“The flight of New Jersey high school graduates has a big part of its origin in the sheer quality of their academic records, putting them, as a group, at a competitive advantage over the high school graduates of more or less all other U.S. states. For example, In no other US. state is the competition as stiff, year in and year out, as it is in New Jersey for the status of National Merit Commended Student, National Merit Semifinalist and National Merit Finalist, all of which are limited to a fixed (and miniscule) percentage of the total number of sophomore PSAT test takers in New Jersey. The sheer number of top shelf high school graduates New Jersey consistently produces every year compared to those of all other states, even other Northeast states, is remarkable. Top colleges all around the country regularly lure a huge chunk of our best graduates out of state to pursue their undergraduate degrees. Why? Because without those top NJ HS grads leavening their incoming freshman class every year the average credentials of their respective student bodies would objectively begin to slip and make them less competitive over time. Is it a really any surprise that many of our high school graduates don’t return after college? It’s actually a yearly testament to the consistently high comparative standards of our best high schools, including RHS.”
