North Reading High

Low standards all around. Now that I'm in college and I'm up against students from a wide variety of different high schools, I really see how poorly I stack up against them, even though I was a great student at NRHS. The school doesn't encourage students to challenge themselves. In the challenging classes--AP classes, especially physics and chemistry, many students don't even pass the AP exam. Too many students go crying to their parents who call the teachers and argue for higher grades. Great SAT scores are a rarity. Also, most school clubs (except drama club) aren't taken seriously and don't do anything except give a few kids leadership roles for college applications. Maybe it's because students here all have that "learning is uncool" mentality, so a Model United Nations, science club, school paper, etc. would be considered dorky. I believe a few of these clubs do exist, but membership count is very low and many students consider it "really uncool" to join these clubs. The popular clubs are ones like Interact Club, a community service club that has very few meetings and activities, and really only exists for kids to put on their college applications. Looking back, what really bothers me is that I very rarely saw students with passion for the subjects they're learning--I didn't know this existed until I got to college. Going above the bare minimum is considered odd and just not a common thing. Students here rarely put forth an effort to pursue a challenging subject they are interested in. If you are very passionate about some subject, please know that the other students will not understand why, and the spirit of the school will strongly diminish that passion of yours. Students from NRHS generally go to sub-par universities--Guidance department is absolutely horrible and useless. I had a poor experience at NRHS and I am unsatisfied with my education. I did very well in NRHS and I am working very hard in college, but I see that NRHS's low standards are hurting my performance in college.