Searching For A High School (Houston, Austin: credit, house, to buy)

[mickeykmm]

We Just Moved To Cypress, Our Son Is Starting 10th Grade And I Would Like To Find A Private, Non-parochial School For Him. I Can't Believe How Large The Cy-fair High School Is Here. Any Suggestions?

[nana053]

Many of the High schools here are large, but that isn't *necessarily* a bad thing. I don't know about private schools, but my ds and dd went to a large public hs in Evanston, IL and it gave them opportunities that smaller schools just did not have. You just have to be on top of things to make sure your teen doesn't fall through the cracks.

My ds had 2 years of college math and science completed by graduation. He was able to complete his double major (chemical engineering, systems science) and a minor (economics) in 4 years while it was taking many valedictorians from small schools 5 years to complete a single engineering major. My dd did theater tech and was mentored by a great theater teacher. She is now working in the shop at Seattle Rep.

Don't think big equals bad and small equals good. Big or small schools can be great.

[carolineb]

nana053 - that was my 1st thought too - I went to a very small school with only 100 kids in the graduating class and I think it was a disadvantage.

A large high school might better prepare a student for college too because they would be used to navigating life in a bigger campus.

Perhaps the OP can discusss with the principal their concerns about the size of the school and what is done to make sure that the kids aren't just a number. I've only heard good things about Cy-Fair schools.

[Mr. Football]

Here are some of the local private schools in the area:

there's Houston Christian High School

Houston Christian High School

Cypress Christian School

Cypress Christian School - Home

St. Pius

Houston Private Schools - HAIS - Houston Area Independent Schools

Concordia Lutheran

Concordia Lutheran High School - Home of the Crusaders

Edit: You said non-parochial didn't you?

The Banff School is supposed to be good:

The Banff School

[Mom2Feebs]

Speaking as a kid that easily "fell through the cracks" at Kingwood High School, graduating class of 1,019 students...I will make sure my daughter goes to a great, but smaller high school. Bigger is not always better for all kids.

[Reivax]

I'm curious what you mean by "falling through the cracks"
I get an idea, but do you mean there weren't facilities for you, or wasn't a better teacher/student ratio? or that it was just so big, and so many louder voices yelling for the resources?

I went to a high school of 2500 (800 in my class). After graduating and heading to Tucson, I wasn't overly intimidated by the 40,000 students of the Univ. of Arizona on my first day there. The fact that I could drink legally in that state (at that time), was something I wasn't prepared for, though

My older ones will be attending Kingwood High school, or the newer one, not sure as we haven't decided which house to buy.


to OP, I originally looked at this site for private schools:
Houston Private Schools - HAIS - Houston Area Independent Schools
Use it as a guide, as it only talks about schools that chose to become a member.

[Mom2Feebs]

The only advice I can give you is stay on top of your kids' teachers. Get to know your child's counselor and principal and show your child you are working all together for his/her benefit.

I had a lot of problems at Kingwood High. My freshman and sophomore years were fine, but my father died when I was a junior, and not one counselor or teacher discussed it with me or tried to help. I went downhill from Soph to Junior. They really didn't care too much. I was just a plain jane average student--no honor roll, one extracurricular, nothing as special as what some of the parents have their kids do with multiple teams and clubs, etc. Unfortunately, my mom was really in no condition herself to help--for me or herself. It was a very sad time of my life, and if I had just one teacher or counselor that had reached out to me--just one to make me less invisible-- I might have ended up doing quite well...but all that high school proved to me was they were not capable of handling students with emotional or traumatic issues. That was almost 17 years ago. I am sure things are different now, but just know in a big school like Kingwood it is easy for kids to be a number and little else if they fall under the category of an "average" Kingwood student.

[carolineb]

Mom2Feebs - I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your father. I can really relate to your story. I'm not a Houston area-native but I wanted to share a similar story. My dad didn't survive triple bi-pass 3 days after I started my 1st year of college in 1983. I also didn't receive any counseling and except for a better financial aid package, the college wasn't helpful. I didn't get any support from my former high school either - I guess since I had graduated.

[Vicman]

Thanks to the opening of Kingwood Park High School, Kingwood High School is smaller.

[Texas Soccer Mom]

Texas high schools are large because of the limited funds available for education compared to funding in more affluent states. On the plus side a large high school will have an extensive course selection that can give you a head start on college with lots of dual credit and AP classes. The key to fitting in is becoming involved in extracurricular activities. Find a small group of students with similar interests.

We moved from the East Coast to Kingwood when my son was in the eighth grade. To help make friends in the new community he found extracurricular activities to join in soccer, tennis and swimming. He graduated from Kingwood High School before the second high school was built and the graduating class was about 1,000 students. However his circle of friends from his high school activities (he joined high school tennis and swim teams) his club sports (he joined the local swim team) and his AP classes (not many students sign up for these) was relatively small. As a top 10% graduate he was able to attend the flagship University of Texas at Austin with about 50,000 students on campus and again he found activities (honors program and IM sports) that made the campus feel smaller. There are all kinds of activities which you can join in both in high school and college that will give you a small circle of friends with similar interests and make you feel that you are valued in spite of the huge number of students on campus.