Round Rock--good and bad please

[LanceD]

Originally Posted by homeinatx

Total BS. If your kid is in the top 8% at Reagan, s/he is guaranteed admission at UT or whatever TX state college s/he wants. Ditto for the top 8% at Westwood or any other high school in Texas. Below the top 8% at Westwood, unless the kid is getting an athletic scholarship or is a world class violinist, no way is s/he getting into UT. I also think the OP is suffering from some fairly serious delusions. The BASIS charter high school in Tucson is indeed ranked in the top ten high schools in the country; the BASIS charter school in Phoenix/Scottsdale does not make the top 500 nationally. There are at least half a dozen better public high schools in the greater Austin area: LASA, Kealing, Westlake, McCallum, Austin, Anderson, Bowie, McNeil, Vandergrift, Lake Travis. If the kid is actually smart and/or tests well, as opposed to just having a pushy parent, LASA and Kealing would be by far the best options. I teach at UT. The smartest kids from Reagan or Lanier are MUCH smarter than the smartest kids from Westlake or Westwood or Lake Travis. They might not be as well prepared, but they are hungrier, have overcome adversity, are much more likely to be independent thinkers, and are not encumbered by the kinds of entitlement that easily slides into complacency and stupidity.

Sorry for my ignorant, but:
1. isn't the top 10% (or 8%) get automatic admission to UT, but below the top 10% still can apply and be accepted?
2. Wouldn't some of these "smartest" kids be in ivy league universities? so the "smartest" at UT may not be the "smartest" at WW or other HS? I heard that WW has the highest percentage of kids in Ivy League universities, is that true?

[homeinatx]

Originally Posted by LanceD

Sorry for my ignorant, but:
1. isn't the top 10% (or 8%) get automatic admission to UT, but below the top 10% still can apply and be admitted right?
2. Wouldn't some of these "smartest" kids be in ivy league universities? so the "smartest" at UT may not be the "smartest" at WW or other HS? I heard that WW has the highest percentage of kids in Ivy League universities, is that true?

1. The top 8% get automatic admission if they want it. Space on campus is increasingly tight so the percentage of students from Texas outside that top 8% is increasingly very small outside of athletes, music students etc, who are a tiny percentage of the student body anyway. I don't like the top 8% percent policy. If UT raised the number of out of state students allowed, the current budgetary difficulties could easily be avoided. This is how the University of Michigan has managed to remain one of the top public universities in the country in a state with much worse finances than Texas. And UT is increasingly a private school in a public location, why should the state legislature get to dictate admission policies and tuition rates when the state provides less than 16% of the annual operating budget?

2. The top 1 or 2% of Texas high school students can and do go to national top universities. UT has a few special programs - Plan II, Business Honors et al to try and keep them in state. Ivy league admissions will vary from year to year for specific high schools. Some years, it is LASA, some Westwood, some Lake Travis. The numbers are very small though: almost never more than 10 in any single high school graduating class, and Texas does not have small high schools, and mostly just 1 or 2 students. For example, last year Harvard admitted 5% of applicants, who are going to come from all over the world. You roll the dice. If you are in the top 8%, you are guaranteed admission at UT. Some years UT will get the very top high school students, some years they will go elsewhere. But we are talking super elites here.

US universities are still the envy of the world. You can get a spectacular education at any of a thousand plus universities and liberal arts colleges in the country.

[EzPeterson]

DAFUQ is "WW"?

I say that to make a point. This is exactly the reaction from an admissions officer at Stanford University, for an otherwise extremely qualified applicant.

Moral of the story, your world is not as small as you think it is, nor are you as big as you feel.

Happy New Year.

[blackbunneh]

Did anyone come up with what is "the good" and "the bad"? An earlier poster mentioned that it was important to avoid schools with "the undesirables". Which schools in the area would you avoid like the plague?

My daughter is gifted/talented and autistic. I realize that her success at school may not only affect her future career, but even her ability to live independently. Is there a school that is better than others for twice-exceptional students? Will we be able to request a transfer if we can't afford to live in the proper zones?

[mickey65]

I'm child-free (thank god!) - so no school rankings from me. I have lived in RR for five years now. No complaints. It has everything I need shopping-wise all in one town, safe streets (lots of police presence), and I live in a quiet little neighborhood. Love it.

[steve78757]

Originally Posted by EzPeterson

Here's the rub I see with your criteria. You're using the scores of the average to set a level of expectation for the highly motivated. Also, your information sources are highly reliant on test scores, and don't really encompass the large number of factors that surround them. I'm still trying to see where you find a performance gap between LTHS and Westlake?

Each of a large number of schools in the Austin area will provide a challenging, competitive, environment for the student that wants it, and has the backing and support in their home life (IMO, what you do is 100X more important than any school they go to). Students from Vandergrift, Westlake, Westwood, Anderson, Lake Travis, etc. all end up at the same colleges. The top 5% at each school are going to be interchangeable. All your rating and rankings aren't even looking at them, they're looking at the lower performers, as this is the only area in which these schools vary (aside from athletics and other school activities).

The only person who will care or see a difference in the added prestige/reputation of any school district is the parent. Look for the best fit for the family and the student, this "prestige" thing is wildly overrated. It's not like putting Westlake HS on a college application is going to get you any further than Akins or Bowie.

My point of view is this:

School is important, but the family is more important. Find the house that fits your needs/wants with the shortest commute possible, that's located near the most things that you like to do as a family - this allows more time together as a family, doing what your family enjoys to do.
Continue to support, push and motivate your child at home, as relying on paid strangers for that is not an effective long-term strategy, this will likely mean more than anything else.
Use the money you've saved from being able to sit around the midpoint of your price range to save up for the college tuition payments you'll be making at a top school, as your child will end up at the same colleges, regardless of where they go to HS.

One of the best posts I've reads on this forum.

[ampiko]

As I understand, UT accepts Top 8% graduates from all public High Schools, whether the SAT score is 1800 or 1600? Then shouldn't I send my kids to a HS which is not very academically challenging?

[scm53]

Originally Posted by ampiko

As I understand, UT accepts Top 8% graduates from all public High Schools, whether the SAT score is 1800 or 1600? Then shouldn't I send my kids to a HS which is not very academically challenging?

You have broken the code.