Was it a waste of money?

[Anonymous]

Is anyone out there willing to say that private school was a waste of money? If so, why?
My parents spent tons of money on a parochial school that was useless. We had to get extra tutoring to catch up to the public school kids.
In some cases, people see no difference in outcome.

[Anonymous]

I don't think you can compare outcomes for Catholic parochial schools as a group with independent schools as a group. Research has suggested poorer outcomes for parochial schools than for public schools.

[Anonymous]

I went to a top private school in the city where I grew up. I honestly didn't think I was any better prepared for college, nor did I do any better, than all my friends who graduated from public school. What I did have was a very skewed view of reality. I grew up thinking my family was middle class (my father made around $500k in the late '80s-early '90s) because about half of my private school peers were richer than my family and half were not (even the ones who were not were upper-middle class). I had honestly never knew/imagined that people took out loans to finance college. Yes, we did a lot of volunteer work with the poor, but I had no idea what "middle class" was. Learning about the real world was a harsh reality, and in many ways, I think I would have been better equipped for life had I attended public school.

Also, I graduated in the 3rd quarter or my high school. Admission to my high school was extremely competitive. I had top SAT scores, but had I attended good local public school and graduated in the top quarter, I probably could have gone a top, rather just a very good, college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a top private school in the city where I grew up. I honestly didn't think I was any better prepared for college, nor did I do any better, than all my friends who graduated from public school. What I did have was a very skewed view of reality. I grew up thinking my family was middle class (my father made around $500k in the late '80s-early '90s) because about half of my private school peers were richer than my family and half were not (even the ones who were not were upper-middle class). I had honestly never knew/imagined that people took out loans to finance college. Yes, we did a lot of volunteer work with the poor, but I had no idea what "middle class" was. Learning about the real world was a harsh reality, and in many ways, I think I would have been better equipped for life had I attended public school.

Also, I graduated in the 3rd quarter or my high school. Admission to my high school was extremely competitive. I had top SAT scores, but had I attended good local public school and graduated in the top quarter, I probably could have gone a top, rather just a very good, college.

So you think, for you, it was a waste of money? Would you have graduated closer to the top of your class had you gone to public school?

[Anonymous]

To PP -- your last paragraph hit home. I went to a private school and almost everyone in my class had good-to-great grades, so even if you had an above-average GPA - you ended up somewhere in the middle of the pack. Doesn't look too impressive to admission committees...

I also think there is a wide variety of private schools out there. The one I went to (day school, up north) was not a good private school. I can remember several teachers who barely taught (recent college grads more interested in partying than teaching), the principal unabashedly caught up in courting rich families to bring in $$, and a classmate who had a learning disability that was essentially ignored because the school didn't know how to deal with it.

As a result, I do not necessarily think private is better than public. Each school needs to be evaluated.

[Anonymous]

While the University I attended would probably have been similar or the same, the preparation I had by my private school allowed me to essentially complete the Bachelors in 3 years (AP credits, etc).

There were many on my freshman dorm who failed out or took a semester or 2 to get the "hang" of the acedemic side of college.

I attribute this solely to the good prep I had at the private school I attended.

[Anonymous]

I attended public school my whole life, including a number of very average schools when my dad was transferred around the country for the military. I also graduated in 3 years. No special preparation. Just hard work. I found, after attending 10 schools throughout my life, that there are just some kids who are smarter and harder working and some kids who will never be as bright. Private school can help nudge less bright kids along or can provide some unique opportunities, but it cannot make someone smarter or harder working.