Mission San Jose High School

When I graduated Mission, I really disagreed with the «Mission is a good school» statement, because from what I saw, Mission is not a good school. Some teachers are great, but most are not. Mission is good at churning out people who appear smart, because people get really good at cheating. The environmental and parental pressure is so high that this is what people turn to. I’m sure more than 80% of the students at Mission have cheated at least once, and I’m sure more than 50% of the students cheat on a regular basis. I’ve simply walked away from my lunch group before because they were discussing test questions and people who took the test already were telling others what to study for the test they would need to take. People copy homework all the time, people find creative ways to cheat on tests. After graduating high school, I realized that the people who had less good grades might be the more honest students. Of course, not all smart people cheated, but there’s always that doubt cast in my mind.
To this day, I still tell people this. Mission is not a good school. Nothing makes it good. You get two kinds of students: the environment will positively affect some people because being surrounded by people who work hard or are competitive will drive someone to genuinely work harder and be better than they otherwise would have. For others, the environment will put so much pressure on them to do well that they will turn to less respectable means (read: cheating) in order to get what they want.
But, I have noticed that Mission students do quite well in the real world. I have a lot of friends who are doing great after college, although that might not be directly due to Mission’s impact. There’s also the fact that at basically any school, there are students who are going to thrive post-​college, and there are students that won’t. It might also have to do with the Asian culture, from which most students come from who attend Mission. So, it’s probably not fair to say that Mission caused these students to do well, but it’s an observation I have.
I’m also grateful that our school was pretty safe, and everyone got along well (well, minus drama and stuff but that’s not my point). There were very little bad influences around (smoking, gangs, etc) — although I might have just been sheltered from all this, I’m not sure.
There were renovations after I left, but while I was attending, the classrooms were not the best, and the desks/​chairs were not the newest. Got the job done, but new things are always better!
Before sending your kid here, I would definitely suggest figuring out whether s/​he will thrive under academic pressure or fall to the pressure and cheat. Of course, no parent ever thinks their child will be one of those kids who cheat, but you should not believe just what you want to believe and look for the truth.
I’m not sorry at all that I came here for high school. I met great friends who I am still good friends with today, and I definitely thrived and grew in the environment. It’s a bit contradictory, but the cheating environment around me, I think, was good for my growth in formulating a stance regarding morality and ethics. I’ve always innately had a strong stance in standing my ground for what’s right, and because I was surrounded by what I thought was wrong, I was forced to deal with it, figure out how to avoid it, and grow the mental strength to choose to do what was morally right to me. I consciously started thinking about morality and ethics more, and it made me think about who I was and what kind of person I wanted to be, as well as what kind of people I should associate with in order to become who I want to be. It is the platform I stand on to this day, and I think if Mission wasn’t as it was, morality and ethics wouldn’t have been brought to the forefront of my mind like it should have and like it did.

Horrible, horrible school. It’s impossible, nearly all the teachers don’t teach, and they give you homework that will take you until 3 A.M. in the morning to complete (without AP or honors classes). Ridiculous. The office administration is extremely rude and not helpful. All these parents think it’s a great school, it’s not. It just happens to have smart students that keep the test scores and ratings high. Ultimately it’s too much of a competitive, stressful environment that will literally make you want to kill yourself if you are not extremely smart. Parents, if your child is not extremely intelligent, this school is not for them. Send them to Irvington or Washington. The sports here are also a joke, and no one takes it seriously. Hard school DOES NOT = Good school.

The usual flag football field we use at Washington High was busy for graduation ceremonies so we had to come up here for my son’s games. The grass appears to be another victim of our drought as it has many dried spots throughout. It appeared to be nicely maintained though and they had plenty of parking. The driving directions send you straight to the school so if you are just looking for their fields, then be on the lookout, otherwise you will have to turn around.

Mission’s far from perfect, but I’m happy to have gone there. When I got to college then later on in work, my peers/​co-​workers told me about how their high school had a high count of school stabbings, drop outs, teens getting pregnant, etc. Be glad you don’t see those problems in Mission. Yes, there’s a high level of academic stress, but it’s better to be in a motivated environment than in an environment where no one gives a crap. Appreciate what you have. High school is what you make of it wherever you go.

Wait, was Mission really that bad?
I’m reading these reviews, especially from people I know, thinking wow… really?!
Okay yes, Mission definitely cares a LOT about academics. Tons of asians flock to the Mission district of Fremont just so their kids can go to this «prestigious» school. There are definitely a lot of sheltered kids at MSJ… but when I see people writing that MSJ is unbalanced I must disagree.
Personally, I was a part of the Choir program all 4 years, was a lead in our musical my senior year, a GSA officer, played softball, and did cheerleading. I’m not trying to brag… at all. I bring this up because I recently had a talk with my friend who went to a neighboring school, Washington, and was told that a student doing multiple things like this was uncommon. Everyone had their own cliques and fit into their own little niche… pretty much like High School Musical (although she mentioned it wasn’t nearly as intense… obviously that was an exaggerated movie)
At Mission, doing multiple things was common. Dance, singing, sports, art, student body, clubs, and more often than not did a mixture of these things. It was actually pretty cool having so many students strive to do as much as they could, and no one judged you for it at all! People were really supportive.
Even those who were mainly focused on just doing well in school, we all really came together during Homecoming. I must admit, homecoming week at MSJ is simply amazing. Literally everyone came together with an abundance of spirit and the whole amphitheater would be an ocean of students cheering at the top of their lungs. It was beautiful.
As for the actual learning aspect, I was never really impressed. Considering it’s seen as this AMAZING school, I can’t really say that the teaching here is super great. However, there are definitely some teachers that stand out. Mr. Richards (econ/​gov), Mr. Vaz (pe), Ms. Ha (psych/​econ/​gov) (who has now left), Mr. Aucoin (choir) were some of the best teachers I’ve ever had and overall phenomenal people that I still keep in contact with today, 2 years after leaving the school.
The campus is pretty lack luster I must admit. They’re slowly putting in new buildings but when I went to Washington and walked around their campus, I was pretty surprised by how different it was considering they’re only a few miles away from each other.
Biggest annoyance was the sports facilities. contrary to popular belief, Mission doesn’t suck at sports. Sure, there are some sports where we don’t excel… but there are some such as Swim, Badminton, Basketball, Tennis, and a few others I can’t remember off the top of my head that we’re great out. However our swimming pool can’t host a game/​meet for water polo/​swim and instead are taken to Ohlone. We also don’t have a real football field/​stadium so we use Washington’s which is shared among all the Fremont high schools but it’s a pretty weird feeling when we go to a «home» game at a different school.
OH AND HOW CAN I FORGET TO MENTION… the stupid FUCKING DRESS CODE! What bullshit. It’s hot as hell and we have some ladies coming around yelling at you and giving you a giant white t-​shirt if you’re wearing shorts to short or if boys wear tank tops. This was one thing that irritated the shit out of me, especially when I found out MSJ was the only one in the district to have such strict dress code rules. We already have the highest test scores and I can’t even wear a fucking tank-​top? Can someone please explain this to me?!
My last tip of advice… try to make the most out of your high school experience if you go to Mission. It’s really not that bad if you make it fun for yourself. Get involved with a club that interests you, or even just go all out during homecoming! Some memories that will last a lifetime.

I had a great time at this school. Yes, it was academically very intense with peer pressure all around to do the very best. However, I don’t understand how this is inherently an awful thing. The majority of kids here are focused on doing well and getting into a great school. That’s certainly better than the many public high school students in CA or around the US who barely pass, drop out, or don’t even go on to attend a four-​year university.
I graduated from here in 2007 at the age of 17. I went straight on to Cal/​UC Berkeley. I will definitely say I was prepared well for the academic load at Cal. The pressure was the same. I was not like the good majority who felt Cal was so much more intense than their high schools. I had a classmate who went to Logan High School in Union City before going to Cal, and she had a hard time adjusting. Anyone can go to a «easier» and less academically «competitive» school and get into Cal, but that person will definitely not be as prepared for the work as someone from MSJ. After all, I believe in my year about 55 MSJHS students went to Cal. Although I was never considered one of the smartest kids at MSJ during my time, because I didn’t overload myself with all AP classes or get a perfect SAT score, I knew I was doing well. I got a 4.3 GPA overall, was in the ELC context for UC admission (top 5% of the class??) and took three Ohlone College classes from sophomore-​senior year in the summers. Many high school students, even at MSJ, thought AP classes were everything. I’m sorry, but they’re wrong. It’s better to take community college courses, because of the dual-​benefit. My sophomore and junior year total GPA upon applying were raised overall by just a few college courses I took at Ohlone for eight weeks (vs. all the work for some classes to devote for an entire academic year). I just checked ASSIST to make sure the courses were UC transferable. When I got to Cal, I was happy I did that, since my college courses were not accepted for credit, but could be used towards my 7-​course GE breadth requirements. AP course credit can never be used for breadth credit. I did take 5 AP classes at MSJ, but I wasn’t like some students who felt the need to take 12 overall (honors+AP for junior/​senior years). Another thing, besides GPA and SAT scores, your personal statement can make a huge difference too. If you’re a borderline case or your GPA and SAT scores don’t match, then it can certainly help you.
I read some reviews about people complaining about academics being the only focus at MSJ. Well, that is the point of going to Mission! It’s a science and math focused school, designed to get your child to a four-​year research university, such as the UCs. If your child is in performing arts and wants to do theater, then there are special schools for that. I do agree about the lack of ethnic diversity at this school, but there’s nothing one can do about that. It’s the matter of the area. It’s right near Silicon Valley, so it’s expected the majority of students will be Asian (Chinese and Indian) before other groups, whose parents are educated and have white-​collar jobs (engineers, doctors, nurses, business owners, etc.).Students here might not have a social life, but I’d rather be focused on doing well, as after I went here, it put me on a path to do well and accomplish my professional and academic goals. I graduated from Cal in 2011 at the age of 21. I’m now studying to get my CPA. I’m taking classes online at Foothill, De Anza, and Chabot Colleges to complete the required credits. As a typical Mission student, I’m miles ahead of the other students taking these classes, who find the classes very daunting.
Lastly, there’s a reason this high school is rated as the top non-​charter public high school in California and one of the best in the US period. The year I was graduating in 2007, MSJ was on Anderson Cooper’s AC 360 in «Are Asians Students Really Smarter?» While I don’t agree with everything in the video, it did describe our school well.
As for the Mission mentality that going to Ohlone/​community college is the worst thing in the world… it’s not. It’s actually smarter. Even though I went to Cal straight from freshman year, the UCs take most students as commnunity college student transfers. They are given first priority before CA public high school students One will also save tens of thousand of dollars by doing that. Furthermore, after you transfer to a UC or elsewhere, your diploma won’t say this person transferred or the other person didn’t. My older sister went to Ohlone for two years, transferred to UCSD, and graduated with a bachelor’s in biology, She went to medical school and is now doing her residency. The title of where you first went or didn’t go doesn’t determine your goals necessarily.

I’d give it a ¹⁰⁄₁₀ for academics, ²⁄₁₀ for stress management, and 3.5÷10 for social life.
There is definitely an Asian nerd bubble surrounding MSJ and it is very homogenous. At one time, I was one of three Kevin Wus in the school who was enrolled in packed math and science AP classes. I would not send my kids here because it simply puts too much stress on its students.
I used to be president of a club called Academic Challenge, which runs science competitions like Science Bowl and Science Olympiad. I would say 40 percent of the time, a kid would come up to me and want to join. 60 percent of the time, a parent would drag their kid, or tell me that their kid would like to join the competitions without them here. High school is supposed to transition a child to adulthood, and although MSJ prepares them for excellence academically, it does not give them street smarts. The culture here is too idealistic and sheltered.
There are parents who get waaaaaaaayyyyy too involved with their student’s life and give them no freedom other than to study. There are definitely a lot of natural science geeks who want to excel, which I encourage, but I see too many parents forcing students into science when their passion is somewhere else. If your child is a natural science geek, then I recommend MSJ to you. We ranked within the top 10 public schools in California for several years.
If your kid wants to go into a subject other than science or engineering, then I suggest a different high school.
I graduated in 2011 and am attending UC Berkeley right now. When I talk with others about my high school experience, I always get surprised by how much more social life they had. I am happy that drugs and gang activity stayed out of MSJ, but people in other schools had much more interaction with each other, which is what MSJ lacks.

Graduated in ’96…i assume i am older than all the reviewers. let me argue the ‘other’ view that you dont get from these reviews. Mission’s stated ‘problems’ probably much worse than when i attended. w/​that said, let me break it down for all of you as you fast forward a decade or two. the problem w/​all these reviews is they are myopic… here is why:
1/​mission is homogenous, welcome to life – not saying it is right or wrong but that is what exists. diversity is easy to desire but hard to do. chock it up to human nature and socialization. if you live in/​travel to foreign countries, they rarely have diversity – study anthropology, sociology, and psychology.
2/​being sheltered isnt bad at this stage of life. would you rather be in a gang-​infested or drug-​running school? you stress about grades, you really think you can handle more emotionally? let’s be real. also, you have agency in your life to break out of the shelter. you also have college to make mistakes. i organized protests in college and took over classrooms my freshman year in college, mission didnt prepare me for that… i did.
3/​facilities suck and teachers are not that great. again, welcome to the world. who has money for schools? do you follow the news… most municipalities are low on money and some even have gone bankrupt. teachers are not motivated… again, welcome to the real world. there are good teachers and bad, but the pay isnt great so they do what they can. when you get a real job, you will understand how hard it is to be motivated when your career will be the same for the rest of your life.
4/​for those who dont like the math and science focus. i get that and can respect that. but, white collar jobs bias is to focus on the ‘hard’ subjects. soft subjects can be augmented by hobbies, future education, etc. i am not saying being illterate or ignorant is ok, but you can pick up soft subjects easier.
5/​fitting in. no diatribe here from me. you have to try and tough it out and find support where you can. i sympathize. the rest of your life will get better as you have a larger pool of ppl to select from, the same corollary though is you have a larger pool of a-​holes to deal with too.
*i am not trying to deny any of the reviewers’ experiences, all i am saying is that the majority of comments reflect a myopic and, ironically, sheltered/​naïve view of the «real world»
Bottomline: mission as an institution didnt do much for me. however, it did provide me an intense environment full of motivated peers and a safe physical environment. as basic as that sounds, many communities arent fortunate enough to even provide that. try to see the glass half-​full. that context created an amazing work ethic which has become invaluable in my professioinal and personal life. high school provides a foundation not a roadmap or solution to your future.

I’m a senior at this high school now (amongst what seems to be many alumni from Mission who feel the same way toward Mission as I do) and I cannot fit in. Cannot. I’m Asian, my parents shelter me, but maybe it’s just my personality, I cannot fit in. Heck, maybe I’ve already sucked in so many Mission fumes that I can’t fit in elsewhere anymore. People don’t listen to the music I do (the ones that do are one Russian person and one Native American person who I both happened to find by luck), people will give me snobbish looks when they learn a lot of my friends go to community colleges, a lot of the students here think I’m stupid and treat me completely differently (with more respect) only when they learn that I got a 2260 on SATs. Uh, talk about not caring as much about who I am as an individual? The lack of diversity drives me crazy. I need to get out of here. It’s like hell to me. A lot of my friends have moved away, a lot of Mission parents obviously rule over their children and heavily influence their thinking in incredibly shallow and narrow ways, and many people here are so obviously selfish that it’s disgusting.
Of course there are good people who value teamwork and integrity, but I feel like there would be more people like that at other schools. People care way too much about things that will show on your transcript and way too little about doing good things that won’t be on the transcript.
As for teachers, there are a few wonderful teachers who care about their students. But quite a few take advantage of the fact (or become lazy or lose hope) that students have their parents pouring out money to take their kids to tutoring places so their kids can be the top of the class without a teacher having to teach. So a lot of teachers will put less effort into teaching and more effort into assigning a lot of homework and really hard tests. If you can’t afford to send your kid to tutoring places, maybe this isn’t the best place for you.
Speaking of being «poor», some people here are so poor that the only thing they can afford is money. Do this so you can go to a good college. A college that fits you? Bah, just a college that’s ranked highly! Respect others? Bah, look at the dumbass who works at McDonald’s. Don’t be stupid and end up like him! A lot of the students here were raised that way. And it’s wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Without understanding that some people simply can’t afford to go to another college, a lot of Mission students will turn a snobby nose at those who go to community college. Sure it’s not their faults. As someone who was raised that way too, I can understand why you’d be like that. Parents, parents, parents. Good intentions raising up snobby, narrow minded kids.
If you think sending your kid to Mission is a great step to the road to success just because we’re highly ranked, think again. If academic success is the only thing that you need to be successful in life, a banana is all a pig needs to fly.
Welcome to Mission.

What everyone else said (grade deflation! academic pressure! sheltering! very good teachers alongside very bad teachers!) plus a platitude for prospective Mission parents:
Throwing money (and by money, I mean real estate in the Mission District) at your child’s future has diminishing returns. Mission cannot transform your kid for you, and the bubble it creates will, at best, have a neutral effect on his/​her future societal interactions.
If you want your kid to do well in the future, be better than the best parent you can be. What school district you send your child to shouldn’t matter.

I’m now a college freshman and graduated from Mission last June.
Overall, the high school experience for me was pretty bittersweet. I ran into great teachers who cared about me, and other teachers who I would just puke on if I could.
Yes, we are a very crazy, academically-​driven bunch but I guess the parental pressure is always on when you’re also Asian – and, as a fellow Asian – when you also attempt to get into the best colleges in California and abroad.
But focusing on MSJ per se, I’d highly recommend several teachers who can take you in not only as a student but also as a person.
Mr. Richards (Government, Economics, Psychology and Peer Resource)
Mrs. Weed-​Wolnick (English)
Mrs. Kearns (World History)
Mrs. Lincoln (Health)
Mr. Boegman (English)
Mrs. Neilson (Science)
Mr. Kobylecky (Math)
Mr. Marden (P.E.)
Mrs. Mattingly (English)
Mrs. Grabowski (English)
Ms. Riley (former Drama teacher)
I had all of these teachers over the course of my high school career and I had suitable relations with all of them. These were the teachers who touched my life in a way that won’t be easily forgotten.
And special shout-​out to counselor Mrs. Andrews as well!
Concerning the students, I agree with lots of other people that some of us are very arrogant and snobbish, while others are just okay (I’m one of those okay people, so don’t worry).
Concerning the administration, I have no comments for them. Truth be told, our administration always sucked… A LOT. But I’m not going to rant or complain about them at this point.
Concerning the campus itself, it definitely needs lots of renovations, that much I do agree with. The paint peels, lockers (hallway and P.E. locker rooms) are old and faulty. Many classrooms have really crappy A/​C (and they’re getting more and more cramped with each school year due to state budget cuts and whatnot).
Band Room and Little Theater need MAJOR BUILDING REPAIRS etc.
If the school would be granted some state money, we need to use it to repair the classrooms and buildings big-​time.
And students need to stop over-​stressing about over-​excelling with their GPAs and extracurriculars just to reserve a future spot at the best UC or the best private university, because I do agree with other Unilocalers that Mission’s education is strictly narrow-​minded, which, although efficient to some degree, is not helping the well-​beings of most of the students that go to this school.
Remember Welton Academy English juniors and seniors?
Isn’t Mission’s acdemic system scarily resembling that of Welton’s? Now wouldn’t you agree?
«Medicine, law, business, engineering… these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.» ~ Mr. Keating in Dead Poets’ Society (1989)
Memorized his lines by heart! :D

I loved the school. It gave me the high-​paying job that I otherwise wouldn’t have had today. It was the first school I went to where I realized that coasting on pure talent wasn’t enough (and I had plenty of that, but I only need to watch how my cousins were doing in school to figure out much of a difference the environment makes). If it weren’t for the sheer amount of peer pressure to do well and excel, I would have never bothered to work hard to excel and would probably be competing with high school graduates for burger-​flipping jobs.
I learned a really important concept while in high school: academic learning is an abstraction for success. While other reviewers complain that the narrow focus on academic excellence was technically useless, it prepared me to minimize-​maximize my priorities for success. By re-​abstracting the real, working world as a bunch of test-​taking and BSing, it’s helped me on my race towards the top.
Mission is a great example of a Tiger Mother school, and I’d say that beating the excellence out of me worked wonders. It’s a trial by fire, and I’ve suffered more than my share of breakdowns during my low points here, but overall, no pressure, no diamonds (Thanks Mr. Greene for the quote). If I weren’t here, I’d just be dinosaur poop.
Highlights:
–Academic Challenge club (Without it, I would never be indirectly mentioned in the #National_​Olympiads section in the Mission San Jose High School wiki)
–Teachers: Chaney-​Aiello, Geers, Geschke, Lindsey, Greene, Richards, Jaeger, Ishimine, especially Payette and Howell, you have all been the best teachers I know. Hopefully one day I will be able to pass on the light that you all have passed onto me.
–Peers. I’m not going to name names, but without people to chase, I would never have started running in the first place. Let’s keep trying to outcompete each in greatness in the years to come. I love a good race.

One word to describe the education offered at MSJ: narrow. There were and are students that can thrive in this environment, no doubt. Look at the long list of students who get into UC’s and private schools. What that list doesn’t reveal is the personal and social costs of academic success. I don’t really want to go into a diatribe about ugliness of this school, my personal experience, etc etc. Bottom line, I don’t believe this school fosters students in a positive way unless they fit a certain mold. For students that weren’t born with an above average brain capacity, love for certain subjects like science and math, and the ability to bs, Mission was study or die. No time to form an individual identity.
There are many people that enjoyed their time at Mission, and even though it personally pisses me off and personally offends me when I hear «I would never want to go to another high school other than Mission» (brainwashed.jk) to each their own. I’m grateful for where I am today at Cal, but ironically Mission did not prepare me for college judging from my 2.5 freshmen GPA and social ineptitudes. Btw, Berkeley is really not a college form of Mission. I’m giving 1 star because I have 2 siblings in this system, and from what they tell me and what I see, it’s not getting any better.
–Edit–
In the process of writing a paper about personal influences of social location, I think I finally understand my begrudging dislike for Mission. Without a doubt, this school is a school of «model minorities» being that over 70% are of Asian American descent. CNN report of Mission depicts the distribution of ethnicities in Mission well. I think that this school portrays exactly the flaws that comes with the label of model minorities. Because of the outliers of students who are successful, the average is obviously set high. In turn, the students who are either in the middle or the bottom go unnoticed. Because in reality, the abilities and interests in students are diverse. Even in the label of Asian Americans, there is such great diversity. This doesn’t even really go into the different experiences of students of different races.
As other reviewers have pointed out, Mission does it’s job and gets students into college and ultimately their jobs. However, these steps in themselves are a narrow path that is deemed as being «successful.» With the Tiger Mom mentality, which is ultimately an updated version of the Protestant Ethic of Work, students are pushed to their limits, which doesn’t always even guarantee «success.» And at what costs? Fixating on academic success really does neglect the emotional, social, and personal development of many students. I’ve seen friends depressed about grades, teachers telling a student that they wouldn’t make it to their dream school, and unhealthy competition over GPA and SAT.
Personally, from Mission I learned that ability to BS well gets people far and that hard work doesn’t always mean you will get the results you want. But then again, maybe that is a life lesson. Ultimately, this school serves a narrow population, pervades the problematic model of Model Minorities, and has a narrow concept of success and education. So as much as I try to not be bitter and try to learn from my experiences, I can’t help but to feel apprehensive and sorry for the future students of MSJHS.

I’m Asian, so it was great.

Oh, high school. I mean, that IS the name of one of my lists, right? So it’d make sense for me to review it.
Yes, it’s a challenging school. Yes, there are teachers who are less than thrilled to be teaching. Yes, there are way too many apathetic teachers. Yes, there are others who don’t care about their students. Yes, there are classes that made life a living hell.
Buuut… then again, there were the other ones. The amazing ones who changed my life. The ones who tried to connect to their students, even when the budget cuts meant almost 40 kids were stuck in a class at one time. There were the ones who always had their doors open for students to come hang out during lunch. Those with open ears, ready to listen to students struggling with academic and personal problems. Those whose passion for their subjects kept them from leaving.
People say MSJHS is all about the academics, but they obviously haven’t seen everything else that the amazing students and teachers have been able to produce. Such as the homecomings. Even though yes, they’re a lot different now from how they’ve been, we know [knew] how to show school spirit, even if our football team was far from glorious. We put on events that put other schools to shame, and we do that while maintaining our GPA’s.
So even though high school was filled with craziness, I would not be the person I am today without those millions of pages of annotations, notebooks filled with calculus problems, or mentors who have helped me make life-​altering decisions.
And even though I’ve complained about this school soooo freaking much — from the ugly buildings, to the lack of heaters in winter, lack of air conditioning in the spring, chipping paint everywhere, lack of diversity [80% Asian? I mean, I love «my people,» but…], cliquey people, etc etc etc, I cannot deny that everything this school has thrown at me has turned me into who I am today. And sooo I have to give them 4 stars, because hey — it’s not perfect. But do I like myself? Yes. [teehee] And I have to thank MSJHS for that.
Oh, and open campus lunches rock. The end. (:

This was going to get a 3, but that means it’s A-​OK, and it’s not. Then a 2, but I haven’t experienced better. So I’m settling with the 1.
When I was 9, my parents uprooted me from my comfortable life on the other side of Fremont to move to the Mission district so I could go to the «smart school.» In the old country, my father had 2 choices: be smart and go to school or learn a trade. He went to school and he wanted the same for his kids so he thought that sending us to Mission would guarantee my sister and I getting into good colleges.
It did. Sort of.
I spent 3 years going along with all the bull. I was smart enough to get into the honors classes, but not smart enough for teachers to believe I belonged there. I had one teacher tell me during junior year that I wasn’t as smart as the asian kids. While that may or may not be true, it’s kind of messed up to tell a teenage girl that’s already dealing with all kinds of insecurities that she isn’t as good as her peers. By senior year I realized that Mission sort of sucked and I didn’t go to school much second semester.
I had the weirdest experience that I was only able to get out of because I didn’t go to a UC (although I was plenty peer pressured to and got weird looks when I told people I didn’t even apply). Mission is too competitive and too focused on academics. While Mission did help me get into the 3^rd best nursing school in the country, I was shocked when I started college. I wasn’t smarter, I was just better at test taking and bsing.
In the end, attending high school at Mission taught me how to get by with doing as little as possible. My college friends think of my high school as crazy. My parents say that never in a million years would they send another child there. They tried to get my sister to transfer to Irvington but she bought in to the competitive hype and then felt bad when she ended up at Ohlone.
I loved the people though. I felt that the group of people that I grew up with were really good people. We all just went a little crazy for a few years is all.

Mission Freaking San Jose.
I think I can safely say that my experience here was not that of the typical student’s. Yes, I suffered the same workloads and parental pressures. I even took on the AP exams in six subjects and got full scores in all of them. Kudos to 17-​year-​old me! Funny thing is, I failed my AP chemistry class, barely passed AP calculus with a C-​, and managed to pull off a 65% C in AP physics. So according to the College Board, which administers the Advanced Placement exams, I had earned all As on tests that represent first year college courses. But according to MSJ, I had barely made graduation requirements. That should tell you a little something about academic expectations at this school.
Admittedly, I probably could have spent more time on my academics if I had given up a few extracurricular activities, but hey. I made my sacrifices.
Was it sometimes a pain in the ass? Definitely. But I had some of the most incredible teachers at this place. I am forever indebted to those teachers who truly took it upon themselves to impart knowledge upon their students. I remember more from The Trial and Death of Socrates than I do from three quarters of organic chemistry (and I spent a good two years studying biochemistry in college too!) It’s stuff like that that really makes me feel better rounded than many of my collegiate peers. I may not have had the all-​American high school experience, but I graduated knowing a hell of a lot more stuff. There were some crappy teachers too, but that is besides my point. Just avoid the Mandarin department…
I can attest that you don’t have to give into the pressure that often accompanies enrollment here. Could I have programmed my graphing calculator to give me answers to any question thrown at me in calculus? Hell yea. But I settled for a passing grade, my parents respected my right to integrity, and I still ended up at a highly reputable university: UCSD.
My bottom line: the experience is what you make of it. It doesn’t have to be cut-​throat if you don’t want it to be. Plenty of people get less-​than-​perfect grades and don’t end up crying themselves to sleep every night. If you want perfect grades, you have to work for it… much harder than if you were at many other schools. If you don’t get that A in AP physics, at least you learned that physics is probably not your forte. Or you could be like me: fail chemistry in high school, major in the damn subject in college, and find college courses considerably easier than Camacho’s AP class, and finally get that 4.0 your parents had hoped for to begin with. You never know.
It’s an excellent school in a safe suburb. Students are driven and motivated, and the vast majority of graduates attend 4 year universities. What’s so terrible about that? Hell, I’d send my kids here.
The only reason I docked a star is because the damn heater never works during the winter. I vaguely recall the classrooms themselves being colder than the hallways… probably because were forced to sit there and bear it. The facilities in general are pretty lackluster. But given all the budget cuts, I doubt anyone can do anything about crappy buildings.

Mission is a very unbalanced place. As other reviewers have noted, the focus of the school is on academics almost exclusively. I was enrolled in the early 2000s but even then students were pushed to extremes. Maxed out AP enrollment, after school community college courses, and highly complex cheating schemes were the norm. I have been told by latter students that it has gotten worse.
Despite what some people say, the more typical issues of drugs, sex, and violence exist. A good friend of mine left school after a violent incident which landed him in juvenile hall. I personally can attest to the presence of drug use on campus. Such issues are, however, rare and not publicly addressed, particularly among the majority East Asian and minority Desi student circles. Even the drop-​outs, like myself, don’t just drop out. Most continue the Mission legacy at the local community college and quite a few, including myself, end up transferring to U.C. Berkeley or other highly rank schools. This is right, Mission is so academically focused that its dropout go to U.C. Berkeley. When I went to Mission to pick up my high school transcripts for Cal, the women who sent the papers off told me that most Mission drop outs are better at math then most other school’s graduates.
The main thing to consider if you are thinking of sending your child to Mission is the effect it will have on them. First, they will most likely absorb the Mission (some say Asian) work ethic. Regardless of the clique your kid ends up in, Jock or Stoner or Preppy or whatever, they will judge their self worth based on their G.P.A., AP coursework, and PSAT scores. There are exceptions to this but they are rare and run counter to the main school culture. This also results in a slant towards the hard sciences. If you think your child would benefit from an education emphasizing the liberal arts or social sciences, then Mission might be the wrong school for your kid.
Your child will also become Asian, internally that is. Despite being half Hispanic and half Indian, my brain is Asian. My best Chinese friend says I am Double-​Brown on the outside, Yellow in the inside. Many of my White and Brown Mission friends speak Asian languages (Nihongo o hanasemas ka?), watch Asian movies (Animé Club is still around), listen to Canto-​Pop, etc. If you are a freak about your culture or are intolerant, stay away. You should also get out of California but that is a different story. Or you could move to SoCal as there are some communities down there that are conservative and White but have schools comparable to Mission.
Lastly, there is always the danger of burn out. With all the pressure to succeed from parents, teachers, and peers, some kids just break down. In a very real way, Mission is a traumatizing experience. My current girl friend, a fellow Mission survivor, refers to the school in a conflicted manner, with love and hate, as hell. Where other school can be dangerous because of gangs and violence, Mission assaults your child mind and soul.
Basically, Mission can be a great school to get your kid into Berkeley or Stanford but only if they can take the stress, if they are willing to go through a unique sort of hell, and if you are willing to be understanding and supportive… I hate myself for it, but if I am still around I will likely try to get my hypothetical future kids in.

To begin, I was a transplant from another high school in the Fremont Unified School District. My parents had been trying to get me into the Mission district for several years and finally decided that it was worth selling their house and buying one half of it’s size… to be around more Asians.
Go figure.
Anyways, the school itself is run like any other high school. Each school has it’s own culture, and at MSJ, academics are the focus. It’s good to be smart, but not so smart that you’re breaking the curve in AP Physics and making everyone fail. I came from another high school with all honors classes and because their programs were more accelerated, I was dropped down to the regular classes because that’s what was considered «at-​level».
Culturally, the students are more sheltered here, which I think can be a good thing because the students aren’t exposed to as much pressure to do drugs, have sex, and condone violence compared to other high schools. However, the culture of the school forces different kinds of expectations that can be equally stressful. The students are taught using rote methods, attend extracurricular classes to boost test taking skills and academics for college, they learn to be perfectionists. Artistic form, self-​expression, flexibility, and good social skills are ignored, instead the focus is competitive and on grades.
What did I learn from MSJ? I learned to get over the moral issues of cheating, cutting school, and lying. Seriously.

When I graduated from this school (2006), I think it was approximately 78% Asian. White people learned to use chopsticks, speak Chinese, and drink milk tea. (w:Ow.) Our year was also the very first time in 13 years that our football game actually won the homecoming game. (…)
Peer pressure at this school was not to have sex or do drugs – it was to get into a good college (this is what you get for going to an Asian high school), which meant 239 847 204 extra-​curriculars, half a billion APs, above a 2100 on SATs, above a 4.0 average… If a class graduated with less than 20 valedictorians, they were generally considered stupid. (Our class had 26, I believe. No, I was not one of them.) Pretty disgusting, I know. My most miserable moments at this school always revolved around academics. (Particularly chemistry, which remains the bane of my existence.) I was pretty freaking bitter about my grades.
Contrary to popular opinion, despite being at the very bottom of the smart scale, I actually really liked it there. The rather disgusting stress on good grades (+ being well-​rounded and such) carried on to college, so now I’m doing even more than I was then (at least I’m being productive).
This is a great school, but so many of the best teachers have left. (I think all the other departments have been collectively retiring in batches.) The English department is amazing, so if you’re currently a student there, please don’t give them trouble. You won’t find teachers like them elsewhere. :[
I have to say though, this is a sheltered school. (Since I go to a UC, I guess I’m still in a sheltered bubble.) My friend got the worst case of culture shock ever when he went to a white-​dominated school (and he’s white, so go figure).