One Family's perspective….

First, both of these schools are excellent schools with outstanding staff and students. When our daughter was accepted to both schools we were placed in the unfortunate position of having to weigh both schools and decide upon the one that would suit her and her goals best. We did tons of research, went to every event and open house offered and ultimately made our decision the day before the acceptance/declination letters were due. It was a very hard decision!

I have been asked by many people (courtesy of the bumper sticker on my car) questions about the school we choose and about the pros/cons of each school and why we made the decision we did. As an outgoing and passionate (aka talkative) person, I decided to write these notes so that I could have my thoughts in one place and available to anyone who was interested.

Our daughter attends John Jay's Science and Engineering Academy. In making this decision we looked at the 4 F's – Facts, Feelings, Facilities and Faculty. Below is a chart that tries to summarize what we saw and found during our research.

Keep in mind – this is only our experience, what we saw and the information we were provided.

Facts

SEA

HC

Scholarships

2.3 Million in Scholarships for roughly 78 students (posted on the web and discussed at every open house). Do the math -> that's roughly 30K per graduating senior as an ‘average'.

During the open houses, it was continuously repeated that seniors take a mandatory class the senior year whose goal is only to help them with the College Application process (essays, applications, scholarship applications etc.).

No information provided either on the web or during Open Houses.

A tour of the school took us by the Scholarship office where we saw the ‘sticky notes' on the door with the scholarships. We saw many 3 – 5K scholarships to various schools (all the local universities as well as the big name Texas schools).

The largest scholarship award we saw was to the University of Nevada for 50K but that was by far the largest (at least 40K larger than the ones we saw posted).

Colleges

The list of Alumni colleges is posted on the web (although not updated frequently). The list includes all the great Texas schools as well as MIT, Penn State, Wellesley and Stanford as well as many others.

The list of Alumni colleges is not easily found (I can't find it now) but we saw many great Texas Schools (A&M, Baylor, UT etc.) but not allot of well known national schools.

I have to believe they also have an impressive list - however they do not make any effort to provide that information to prospective students and parents.

The list of colleges that visit has some great national names (Wellesley, Boston University, Amherst).

Sports

As a magnet school attached to a 5A school – all the major sports are represented.

•  Baseball
•  Softball
•  Soccer
•  Football
•  Volleyball
•  Tennis
•  Cross Country
•  Golf
•  Track
•  Aquatics

As a stand-alone magnet school the following sports are offered:

•  Tennis (a VERY good Team)
•  Cross Country
•  Golf
•  Aquatics

Academics

All honors classes– no non-honors classes offered in the core curriculum.

It is expected that all students take the pre-AP and AP courses.

Both honors and non-honors offered.

If, based on your Middle School transcript, you were signed up for more than 3 honors classes – you are required to attend a counseling session and get a counselor's approval to take the classes.

Facilities

SEA

HC

Excellent school facilities. There has been a huge investment in the SEA classrooms and the technology available is stunning. The non-SEA portion of the school is not as nice or updated but is still nice and clean. The layout of the school is friendly and interesting (great big courtyard for lunch, nice lobby).

The school has its own athletic fields and tennis courts.

The school is located near the West side of the city. Not an easy or fast drive. The school is also located in a more depressed area (as compared to our feeder school location) and you see plenty graffiti on the road the school is on.

The facilities are older and reminded of us a military building (I'm an army-brat). Also has a courtyard but much smaller.

Great equipment in some of the rooms (full dental equipment, gurney's – life size mannequins etc. for the health training).

The school is located in the Medical Center which is pretty centrally located within the city. Traffic's not great, but the location of the school is definitely very good.

Faculty

SEA

HC

From the first school-fair to the most recent open house (after school started) – the staff (teachers and administrators) were full of enthusiasm and excitement. There is a ton of energy that seems to exist perpetually in the school and in the teachers and administrators.

I get the impression the school is still trying to prove itself and definitely going out of its way to do so.

Very nice staff. We attended our feed-in school open house also (Marshall HS) and the faculty reception was very similar. They answered all of our questions. Nothing really stood-out though as far as energy or enthusiasm.

The faculty and staff seemed to take it for granted that you were going to that school (there for info gathering) and seemed to forget that the family's still had a ‘choice'. Made no effort to ‘lure' us to the school.

Feelings

SEA

HC

The overall feeling of attending the numerous fairs, open-houses and tours was;

•  A great school where the teachers/administrators were very enthusiastic and had lots of energy.

•  Perhaps because of their need to ‘prove themselves' – the school is going out of its way to ensure the success of its students – from scholarships to science fairs to college placements.

•  Not really happy about the location or the reputation of the main school but thought the academics was worth it. As our daughter does now attend this school, I can say that our concerns about the location have turned out to not have any merit as of yet. No problems, she feels safe and we are comfortable with her there.

The overall feeling of attending the numerous fairs, open-houses and tours was;

•  A great school academically but with less opportunity for other activities (sports, clubs etc.)

•  Felt that the school was banking on their past reputation but had grown ‘stagnant' and was not really doing anything to set itself apart from the newer magnet schools.

•  My daughter (who wants to be a Doctor) summarized the experience as ‘I feel like if I go here I will be perfectly qualified and prepared to be a minimum wage lab technician'. Probably not true- but definitely the impression we were left with.

Again – these are only the opinions of one family and specifically – me! Also – this was written after making the decision and within the first month of attending our choice school. I may have a different opinion as time goes on!

If you are considering either of the schools – do the tours, talk to the administrators and teachers. I tend to be pesky and send lots of emails and ask lots of questions – they are always answered quickly by both schools.

I would LOVE to include in this document a contrasting chart where someone has evaluated both schools and Health Careers ended up being their school of choice – so if you have information like that send it my way!