[ProllyInfamous]

My college GF was a childhood immigrant to NYC, and by education lottery was accepted to one of their most-prestigious/science public schools (for HS).

This giant act of fate set her up with an education that eventually led to full-tuition scholarship and then (full-circle) she donates her talents to the foundation which made all her miracles possible.

But the randomness of such a system just baffled my public-education-in-Texas brains, where you go to the school where your residence is zoned [or private school].

[paleotrope]

The lottery for the good schools is a recent thing isn't it? Your friend got into a good school because she tested into it.

[throwaway-blaze]

Yes, and none of the three main science/math high schools (Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech) are lottery schools, they all rely on the SSAT exam (and a similar student ranking system). As an applicant you rank your HS choices and those plus your score determine where you are offered a space.

Also, having attended one of these schools (admittedly in a different decade), students who were not ready for the work didn't do well. Not to say those kids weren't also smart kids, but you had to be a certain kind of kid to mesh with the school.

It was a fantastic place, not just for the education, but for spending 4 years with a gigantic group of diverse, interesting kids, almost all of whom were truly brilliant. To this day I think it had more to do with my success than college or grad school.