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I am trying to get a sense of what high school will best help my middle school daughter get into/succeed in college.

Our choices are all public at this point, and mainly betwen two schools although I am investigating others

One is our neighborhood school of about 1700, that has many AP classes and students taking classes at the community college. Lots of opportunities in academics and EC's
However, she has learning disabilities and anxiety and I can't see her being able to take advantage of the AP classes.
This is the school she is most interested in right now however, as the boy she likes is going to go there :-)

The school she is attending now is K-12, so theoretically she could stay there till graduation.
It is much smaller, about 50-60 students per grade level, so much easier to participate in EC's. The flip side of course is that in terms of classes and EC's not so many choices, and a few of the teachers could be better. No AP's
They do have a good percentage of students going on to four year schools, but mostly instate, and the 12th grade teacher is pretty sad
My feeling is, if she stays at the K-12 school she will seem more attractive to the colleges, she will be able to participate in more activities, be higher up in class rank.

At the larger school, however she might be better prepared academically/ and have more choices in classes, but be lower in class rank, not be able to have a leadership role in the EC's and not be eligible for the AP classes

We aren't a minority or anything really interesting to the colleges, except maybe that she would be first generation.
I am not thinking about HYP, just a decent school where she can continue her education

thoughts?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, March 30, 2003 - 08:59 pm: Edit

I think schools with a weak curriculum and artificially high class rank do the student no favors. I understand what you're saying about a decent school but I would be wary that the shock from a weak hs to even a middlin' college might be a bit
much.

I think the neighborhood school has more niches for her to find a place to fit in and she can take as strenuous or not load as she feels up to. Who knows, by junior or senior year she might be up to an AP or two?

Anxiety is something that some students learn to deal with, either by coping or by not letting the anxiety triggers work, so that part of the equation might disappear anyway.