High School Admission Results

by Kate Anderson, High School Placement Counselor

MS: Our fabulous 8th grade students have done it again: another year of terrific high school acceptance results to celebrate! All twenty-eight of our students have received offers to rigorous programs throughout the Chicago area, and we are thrilled to report the following high school highlights for our soon-to-be-CCS-graduates:

• This year, we had our first ever acceptance to Northside Prep! 
   Good Job Lane Lubell

• Four acceptances to Walter Payton and seven acceptances to Whitney Young; the highest number to date for both


• Three of our eighth graders earned perfect scores on the Selective Enrollment Placement Exam!


• Eight acceptances to Lincoln Park International Baccalaureate program; out of seventeen test takers, almost half were invited to continue

• 21 out of 25 students were accepted into one of the top five CPS Selective Enrollment high schools

• 25 out of 28 (about 90%) students were accepted into one of their top three school choices

• 79% private school acceptance rate; however, this does not include wait-listings, which could still result in ultimate acceptance at this time

• This year, we celebrate our first ever CCS recipient of the prestigious and highly-coveted Daniel Murphy Scholarship Award!

With all these offers to choose from, where will our eighth-grade students be going? Four students have accepted places at the Latin School, and two at Francis W. Parker School. Four students will be attending Walter Payton, five students will be attending Whitney Young, and three students are headed over to the Lincoln Park High School Double Honors magnet program. Two students will be attending St. Ignatius College Prep, and three more will be traveling up to Winnetka to Loyola Academy. Two students have accepted places at St. Scholastica Academy and one each at St. Patrick High School and Lyons Township High School. One student will be moving internationally at the end of the school year.


Congratulations, 8th graders! We are so proud of you!
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Looks Like it's Latin

Monday morning we went for a tour of Northside College Prep.
We arrived to find two police cars and a "Paddy wagon" double parked by the entrance of school, all the same we parked our car and walked through the door and to the front desk.

The truth is the the director of admissions could not have been nicer. There were two other children, each with a parent, also on our tour. He walked us through the school, which was bright, clean and open. While they did not have much of the technology that is present at Lane's current school; they seemed to have all the basics. At separate times, we bumped into the two girls we knew attended Northside, they both ran up and gave us hugs.

We spent time speaking with the principle, who seemed quite competent and who answered questions openly. Among the questions were ones concerning the One Billion dollar short fall facing the CPS, and the resulting cut-backs. She was clearly unhappy that they were being forced to cut out all second year sports, particularly considering that she understood it was just the first of many shoes to drop.

The bottom line was Ilene and I both felt that this was a viable choice for Lane. Neither of us had any question that the school was a safe place, filled with smart kids. We did say that we were going to let Lane pick.... and I know as soon as Lane heard that the average class size was between 28 - 31 kids, his decision was made.

While I would have loved not to have the pressure of having to write those large checks; I do believe Latin will be the right spot for him.

To his credit, Lane was very concerned about the cost, and said he totally understands if we don't want to spend the money. We said it's OK, but understand there will be times when some of the kids in your class might be planning to fly off to Zurich for Spring skiing, and your going to have to tell them "Sorry, but my dad's Gulf Stream is in the shop." "Maybe Next Year."

Well, at least the process is complete.

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