Don't take anyone's word for what each school is like. Make an appointment with the guidance counselor for each school and visit the school for a personal tour. As Chefhow suggested, ask about the curriculum and externships. Ask about instructor backgrounds.
Also ask about class sizes and the student-teacher ratio. Large classes of 40+ are not unusual but check to see if these classes have more than one instructor. Having a master pastry chef as an instructor would be a wonderful experience ... but if you're in a class of 60 students and this person is the only instructor, how much one on one assistance do you think you'll actually be getting?
When touring the school, think about the average class size. How many work stations are in a typical lab? How many students would be distributed among these work stations? Would each student group have access to sufficient tools and equipment? |