“It always surprises me how much people seem to self hate. If an out of state person were to read the comments one would think we are talking about Paterson or Camden or the South Bronx. My dad lived in Glen Rock and graduated RHS in the 50s my wife and I in the 80s, our kids in the 2000s and 2010s . My personal observation is that there was a slight dip (see graph) but over the decades RHS has maintained pretty well. I do think there is a risk that private schools like Bosco will continue to improve and outpace the public schools. But the negative comments do not appear to be grounded in reality.”
https://www.schooldigger.com/go/NJ/schools/1383000764/school.aspx?t=tbRankings
Graduates of RHS class of 2012: six students went to Cornell, two to Brown, two to Columbia, one to Dartmouth, and one each to Stanford, Duke, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Parsons, RISD, SVA, and Juliard. No Harvard, no Yale…
RHS Class of 2018: three students went to Cornell, and one each went to Brown, Cornell, Columbia, UPenn, Cal-Berkeley Harvard and MIT…
Data = Reality. Our taxes keep going up and the competive school acceptance rates keep going down.
Wow 2012 did great. A lot better than my class 82. We were more like the 18 results
No Harvard, no Yale.
And in the whole scope of how the world turns who really gives a shit?
Mom and dad that’s who. Nobody else does.
And any “out of state person” reading this won’t know Paterson or Camden or the SB but what they will read is a pretentious asshole who thinks his shit dosent stink. News flash: it does and you reek of entitlement.
Bill, you seem to have an agenda. What is your agenda? Do you work for the Ridgewood BOE, REA or NJEA? Most parents in Ridgewood have high expectations for their kids, it’s why they’re willing to pay the high property taxes with the expectation of one of the best schools in the tristate area. Our high school just ranked #26 in the Niche survey and we rank #23 in NJ for SAT scores according to NJ.com last fall. This is acceptable to you? Will it improve with the current administrators we have? If the answer is “no”, then we need to attract better administrators.
The Ivy’s received almost 70,000 more applicants in 2017 than in 2012, and overall acceptance rates dropped to 9.3% from 12.6%.
So it’s okay then that only 2.7% of our recent RHS grads are at Ivies? Maybe they’re just not as interested in accepting graduates from RHS?
“The Ivy’s received almost 70,000 more applicants in 2017 than in 2012, and overall acceptance rates dropped to 9.3% from 12.6%.”
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EXACTLY.
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Why hasn’t Ridgewood done enough to keep up and stay competitive?
Answer: Because the school values all of the BS (sleep in days, pet therapist for exams, student walkouts against perceieved – but not real – trangressions, etc. etc. etc.) rather than innovative programs and solutions to make the students successful and competitive in an ever more competitive and changing world.
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The attitude that life (in this case getting into college) is getting harder so it is OK that we do not do as well is EXACTLY why we are failing the students and falling behind.
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Making excuses for failure is so much easier than finding solutions for success.
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I don’t know how many students applied to the schools mentioned.
Students need to go to the school that fits their needs. There are a lot of variables. They no longer feel that it is ivy or bust. There are a lot of great schools out there. And once you have a few years of professional experience no one cares where you went. I don’t know and don’t care where my colleagues went to college. Results are more important. If you feel the need to tell everyone where you went then you are probably insecure.
Very good on the last comment…finally someone who’s not foaming Ivy’s Ivy’s Ivy’s.
And your absolutely right, no one gives a rats ass where you went to college. I want to know what you can do for me right now…TODAY. A sheepskin from an ivy does not convey wisdom or knowledge. The only thing it conveys as evidenced here is complete paranoia on behalf of parents who got suckered into the Fallacy that is Ridgewood.
“And your absolutely right, no one gives a rats ass where you went to college.” [sic]
As a hiring manager, I can assure you that I care where candidates attend undergraduate and graduate school.
I prefer hiring from the elite schools. Why? The students who attend elite schools have been “vetted” in a way that students who attend a school with a 70% acceptance rate simply have not.
Case in point: Stanford (the most competitive school in the country) currently has an acceptance rate of approximately 5%. Someone with the desire and tenacity to get into a school that accepts 1 in 20 candidates is the type of person I want on my team.
Some may disagree with this approach. I’ve found success with this strategy over the past 30 years.
Exactly John. Why does the current BOE accept second best and keep making excuses rather than trying to improve the trend? A corollary of that is our SAT scores ranking #23 in the state (source: NJ.com). Yet our property taxes, 65% of which go to the BOE, are top ten in the state. There is a clear disconnect.
Agree with the poster above: “Making excuses for failure is so much easier than finding solutions for success.”