Scholarship/accelerated/selective students

[addict]

I'd like to hear from people who have had the experience of going through private school as a scholarship kid, as well as those who have been in a highly competitive accelerated program at high ranking public schools, eg. Balwyn, Glen Waverley. In particular, my queries are:

- Did you enjoy your time in high school?
- If you have been in both a private school and a selective school or accelerated class, which do you prefer and why?
- Does your scholarship/acceleration make you put excessive pressure and expectations on yourself?
- Does the school and teachers put a lot of extra pressure and expectations on you?
- Is the competition between fellow scholarship/accelerated kids really high?
- Is the rest of the cohort generally less friendly to scholarship/accelerated kids?

My favourite little kid has reached an age where she can start considering her options for high school. As a young dropkick, I never considered my options and simply went to the mediocre local high school, before trying out for a selective school after I heard about it from a friend. I'm guessing a fully selective school environment is a lot friendlier to higher achieving students than partially selective ones, but I'd appreciate if someone can confirm this or correct me. Any comments would be appreciated.

[sarangiya]

- Did you enjoy your time in high school?
Yes

- If you have been in both a private school and a selective school or accelerated class, which do you prefer and why?
Never been to a selective school

- Does your scholarship/acceleration make you put excessive pressure and expectations on yourself?
Not more than what I already put on myself regardless of the scholarship.

- Does the school and teachers put a lot of extra pressure and expectations on you?
Yes. I knew I could never step out of line because detentions etc would put my scholarship into jeopardy. Academically, I always felt pressured to achieve regardless of the scholarship (ironic that it didn't really matter in the end).

- Is the competition between fellow scholarship/accelerated kids really high?
No. My school did not disclose who got scholarships. I didn't tell anyone either.

- Is the rest of the cohort generally less friendly to scholarship/accelerated kids?
I think people are less friendly to "smart" kids in general. Because scholarship status wasn't disclosed, I never heard anything bad about that directly. Having an accelerated VCE program meant that I was ostracised a bit from both peer and senior groups because it was a bit unheard of. But it was really minimal. Later on, especially in Year 12, I felt that people were actually more congratulatory of what I had done in the past. Honestly, I believe it is up to how you conduct yourself. If you're going to be that kid who thinks they're superior to everyone else and gets preferential treatment, then you're going to get the sideeye. If you keep humble, then you're obviously a bit more palatable.

With that in mind, I think any school will be equally friendly to high achieving students. I imagine even within selective schools, if you're a dick, you'll be treated like one. Being a high achiever isn't a personality trait, being humble about being one is.

[hums_student]

Not sure exactly how relevant my response will be as I wasn't on an academic scholarship, nevertheless I'll give the prompts a go -

- Did you enjoy your time in high school?
Extremely, though more so on the extra-curricular side than academic.

- If you have been in both a private school and a selective school or accelerated class, which do you prefer and why?
I was in a "selective class" (which I don't think is a concept that exists in VIC) for year 7 and the first half of year 8 in NSW. After that I went to a private school and I didn't find much difference between the two cohorts.

- Does your scholarship/acceleration make you put excessive pressure and expectations on yourself?
For the selective class? Nope. I got in on pure chance so I kind of established myself as a dropkick within like the first few weeks of class.
As for the scholarship, I was on a music scholarship, so I had the expectations of participating and contributing to the school's music and performing arts program. I never saw it as 'pressure', but the expectations were quite high.

- Does the school and teachers put a lot of extra pressure and expectations on you?
My music teachers did pay a lot more attention to me, as the music scholarship recipient, and obviously expected me to willingly participate in as many music-related extra-curricular activities as I can. There were some general rules, like each year I have to take part in X amount of activities, have to represent the school in interschool music competitions etc. There were also behaviour-related expectations but they were quite low.

- Is the competition between fellow scholarship/accelerated kids really high?
There was only one music scholarship recipient per year so there wasn't much competition for me.

- Is the rest of the cohort generally less friendly to scholarship/accelerated kids?
Nope. But then again it could depend on the scholarship. The guy who had the sports scholarship was pretty much the most popular person in the entire cohort. People with academic scholarships? Not as much. With music it's kind of in-between.

[addict]

Thanks so much for the responses, my friends. It's really good to hear about your perspectives. Any tips on how to ace scholarship tests/interviews?