The staff are sadists who blame parents instead of their own grade deflation and work inflation. I learned concepts in first year of college that they taught in intro classes at this school. They brainwash kids into thinking their parents and peers are the "competition" and make racist comments against all Asians. I'm at a public T20 because I switched high schools and completely flipped my GPA. The books they made me read in 9th grade (forced to annotate every page - half page of notes) are the same as the ones we read in 12th grade at another high school and yet they pretend it's the students fault for struggling. Also parents, their "Biology" is NOT a biology class. Also Mr Gan is a pdf who won't round your grade even if you're 0.01 away and Mr Kim said I was incapable of CS and now I'm in CS in college and he never let me look back at my exams. And Ms Borelli, giving out D's before telling people your high expectations on writing isn't helping anyone and your books are adult rated don't label me homophobic because I didn't want to read X books. read more

This was one of the worst experiences our family has ever had with a school. I would strongly discourage parents from sending their children here. Instead of support, compassion, and encouragement, students are made to feel isolated, stressed, and emotionally overwhelmed. My child came home crying and lost confidence during the time at this school. Many teachers seemed dismissive and unwilling to help students who were struggling. There appears to be favoritism, especially within clubs and parent organizations, where opportunities seem reserved for established social circles and connected families rather than being open and welcoming to all students. A school should help children grow, feel safe, and succeed -- not feel excluded and unsupported. Parents should look very carefully before choosing this school. Given a second chance, I would never send my child to this school, nor would I advise any of my friends to send their children to it. read more

A mixed review from my point of view. PRO: Definitely sets you up for the future better in terms of what you learn academically, mostly because of how hard the teachers drive you and how much competition there is from your peers. Teachers are generally pretty good while I was there. CONS: Shelters you from the world. No diversity. Land of the Asians (lots of Chinese). Lack of life. Most of the focus is on acadmeics and getting into a great colllege. read more

Run away fast from this school. If you want to raise happy kids, do not send them here! I spent 4 years in misery here, along with everyone else I knew. From kids killing themselves to rampant drugs and drinking due to stress, it's not worth it. There are so many better balanced schools out there. Don't take on the ridiculous mortgage required to live in this area. I left the Bay area after 30 years, my only regret was not leaving earlier. Don't believe the hype! read more

I want to dedicate my 100th review to the place that shaped me for life. I enjoyed a great four years at Monta Vista. It's very competitive and it's much harder than college (I went to USC). Yes, there are a lot of Asians. When I was there, it was about 50% Asian but now it's more than 70%. Some Asian parents (not mine) are crazy and drive their kids to take classes that are far beyond their capability. Junior year, I took 4 honors classes and 2 AP class and senior year I took 6 AP classes. Monta Vista taught me about time management. Sure, I had friends who never went to sleep. I always tried to do as much homework as possible in class (during announcements or if the teacher was done talking 10 minutes before class ended). I also knew how much effort I needed to put in to get an A. I hung out with friends, spent time with my boyfriend, got good grades, participated in speech & debate and still had plenty of time to watch TV and do other things. It's true that the school is really focused on academics and the sports suck. It's also true that some teachers are unqualified; but overall, MV is a great place for high school. The quality of education you receive is on par with the best private schools out there. The science facilities are top notch as are the science teachers. My favorite teacher by far was Mr. Swanson. He taught APUSH for only one period per day. Most of my fellow juniors took APUSH with another teacher who was retiring and didn't care about the students. Mr. Swanson was different. I think 90% of my classmates loved the class. Don't get me wrong; it wasn't an easy class. In fact, it was probably my hardest class that year. We had two essay tests per week plus we had to learn two chapters of the history book. But we also made time to joke around and play history jeopardy. Mr. Swanson spent a lot of time going through everyone's tests to make sure we knew all the concepts and were prepared for the actual AP test. We wrote on all of the possible topics that the test may cover. At the AP exam, I remember there were over 100 juniors in the test room. The proctor announced that time had started and everyone simultaneously flipped open the test booklet. The essay question was related to transcendentalism and all of the students in my class whispered "yes.. " and the students in the other APUSH classes looked liked deer in headlights. There were 30 people in my APUSH class - all of us passed the exam. (There were 14 5's, 14 4's, and 2 3's). Oh, memories. Unfortunately, Mr. Swanson moved to San Diego about a year after that. read more

Mr. Post, my mentor, made this place. The ROP program gave me a future to look forward to. I look back and get pissed about how the art programs were always cut but thats because they were a total joke. Where a Math or Science teacher is involved with their students; Mr. Sackman is out smoking in his VW Van while you are drawing the same fucking still life over and over from a single angle. There needs to be more opportunities to cultivate potential and not be the first thing the budget cuts. Highschool... sucked. read more

Graduated from here in 2004. For many people, high school takes 2nd fiddle to college, but high school was the best 4 years of my life. That is a testament to how great Monta Vista is. The campus is so great, most of the teachers are really amazing and do care for your success. But the best thing is the community, the entire city of Cupertino is so nice and endearing, and it really does set up a wonderful environment for the students. The community here is what makes this city and schools the best! After 7 years, Monta Vista is still one of the most memorable times of my life! read more

Monta Vista High School - Middle Schools & High Schools Near Me - Cupertino, California

who knew yelp would let you review public schools in addition to restaurants & retail shops?!? I attended Monta Vista for all 4 years of high school and I had an awesome time ^_^ v this school taught me that it *is* actually possible to party, date and get good grades. When I got to university, I noticed a lot of my fellow classmates had these bizarre inferiority / superiority complexes because they'd always been the smart but socially ostracized kids. In contrast, that was never something I'd encountered at MV - intelligence was just another positive attribute, like being pretty or artistic or athletic. Seems to me like a much healthier attitude toward the topic, no? PS - AWESOME business department. Absolutely fantastic courses & teachers who actually gave you the time of day. I wholeheartedly believe I wouldn't be in my current position / profession if not for that business department. My business professors in college were also impressed by the breadth of exposure to the "real world" of business. read more

Echoing what other people have already posted for Monta Vista, it's a place that has its strengths and weaknesses. Students and parents both strive for academic excellence which creates a strong competitive environment to get good grades and succeed. Thus, teachers are the not sole contributing factor to the overly competitive environment. There are/used to be some really amazing teachers that actually taught more than just the material, but actual usable life lessons. I was lucky enough to have several of them in my time at MV. To be honest, there is such a diversity of teachers here, you can find anything, people who are super hands-off, teachers who are very hands-on. Administrators in the office, at least while I was here, were absolutely terrible. They were disrespectful, did not enjoy working with students, and plain rude in many circumstances. Same situation with librarians. Perhaps, part of it was that the librarians and administrators couldn't afford to be nice to students, otherwise they wouldn't be respected or listened to when enforcing rules. As you can imagine, high schoolers are quite obnoxious and often don't respect authority. read more

Parents, please do your research before enrolling your kids into this school. This is the worst place for somebody who does any sports or after school activities/clubs. Monta Vista HS doesn't give any support to these kids and on top of this they are punished for doing a sport. Teachers' behavior would be unacceptable to any U.S. public school, but here are encouraged to try to downgrade and punish these athletes. If an athlete misses a day a school for a competition, and he has a test that day, the test will be given later during lunch for half of the time that the rest of the students had. This way it is very clear that there is no chance for this student to finish the test, not talking about getting top grade. The majority of the students in this school don't do anything else except studying, and running from tutor to tutor ALL YEAR LONG. Most of the students take classes over the summer for all subjects with the material for the year ahead, in order to accomplish good grades during the year. Everybody gets a tutor in order to survive the tests that most of the times are way over the level for the material presented in class, and the time given to complete the test is ridiculous. We had teachers allowing 40min for a test, when she/he was able to finish it in 45min. Teachers in this school are proud that their tests are almost impossible to be finished in time and nobody can get an A. The principal and her crew think that this is the best way to create top notch students. They are either insane or not qualified for this job. The district should take a deep look into how things are going around this school and take some decisions. Somebody has to take some action and stop this process of hiring private tutors because the teachers don't do their job. We lived in two other states and we know how other schools teach kids to succeed and have perfect scores without tutors and psychological harassment. We talked with our kids friends and all of them are depressed of how school is going, hate the school and their teachers. These kids were happy, competitive and willing to learn and succeed. They loved math and science. This school destroyed everything that other teachers created and instilled in these kids. Take a look around - during lunch students run to the library to study, so they don't eat lunch. I would transfer my kids out of this school in a minute if I could move out of this district. My children's well being and future is worth more than any of these so called teachers. There are millions of children in this country that get accepted to great colleges without suffering and spending big on tutors. Save your money for college and your family will be happy. read more

Test material is often presented a level well beyond what is taught in class and the practice material provided (looking at you, a certain AP Calc teacher), making it almost impossible to do well in said classes without hiring a tutor, which for reason has become a norm among the majority of the school population. Personally, I do not feel that this method of education is "right" in any way, and only serves to ostracize those who can't afford a tutor or can't get one due to many different circumstances. Overall, I feel like some MV teachers really need to step up their game in terms of teaching and not passively sit around waiting for students to come crying to them for help during office hours. read more

"Fitting In" seems to be the appropriate description for this institution and unfortunately, as a teenager, I didn't. If one had nice clothes, a good haircut, and was an all around "teacher's pet" - Monta Vista was a wonderland. For those who were slightly "out of the box" like myself, times were usually miserable. I have little to complain about regarding the base academic curriculum there however, as it did aid me in my engineering coursework later on. But I have to wonder if the academic success at Monta Vista had more to do with the teachers or the parents of the students themselves? Many of these students came into Monta Vista as "ready made" academic stars having been tutored and taught these academic skills from an early age through their "professional parents". My parents were Ph.D.'s as were many of my friend's parents. It's for this reason that I wonder if the teaching staff at Monta Vista deserves any credit, if at all? To use a sports analogy, let's say a championship basketball team loses its coach for the upcoming season. The reason for the loss is irrelevant, but what's key here is that this former coach made this team what it is with all the player and personel changes that would entail. Would a new coach therefore, deserve the same credit if he were to guide this same team to a championship in the upcoming season? The Monta Vista High students are analogous to the Championship Basketball Team in this case whereas the teachers are the new coach. How deserving of Monta Vista's academic reputation is this "New Coach"? It's interesting really. You'd think that my opinions would have changed some 20 years after leaving this place, but quite frankly, it hasn't. There were those - teacher and administrators who said, "You'll appreciate me once you get older and in the real world." Well, here I am in the real world and not much has changed. I still think the world of some: Mrs. Scott, Mr. Deruiter, who prepared me well for the my career ahead. However, it just seems more often than not, I succeed: "In Spite of" rather than "Due to", the vast majority of the faculty staff there at the time. Yes, Mr. Dawes and Mr. Wisler, you both are the epitome of narcissism, which has really NO PLACE in a school environment. Bottom line is that my experiences here were positive from an overall academic point of view, but very negative in terms of social development. If one wishes for their child to come out somewhat of a clone to what society says is "good and decent", Monta Vista would be a good place. But if one wants a child to grow up "free thinking" and willing to question authority or test boundaries, this certainly isn't the place to be. read more

Monta Vista isn't what you think. It isn't as cut-throat as many say, as students often help each other study and learn. It isn't a haven for cheaters, as the vast majority of students don't cheat on tests (maybe on homework). What it is a place that helped me and many other students develop the academic, social, and independent minds necessary for college. Not only did I become a better student because of Monta Vista, I also developed an independent learning mindset necessary for college. I also made tons of friends at this school. It was great to me, and it will be probably great to your student. read more

This school is tough. It was reckless and the teachers were mean to me. However; if you are strong you will have the freedom to empower yourself. The programming classes and engineering tech were my highlights followed by weightlifting, wood shop, and physiology with Ms. Smith :) The math teachers were not so bad either expect Statistics - why watch so many videos? I had fun most of all with Mr. Sullivan. Had him for two years and have no complaints. The hardest class was probably Physics Honors. I made myself go crazy; luckily I had wrestling and good music to distress. The class that probably changed me the most was Humanities by Ms. Borelli :) I swear I was going to fail this class but with a couple of friends from another class I passed it, which seemed impossible at the time. I gained appreciation for history and the arts; this made life more exciting for me :) The thing I personally will remember most of all is the wide amount of culture and interest in math, world issues, and just plain learning. read more

Monta Vista is great! I really enjoyed my time spent here! I found the students and staff to both be so accepting and kind! I would truly recommend this school to anyone who wants to have a great high school experience! read more

Well I certainly had some bad experiences but I also had some good ones. What's bad about this school is not the school's fault. Many parents pressure their kids into taking 15 AP classes this makes the competition intense which causes white flight which causes lack of diversity. read more

Academically, it's an excellent school. Both my children attended -- one graduating in 1999 and the other graduating in 2005. Today the older of my children is a software engineer. The younger is in med school. I credit Monta Vista High School for doing an excellent job of preparing the kids for college. My only criticism of the school has to do with the failure there to integrate the different cultural groups -- Chinese, Indian, and native-born American. I don't know that the school is trying. There is a very natural and human inclination to associate with others who are similar. Thus, Chinese kids are more comfortable socializing with other Chinese kids. Indian kids hang out mostly with other Indian kids. White kids spend their time with other white kids. Everyone would benefit by mixing to a greater degree. For those who are interested, the situation is described pretty well in a novel about the community -- Euphemia Fortune. When my kids were at Monta Vista, the school did talk a good deal about respect for diversity. It is not difficult to tolerate diversity, and that is fine. It takes a little more effort to make inclusion happen. Parents, students, and the school administration would all need contribute in order to make that a reality. read more