It’s ‘competitive’ mostly because of grade inflation, lowered standards and the lefties’ ongoing attempt to pretend fully one-half of the bell curve doesn’t exist.
Advanced Placement and so-called gifted programs really aren’t. They are merely what used to be standard courses that didn’t tolerate the ignorant, the criminal, the disruptive and the genetically deficient.
It’s also ‘competitive’ because knowledge of fact, logic, musical ability, etc. have been made subordinate to the frequent, strident endorsement of PC dogma. A term paper on the fraud known as Climate Change, however meticulously written, argued, proofed, formatted and cited, would receive a less-than-deserving grade because the teacher disagreed or because it violated Received Wisdom.
Students who don’t challenge the system have no place complaining about the system.
If I’m not mistaken, and I’m pretty sure I’m not, my daughter went to the school this writer attends. She graduated some 15 years ago. I will defend what the school was (and probably is today) but not the whiny writer.
Entry to the school IS competitive. Highly competitive. It was then a pure meritocracy. (Admission rules have changed somewhat since to allow for “diversity;” the school is now more than 50% Asian-American kids). The nice thing about the competition for admission was that the admitted students had respect for each other, and for their teachers, and their teachers for them. They also learned early on that no one is as highly gifted in every sphere as some others.
Only 1 of 8 who applied were admitted. The process of admission may have changed somewhat, but at least then it was a 3 step process. 8th grade students took an SAT-type test; Phase 2 is writing an essay based on a prompt. The SAT-type scores are combined with their GPA. The top 800 scorers go on to Phase 2, filling out personal information about their interests, accomplishments, etc. That phase also requires letters of recommendation by teachers and other adults who know the student. At the end of that process, 400 (of @ 3200 applicants) were selected for admission. I’d call that competitive.