How hard is it to get top 10% and top 6% in plano west? (Dallas: homes, best school districts)

[student18374729]

What weighted GPA do you need to get into the top percentages for Plano West? I heard the school was competitive, but haven't seen any recent numbers be tossed around, so I'm not sure what to expect for my kiddo. TIA

[ChristieP]

That is one of the most competitive high schools in all of DFW. Here are the profiles of the PISD Valedictorians and Salutatorians from last year: https://www.pisd.edu/Page/27827

[mastershake575]

Extremely tough, the only official chart I found (from 2017) showed a 4.31 GPA being the entry point of the top 10%

That's pretty brutal to be honest, especially since they do the A+, A, A- system (so a 95 out of a 100 in a required class like Speech, Health, or P.E will only net a 3.8 instead of a full 4.0). Alot of

You basically need mid A's or higher in every single normal class (speech, P.E, technology, humanities, language...ect) and then for the 4 main subjects (English, Math, Science, Social Studies) you not only have to take every single one of them Honors/AP (Honor is on the 4.5 scale, AP is on the 5.0 scale) but you need majority of them to be either A or A+ instead of A-

You basically have to be a borderline perfect student to even have a shot. When it comes to schools that have had tough top 10% for over 2 decades Plano West along with Highland Park and JJ Pearce are usually the first 3 schools that get brought up (long reputations/history for all 3)

[TeamLynn]

So I click on a couple of the top students from the link above and one has 4.744 GPA. I've been away from High Schools so long...how do you do that? All As, lots of AP classes, do you have to go to Summer school too or does that help? Can you take more than a full load?

I sell homes for a living and find it interesting that many/most of my clients want to be in the very very best school districts. For a long while I would hear stuff like if it is not Exemplary I won't live there, sometimes it is I have to be in a 10 district, etc.
Sometimes I thought...your kid is 3....how do you know they will be the top student?

Would it be better for average or below average kids to go to a less tough school to give them better chances of being in top 10%. Of course I guess no one thinks their kid is in the bottom 1/2 of the class.

Sometimes I wonder too if the ISD or this or that high school will stay in the top% 12-15 years from now.

[Rakin]

Originally Posted by TeamLynn

Sometimes I wonder too if the ISD or this or that high school will stay in the top% 12-15 years from now.

You mean like Irving MacArthur, Arlington Lamar High Schools or Barbara Bush Middle School.

Yes it happens. Many of the Dallas ISD schools were top tier at one time.

Once demographics change, schools change.

[serger]

Originally Posted by mastershake575

Extremely tough, the only official chart I found (from 2017) showed a 4.31 GPA being the entry point of the top 10%

That's pretty brutal to be honest, especially since they do the A+, A, A- system (so a 95 out of a 100 in a required class like Speech, Health, or P.E will only net a 3.8 instead of a full 4.0). Alot of

You basically need mid A's or higher in every single normal class (speech, P.E, technology, humanities, language...ect) and then for the 4 main subjects (English, Math, Science, Social Studies) you not only have to take every single one of them Honors/AP (Honor is on the 4.5 scale, AP is on the 5.0 scale) but you need majority of them to be either A or A+ instead of A-

You basically have to be a borderline perfect student to even have a shot. When it comes to schools that have had tough top 10% for over 2 decades Plano West along with Highland Park and JJ Pearce are usually the first 3 schools that get brought up (long reputations/history for all 3)

There were changes made to the ranking system several years ago. Ranking GPA does not include all classes, just "core" courses.
So, two GPAs: overall (everything counts) reported on the transcript, and ranking - just for the top 10%, used for the automatic admission. Presumably this was done to make it less of a rat race, it still is though.

https://www.pisd.edu/cms/lib/TX02215...3%20posted.pdf

See p.10-11

[20Hope20]

Lets not forget its on a scale of 5.0, in districts using 6.0 scale, you'll see higher GPA but doesn't mean they are smarter.

Making top 1% at Plano West is really tough but 10% isn't that big of a deal for a smart kid taking needed number of weighted courses and doing well.

Its easier if you are on honors track and take honors courses in middle school because then you are eligible/prepared for more rigorous load.

UT, A&M and UTD accept a lot of Plano West kids who couldn't make 10%.

[20Hope20]

UTD (387 applied, 274 were accepted, 125 decided to enroll there)

UT Austin (525 applied, 285 were accepted, 98 enrolled there)

This info is from 2019 but it’s pretty similar every year, roughly 50%+ acceptance for UT- Austin and 70%+ acceptance for UTD.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by 20Hope20

UTD (387 applied, 274 were accepted, 125 decided to enroll there)

UT Austin (525 applied, 285 were accepted, 98 enrolled there)

This info is from 2019 but it’s pretty similar every year, roughly 50%+ acceptance for UT- Austin and 70%+ acceptance for UTD.

That does not help much without knowing what percentage of the enrollees mentioned were auto-admits.

[cordata]

If the graduating class is 1300 that would mean 78 in the top 6%. So 285 accepted means at least 200 "holistic" admits I would think?