Sorry! There is a Sacred Heart in the city. I think we’re talking about the one in Atherton here (especially when Menlo is mentioned).
I don’t know anything about Sacred Heart in SF except having driven past it.
There are different kids. For the type of super smart or super motivated or both, I guess it doesn’t matter which high school they go.
For above average kids with regular motivation and regular smartness, is private school a better option? I think these kids may not have much chance at Ivy. I guess Ivy requires super motivated or unusually gifted.
Tiger parents maybe able to push above average kids into Washington Univ, Rice Univ or Vanderbilt, I don’t think they can push the kids to top 10.
Btw, is Rice/Vanderbilt better than UC for undergraduate education?
There is future value going to school with rich kids. You make friends for life.
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Did it help you to have high school friends from rich or elite families?
Helped my sister at Harvard. She met Gates and the fat one. Married a Harvard law grad
Lick was free when it went. Not many rich kids
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Gates, the fat and the Harvard law are smart kids, not necessarily rich kids. You need to be smart in order to meet them in Cambridge
Well I do not know who she met. But Gates and Ballmer did well. She did get hit on by Ted Kennedy at an alumni function. My buddies kids went to school with Ellisons kids. They got to go on his yatch, my friend didn’t get an invite
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Same reason I attended private as well.
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By the way locals call Sacred Heart, St Joseph’s
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Yeah… You mean the “old locals”. 
The people I know who apply to or had kids in Sacred Heart, call it Sacred Heart, especially for the high school level.
I think this is where it does matter. If you are super smart, you will not get the classes or the accelerated curriculum you need to do your absolute best. If you are the smartest in your class, you are having to wait for the other kids to get the material after you already got it. You also have no peers better than you to learn from. Super motivated also means you have a school willing to offer you the flexibility to try harder classes or do courses over the summer and skip work. Public schools don’t like acceleration or skipping. They’re worried you’re missing something. Super motivated, though, can do ok in a public setting if there’s enough to classes to work with. Super smart definitely needs a school with similar peers and college level material…or you end up graduating at 14 with all the social mess that entails in college.
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Public high school provides tons of AP classes. I think there is no shortage of academic challenges at public high schools due to the AP class. What I heard is that there is too much stress, too much work and too much extracurricular for the kids. Many kids are exhausted and sleep at midnight.
Super gifted kids may lack a choice in middle school and elementary school, but high school is different. Anyway the super gifted may not need an Ivy degree even if they can get into Ivy easily.
It’s the above average kids who desperately need an extra edge since their motivation and gift is not outstanding
You are correct that K-8 is very rigid, but high school sometimes won’t accommodate a gifted kids’ needs depending on their level. Certainly for many kids there’s more flexibility, and it helps, but for kids who finished BC Calculus in 8th or 9th grade and wants to keep taking math, there’s not always 4 years left.
Menlo-Atherton: Ap Stats (1 year) and Multi-variable (1 semester?)
http://www.mabears.org/Academics/Departments/Mathematics/index.html
Gunn: AP Stats (1 year), Applied math
https://gunn.pausd.org/teaching-learning/mathematics Page 33
Paly: AP Stats, and an Advanced Problem Solving Seminar
https://paly.net/sites/default/files/pdf-faqs/attachments/palycoursecatalog1819_feb20.pdf
Woodside HS: Best you’ll get of any public I’ve seen:
AP Stats (1 year), Multivarible (1 semester), Linear Algebra (1 semester), Diff EQs (1 semester), Finite Math (1 semester)
(The latter four classes are taught by Canada college professors on Woodside’s Campus. Same thing at Sequoia High school. Kids get dual enrollment credit if they want.)
http://www.woodsidehs.org/Academics/Mathematics/index.html
Compare to Harker:
AP Stats, Multi-variable Calc, Diff EQ I and II, Linear Algebra, Discrete Math, Information Theory I and II, and Signals and Systems
(page 30) Page Not Found
Harker also has the best computer science program I’ve seen of any school. So if you finish AP Computer Science in 8th or 9th grade, you have a number of courses to take including Data Structures, Compiler Construction, Machine Learning, etc.
Compare to Nueva: Applied Statistics and Probability A, Cryptology, Differential Equations, Graph Theory and Applications, Linear Algebra
and maybe (not sure what level this is) Knot Theory and Knitting
plus Topics in Computational Biology if you’re into Biology
Nueva’s advanced science classes are very strong: Advanced Experimental Design Analysis, Advanced Mechanics, Applied Molecular Biology, Drug Design, Experimental Bioorganic Chemistry, Experimental Physical and Inorganic Chemistry, Mechanisms of Cancer, Neuroscience of Addiction,
Proof school doesn’t list it’s math courses in their entirety, but kids take 5 semester courses each year in math, and they are able to handle kids who took Calculus as early as 7th grade (sometimes earlier), so there are at least 20 semester-like courses beyond Calculus.
http://www.proofschool.org/course-descriptions-1#math-courses
(Course list includes middle school classes as well, and will grow as the school grows–the school is only 4 years old).
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Didn’t know harker and Nueva are so hardcore. 
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They are in fact amazing schools with really fantastic curriculum options for those who want to go deep into certain subjects. Harker also has a lot of Robotics classes and a top-notch robotics team.
Your focus seems to be on math and science. How about for kids who have no interest in computer science and math?
I know computer science is a safe major for kids, but some kids simply are not interested in it
Correct
I hear that Nueva is very good for artsy types. (But I don’t know many artsy kids)
I am not up what kids would do in that case, but MIddle college through publics might be the best option.
If the kid is interested in computer science, most college would be fine. A Yale CS grad and a UCLA CS grad might make the same money.
But perhaps Harker and Nueva can turn a gifted kid into Zuckerberg or a $1M google engineer
Yes. We looked at many of the options I listed above (not Gunn or Paly but I threw them in since we were discussing them here).