Did private schools get a bump in elite college admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school has taught my DCs how to study efficiently, how to prepare and present materials effectively, how to problem solve and so much more. I also like that there are no AP classes and they are not swamped with busy work at their private. We didn’t send them to private for college admissions but my oldest with a 3.5 UW GPA got into 3 top 50 schools. I don’t think that would have happened from a public school.

There are quite a few very high acceptance rate colleges in the Top 50. Not sure why public students you refer would struggle with Top 50 admissions if ranking is literally all that matters.

What schools in the top 50 have “very high acceptance rates”? Last I checked none.

Rutgers - #40; 66% acceptance
Wisconsin - #35; 49% acceptance
OSU - #43; 53% acceptance
Purdue - #43; 53% acceptance (much lower for STEM, which means higher for non-STEM)
Texas A&M - #47; 63% acceptance
Virgina Tech - #47; 57% acceptance

Liberal Arts
Depauw #46; 66%
Furman #46; 67%

I think anything that is 50%+ (with again, higher acceptances for the most part for non-STEM) are definitely in the wheelhouse.

Those stats aren’t telling the OOS acceptance rates which are usually a lot lower than in-state. Also interesting that they are all state schools which usually is not the aim for kids coming from a private unless it’s UCLA or Michigan. And no one considers the liberal arts schools when referencing the Top 50.

Np.
I imagine she meant “private T50.”

If you are at a private high school, you’re typically looking at private colleges and universities once outside of T35….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid from no-name NOVA hs was admitted to MIT. Since anecdotes mean everything, this fully proves that public schools outperform all private schools across the United States in elite STEM admissions. Anyone who sends their child to a private school has doomed them to a life of penury as an interdisciplinary blank studies major. No way to refute this!

Congratulations!!
Stem = a lifetime of worker bee status. It’s not the golden ticket you think it is.

I think Bezos, Zuckerburg, Gates, Musk, Ellison....would disagree that STEM leads to a lifetime of worker bee status.

I’m confident the stars align and your kid will join those ranks….

Perhaps if you named some quant wizards…..Jim Simons? That’s the true path. But they aren’t famous.
Anyway, gl.

Well, OK...but I struggle to name any humanities majors that have achieved those levels of success (literally, I would have to do a Google search because I am not aware of any). Yet, those names roll off the tip of everyone's tongue.

Well, that’s easy.
Almost every political leader? Barack Obama? Anthony Blinken?

Also many many CEOs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid from no-name NOVA hs was admitted to MIT. Since anecdotes mean everything, this fully proves that public schools outperform all private schools across the United States in elite STEM admissions. Anyone who sends their child to a private school has doomed them to a life of penury as an interdisciplinary blank studies major. No way to refute this!

Congratulations!!
Stem = a lifetime of worker bee status. It’s not the golden ticket you think it is.

I think Bezos, Zuckerburg, Gates, Musk, Ellison....would disagree that STEM leads to a lifetime of worker bee status.

I’m confident the stars align and your kid will join those ranks….

Perhaps if you named some quant wizards…..Jim Simons? That’s the true path. But they aren’t famous.
Anyway, gl.

Well, OK...but I struggle to name any humanities majors that have achieved those levels of success (literally, I would have to do a Google search because I am not aware of any). Yet, those names roll off the tip of everyone's tongue.

Well, that’s easy.
Almost every political leader? Barack Obama? Anthony Blinken?

Also many many CEOs.

I would still rather be worth $100BN than be Anthony Blinken (really, that's your example?).

Again, there are many (probably more) CEOs with STEM/quantitative backgrounds...but the CEO of say Coca Cola (no idea on background) has a net worth 1/1000000th of the company founders listed above.

You had to say "many, many CEOs" because it would require you to do a Google search to find one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school has taught my DCs how to study efficiently, how to prepare and present materials effectively, how to problem solve and so much more. I also like that there are no AP classes and they are not swamped with busy work at their private. We didn’t send them to private for college admissions but my oldest with a 3.5 UW GPA got into 3 top 50 schools. I don’t think that would have happened from a public school.

There are quite a few very high acceptance rate colleges in the Top 50. Not sure why public students you refer would struggle with Top 50 admissions if ranking is literally all that matters.

What schools in the top 50 have “very high acceptance rates”? Last I checked none.

Rutgers - #40; 66% acceptance
Wisconsin - #35; 49% acceptance
OSU - #43; 53% acceptance
Purdue - #43; 53% acceptance (much lower for STEM, which means higher for non-STEM)
Texas A&M - #47; 63% acceptance
Virgina Tech - #47; 57% acceptance

Liberal Arts
Depauw #46; 66%
Furman #46; 67%

I think anything that is 50%+ (with again, higher acceptances for the most part for non-STEM) are definitely in the wheelhouse.

Those stats aren’t telling the OOS acceptance rates which are usually a lot lower than in-state. Also interesting that they are all state schools which usually is not the aim for kids coming from a private unless it’s UCLA or Michigan. And no one considers the liberal arts schools when referencing the Top 50.

Np.
I imagine she meant “private T50.”

If you are at a private high school, you’re typically looking at private colleges and universities once outside of T35….

Again...all the caveats. I am not saying you should use USNEWS as some yardstick, but if T50 now means the top privates outside of the Top 35...well, those aren't Top 50 schools anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid from no-name NOVA hs was admitted to MIT. Since anecdotes mean everything, this fully proves that public schools outperform all private schools across the United States in elite STEM admissions. Anyone who sends their child to a private school has doomed them to a life of penury as an interdisciplinary blank studies major. No way to refute this!

Congratulations!!
Stem = a lifetime of worker bee status. It’s not the golden ticket you think it is.

I think Bezos, Zuckerburg, Gates, Musk, Ellison....would disagree that STEM leads to a lifetime of worker bee status.

I’m confident the stars align and your kid will join those ranks….

Perhaps if you named some quant wizards…..Jim Simons? That’s the true path. But they aren’t famous.
Anyway, gl.

Well, OK...but I struggle to name any humanities majors that have achieved those levels of success (literally, I would have to do a Google search because I am not aware of any). Yet, those names roll off the tip of everyone's tongue.

Well, that’s easy.
Almost every political leader? Barack Obama? Anthony Blinken?

Also many many CEOs.

I would still rather be worth $100BN than be Anthony Blinken (really, that's your example?).

Again, there are many (probably more) CEOs with STEM/quantitative backgrounds...but the CEO of say Coca Cola (no idea on background) has a net worth 1/1000000th of the company founders listed above.

You had to say "many, many CEOs" because it would require you to do a Google search to find one.

Maybe a new post on this topic? It’s derailed

[Anonymous]

I don't think there is any bump for non-hooked kids.

My kids left DCPS for a Big3 private in 9th grade. They were able to get into the Big3 private because they were at the very top of their DCPS cohort: PARCC scores at the 99%, grades all 98%+, top math track etc.
Now at the Big3 privates they are both around the 80% of their grades. There are kids who are smarter than they are and who had better preparation PK-8th. My kids are not hooked.
My senior is ending up at a college ranked 20-30. Not a bad result! However, peers who remained at JRHS are also getting the same results, if not higher schools. And these kids were the average kids in the classes
that my kids left.
I have a few friends whose kids also left DCPS and they are having the same experience. Many of the smartest kids leave DCPS and get into the same colleges that the average kids who stayed at DCPS get into.

The good news about leaving is that my kids have learned an absolute phenomenal amount since leaving and were learning next to nothing in DCPS. I had my kids in DCPS or a collective 30+ years so I'm not disparaging the schools as an outsider but as a parent who has a decade plus of experience at every level.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, looking at our SCOIR data for our private, it seems that students do much better than average for many of the top 25 colleges, both university and SLAC. This seems to be true especially for kids who apply early decision. In some cases, two to three times as likely to be offered admission compared to the published ED (not regular, but ED) admit rates at those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there is any bump for non-hooked kids.

My kids left DCPS for a Big3 private in 9th grade. They were able to get into the Big3 private because they were at the very top of their DCPS cohort: PARCC scores at the 99%, grades all 98%+, top math track etc.
Now at the Big3 privates they are both around the 80% of their grades. There are kids who are smarter than they are and who had better preparation PK-8th. My kids are not hooked.
My senior is ending up at a college ranked 20-30. Not a bad result! However, peers who remained at JRHS are also getting the same results, if not higher schools. And these kids were the average kids in the classes
that my kids left.
I have a few friends whose kids also left DCPS and they are having the same experience. Many of the smartest kids leave DCPS and get into the same colleges that the average kids who stayed at DCPS get into.

The good news about leaving is that my kids have learned an absolute phenomenal amount since leaving and were learning next to nothing in DCPS. I had my kids in DCPS or a collective 30+ years so I'm not disparaging the schools as an outsider but as a parent who has a decade plus of experience at every level.

Compare the 2024 (or 2023) college destinations of JR to GDS, Sidwell, Maret, etc. JR students, on average, are attending much lower ranked colleges. You rarely see Big 3/5 student’s attending GMU, JMU, or regionally ranked colleges, but you see that in abundance at JR. I don’t know how your child performed academically at his private, but if his results are similar to a wide swath of JR, then your child did something wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school has taught my DCs how to study efficiently, how to prepare and present materials effectively, how to problem solve and so much more. I also like that there are no AP classes and they are not swamped with busy work at their private. We didn’t send them to private for college admissions but my oldest with a 3.5 UW GPA got into 3 top 50 schools. I don’t think that would have happened from a public school.

There are quite a few very high acceptance rate colleges in the Top 50. Not sure why public students you refer would struggle with Top 50 admissions if ranking is literally all that matters.

What schools in the top 50 have “very high acceptance rates”? Last I checked none.

Rutgers - #40; 66% acceptance
Wisconsin - #35; 49% acceptance
OSU - #43; 53% acceptance
Purdue - #43; 53% acceptance (much lower for STEM, which means higher for non-STEM)
Texas A&M - #47; 63% acceptance
Virgina Tech - #47; 57% acceptance

Liberal Arts
Depauw #46; 66%
Furman #46; 67%

I think anything that is 50%+ (with again, higher acceptances for the most part for non-STEM) are definitely in the wheelhouse.

Those stats aren’t telling the OOS acceptance rates which are usually a lot lower than in-state. Also interesting that they are all state schools which usually is not the aim for kids coming from a private unless it’s UCLA or Michigan. And no one considers the liberal arts schools when referencing the Top 50.

Np.
I imagine she meant “private T50.”

If you are at a private high school, you’re typically looking at private colleges and universities once outside of T35….

💯
Private HS kids are not going to Rutgers or OSU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there is any bump for non-hooked kids.

My kids left DCPS for a Big3 private in 9th grade. They were able to get into the Big3 private because they were at the very top of their DCPS cohort: PARCC scores at the 99%, grades all 98%+, top math track etc.
Now at the Big3 privates they are both around the 80% of their grades. There are kids who are smarter than they are and who had better preparation PK-8th. My kids are not hooked.
My senior is ending up at a college ranked 20-30. Not a bad result! However, peers who remained at JRHS are also getting the same results, if not higher schools. And these kids were the average kids in the classes
that my kids left.
I have a few friends whose kids also left DCPS and they are having the same experience. Many of the smartest kids leave DCPS and get into the same colleges that the average kids who stayed at DCPS get into.

The good news about leaving is that my kids have learned an absolute phenomenal amount since leaving and were learning next to nothing in DCPS. I had my kids in DCPS or a collective 30+ years so I'm not disparaging the schools as an outsider but as a parent who has a decade plus of experience at every level.

Compare the 2024 (or 2023) college destinations of JR to GDS, Sidwell, Maret, etc. JR students, on average, are attending much lower ranked colleges. You rarely see Big 3/5 student’s attending GMU, JMU, or regionally ranked colleges, but you see that in abundance at JR. I don’t know how your child performed academically at his private, but if his results are similar to a wide swath of JR, then your child did something wrong.

The biggest advantage of private is better options for kids who would be applying to lower ranked schools. Those with B+ GPAs (3.4-3.65 or 3.7).
A good private school would get these kids into great private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school has taught my DCs how to study efficiently, how to prepare and present materials effectively, how to problem solve and so much more. I also like that there are no AP classes and they are not swamped with busy work at their private. We didn’t send them to private for college admissions but my oldest with a 3.5 UW GPA got into 3 top 50 schools. I don’t think that would have happened from a public school.

There are quite a few very high acceptance rate colleges in the Top 50. Not sure why public students you refer would struggle with Top 50 admissions if ranking is literally all that matters.

What schools in the top 50 have “very high acceptance rates”? Last I checked none.

Rutgers - #40; 66% acceptance
Wisconsin - #35; 49% acceptance
OSU - #43; 53% acceptance
Purdue - #43; 53% acceptance (much lower for STEM, which means higher for non-STEM)
Texas A&M - #47; 63% acceptance
Virgina Tech - #47; 57% acceptance

Liberal Arts
Depauw #46; 66%
Furman #46; 67%

I think anything that is 50%+ (with again, higher acceptances for the most part for non-STEM) are definitely in the wheelhouse.

Those stats aren’t telling the OOS acceptance rates which are usually a lot lower than in-state. Also interesting that they are all state schools which usually is not the aim for kids coming from a private unless it’s UCLA or Michigan. And no one considers the liberal arts schools when referencing the Top 50.

Np.
I imagine she meant “private T50.”

If you are at a private high school, you’re typically looking at private colleges and universities once outside of T35….

💯
Private HS kids are not going to Rutgers or OSU.

With mommy and daddy forking over $30-$50k a year for HS, I would expect not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school has taught my DCs how to study efficiently, how to prepare and present materials effectively, how to problem solve and so much more. I also like that there are no AP classes and they are not swamped with busy work at their private. We didn’t send them to private for college admissions but my oldest with a 3.5 UW GPA got into 3 top 50 schools. I don’t think that would have happened from a public school.

There are quite a few very high acceptance rate colleges in the Top 50. Not sure why public students you refer would struggle with Top 50 admissions if ranking is literally all that matters.

What schools in the top 50 have “very high acceptance rates”? Last I checked none.

Rutgers - #40; 66% acceptance
Wisconsin - #35; 49% acceptance
OSU - #43; 53% acceptance
Purdue - #43; 53% acceptance (much lower for STEM, which means higher for non-STEM)
Texas A&M - #47; 63% acceptance
Virgina Tech - #47; 57% acceptance

Liberal Arts
Depauw #46; 66%
Furman #46; 67%

I think anything that is 50%+ (with again, higher acceptances for the most part for non-STEM) are definitely in the wheelhouse.

Those stats aren’t telling the OOS acceptance rates which are usually a lot lower than in-state. Also interesting that they are all state schools which usually is not the aim for kids coming from a private unless it’s UCLA or Michigan. And no one considers the liberal arts schools when referencing the Top 50.

Np.
I imagine she meant “private T50.”

If you are at a private high school, you’re typically looking at private colleges and universities once outside of T35….

💯
Private HS kids are not going to Rutgers or OSU.

With mommy and daddy forking over $30-$50k a year for HS, I would expect not.

I expect not, as well. What good is it to spend all of this money only to have my children end up at OSU or ODU?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school helps if you want to end up at private college , esp mid range (eg Tulane, BU, Emory etc)
Private school does not help if you want to get into tippy top (unless your kid is #1-#5 at the school). If your kid is #20, they will discourage you from applying to HYPSM because it might hurt the top kids chances.

Public school is great if your kid would otherwise be upper middle of the road at private but can be the top in the public.

Yes but much much much easier to get into these schools from a private HS if full pay:
Cornell, U Chicago, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Wash u, Emory, Georgetown, Rice, CMU, USC, NYU, BC, Tufts,

I would say all of those except Cornell and Dartmouth. Maybe not Georgetown either. Cornell and Dartmouth have big enough endowments. My kid EDed one got rejected full pay strong. Now at the other lol. But 100 percent agree on all the others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You're so naive, OP. Here are some hard truths:

1. Top privates select at entry. It stands to reason that the student body would therefore be more capable and go to better universities on average than students in public.

2. Top privates are expensive, and the parents there are more often graduates of elite universities than parents in public. Having an alumni parent gives the kid an edge during college admissions. If you did not graduate from an elite institution you are targeting for your kid, your kid has practically ZERO chance of getting in from a top private school, because these universities have quotas for each high school, and they will prioritize the top students from each school, *who also have* hooks. Most of the time, it's stellar athletic performance and/or having an alumni parent. There is too much academic excellence in every school, public and private, for Ivies to admit solely based on that. In public, the competition is equally fierce but seems more "equitable" on the surface: the kids who go to Harvard may not have alumni parents, but maybe they created a thriving non-profit (see multiple threads on that controversial issue).

3. Money: your goal should be building generational wealth for your kids. With the galloping prices of a college education, private universities are not within the reach of most middle class families. If your kid has to pay back expensive loans for decades, this will set them back significantly in their wealth growth. A lot of private universities are in the 90-100K a year range, total cost of attendance (tuition, room and board). State colleges are in the 30-40K a year range.

4. Due to the rising education costs for the middle class, state colleges have become more selective, because more students are enrolling, due to being financially shut out of more expensive options. Your State U was maybe considered a safety a few years, and now your kid might not even get in! Ex: UMD rejected kids last year who had a 4.2 weighted GPA, multiple APs and decent extra-curriculars.

5. Therefore it becomes a matter of economic necessity to have an overall attractive profile to keep costs down, either in State U or with merit aid in private university, with the long-term goal of not wasting money on branding that might not be worth the very high price. And as it happens, you can built yourself a very nice profile, with academics, ECs, etc, in public.

Great analysis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid from no-name NOVA hs was admitted to MIT. Since anecdotes mean everything, this fully proves that public schools outperform all private schools across the United States in elite STEM admissions. Anyone who sends their child to a private school has doomed them to a life of penury as an interdisciplinary blank studies major. No way to refute this!

Congratulations!!
Stem = a lifetime of worker bee status. It’s not the golden ticket you think it is.

I think Bezos, Zuckerburg, Gates, Musk, Ellison....would disagree that STEM leads to a lifetime of worker bee status.

I’m confident the stars align and your kid will join those ranks….

Perhaps if you named some quant wizards…..Jim Simons? That’s the true path. But they aren’t famous.
Anyway, gl.

Well, OK...but I struggle to name any humanities majors that have achieved those levels of success (literally, I would have to do a Google search because I am not aware of any). Yet, those names roll off the tip of everyone's tongue.

Well, that’s easy.
Almost every political leader? Barack Obama? Anthony Blinken?

Also many many CEOs.

I would still rather be worth $100BN than be Anthony Blinken (really, that's your example?).

Again, there are many (probably more) CEOs with STEM/quantitative backgrounds...but the CEO of say Coca Cola (no idea on background) has a net worth 1/1000000th of the company founders listed above.

You had to say "many, many CEOs" because it would require you to do a Google search to find one.

Don't worry about it. You'll never be either; neither will your kid!