National Merit semi final

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irvinehomeshopper said:
The list is out for OC students who scored 2230 or higher on their SAT out of 2400.  The usual suspects again have the most students.

Congratulations to the proud father.  :) "Irvinehomeshopper, Jr." is smart and hard-working just like Daddy.
 
For those who might be paywall blocked... the breakdown of the numbers is interesting:
By the numbers
Top cities

Irvine, 104 semifinalists
Fullerton, 57 semifinalists
Cypress, 13 semifinalists

Top schools

Troy High School, Fullerton; 48 semifinalists
University High School, Irvine; 45 semifinalists
Northwood High School, Irvine; 20 semifinalists

Top majors/careers

Biological and biomedical sciences, 23 semifinalists
Premedicine/premedical studies, 23 semifinalists
Engineering, 16 semifinalists
104 are from Irvine, almost 40%... no wonder the Unicorn homes cost so much.

Note: Troy is a magnet school, so they get the best of the best not just in Fullerton.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
For those who might be paywall blocked... the breakdown of the numbers is interesting:
By the numbers
Top cities

Irvine, 104 semifinalists
Fullerton, 57 semifinalists
Cypress, 13 semifinalists

Top schools

Troy High School, Fullerton; 48 semifinalists
University High School, Irvine; 45 semifinalists
Northwood High School, Irvine; 20 semifinalists

Top majors/careers

Biological and biomedical sciences, 23 semifinalists
Premedicine/premedical studies, 23 semifinalists
Engineering, 16 semifinalists
104 are from Irvine, almost 40%... no wonder the Unicorn homes cost so much.

Note: Troy is a magnet school, so they get the best of the best not just in Fullerton.

That's why there's korean and chinese SAT academies popping up left and right in various Irvine biz parks.
 
bones said:
That's why there's korean and chinese SAT academies popping up left and right in various Irvine biz parks.

SAT + Music + Martial arts + Yogurtland seems to be the mix, along with a grocery store in the vicinity. Go Irvine :P
 
In the past, Woodbridge has had more athletic success than the other schools... not too sure in recent years.

There were only 5 from Woodbridge High, 13 from Irvine High and 16 from Beckman (based on my manual count). There was also 2 from Tarbut V'Torah and 1 homeschooler in Irvine.
 
The sad reality is less than 6 from each schools historically have been admitted to the top private colleges regardless of the 50 impressive high scorers.
 
my daughter will be valedictorian at Tustin High with a free ride to Harvard due to her mexican ethnicity.
 
irvinehomeshopper said:
The sad reality is less than 6 from each schools historically have been admitted to the top private colleges regardless of the 50 impressive high scorers.

Nothing to be sad about. I have no doubt these motivated students (and many more who were not Merit Finalists) will find their place in the world and will hopefully achieve their dreams.

There is more to a meaningful life than acceptance to an Ivy League / Top 10 University.
 
irvinehomeshopper said:
IHO just depreciated the expensive side of Orchard Hills by short changing his count on Beckman by one.
Hence why I was not a National Merit semifinalist... and never recruited by Hahvahd.
 
Are you kidding me! Spending my life saving on a no yard house in IUSD so my kid could just end up at UCR or UC Merced!


iacrenter said:
irvinehomeshopper said:
The sad reality is less than 6 from each schools historically have been admitted to the top private colleges regardless of the 50 impressive high scorers.

Nothing to be sad about. I have no doubt these motivated students (and many more who were not Merit Finalists) will find their place in the world and will hopefully achieve their dreams.

There is more to a meaningful life than acceptance to an Ivy League / Top 10 University.
 
Tyler Durden said:
Because you can easily sell the home at a profit later on to the next IUSD unicorn hunter (royalties due to IHO for using his trademark).
This goes back to my iPhone analogy from 1928 on a different planet...

You pay more, but it's worth it because other people value it and will pay for your old one after you're done with it. I just made a mistake of going from a 5 back down to a 4. :)
 
irvinehomeshopper said:
Are you kidding me! Spending my life saving on a no yard house in IUSD so my kid could just end up at UCR or UC Merced!


iacrenter said:
irvinehomeshopper said:
The sad reality is less than 6 from each schools historically have been admitted to the top private colleges regardless of the 50 impressive high scorers.

Nothing to be sad about. I have no doubt these motivated students (and many more who were not Merit Finalists) will find their place in the world and will hopefully achieve their dreams.

There is more to a meaningful life than acceptance to an Ivy League / Top 10 University.

Congratulations to you and your daughter. It is a major accomplishment and I wish her well.
 
Tyler Durden said:
irvinehomeshopper said:
Long ago the question was asked "Does a good school matter?". Here is my experience with a child at the top of the class and the journey I experienced along with other parents and their over achiever children. The demographic and the fierce competition are the driving force of high test scores. I know many of the students on the finalist list and most of them including my child were enrolled in SAT prep courses 4 straight years and all summer long sessions. School teachers are used to high caliber students and the grading bar is extremely high. Many parents like me have no choice but to augment extracurricular tutoring for all subjects when many students are not grasping the materials in class. The peer pressure benefitted the school and not the teachers so much.

Thanks for sharing.  I feel that it is like an arms race in certain school districts because so many parents are loading up on after school tutoring and prep classes.  What were once optional activities (like Kumon) are now the new normal for most kids in places like Irvine (as well as communities in the bay area).  So if someone chooses not to have their kids do them, they are effectively being left behind by the increasing number of kids that are doing them.

So effectively, its not a means to get an edge anymore, it is almost a way to keep up with the other kids.

Sports are just as bad.  The kid better be playing year round club ball by the time they're 8 or they're left behind.

But yes, when 7% of the senior class get's perfect scores on the SAT, it's a sign there is massive prep work going on.  They're smart, they're hardworking, and they've had the living daylights prepped out of them.
 
IHS, did you delete a post or is it elsewhere.  I see it quoted in Tyler's note, but don't see it above.  Good job on raising your child to do well.

I'm curious what your take is on the balance between what I see as the three factors in high scoring:

[list type=decimal]
[*]Personal aptitude
[*]School educating level/peer group aspiration level 
[*]Preparation/Tutoring/Summer School
[/list]

There's a blood, sweat and tears factor of the hard work, but let's table that for a minute.  Part of that is in the Prep/Tutor item and how steep the curve becomes for incremental gains.

The score range is going to be some combination of the personal aptitude and school educating level plus the preparation and peer group factor..  Is the preparation 10 points or 100 points or in the Irvine case (4 years of prep/summers,) 200 or 300 points?

i.e.  Does it matter if your kid his very advanced/gifted if they're in a school that is teaching to average where the majority of students don't aspire to score high and get in top ranked schools.

Let's think hypothetical and see if you guys follow what I'm thinking about.  Let's say you have an above average student from an intelligence standpoint, all things being equal, you'd potentially expect the average intelligence kid to score a 1600, the above average kid say, 2000, the gifted kid, 2400.  (I know it's not an IQ test, but you hopefully get what I'm driving at, the innate aptitude of kid, positions them for a a higher or lower score, to a certain point.  Maybe it's only 1600, 1700 and 1800.  That's really the question I'm gearing towards, the balance between innate intelligence, school and prep contribution to the score.  I personally, think prep is far greater than anyone thinks.

Then there's school level / peer group level.  Maybe that should be a * and not a / :-) okay enough bad math jokes.  i.e hypothetically, say, Irvine Uni high is teaching to a 1902. Troy is teaching to a 1917. Maybe in AP classes they're teaching say 2300 level in Uni and Troy.  Santa Ana High is teaching to a 1285 overall, AP I don't know.  School is also huge, if you're in a school teaching to say the 2000 level in AP, it's hard to bridge those other 500 points on your own.

Then there's peer group. Is your kid part of the peer group that is focused on getting a 2500, or they just general competitive AP and 'score high' focus, say 2300, or they hanging with the average students, 1900.

Finally the prep factor.  Can a 1600 aptitude kid, in the power school, i.e. Irvine Uni, drive to the 2500?  Can the school lift them that much?  Can school and massive prep lift them that much?  If you took the kids in Santa Ana High and ran them with the same level of outside prep that the Irvine Uni HS parents run, what would be their average scores?  If you just dropped the Santa Ana High AP students into Uni High without the outside support what would happen?  i.e  IS Irvine Uni high basically running a program that is assuming the kids are getting 4-8 hours of outside tutoring.

In the end does it matter?  Is your kid better over going to ScrewUp High and getting a higher GPA and 'good' SAT versus a tougher GPA and better SAT?  Here's UCLA admission metrics

UCLA.png



 
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