The school I go to is a Vocational High School, meaning that half the time, we study a ’shop.’ Some of these include Culinary Arts, Plumbing, and IT. I am in Business Technology.
Because my school has so much emphasis on the vocational study area, we do not get all of the classes offered at other schools.
Examples:
We have one foreign language: Spanish. The highest level you can go to in here is 4 or 5.
We have to AP courses. Calculus, and History. I will only be able to get into history because I took Algebra I freshman year.
We have limited science classes. We have biology, physics, and chemistry as the only honors and college prep classes. The rest are lower level/remedial classes. I took honors for the past two years, but in Junior/Senior year you can only get college prep. They do not offer courses like Psychology, which is one of the best for the field I wish to go in to (Special Education).
In English, we get Honors, College Prep, and Regular. At the rate I am going, I will have honors all four years (95+ average every term, Outstanding Achievement Award last year)
We also do not have the clubs that some schools offer. I recently got accepted into National Honor Society, and plan to join the Aviation Club next year, but nothing else really interests me. We have no drama clubs or anything.
My school is one of the top ten Vocational Schools in the country, and everyone passes the standardized tests and whatnot. I just don’t know if the lack of offerings in the academic department and extra curricular activities will hurt me.
Moose
March 4, 2010 at 1:25 am
Yes, the competitiveness of your school counts. If the top SAT performers in your school get M-600 and V-600, and you get in that range, you will get into college, but not Harvard. If your school puts 2 or 4 kids into 4 year schools every year, and you are not the top 3 or 4, you will also have some trouble. Only your counselor can give you an honest assessment.
Suggestions: if your counselor (IF) recommends, transfer to a more academic school, if possible. Even if it takes another year it is better, if you want a “name” school, to graduate with good AP test scores, good SAT’s, and a strong number of AP classes under your belt.
Also, don’t worry about joining 50 clubs. You like the Aviation Club; to **** with Drama, join the Aviation Club and try, of campus, to earn a pilots license. How many kids waste their time joining 10 clubs and don’t accomplish a thing. You could have a pilots license.
Lot’s of luck. Getting into the right school is better than getting into a “good” school. Go for what you want.