The great news for this years senior class at MHS continues. 4th student accepted to an Ivy League school last week. 2 Browns, a Harvard and now a Cornell. Several Nescac Schools, Scholarships at BU and Northeastern again this year...the graduation handout with the kids future plans will be fantastic again. Congratulations to a great group of kids, who for the third year in a row are not only killing it in the classroom, but also finding success on the fields, arts programs, robotics program and most recently a 1st place in the State economics program...beating out dozens of schools both public and private for the grand prize.

Nice to see that the PR firm is now writing posts here to boost the MPS image!

LOL. You're right because it's always the same phrases. Maybe Melrose pays by the word & gets a discount for re-use?

No need to spin 4 Ivy acceptances and full scholarships. I'm betting that this total alone is more than 2X the acceptances of all Melrose residents/students enrolled in schools other than MHS; parochial, charter prep etc. I know most of the kids and I haven't heard a Melrose kid outside of MHS with either an Ivy League acceptance or a full tuition scholarship...feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Where does it say full scholarships?

Great work by those that are going to Ivys or Little Ivys. What percentage of the class are those? There's 400 kids is that class, isn't there?

Spare me this crap, will you? Save it for the MEF mommies.

Wrong. Only about 230 kids in the senior class.
This is a very good result. Those of us that have watched this site for a long time remember years when this site bashed away at MHS for not having any graduates going to Ivy League schools. This a great thing and there are also multiple former MHS grads that were accepted to Medical schools following their college career.
The old saying "believe half of what you see and none of what you hear" has been changed to "believe half of what you see and about 2% of the nonsense that is spewed about Melrose on Melrosemessages."
The reality of the Melrose schools bears very little resemblance to what is posted out here.

you are correct: Pure unadulterated crap probably from someone like Connie (Vuvu) or one of the other district fanatical apologists, one who has access to private Guidance Department information and plays with it here, being the unethical and altogether obsessed creep that she is.

With miserable SATs and ACTs only a very few MHS students have a chance to fight beyond the awfulness that now defines too much of their school, despite the many good kids and decent families. Trying to trash all the other schools as a way to make MHS look better is just the pathetic hallmark of these creeps. Meanwhile they couldn't care a whit about correcting the massive problems in the district. They just wave their smelly fake data around and think we're all dumb enough to buy their crap. Nope.

So lets say 25 kids got Ivys or NESCAC. That would be the top 5 or 6 percent of the class, and those motivated kids would do well in any system. What about the other 205? You can spout disingenuous crap all day long about the 5%, but you never mention, nor do you even consider, the other 95%. A college readiness index of 30.6% proves that what you are spouting is......wait for it......crap!

Every year, there are about a dozen kids at MHS who get accepted to selective schools or programs, and/ or get some good merit aid. That's nothing new. It's approximately the top 5% of the class. Based on our demographic here in Melrose, it would be shocking if NO ONE got into these schools. We have some very affluent, highly educated parents, and kids who have had every advantage, including SAT prep courses and professional college search counselors. We also have kids who are legacies, and kids from more affluent families who apply ED because their parents can write a 65K tuition check every year, which gives them a great advantage over their peers, as most schools accept a large portion of each freshman class ED.

We also have that universal 1-2% of kids that are truly intellectually gifted, as does every school district. Hooray for all these kids.

I actually know many Melrose families whose kids have been counted amongst the successful MHS grads, got into very selective private colleges, huge merit aid packages, full boat tuition scholarships, grad school, etc. None of them credit Melrose High with their kid's success. Most were happy to be out.

Melrose High doesn't get to take credit for the hard work, natural abilities, and the advantages that come with having affluent, Ivy educated parents, when bragging about the top 5% of the class, unless they are going to take responsibility for the kids who ended up in community college because they need remediation before they can even attempt college level work....and there are far more of them than people realize. Truth is, most kids from MHS go into the state college system, or to small private schools like Merrimack, who will accept those kids whose GPAs are even lower than the 2.5 required by the state schools.

I would also suggest to the OP that, unless you know these students and families personally, and know how they feel about their high school experience, you shouldn't be talking about them on social media and using their accomplishments and hard work to make a political point. I know some families of graduating seniors whose kids got great offers, and who absolutely hate the high school, and feel that the high school did little to help their student reach his/her goals. Using someone else's kid to prove your point, unless you are positive that kid and that family agree with what you are saying, is really uncool.

Parent above is absolutely right. Ask those MHS kids that got into the Ivies and other top schools, after graduation, how much the school system helped them. Those kids got in (1) DESPITE the MPS system, (2) with the help of teachers now long gone or looking for a way out in order to protect themselves from the toxic environment of MPS and (3) with the help of very involved and supportive families. Ask the kids who succeed at MHS after they can leave the cesspool that is MHS what they think. I dare you. They will tell you of the many ways the school system fails ALL kids at MPS. You do not get to use their personal accomplishments as your spin control tool.

It's also very telling that no Melrose kids at the charter school or parochial schools got into an Ivy league this year. The anti MHS crowd can spin it all they want but cannot deny the fact that Melrose kids overall have done much better getting into elite colleges out of MHS the last 3 years than the Melrose kids who left have. The numbers don't lie.

and just how the h@ll do you claim to know this? What a load!

By the way, Malden Catholic sends 99% of its graduates to 4-year colleges. Match that to MHS current pathetic stats (where percentages have now dropped disgracefully into 80s for both 2- and 4-year colleges combined). And oh by the way, that is public knowledge. This "say what"/Vuvu creep is getting private information from the guidance department and using it to slime the object of her obsession, "the anti MHS crowd." Disgusting.

By the time next year's stats roll in, there won't be much left even for this creep to try and spin, after so many of the most gifted and dedicated teachers will be gone, and 3 department chairs are eliminated in the vengeful actions of the mayor and superintendent.

This Pro-MHS parent wants to see the administration face consequences for all the many harms it has cost not only the school but in fact our whole community. And no, I will not support any tax override initiative coming from those who have squandered our trust and damaged our schools, no matter how many dog and pony shows they parade before us trying to sell us their snake oil.

Why even dignify such a ridiculous post with a response. How preposterous for this individual to assume they know ALL of the (200+) Melrose students attending other HS in the area and where these students have been accepted.

And for the record, I personally know a HS student who lives in Melrose, attended a private HS, graduated last year and is attending an IVY on a full scholarship.

So OP why is that relevant at all? Scholarships are given out based on many parameters - academic, sports, music, art, - and the obvious - FINANCIAL. It stands to reason that students who are paying for private schools may not qualify for financial-based scholarships.

If some MHS graduates are accepted into great colleges then kudos to those students for working hard! Those acceptances completely un-related to what other students at other schools are doing.

I will wait to see the entire list of MHS acceptances to be published and judge for myself. I will pay close attention to the 2 year vs. 4 year swing vs a few token IVY. We should hope Melrose schools are interested in educating every student.

Clown Patrol Alert. A large gathering of red nosed, suspenders wearing, rubber footed bozos has gathered on this string. Only the MM losers would try to turn 4 MHS kids getting admitted to Ivy league schools into a lunatic rant.

The "Parent" Bozo suggests that its inappropriate to anonymously tout an unnamed students accomplishments on a message board. What a clown. It doesn't fit the agenda of the losers attack board so its inappropriate. Melrose doesn't get to take the credit of students accomplishments, but every other private school and the charter school do? Feel the hate.

MHS kids going to Ivies - 4
Non MHS Melrose kids going to Ivies - 0, O for, zippo, nada

Victory to MHS. Boo Yah!

Angry clowns keep honking your noses, the reality is MHS, for the 3rd year in a row, out performed all the charter and private school kids from Melrose. Do yourselves a favor, pile into your clown cars and come to the MHS graduation next month. You will see where the real winners go to school. Then go look at your check books, the paint peeling off your houses and your crappy yards.

Honk, Honk.

Some Ivy acceptances were sports related. Also, Ivy colleges award scholarships based on financial need. You pay what you can afford.

Which is really funny because half of the kids from Melrose that bolt town for parochial schools leave because little johnny or janey superstar athlete is going to MC, BF or AC to get a 4 year free ride...when again, MHS is where the recruited athletes come from.

Poor sad clown, it's so obvious when you are off your medication. Did you forget to stop at CVS this morning? Better pop those pills. And while you are at it - check out a couple of websites.

Mystic Valley Charter School - graduates last year - Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Cornell, MIT...

Austin Prep - graduates - Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, University of Michigan, Georgetown, Northwestern, Bates, Duke, Purdue, UC Berklee, Vanderbuilt...

Haven't even checked SJP, BC High, Belmont Hill, BB&N, AC, MC - but I'm sure we will find much of the same.

PSC - take your medication and head to the car wash. The windows of your patrol car need a good cleaning. There are not many houses with peeling paint in Melrose.

Clown Patrol is exactly the type of person bringing down the culture of Melrose. She accepts everything the city and schools do, doesn't yearn for improvement, and denies that others have the right (responsibility) to attempt to effect change.

Not only does Clown Patrol obsessively accept the status quo, she is compelled to defend it vehemently. She does it to the extent of insulting anyone who may have a different opinion. She insults and denigrates children(!!) and families who make or follow other personal choices. She is in denial that any decision different from hers can be a good one for someone else. She is so narrow she believes her chosen path is the only one anyone should follow.

She is so closed-minded she believes her personal priorities are the only ones, so she resents others who work for improvement. She sounds just like those pro-lifers who have to decide what's right for other women instead of letting them decide what's right for themselves.

Below are just a few of her irrelevant measures of "success" she's expressed as she determines "winners" and "losers" obsessively:

1. Only the college a student enrolls in after high school instead of their intellectual, social and emotional development, tailored to the student's needs along the way. (Many times she's represented that a private/charter student who attends the same college wasted four years of money and effort simply because a public school student also went there.)

2. That children are able to survive following the conventional Melrose School path instead of a charter/private school path. She represents that anyone who goes charter or public is doing so to hurt Melrose - it's intriguing that she feels personally violated by others' choices.

3. That someone spends their money for fresh paint or manicured lawns instead of being environmentally green or investing their time and money in efforts beneficial to society. Obsessing over the house paint, the clothes, the kitchen, the car and the lawn (or the bar she drinks at) as the criteria of success is the hallmark of a shallow person.

4. That someone leaves all their money in their checking account instead of using it for things to benefit of their children. Normal parents feel selfless when it comes to their children and are happy, even, to make sacrifices for them. Clown Patrol beams that her checking account is full, likely at the direct expense of investing money to help the offspring she brought into this world.

Feel sorry for Clown Patrol and her children. She never learned what are the important things in life. Just hope her kids can escape and don't suffer the same fate.

Just like a Bozo Brigade loser to take credit for college acceptances of kids from other Cities or towns that go to private schools. How about Melrose kids that go to those schools? Keep peddling you BS. You clowns are a bunch of frauds and this post proves it. MHS produces it own home grown superstars and doesn't need to steal the accomplishments of kids from other towns.

Ahhh…Waka, Waka, Waka

Then why do you spend so much time and effort condemning anyone who makes a choice other than MPS?

Go skulk around the guidance office some more. And stop playing with yourself.

Nope, not a clown, and not hateful at all. Just know a lot of successful MHS kids who had to work extra hard to overcome some of the lousy teaching and poor guidance they got. I give full credit to the small number of excellent staff at the HS who do right by the kids, the kids and parents all know who they are, but their numbers are shrinking.

Also, I happen to be the parent of a "successful" MHS grad, who got lots of merit money and accepted at more than one highly regarded, selective private college. She did it all on her own. MHS did nothing for her, and it was irritating to see the lazy administrators listing the colleges she got accepted to to boost their own credibility, as if there multiple kids who got into these schools and not just one student, mine. These are the same people who wouldn't have given my student the time of day if she needed help with something. So yes, I would be ****** if my kid busted her ass and essentially taught herself some years, could never seem to get an appointment with guidance, because they were never there, finally got accepted to several impressive colleges, and had to listen to some townie idiot claiming the reason my kid did well was because of the geniuses running MHS.

I get it.....you LOVE Melrose. You grew up here, and spend lots of time reliving your glory days with your high school buddies. I'm happy for you, I really am. I am a public school parent , I never considered sending my kids to private, for a variety of reasons. My kids will do well because of their God given intelligence, and because we are a family who places a huge importance on education and doing well in school. I just have higher standards than you do when it comes to what I consider a good education. And I'm sick of adults like you using the accomplishments of kids you don't know to praise the adults running that high school.

The Dipwad Otherwise Known as Tafka Clown Kaka doesn't have a thing to say about this week's total gutting of the academic structure of the secondary schools (including her precious MHS), with the elimination of three department chair positions. If she thinks she's needed to apologize for the district before, let's see what she says this time next year, that is unless she's been placed in one of those nice padded cells in the geriatric funny farm by then, where she can commune with the angels in Margaret's head.

Have a good read of Driscoll's bizarro world "Taking Notes" and it all comes together, these whack jobs so carried away with the Rapture that is All Things Red Raiders, unencumbered by conscience or much of anything that is not directly connected to their enormous egos and their crazed views.

Before you know it, Margaret will have made herself not only Business Mgr, but maybe superintendent as well (CT is basically only a placeholder), with Jess as her eager clone, hovering with her on the edge of hysteria nearly all the time. They will be all about "intentional" restructuring where they eliminate everything except hand-selected interventionists to teach the MEF offspring exclusively, with all others consigned to that fakery holding zone euphemistically named "blended learning" where their darling Christiani panders only to his faves and all the rest rot staring at nonfunctional chromebooks all day doing their "online" courses. Rob will be happy because he will have the ear of lots of duly cowed and frightened elementary parents only too eager to approve whatever new scheme he and Patrick try to foist on the community, with the ever-expert imprimateur of their crack team of attorneys, having succeeded in eliminating the "delta" (and actual academic education along with it).

It's All Good, and Margaret can continue to wear her silly Red-and-White Dress/Coat/Thing and make some pretentious speech at Commencement. Maybe no one much will notice how few actual teachers will be there when all is said and done.

Well said. Your kids were fortunate to have you for a role model!

Why would anyone (AKA Clown Patrol) want to diminish what some MHS students have accomplished by comparing them to students at other schools?

To allege that not a single Melrose student at any other school in Massachusetts gets into an IVY is a clear sign of a delusional mind. Not to mention that it is completely untrue.

Let's disregard any post by someone that calls themselves "Clown Patrol" and proclaims to have knowledge of the college acceptances of every child in Melrose in private, public and parochial schools for the last three years.

LOL - Clown Patrol too bad you didn't use your super xray knowledge three years ago to warn the administration about all the new students coming in to the district.

" Let’s begin by acknowledging that there are some undeniable admissions advantages to private schools. For example, counselors in public high schools report spending only 23% of their time on college-related counseling, while their private school counterparts spend a far healthier 53%. Moreover, three-quarters of private high schools employ a counselor who is solely dedicated to matters of college admissions, something very few public schools are able to offer."..... {HERE COMES A BIG REASON many choose private. It goes to CULTURE 👉🏻} ..."Private school students are also more likely to be completely surrounded by highly motivated, college-bound peers which research suggests raises expectations and performance."
It isn't always about the end result of what college our child gets into. Though like said above, it's nice to have the added support. It's about the entire youthful journey through culture and knowledge given and who they become in the process and how we as parents sway that path through our choices for our children. I personally like the specifics of what my child learns and how they are taught and the environment in which these occur better than our public school offerings. Those of us who choose private school/charter have many many varied reasons for doing so. Some listed above but also curriculum is a HUGE one, teachers, school administration culture, and peer culture. Also, the nature of the beast that CAN NOT be denied is that public schools must make sure no child is left behind. No one can deny that. I believe, but others do not I know, public schools must teach to the middle instead of setting a high bar for all to strive for. I personally like the clarity of a high achieving bar being laid out and that is that.

Want to add, I believe ( not 100%) that some charter schools, like MysticValley, also fulfill the above bonus of more support for college and imo better curriculum.
"Studies have shown that when you control for scholastic ability, attending a school surrounded by fellow academic superstars actually has a negative effect on your admissions chances at an elite college. In other words, a student with a 1300 SAT at a public high school where the average SAT is 1000 will have an admissions edge over an equal student at a private school where 1300 is the average SAT score." I do believe this to be true. We don't choose private to give us a better chance of getting into an Ivy and supposedly a 6 figure job. It's deeper than that. We do it to make them the best they can be with how we as parents see fit. The bigger picture for who our kids become according to our family values and beliefs. And that should be okay without the vile shown here. Different strokes for different folks. It doesn't make the parents of mps students bad parents because we Choose different and see certain faults in mps. And vice versa. Doesn't make us bad parents because you See faults in our school choice. We each make our own choices based on our individual beliefs of what we want for our children.

Hmmmm, sounds like a bunch of BS. Free yourself and your fellow clowns. The Bozo's don't need paragraph after paragraph of fake intellectual BS...just admit it. Your kids couldn't hang in the big leagues at MHS. Either they weren't smart enough to hang in the tough classes or weren't athletic enough to play for the Red and White...so you cut bait and ran to the rinky dink parochial schools. $15,000 per year for no published MCAS statistics or high school performance
statistics and plenty of grade inflation...along with lousy sports programs where everyone gets a letter. Everyone is a gets a trophy. Then its off to Salem State. Boo Yah! When you Clowns stop crawling all over this piece of sh*t website and blaming everyone else for your lack of parenting skills and the poor genes passed along to your average kids you will be free of the animosity and hate toward MHS. Honk, Honk. See you at the graduation. 4 Ivies baby, gonna be a great day!

Hmmmm, sounds like a bunch of BS. Free yourself and your fellow clowns. The Bozo's don't need paragraph after paragraph of fake intellectual BS...just admit it. Your kids couldn't hang in the big leagues at MHS. Either they weren't smart enough to hang in the tough classes or weren't athletic enough to play for the Red and White...so you cut bait and ran to the rinky dink parochial schools. $15,000 per year for no published MCAS statistics or high school performance
statistics and plenty of grade inflation...along with lousy sports programs where everyone gets a letter. Everyone gets a trophy. Then its off to Salem State. Boo Yah! When you Clowns stop crawling all over this piece of sh*t website and blaming everyone else for your lack of parenting skills and the poor genes passed along to your average kids you will be free of the animosity and hate toward MHS. Honk, Honk. See you at the graduation. 4 Ivies baby, gonna be a great day!

I think Clown Patrol may actually be Donald Trump.

"Nope, not a clown, and not hateful at all. Just know a lot of successful MHS kids who had to work extra hard to overcome some of the lousy teaching and poor guidance they got. I give full credit to the small number of excellent staff at the HS who do right by the kids, the kids and parents all know who they are, but their numbers are shrinking.

Also, I happen to be the parent of a "successful" MHS grad, who got lots of merit money and accepted at more than one highly regarded, selective private college. She did it all on her own. MHS did nothing for her, and it was irritating to see the lazy administrators listing the colleges she got accepted to to boost their own credibility, as if there multiple kids who got into these schools and not just one student, mine. These are the same people who wouldn't have given my student the time of day if she needed help with something. So yes, I would be ****** if my kid busted her ass and essentially taught herself some years, could never seem to get an appointment with guidance, because they were never there, finally got accepted to several impressive colleges, and had to listen to some townie idiot claiming the reason my kid did well was because of the geniuses running MHS.

I get it.....you LOVE Melrose. You grew up here, and spend lots of time reliving your glory days with your high school buddies. I'm happy for you, I really am. I am a public school parent , I never considered sending my kids to private, for a variety of reasons. My kids will do well because of their God given intelligence, and because we are a family who places a huge importance on education and doing well in school. I just have higher standards than you do when it comes to what I consider a good education. And I'm sick of adults like you using the accomplishments of kids you don't know to praise the adults running that high school."


This is my kid's experience too. Well articulated. Particularly the point about having higher standards for education. For so many in Melrose, their standards involve sports, dance, whatever, and not academics. If you are happy with that, fine, but don't impose those low standards on every other kid at MHS. The main point of high school is an academic education, not a great sports team. Melrose is failing at teaching academics. MHS did nothing except for a couple of teachers who are now gone. Clown is too afraid to ask those "top" kids for fear of hearing what she knows is the truth.

Cut the crap guys, every school has Ivy League kids. In fact, most have MORE than Melrose. So just stop, please god, stop. Melrose High is not that great of a school, facts are facts. You can poke holes in opinions, not hardened numbers, statistics, and facts. i love this city, born and raised, attended school here. But it's just not the same. People confuse money with success.

"Oh Melrose was number 1 in the market! Woo!." Folks, newsflash, and once again not an opinion, a fact. Ever since this population rise, and booming housing market, our schools have gone to $hit, and crime has gone up over 12%. I don't have the answers, but I have the stats. I can't explain it. Only guess would be a mix between a terrible School Committee, a lazy Police Chief (NOT the officers themselves), and a mayor who does not give said Chief the correct amount of men for the size of our ever growing city.

Time to shake things up a bit. Time to stop pretending like we are Winchester, when in fact we are closer to a Malden. Once again, can't argue numbers.


2013: Median Household Income
Winchester, $131,535
45K Difference
Melrose, $86,054
32K Difference
Malden, $54,018

2013: Median House Value
Winchester, $687,678
263K Difference
Melrose, $424,413
93K Difference
Malden, $331,240

Ahhh...Waka, Waka, Waka.

Sorry, ClownA$$Hat snuck out of her cell to the computers (12:48 a.m.). Time to up the meds....

My friend's son, a Malden HS grad got into Yale last year. Here's an article in the Globe that references this & some other respected schools Malden High grads got into last year:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/06/05/farragher/0CulhnyRzRQmIEov8YPW6O/story.html
FWIW, Malden's college readiness index is higher than Melrose's according to US News & World Report. It's a 40.3.
Some points to ponder. As you smugly think Melrose has a great school system.

Two Melrose kids got into Yale last year. One went and the other received a full scholarship to another school. Melrose also had a Brown and a Harvard. This year Melrose has 2 Browns, a Harvard and Cornell. Its nice your friends kid got into Yale...Malden has some really good students and a great school system. I don't think anyone in Melrose is pretending Melrose is Winchester...anymore than Winchester is pretending its Lexington or Newton. The big difference between all of these communities and Melrose is that in Winchester, Lexington and Newton a larger majority of the students have parents with higher expectations and send their kids to school everyday more prepared, and the parents in these communities have too much class to go on anonymous blog and complain and if they have sent their kids to a private school they move on...where in Melrose we have the white trash Bozo Brigade constantly whining about the plight of their underperforming child or bashing MPS after they have sent their kids to a private school. These communities just don't have the bottom of the barrel parents that Melrose has.

Because you're making sense. :)
I want to make it clear that I'm not bashing the hard working students of Melrose either. This is an adult/parent mess regardless of what side you come down on. The kids are doing their best regardless of where they go to college (or not.)
I agree with everything you said about Winchester, Lexington & Newton.
Another difference I have seen in Winchester, Lexington & Newton is that the parents speak up loud, proud & often. In public. Some people will get offended by this but the level of discourse is higher than in Melrose. Even as two sides disagree, there are strong factual and researched statements made. Each side is well prepared if there is contention. Hiding behind jargon or being unprepared doesn't work as well as it does in Melrose. I mean this toward both the citizens & the governing bodies of Melrose.

Snap out of it wackjob. My post isn't "anti" any city. They're just hardened numbers. If anything this post was directed at Melrose people who for some reason think Melrose is the same as Winchester. So get your panties out of a twist and crack open an ice cold zima.

And to clarify....this has nothing to do with the kids. I applaud their hard work and success. I wish them nothing but the best, after all they are just kids. I speak of the smug, entitled people who reside in this city (adults/parents).

Ivy, calm down. Enjoy a Zima with me. They are discontinued but we can have a hard cider instead. I recommend Down East.
I was both agreeing with you and pointing out that Malden has Ivy acceptances too since that seems to be part of some posters assertions.

If I'm reading this post correctly the OP is applauding the quality of the public school system in Melrose based on the fact that four students were accepted into an IVY league colleges?

That is less than 2% of graduating seniors.

Students are accepted to IVY schools for more than academics. Special talents, sports, legacy.

If 4 students in an IVY is the bar to determine success then let's play limbo.

Ahhh...Waka, Waka, Waka

Clown Patrol, you sound crazy. You have no idea about the seniors who got into Ivy League schools. You have no idea what it took for that to happen. If you think it is because MHS is so great, you must be smoking crack.
I am a good student, and I work hard every day. My parents push me to be my best, and I have a few friends at MHS who want to succeed the way I do, but most of my friends just want to get by and go to college for fun. The way college acceptances go these days, who knows if I will get in where I want? All I can do is work as hard as I can, be involved in the activities I love to do, and hope my applications show that I am motivated and well-rounded. The problem at MHS is that there are so few people who are role models for this. The kids who score the Ivies get there because of their own work and motivation. I see the school as a barrier for them in some ways. Guidance is so uninspired. There is no thinking outside the box. The same lame schools get pushed over and over again. I have two cousins my age, one at a parochial school and one at Belmont Hill. Obviously the one at Belmont Hill gets the best teachers and guidance, but the Catholic school isn't too bad either. They actually meet with their guidance counsellors and talk about what they want to do, and look at all sorts of schools that maybe they didn't even know about. When I hang out with them and their friends from school, I get one thing. They care about the future. They work on interesting projects and get tons of feedback from their teachers. They don't all "get a trophy" like Clown Patrol says. If anything, they are graded harder than I am, and the expectations are really, really high. They play multiple sports, they play instruments, they have tons of outside activities. They just work hard. I don't know, maybe they feel like they have to care since their parents paid for their high school. I am not sure, but I do know that I feel a little jealous when they talk about their schools. I feel like I am working on my own and they have a whole bunch of people pushing them to try stuff and do great things.

@MHS Junior, your hard work will pay off. Go to some college fairs to look for schools you aren't familiar with & get books such as "Colleges that Change Lives." Listen closely to your cousins discussions. Consider schools outside this area if that's practicable for you. If money's an issue and when isn't it, look at state school in other states such as Iowa, IU, etc.

RE: MHS Junior

The best result in the "MHS Junior" response is that some mentally ill parent chose to pose as a junior at MHS. As pathetic as it is in its own right its far better than the alternative. For an actual high school student to spend the time crafting a response to the garbage on this site signals rough water ahead for the kid...for reasons that are entirely obvious to the sane.

Dr. Freud - please go see a psychiatrist!

Didn't "craft a response"- just saw there was some a$$ posting nonsense like she knows what goes on at the HS, trying to act like MHS is the reason a few kids got into ivies and decided to tell it like I see it. Dr. Freud would like it if I was a parent, because then she could ignore what I have to say. But I live it every day. Try to stay motivated in that place every day for three years and then come talk to me.

I agree with MHS Junior. Kids are not treated well at the HS and it's up to them to make their own opportunities. Guidance is indeed uninspiring to say the least. Here is recent email of the bungle of class schedules went to parents only on Friday.

Dear Parents and Students,

If you are receiving this message, we have looked at your son or daughter's preliminary schedule for next school year 2016-2017 at Melrose High School, and one or more classes were not able to be scheduled for various reasons. The most common reason for a course to not be scheduled are elective choices that don't fit into the schedule.

"Next week (the week of May 2nd) guidance counselors will be stationed in the faculty dining room adjacent to the cafeteria everyday during all lunch blocks. Please tell your son or daughter to stop by to see any of the counselors during lunch to resolve any scheduling conflicts, and to make sure he or she has a complete schedule for next year. Due to the large volume of students with incomplete schedules, and due to AP testing happening next week, students will not be able to make individual appointments next week. The lunch blocks will be the only time for students to resolve conflicts. If it takes longer than the lunch period, students will be given a pass to their next class after meeting with a counselor."

1. Email never went to students.
2. Does not indicate the name of the student affected. Believe it or not, some families do have more than 1 child at MHS. Best guess would be all students in the family have scheduling issues.
3. Students are to miss lunch to fix the schedule and if it takes too long, miss your next block too - never mind about missing a quiz, test or maybe even an important lesson in your next block. Must fix schedules now on Guidances timeline.

On another note, my friend's child attends Malden HS. Guidance at Malden HS actually takes time to meet with students and provide them with opportunities such as paid summer internships with very reputable companies.

I agree with MHS Junior.

I feel terrible for the MHS Junior. It is difficult to go to a place that provides you with no motivation. However, I disagree with the opinion that this is what the school is like for all students. There are many children that really enjoy Melrose High School. The kids involved with the Advanced Placement classes, National Honor Society, Music and Drama programs and athletic teams all derive motivation from their peers and the mutual goal of high achievement. Perhaps this MHS student is too dependent on others and has not set any personal goals. I would encourage this student to take a look at the various students and school programs & activities where students are excelling and ask themselves what they can do better as an individual to make a difference in their own life.

With sympathy like yours, it's no wonder nothing ever gets any better. What a rotten thing to say.

Yes, "Parent" is truly awful. Probably one of the MEF moms who think they know all the answers, including what constitutes good parenting for the rest of us. They generally are among the most arrogant of individuals in town, and they don't hesitate to tell the rest of us "how it is."

The red nosed honking bozos have really out done themselves with this string. Between turning a positive string on the success of MHS students to a full blown attack on the school and anyone whose kid has had a positive experience at MHS to creating a fictitious high school student to make a ridiculous point to criticizing a fake parent for criticizing the fake student...this is the Bozo All Star game. Barnum and Bailey can use the Melrose Bozo Brigade to take the place of all the elephants they just laid off. What a pack of morons. The best part was pretending that the fools who spent $60,000 to $80,000 on crappy parochial schools felt they got their moneys worth when the kids wound up at State U because they were more intellectually, socially and emotionally developed than the kids at MHS. What a crock of sh*t. You people are losers and clearly by your frustrations with your kids educations the apple isn't falling far from the tree.

Ahhh...Waka, Waka, Waka

Who wants to place a bet on which parochial or private school Clown didn't get into? My bet is on SJP. Although some of you think Clown is a woman, so could it have been AC? Jeepers. Rejected from AC?

How ironic that no matter what the thread, Clown uses every opportunity he or she can to moan about private and parochial schools. Oh, and he/she has issues with State Universities. Do you think Clown was rejected by Framingham State too? Double jeepers. And the $ - don't get Clown started on how much these parents spend. Clown does not agree with paying for any type of school. It's much better to spend on lottery and circus tickets!