2013 Valedictorians and Salutatorians (Dallas, Plano, Flower Mound: crime, lawyers, best schools)

[Walter Benjamin]

So much information here:
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Observations:

COLLEGES AND RANKINGS
The path of any individual student is so much more random than the stats. In other words, it's far from the case that the best students at the best schools uniformly go to the best colleges. For example, the colleges of the val/sals in Flower Mound are not more highly ranked than in the other LISD high schools.

Few HS (Plano West, St. mark's) send both v/s out of state. Not only top-ranked UT and Rice but also TCU, SMU, UTD have a strong pull.

Virtually no one going to top out of state Public U's (Berkeley, Michigan...) Why pay for that when UT is an option? The out of state population at Michigan, Wisconsin etc. must be mostly from wealthy Northeastern states with lesser ranked public options. Almost no one going to small colleges (one Colby, one Swarthmore, zero Amherst or Williams). Is that not what v/s do? Yet Amherst, Williams etc. provide outstanding education. Few to the small colleges in TX (St. Eds, Trinity) or highly-ranked West coast equivalents (Reed, Pomona). Perhaps students are passing up good chances to be admitted to good schools by not applying to these places?

Could be wrong, but I don't recall ever seeing a v/s from the DISD magnets go to a top ten college in recent years. Other than lots of AP tests, what is the real level of achievement there? I visited TAG once and wasn't impressed. Not on the Plano level, or...?


MAJORS
Huge predominance of engineering/medicine. Few say banking/finance/consulting. I guess this is still something that you gravitate to once in college, rather than beforehand. None for law?! Perhaps HS v/s are still too idealistic to say "corporate lawyer" but no one said "idealistic change-the-world lawyer." Or is the overproduction of lawyers widely recognized? Does the future legal/financial elite not come from dfw hs v/s? Maybe there is a practical culture in TX that distrusts making money from pure abstractions like law/finance. Or hard-driving immigrant tiger moms are more familiar with engineering and medicine. Plenty of children of immigrant parents, or 1st-generation college students, start out as engineering/pre-med at parents insistence, then switch out if/when they can do so, often after a crisis (in my experience).

Not too many say "Silicon Valley social-media startup." Perhaps this is too risky for prudent, cautious vals/sals.

I worry about the v/s from lower-ranked HS who plan to major in engineering at Stanford or Rice, if they were admitted for diversity and not pure merit. Some research (Peter Arcidiacono, Richard Sander) says that many students who want to do a STEM major, who come into an MIT-level program without top-notch prep, wind up washing out when they would have done just fine in STEM at a lower-ranked, slower-paced program. HS counselors are not always realistic/understanding about what it means to come in with an 1100 SAT when your new college classmates average 1500 SAT, and the students who find themselves at the bottom of the class are sacrificed so the colleges can feel good about diversity.

One or two for Bible college, no one for the div. schools at Vandy/SMU/Duke. Been a long time since the ministry got the creme de la creme academically. One for archaeology (lakehill), none for English or other humanities. Understandably, yet the future Jonathan Edwards, Harold Bloom, Reinhold Niebuhr, Simon Schama, etc. are going to need to come from somewhere. Likewise with politics/public service. Where is the future James Baker, Henry Kissinger, Condi Rice, Madeleine Albright?

[TurtleCreek80]

Rice seemed to sweep the V/S competition this year. Impressive! Stanford also seemed to recruit more V/S than in previous years. Not a great Ivy year for local V/S.

[frenzyrider]

Interesting analysis... But you don't put Duke, SMU and Vandy in the same category. It is quite undeniable that Duke beats out a few Ivys and the other two are nowhere to be found in there.

[bencronin04]

Originally Posted by Walter Benjamin

So much information here:
Neighborsgo Community News | Schools And Education Information | Local Crime Reports | Events - The Dallas Morning News
Where is the future James Baker, Henry Kissinger, Condi Rice, Madeleine Albright?

What were they doing at the ripe age of 17-18. Plus in there time the 17/18 then is more equivalent to the 22/24 of today. These kids need time to grow and experience life. The tops of the tops in HS don't always end up at the top of "society".

[synchronicity]

Regarding law, that's not something you "major" in in college. Maybe there's some sort of "pre-law" program out there, but not that I'm aware of.

As a totally anecdotal aside, many of the best law students I knew had undergrad degrees in English, Sociology, and other subjects that one doesn't normally associate with "law school attendees". Very few law students (again, in my circle, my experience may be far from the norm) were poli sci majors or whatever the stereotypical majors are for law students.

Well deserved congrats to all the Vals and Sals!

[Keepingitsimple]

World University Rankings 2012-2013 - Times Higher Education

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by frenzyrider

Interesting analysis... But you don't put Duke, SMU and Vandy in the same category. It is quite undeniable that Duke beats out a few Ivys and the other two are nowhere to be found in there.

OP was specifically speaking to the divinity schools at Duke / Vandy/ SMU, not the whole school's ranking.

[Big G]

Four schools - Allen, Plano Senior, Plano West, and Keller (!) -- are sending both Val and Sal to Ivy schools. (If you count MIT, toss in St. Mark's.)

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Not too many say "Silicon Valley social-media startup." Perhaps this is too risky for prudent, cautious vals/sals.

I think you nailed it here. The vals/sals might be just flat-out brilliant, but also might be the type of kids willing (even eager) to do whatever it takes to get a 97 instead of a 95. That personality isn't the next Richard Branson or Stephen King.

[TheOverdog]

None for law

Doing law as an undergraduate degree is a waste of time.

Washington University in St. Louis was the one stand out I saw. I've never even heard of that school nor heard people say much really positive about St Louis such that college students would want to specifically go there. Are they ramping up their Texas recruiting to get some strong minds to remain in the midwest or is it just some good unknown school?

[Big G]

Wash. U. has been hot for a while now. It's passed up places like Vandy and Rice, and is right up there with Duke and Johns Hopkins. So, yeah, getting in there is a big deal.