The Mayor issued a press release with a list of about 200 schools that accepted applicants from Melrose. Can anyone tell me how many kids are in the senior class, how many applied to these schools, and how many acceptances were "multiples"? My granddaughter was accepted to five of them. This list tells me next to nothing.
It's not supposed to tell you anything. It's designed to make you feel good about MPS and make you think everything is fine. You will never find out how many kids received those acceptances. In addition to the kids that received multiple acceptances, there surely are instances of multiple students being accepted to one school.
ST. John's Prep is worth every penny. Thank God my mother's house (estate) sold for over asking price and we have the funds for tuition. MHS was not even rated in the U.S. News rankings for Massachusetts released this week. The MPS PR firm tried (but failed) to earn their monthly payment with the press release published on Dolan's blog.
The percentage of the City budget which goes to the schools isn't justified, if we can't even be ranked. I just read the report and am devastated by what is reported.
If you weren't 2,000 years old and knew about social media and didn't rely on this god forsaken website for info regarding the MHS schools, you could follow the twitter feed of the class where the kids are disclosing where they are going next year- to several great schools like Harvard, Cornell, Tufts, BC, Bates, Michigan, NYU, UMass Amherst, etc etc - the list of good schools goes on and on. So no worries, your grandchild was not the only one who managed to have success at MHS- it has been a great class and the students and parents should be proud.
I hope college bound MHS students have more respect for their own grandparents in particular and senior citizens in general than displayed by "MHS". The bullying rant will not help convince those on fixed incomes that the poorly managed schools deserve more money. Ageism is alive in Melrose. Social Media is a useful tool but not the only way to communicate. Obviously, Melrose Messages has gotten under your skin., "MHS". This website often sheds light on subjects politicians and their sycophants try and hide.
If "MHS" was nearly as smart as he thinks he is, he'd realize that a Twitter feed is not empirical data.
I wonder if the obsequious little turd thinks everything that fool in the White House tweets is accurate?
Nothing is more amusing than watching the fools who throw their money, or parents money, at parochial schools gloat on MM...only to see their investment of $90,000 put them at the same college or university the kid down the street who went to MHS is going to.
Values including "respect for elders" is something my son is learning at St. John's Prep. College readiness, future academic goals and college acceptances are only part of why we are sending him to the Prep. The involved families, community atmosphere and community service models are worth every cent. Time and money well spent on our child's education and personal development.
Boo Yah!
I'm back! Get out of your clown car and come honk your noses.
Message for "too funny": You say this but the reality is because of a string of abysmal school committee members and horrific superintendent and principal hirings over the last several years, Melrose is near the bottom of the Middlesex League in most academic areas and the multiple Civil Rights violations and OML/public records law violations speak for themselves. It's a shame because the Melrose kids have so much promise but the current oligarchy continues to just hide all the serious problems that have been brewing over the years rather than acknowledging them and fixing them.
Meanwhile the MEFer types and cheerleaders like you continue to enable the mayor, school committee chair and superintendent by cozying up to them rather than holding them accountable for their pitiful performance and continual brazen violations of Federal and State Laws. Meanwhile this Oligarchy has gone to ridiculous lengths to keep the Melrose populace uninformed (multiple OML violations, public records law violations and Civil Rights violations by administrators an SC members) while they bury the schools' many problems with the help of a taxpayer funded Public Relations firm.
The list tells you if your kid is smart and motivated they can get into any college or university. If you kid is lazy and a dummy; shell out the money for the private schools. That will be a better fit.
There was a time when this site used lack of Ivy league acceptances as a black mark against MHS. Now that the Ivies appear on the list each year, the argument changes. Complete nonsense. Take your kid out of the district if you choose; they will not be missed.
Well then, check out the 2016 Valedictorian from Holy Cross...a MHS grad. Or the two recent enrollees into local Medical Schools...two more MHS Grads. How about the kid at the US Naval Academy...a MHS Grad. Did you hear about the kid that is killing it at an Ad Agency in Manhattan..you guessed it, another MHS grad. There are countless other engineers; entrepreneurs, financial services executives, law enforcement officers and former students on so many other fantastic career paths since leaving MHS. Start talking to parents and you will be amazed at how successful MHS students are doing in their post collegiate careers.
Like I said; if you kid is smart MHS is a great option. If your kid is a dummy, you might want to try one of the private schools.
So many flaws in the responses here. The presumption that the so-called "smart" kids will do fine is just as ridiculous as some of the other misstatements. The brightest students in Melrose are vastly underserved and must look elsewhere if their educational needs are to be met. The Melrose Public Schools neglects them at every turn, and worse, expects them to tutor the "dummies" or those who are struggling. That in and of itself if it's voluntary is fine, but it's actually the sum total of the Melrose Schools answer for many of these kids, many of whom are literally dying (academically and in many cases personally) of boredom and neglect. No amount of poorly taught AP classes make up the difference, and quality schools and educators know this. Not in Melrose, though, where these students are just left to their own devices, quite literally. The primary focus is on the lowest end and earliest grades, where most of the money and resources are channeled. The top and middle are completely neglected, or worse, told to go pay for their own "dual" education or academically appropriate classes and/or tutoring.
The MHS college acceptances are used for the further hoax (in unofficial collusion with the city administration and realtors/Chamber of Commerce) to promote the idea that MHS is on a par with the finest schools in the region, which is complete bunk. Sure, there are some selective schools listed (most of which the same couple of students got into, seeing as how students now often feel compelled to apply to 10-15 schools, partly because MHS is not viewed as competitive overall).
Of course our community is proud of and congratulates those who have worked hard and are going onto solid good schools, jobs, the military, etc. That is not the point and never was (except as a disgusting deflection to the Vuvu types who dishonestly know full well that things at MHS are not what they proclaim them to be). This is not about how smart Melrose students are, because they drink similarly lead-tainted water that is found elsewhere....
Wow. "Please" graduated from MHS outside of the top 10% and still got into a great school like BC. Kudos to "Please" and kudos to MHS for preparing this former student for such a great collegiate education.
FWIW; I think "smart" at MHS is anyone in the top 50%. There are a lot of great state school choices and smaller private colleges and universities that turn our tremendous graduates.
I love how supporters of MHS get trashed here but detractors routinely through out things like "I want to see the graduation rates for these schools." Show me where the are published and I will review with you. Otherwise, the mountain of empirical evidence is overwhelming...MHS is turning out tremendous graduates. The detractors also say how great St. John's is and berate MHS for not being ranked in the US News Report rankings...does it occur to them that schools like St. John's and MC would never subject themselves to these types of rankings? And the MCAS?? Never! They would be completely exposed.
Look if your kid is an awesome athlete; by all means send them to St. John's. Just know that if your kid is not an awesome athlete your tuition dollars at St. John's are paying for your kid's schooling as well as the top players on the football and basketball teams; who go there tuition-free. Hopefully they are taught good manners up there and say thank you to the parents of the second stringers.
Regarding MC; well it is not exactly in the projects (just next to them) so it has that going for it.
Just out of curiosity where are the Melrose senior class kids attending parochial schools going to college next year. Between SJP, MC AP and AC there must be 200+ kids.
That's actually a very good question. I can't imagine there's a compilation of those into a single list. You'd probably have to search each one individually and compile your own. I'd like to see it too. I only looked at St. John's, and this is all they had.
"Ninety-nine percent of St. John's graduates go on to four-year colleges and universities every year. We are proud to note that ninety-one percent of our recent graduates complete their undergraduate studies in four years, compared to the national average of fifty percent. These are the colleges and universities our graduates have attended in the last five years."
American University
Amherst College
Anderson University
Arizona State University
Assumption College
Babson College
Bates College
Baylor University
Bentley University
Berklee College of Music
Binghamton University
Boston College
Boston University
Bowdoin College
Brandeis University
Brown University
Bryant University
Bucknell University
California Institute
of the Arts
Carnegie Mellon
University
Case Western University
Catholic University of
America
Champlain College
Christopher Newport
University
Claremont McKenna College
Clark University
Clarkson University
Clemson University
Coastal Carolina University
Colby College
Colgate University
College of Charleston
The College of the
Holy Cross
The College of William
and Mary
The College of Wooster
Colorado College
Colorado State University
Columbia University
Concordia University,
Montreal
Connecticut College
Cornell University
Curry College
Dalhousie University
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Denison University
DePaul University
Dickinson College
Drexel University
Duke University
Duquesne University
Elon University
Emerson College
Emmanuel College
Emory University
Endicott College
European University Geneva
Fairfield University
Florida Institute
of Technology
Fordham University
Framingham State
University
Franciscan University of
Steubenville
Franklin and Marshall
College
George Mason University
George Washington
University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute
of Technology
Gordon College
Green Mountain College
Hamilton College
Harvard University
Haverford College
High Point University
Hobart and William Smith
Colleges
Hofstra University
Illinois Institute
of Technology
Illinois Wesleyan University
Indiana University at Bloomington
Ithaca College
Jacksonville University
James Madison University
John Carroll University
Johns Hopkins University
Johnson State University
Juniata College
Karlshochschule International
University
Keene State University
Kenyon College
King's College
Lasell College
Lawrence University
Lehigh University
Louisiana State University
Loyola University, Chicago
Loyola Marymount
University
Lynchburg College
Macalaster College
Manhattan College
Marist College
Marquette University
Massachusetts College of
Art
Massachusetts College of
Pharmacy and Health
Sciences
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
McGill University
Merrimack College
Messiah College
Miami University, Oxford
Michigan State University
Middlebury College
New York Institute
of Technology
New York University
Newbury College
North Carolina State University
North Park University
North Shore Community
College
Northern Essex Community
College
Northeastern University
Northwestern University
Norwich University
Ohio State University
Pace University
Paul Smith's College
Pennsylvania State
University
Plymouth State University
Princeton University
Providence College
Purdue University
Quinnipiac University
Radford University
Regis College
Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute
Rhode Island School
of Design
Rice University
Rochester Institute
of Technology
Roger Williams University
Rollins College
Sacred Heart University
Saint Anselm College
Saint Joseph’s University
Saint Michael’s College
Salem State University
Santa Clara University
Savannah College of Art
and Design
School of the Art Institute
of Chicago
Seattle University
Skidmore College
Southern New Hampshire
University
Springfield College
St. John’s University, NY
St. Lawrence University
St. Thomas University
State University of New York
Stetson University
Stevens Institute
of Technology
Stonehill College
Suffolk University
Syracuse University
Texas A&M University
Texas Christian University
The Ohio State University
Trinity College
Tufts University
Tulane University
Union College
Unity College
University of Alabama
University of Arizona
University of California,
Berkeley
University of California,
Los Angeles
University of California,
Santa Barbara
University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Connecticut
University of Dallas
University of Delaware
University of Florida
University of Georgia
University of Hartford
University of Maine
University of Maryland,
Baltimore
University of Maryland,
College Park
University of Massachusetts
Amherst
University of Massachusetts
Dartmouth
University of Massachusetts
Lowell
University of Miami
University of New England
University of New Hampshire
University of New Haven
University of North Carolina
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
University of Rhode Island
University of Rochester
University of San Diego
University of San Francisco
University of Scranton
University of South Carolina
University of Southern
California
University of Southern
Maine
University of St Andrews
(Scotland)
Universoty of St. Thomas
University of Tampa
University of Texas
University of Toronto
University of Utah
University of Vermont
University of Virginia
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin
Ursinus College
U.S. Air Force Academy
U.S. Coast Guard Academy
U.S. Military Academy at
West Point
Vanderbilt University
Villanova University
Wagner College
Wake Forest University
Wentworth Institute
of Technology
Wesleyan University
Western New England
University
Westfield State University
Westminster College
Wheaton College
Whittier College
Williams College
Wilmington University
Worcester Polytechnic
Institute
Yale University
Belmont has great schools no doubt. Good luck to them. Plenty of happy kids in both Melrose and Belmont...we just seem to have more than our share of unhappy grandparents. BTW, unlike Melrose, Belmont does allow for in-law apartments. Give it some consideration...just like your grandkids are doing great in Belmont but aren't missed here; neither will we miss you!
Huh?
Geez, that list looks just like the MHS one. SJP is a great school, no doubt about it. However, over the past 5 years the MHS graduates have outperformed their neighbors going to the parochial schools when it comes to admissions to top tier colleges and universities. With very few exceptions the brightest students in Melrose stay in the public school system and attend MHS. If you have never done it, go to a graduation ceremony. They recognize the top 10 students in each class and they have a handout that lists where all the students are going and its pretty amazing what these kids are doing. MHS might not be the right fit for many kids and the parochial schools are a good option for these families, but don't fall for the negativity on this website and believe Melrose's students aren't prepared for the colleges they are attending.
Uh no, not quite. The last time anyone got into Dartmouth from MHS was 2008. Many other schools on SJP's list are rarely if ever represented by MHS grads, partly because the idiots in the Guidance Dept. have never heard of them or have any experience with what those programs require or are looking for. SJP's list includes significantly more of the top-tier most selective colleges, and further, it can be proven that more of those grads matriculate and actually graduate from those selective colleges. Also, there are many more students getting into those selective progams rather than at MHS where it's a small handful of students who have gotten into a pile of top-tier schools, but the list doesn't reflect that. Listening to SC meetings and reviewing the data saved over the years, data that includes more fleshed-out figures that one diligent SC member forced the messed-up guidance head to hand over, it is clear that MHS does not stack up. Good on those students who managed to succeed in spite of the myriad of neglected or purposedly screwed-up aspects of education as it stands in Melrose. They worked incredibly hard to succeed despite the negatives, many of which should not exist in an affluent community like ours. It is not legitimate to poach on their successes to validate what is actually a pretty awful school system here.
So why does the Mayor, superintendent and school committee chair and members continue to applaud themselves and hide the truth? Of the solidly middleclass communities within twenty miles or so from Melrose, Melrose is on the bottom of that list when you look at Boston Magazine's 2016 ratings of districts within the 495 belt. Just about every nearby community of similar socio-economic level scored solidly above Melrose: Lexington, Bedford, Winchester, Lynnfield, Arlington, Belmont, Reading, Andover, Burlington, Stoneham, North Reading, Wilmington, Wakefield, North Andover. (More or less the Middlesex league).
This is what happens over several years when our mayor, superintendent and school committee do not acknowledge our schools' weaknesses which is the first step in order to improve. These useless politicians and administrators and their cheerleaders continue to do harm to our kids by perpetrating the false stories about our "superb schools" (not). Lets finally move forward starting this year with some new blood on school committee.
Inside can't deal with the fact that MHS graduates do far better in college matriculation than their Melrose peers going to parochial schools so Inside rolls out some 2008 Dartmouth fact and tries to compare MHS to all SJP students. Nice try, but coming up short. MHS grads have gone on to better colleges and universities than their Melrose Peers at parochial schools at a rate that makes the comparison laughable. The best and brightest stay at MHS. It's a fact. The more meaningful analysis is the number of these kids at parochial schools that go on to State colleges and universities and less competitive private schools...schools that MHS students in the bottom of their class gain entrance to...particularly when you look at Austin Prep, Arlington Catholic Bishop Fenwick and MC. its incredible the money these families spend for mediocre results.
Sorry, but not one of the annoying newbies. Quite the opposite actaully. Born and raised, here, parents graduated MHS; Siblings graduated MHS and kids did too. Been paying taxes here for a very long time. Love seeing a MHS graduate as mayor, principal, football coach, etc. Also love seeing some graduates on the SC and BOA (but would like to see more). This is a great city. Who cares if your grandkids got a good deal in Belmont, I certainly don't. But I am definitely not one of the new patsies to sit around and watch old idiots take pot shots at they system without giving it back. As far as I am concerned, the only thing you have earned is the right to get it back as good as you give it. Nothing more. You don't like it, move in with your kids.
Said it twice and I will say it again, if you live in the 02176 and your kid is motivated and smart, MHS is a great option. If he/she isn't, send them to one of the few (very few) good private schools in the area. Just don't be a fool and send them to MC, AC or BF and then come on here and try to sell us on what a good deal you are getting.
Wow! Such anger and defensiveness. You could be the poster child for everything that's gone to $hit in Melrose. Did you get beat up a lot when you were a kid?
Same old same old. Whenever anyone posts anything even remotely critical of some facet of Melrose, some turd throws out the old "If you don't like it here, leave." crap. At least he didn't throw the "Melrose haters" label at you.
It's not surprising though - that's the mindset that existes from the top dog down. They're either in complete denial, or too stupid to realize things are really a cluster *uck. My advice is to ignore them - trying to talk sense to them is just banging your head off the wall. Why waste your time?
My wife and I have two sons. If we had been blessed with a female child, she would have gone to a private or parochial high school. We are grateful for our boys but unfortunately did not have a daughter.
Haha. No anger here. Just giving it back to the private school parents who swing away out here to justify their choices and help them feel better about spending big bucks to ultimately send their kids to the same colleges as MHS grads.
Oh, and if by going to $hit you mean having the value of my home increase by 24% over the last 24 months; I will certainly take it.
CT has no idea how to hire so she hires anyone that cost the least. The four principals she hired have no idea how to run a school.