Is Clements High School a good school? (Houston, Austin: fit in, how much)

[Xiaomao]

Originally Posted by va_residents

TJ 2009 Verbal/Math is 723/747. It is 1470. Way above Clements.

Moderator cut: off topic

Let me just say, though, that I don't know why your standards are so high. Really. Just send your kid to some nice private school if you're so worried about what the other kids are scoring on their SAT tests. Or better yet, why even come to Houston? Why not just send your kids to school in VA, where the public schools have the highest SAT scores in the country or whatever?

Anyway, I don't understand people who are so hell-bent on sending their kids to a school where everyone scores so perfectly and well. No reason, really, unless you just want your kid to be piled down with homework and preparing for college, lol. My friends go there, they're extremely smart, but they'll never make it to the top 10% with all those superachievers there.

[DanielWayne]

I'm curious why you keep harping on Clements. It is a large public school, and from what I have just read, TJ is an extremely selective magnet school that is by application only. Some of your other comparisons just don't make sense, but I'm going to leave it at that. And according to this 2005 website, the average SAT for Fairfax minus TJ is between 1184 and 950. I'm pretty sure you are comparing 3-section SAT scores to 2-section SAT scores. 2005-02-01: FCTA Press Release - Fx Co Public Schools average SAT score still at 65th percentile (http://www.fcta.org/PR/PR20050201fcps65th.html - broken link)


"I'm about to go off on one of my 'jesus christ, education is what you make of it' rants,"

Agreed. You could excel at a less competitive high school, get a free ride to an inexpensive state university, get good grades and go to to a state supported medical/law/grad school, and graduate with less stress and debt than if you went the ultra competitive route.

[Sampaguita]

Way back in the early 80s, an out-of-state applicant to UT Austin had to be in the top 10% of their high school graduating class.

Enter me, the Asian over-achiever with hyper-watchful parents. I was pretty stressed out through HS trying to keep my average in the high 90s while practicing piano 2-4 hrs per day preparing for recitals & competitions and being on the forensics team. Something had to give.

I graduated with a 94.5 grade average but was rejected by UT because I was not in the top 10% out of 97 seniors. That stung.

My brother, 3 yrs younger, was accepted to UT with ~the same grade point avg & similar SAT scores but he was in the top 10% out of 300 seniors.

I ended up at Trinity University in SA.

Would I send my children to a lesser quality HS school so that they can be in the top 10% of their graduating class just to get into UT? No. Props to UT and all that, but there are a lot of fine colleges & universities out there. And I also agree with DaneilWayne on

You could excel at a less competitive high school, get a free ride to an inexpensive state university, get good grades and go to to a state supported medical/law/grad school, and graduate with less stress and debt than if you went the ultra competitive route.

Xiaomao:

"I'm about to go off on one of my 'jesus christ, education is what you make of it' rants,"

Exactly!

[wstaffor]

TJ is largely considered the best public high school in the ENTIRE UNITED STATES. Why on Earth would you try and compare it to some random pretty good school in SW Houston? That's ridiculous. The only slightly comparable HS in the area would be Vanguard (admissions testing, etc), and even that isn't a fair comparison. Fairfax County has the second highest average income in the entire US. It's full of incredibly intelligent people who have incredibly intelligent kids. Houston is not like that.

The good news is that if your kids are smart enough to get into TJ (as you are implying), they can certainly get into Vanguard (and probably be among the smartest kids there). So you got that going for you...which is nice.

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by wstaffor

TJ is largely considered the best public high school in the ENTIRE UNITED STATES. Why on Earth would you try and compare it to some random pretty good school in SW Houston? That's ridiculous. The only slightly comparable HS in the area would be Vanguard (admissions testing, etc), and even that isn't a fair comparison. Fairfax County has the second highest average income in the entire US. It's full of incredibly intelligent people who have incredibly intelligent kids. Houston is not like that.

The good news is that if your kids are smart enough to get into TJ (as you are implying), they can certainly get into Vanguard (and probably be among the smartest kids there). So you got that going for you...which is nice.

So you are saying that a city full of engineers, chemists, scientists and doctors doesn't have people that are as smart as those who live in
Moderator cut: inappropriate and personal attack

[wstaffor]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

So you are saying that a city full of engineers, chemists, scientists and doctors doesn't have people that are as smart as those who live in Fairfax county?

Yes, that is what I am saying. You don't seriously think Sugar Land is the most intelligent place on earth, do you?

Moderator cut: orphaned post

[LizzySWW]

Fairfax Virginia has a more intelligent population than Houston?

We have NASA's brilliant team, we have a world famous Medical Center, Rice University has thousands of top 2% students, Houston is the Oil center of the country, I could go on forever with similar places of business. I wonder how Fairfax stacks up next to this?

Sugar Land isn't the smartest place on earth, nobody implied that it was. But it is an outstanding community & is nationally recognized for it's schools & growth & safety. Why would Sugar Land schools & Clements in particular get national recognition if the kids weren't up to par with other top schools in the country? Do you think Clements wins all kind of awards for no reason?

You need to do more research. You're perception of Clements is way off base.

[wstaffor]

Originally Posted by LizzySWW

Fairfax Virginia has a more intelligent population than Houston?

We have NASA's brilliant team, we have a world famous Medical Center, Rice University has thousands of top 2% students, Houston is the Oil center of the country, I could go on forever with similar places of business. I wonder how Fairfax stacks up next to this?

Sugar Land isn't the smartest place on earth, nobody implied that it was. But it is an outstanding community & is nationally recognized for it's schools & growth & safety. Why would Sugar Land schools & Clements in particular get national recognition if the kids weren't up to par with other top schools in the country? Do you think Clements wins all kind of awards for no reason?

You need to do more research. You're perception of Clements is way off base.

Clearly you guys aren't grasping what I'm trying to say here. Obviously there are plenty of smart people in Houston. My point is that Fairfax is essentially ONLY smart people. Their median income is in the 6 figures (and is the second highest of any county in the US).

And, as usual, you people have latched on to something I said that is really incidental to the main point. That is, that TJHSST is THE BEST public high school in the US. This isn't just something I'm making up, it's just the way it is. Anyone familiar with such things would agree. Clements is a good school, but saying it compares with TJ is like saying UT compares with Harvard.

[wstaffor]

For example:

Best High Schools: Gold Medal List - US News and World Report

TJ = #1. Where's Clements? Nowhere to be found. Hell, even Vanguard and DeBakey barely crack the top 100.

[MIASLTX]

houston 321 - b/c when more diverse (better yet more inclusive!!), attendees experience multiple cultures and ranges of thought instead of tunnel vision.