton, NJ or Westchester NY where they have historically recouped a lot of alumni donations. That's why many students may be better off at Plano Sr or Plano East. Plenty of top students from these schools also get into top colleges every year.

Actually Plano Sr has a much better track record for top college admissions than East. Probably because they used to have just as many high achievers as Plano West before the rezoning so all the top colleges are used to Plano Sr having a great track record. So when Harvard or Yale sees a great recomendation letter from a teacher at Plano Sr who has already sent a bunch of great students to Harvard/Yale that can really make a difference.

[serger]

Originally Posted by Peter5457

Fortunately Collin County doesn't really have bad or dangerous schools. But since you are a transplant and asking about Plano schools vs other towns, I will share some relevant info. All these schools are good if your kids eventually want to go to UT or A&M. But if they want to go to one of the top national universities Plano is your best bet.

Take for example Prosper HS, which is a great town and all the residents rave about their HS and how well it performs and how high their SAT scores are. Use google to find where top ten Prosper ISD graduates are going to college. They are all texas or neighboring state schools. This from a town with a lot of wealthy transplants??

The Frisco schools will have a few students going to top 20 Universites. Don't know about Allen but probably between Prosper and Frisco if I had to guess.

It may be harder to find this info for Plano unless you know some of the top Plano students. But top students in plano ALL want to go to a top 20 University out of State. They wear it as a badge of honor because all their friends are shooting for these top schools. And you'll see a bunch of Ivy League and of course a bunch of other top 20 universities represented every year (Except for Acadamy HS, tiny niche school).

Top students in Tx are at a big disadvantage to the kids in the northeast. Tx may as well be alabama for those college admissions offices. But fortunately Plano schools have a long history of producing top students every year so they have a fighting chance. Admissions offices don't give a schiit what Greatschools says about some school in Tx. But most people don't understand this.

UT is one of the top national universities.

[cordata]

Originally Posted by serger

UT is one of the top national universities.

If you look at the US News rankings, 19 of the top 20 "national universities" are private. UT Austin ranks 48 on their list.


Quesiton for Peter: How do you know there are more kids admitted from Plano to elite colleges than from the other districts you mention? Outside of Vals and Sals is any of this information published ?

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by cordata

If you look at the US News rankings, 19 of the top 20 "national universities" are private. UT Austin ranks 48 on their list.


Quesiton for Peter: How do you know there are more kids admitted from Plano to elite colleges than from the other districts you mention? Outside of Vals and Sals is any of this information published ?

Not sure about the newest rankings but either US News or Newsweek had UT ranked higher gloablly than nationally. It think that nicely underscores who crazy silly these rankings really are.