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Some parents move to areas with better schools in order to give their kids an advantage (such as Cupertino or Los Altos school districts if you are in silicon v

Some parents move to areas with better schools in order to give their kids an advantage (such as Cupertino or Los Altos school districts if you are in silicon valley). This may seem like a sensible thing to do, but because of the weird admissions process in US colleges, this may actually work against the kid. It may make more sense to move to an area where the kid can stand out, where schools offer fewer AP courses, and where the same accomplishment is considered to be a bigger deal. See link below for details. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-12/covid-college-admissions-season-brings-rejection-heartbreak https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-12/covid-co... Excerpts: UC admissions directors stressed that they evaluated students in the context of their own schools and communities to assess how much they challenged themselves and took advantage of available opportunities. A student who took all six AP classes offered at her school might be more impressive than the one who took six at a school that offered twice as many. A campus might admit a student with a 4.0 GPA who ranked at the top of an underserved school over one with a higher GPA but lower class rank at a more high-achieving school.

908B64B197 5y ago
There's a selection bias here; the parents willing to do that are those who care the most about education.
hackitup7 5y ago
School size is a related factor. For example, Harvard is not going accept 50 applicants from the same school, even if it's a relatively large and exceptionally competitive one like Stuyvesant in NY or Thomas Jefferson in DC. But Harvard will totally accept 8-10 applicants from a small exclusive private or parochial school. The ratio plays in favor of smaller high schools if (say) the population of students going to any one college is capped at 5% for a large school and 10% for a small one. This bears out in what I've observed (all anecdotes ofc). Many people who go from these sorts of large south bay high schools to top-5 UCs are head and shoulders smarter than the graduates of the small private school => Ivy League pathway, despite the Ivy schools ranking better. When you see it in action (brilliant kid who went to a large, highly competitive public high school who was rejected from every Ivy, and is way smarter than many students who went to the schools that rejected them), it feels rotten. Happily most of the folks I've met in this category have great careers but their confidence often takes a hit at the age of 17-18.

908B64B197 5y ago

There's a selection bias here; the parents willing to do that are those who care the most about education.

hackitup7 5y ago

School size is a related factor. For example, Harvard is not going accept 50 applicants from the same school, even if it's a relatively large and exceptionally competitive one like Stuyvesant in NY or Thomas Jefferson in DC. But Harvard will totally accept 8-10 applicants from a small exclusive private or parochial school. The ratio plays in favor of smaller high schools if (say) the population of students going to any one college is capped at 5% for a large school and 10% for a small one. This bears out in what I've observed (all anecdotes ofc). Many people who go from these sorts of large south bay high schools to top-5 UCs are head and shoulders smarter than the graduates of the small private school => Ivy League pathway, despite the Ivy schools ranking better. When you see it in action (brilliant kid who went to a large, highly competitive public high school who was rejected from every Ivy, and is way smarter than many students who went to the schools that rejected them), it feels rotten. Happily most of the folks I've met in this category have great careers but their confidence often takes a hit at the age of 17-18.