Current Events > Anyone here go to prestigious universities...how did you get in?

(+) Yeah! (+)

The main thing I want to know is how competitive was your highschool? (And middle school for that matter)

I ask because I am looking to move and I want my kid to go to a competitive highschool, thinking that will increase his chance of getting into a prestigious university. Being in California that would mean: UCLA, Berkeley, San Diego, Stanford, or any other prestigious out of state school.

Its a balance of cost of living vs quality of schools. They are directly related. I'm confident he'll be a hard worker and into academics. But an average highschool can often handicap you whereas a competitive HS can give you a boost.

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I applied to a few competitive universities, went to interview but ultimately didn't get in

Does that count?
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sure

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It was a bog standard secondary school. They did get us tickets to workshops about how to apply for competitive universities, plus I had "mock interviews" which was pretty cool

The universities I applied to were Oxford, Imperial College and UCL. Oxford rejected me after the interviews, Imperial once my exam results came out and I didn't make their offer, and UCL accepted me. But then I moved to Germany anyway
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thanks for sharing

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I went to an extremely standard public school

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I went to a very competitive public HS and got into a decent university with an average GPA. I worked hard in classes I enjoyed and bullshitted my way through classes I didnt care for. I came out with a great work ethic that has carried me to this day. I also had many peers who went to average public highschools who graduated with amazing GPAs, but couldn't keep up with the work ethic that was required in university to do well. I literally saw these people struggling to keep up with the workload whereas for me it was a breeze.

I think it makes a huge difference. But I just want to here other anecdotes to see what other peoples experiences have been.

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Stop being smug
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ConquestOfBread posted...

Stop being smug

just leave the topic if you're so butthurt

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I'm not sure how much the highschool helps actually. But even if it did their have insane competition to the point that it'll ultimately boil down to pure luck.

Doeasnt help that their competing with students internationally either.

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Just looked at the 2021 US News and World Report rankings. I got accepted to a top ten university, ended up going to a top 20 that gave me a scholarship. And I also got accepted to a few top ten liberal arts colleges. Some of those might be more impressive, actually. I also was offered full rides at some good in state schools just off merit. I wasnt a straight A student in high school but I graduated high up. I got a 1500+ SAT score. I had performed really well in my extracurricular activity - like, getting actual state verified rewards at some of the highest levels. And I did a good enough job on the essay for my applications. No in person interviews.

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masticatingman posted...

Just looked at the 2021 US News and World Report rankings. I got accepted to a top ten university, ended up going to a top 20 that gave me a scholarship. And I also got accepted to a few top ten liberal arts colleges. Some of those might be more impressive, actually. I also was offered full rides at some good in state schools just off merit. I wasnt a straight A student in high school but I graduated high up. I got a 1500+ SAT score. I had performed really well in my extracurricular activity - like, getting actual state verified rewards at some of the highest levels. And I did a good enough job on the essay for my applications. No in person interviews.

how competitive or what rank was your highschool?

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MaddenDude-- posted...

how competitive or what rank was your highschool?

No idea. This was about college rank, not high school rank.

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>gets into top-10 colleges
>can't read first sentence of the topic

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