[Mick]

I think Stanford had a greater impact on me than 95 percent of the students there,  because those students were prepared well for it.

I was not.

I went to horrifically bad, small public high school on the Oregon Coast. 

I went to that same high school on the California coast in the Monterey Bay.  200 kids, give or take.  Whenever we got a good teacher, s/he was gone in a year.  In the entire history of the school, only one student was admitted to Stanford (ironically, the daughter of an auto dealer).  She had a nervous breakdown there, dropped out, started doing drugs, etc.  Three female teachers had affairs with male students while I was there.  Another female teacher hit on my sister when my sister was 15.  Several of the teachers were well known druggies.  Every English and History teacher I had taught for one year.  Math and Science stuck around, for whatever reason.

Remember the guy who sold all the drugs in your high school?  He lived in the boys' restroom?  That kid, from my high school, paid someone to take his SAT so he could squeak into, let's say a CSU in the far north of California well known for alternative lifestyles.  He now teaches in our district public elementary school in SJ Unified.  So whenever someone asks me why my kid went to parochial schools...

I had a similar experience to Hulk, at least in my classes which required a great deal of writing.  I improved slowly.  My wife went to Lynbrook, she had so such problems and graduated magna cum laude.

[Mick]

I think Stanford had a greater impact on me than 95 percent of the students there,  because those students were prepared well for it.

I was not.

I went to horrifically bad, small public high school on the Oregon Coast. 

I went to that same high school on the California coast in the Monterey Bay.  200 kids, give or take.  Whenever we got a good teacher, s/he was gone in a year.  In the entire history of the school, only one student was admitted to Stanford (ironically, the daughter of an auto dealer).  She had a nervous breakdown there, dropped out, started doing drugs, etc.  Three female teachers had affairs with male students while I was there.  Another female teacher hit on my sister when my sister was 15.  Several of the teachers were well known druggies.  Every English and History teacher I had taught for one year.  Math and Science stuck around, for whatever reason.

Remember the guy who sold all the drugs in your high school?  He lived in the boys' restroom?  That kid, from my high school, paid someone to take his SAT so he could squeak into, let's say a CSU in the far north of California well known for alternative lifestyles.  He now teaches in our district public elementary school in SJ Unified.  So whenever someone asks me why my kid went to parochial schools...

I had a similar experience to Hulk, at least in my classes which required a great deal of writing.  I improved slowly.  My wife went to Lynbrook, she had so such problems and graduated magna cum laude.