How NEGATIVE are college admissions from a top private versus public

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been watching this closely and matriculations are definitely better this year (and really last too) for kids from similar socio-economic demographics from DCPS vs kids from the Big3 DC privates (I.e. kids from upper middle class professional class families).

it's kind of nuts because the private kids work about 5 times harder and come out far better educated. I know as I currently have high school kids in both.

It is what it is in 2023. you do not send you kids to private school for better college matriculations and you need to be prepared for worse results than your kid's public school friends.

This isn't universally true of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College matriculation at our private is still much better than our local public schools. This may not be the case if your local public is a “W” school but probably that parity has existed for a long time. Colleges are less interested in umc white or Asian kids generally, it is not specific to private schools.

That must be why selective schools are majority Black, Latino, and poor.

Oh. Wait.

[Anonymous]

Here’s a little story for you. My son and his best friend went to Janney. They were like two peas in a pod- very similar in athletics and academics. Fun loving outgoing kids very charming. In sixth grade we pulled out and went to GDS. The other kid went through Deal and Jackson Reed. Parents did not “love” DCPS , whatever we talked schools they said “it’s fine. He’s doing OK he has nice friends he likes some of his teachers.” Jackson Reid kid just got accepted to Brown and UVA. My son got into a fine school which I can’t say now because our small class-size but you get the point. It was not a top school. And he had a high GPA and scores. And yes he learned a lot at GDS and yes he had a lot of homework also. And yes I am thinking about our decision and money spent. This friend cohort at JR also had great results. All unhooked and no athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a little story for you. My son and his best friend went to Janney. They were like two peas in a pod- very similar in athletics and academics. Fun loving outgoing kids very charming. In sixth grade we pulled out and went to GDS. The other kid went through Deal and Jackson Reed. Parents did not “love” DCPS , whatever we talked schools they said “it’s fine. He’s doing OK he has nice friends he likes some of his teachers.” Jackson Reid kid just got accepted to Brown and UVA. My son got into a fine school which I can’t say now because our small class-size but you get the point. It was not a top school. And he had a high GPA and scores. And yes he learned a lot at GDS and yes he had a lot of homework also. And yes I am thinking about our decision and money spent. This friend cohort at JR also had great results. All unhooked and no athlete.

Please excuse the spelling errors…

[Anonymous]

This has been argued ad nauseam on this board. All privates are not the same. All kids are not the same. Private school kids are going to amazing choices too. I personally think my unhooked kid had better results coming from private than he would have coming from an MCPS school. But he has a lot of happy MCPS friends too.

Stop the hysteria. Your kids will all be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a little story for you. My son and his best friend went to Janney. They were like two peas in a pod- very similar in athletics and academics. Fun loving outgoing kids very charming. In sixth grade we pulled out and went to GDS. The other kid went through Deal and Jackson Reed. Parents did not “love” DCPS , whatever we talked schools they said “it’s fine. He’s doing OK he has nice friends he likes some of his teachers.” Jackson Reid kid just got accepted to Brown and UVA. My son got into a fine school which I can’t say now because our small class-size but you get the point. It was not a top school. And he had a high GPA and scores. And yes he learned a lot at GDS and yes he had a lot of homework also. And yes I am thinking about our decision and money spent. This friend cohort at JR also had great results. All unhooked and no athlete.

And I have the opposite experience. My kid’s public school BFF will attend a school ranked t50 and my private kid is going to a school ranked t15. There are anecdotes for everything.

[Anonymous]

To the woman who told us all to calm down… Funny that you’re on here reading these posts isn’t it? And to the one who said their kid got into a top 15 compared to the public… I don’t believe you.

[Anonymous]

Here is what is happening this year:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1123015.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the woman who told us all to calm down… Funny that you’re on here reading these posts isn’t it? And to the one who said their kid got into a top 15 compared to the public… I don’t believe you.

Why wouldn’t you believe that? Of course some kids who are unhooked got into top 15 schools from both private and public. Don’t be irrational.

[Anonymous]

We sent our kids to DCPS through 8th grade (Deal). My kid's friends who were decent but not fabulous students went on to JR and got high 4.0+ GPAs and are now got into better schools than my kid who went on to a Big3 and worked really, really hard for a 3.8.

The JR kids were missing teachers for semesters at a time. but it doesn't matter for GPAs as then the whole class is given an A when this happens. last year this was in physics C. meanwhile my kids killed himself for an A.


It is what it is.

but yes, it is happening. Please go into private with your eyes WIDE open. You are doing this as an investment in learning which is invaluable your kid will very, very likely get into an inferior college.

[Anonymous]

Test optional has changed things dramatically. The DEI initiatives have also changed things. To suggest that all is how it used to be before these changes is inaccurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not new; it just feels new every year to the people going through it for the first time [cue the annual "no, it's really different this time" posters].

Part of the reason is that the handful of people who choose a school believing it would change their child's college application outcomes look at the matriculations and only see the colleges on the list that they want to see, and knowing nothing about the students or why those chose the schools they chose or why they got into the schools they got into, naively assume this means their kid will get into the school of their choice. Also, they probably don't appreciate how great the other schools on the list actually are and how much fit matters to individual kids. It is completely naive to assume all students choose a college based on where it lands on the USNWR list. Once you dig in, if you are really doing your homework, that list goes out the window.

Very True...Another part of it is the obsession this area has with private schools. It's not necessarily like this in other parts of the country. The lenses are severely cloudy here. There are great public schools around the country and the top magnets are amazing. That's the real competition not the handful of kids you know.

[Anonymous]

The kids who are in the top 10% group in public school are almost certainly less coddled than private school kids.
It takes a lot of grit and motivation to be successful at a school like Jackson Reed. You have large chaotic classes. There are fights in the hallway sometimes.
You may be self studying for APs because you are missing a teacher. There are some very impressive kids at public schools so it makes sense that colleges would want them. Sure, they may not have done multivariable calculus or written a 20 page paper because JR does not offer those opportunities but so what - they will learn and figure it out in college. It is all about showing the potential for growth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids who are in the top 10% group in public school are almost certainly less coddled than private school kids.
It takes a lot of grit and motivation to be successful at a school like Jackson Reed. You have large chaotic classes. There are fights in the hallway sometimes.
You may be self studying for APs because you are missing a teacher. There are some very impressive kids at public schools so it makes sense that colleges would want them. Sure, they may not have done multivariable calculus or written a 20 page paper because JR does not offer those opportunities but so what - they will learn and figure it out in college. It is all about showing the potential for growth

Agreed. And even kids in the top 10-25% often go to good state schools and LACs. Public schools offer some benefits that privates don’t have.
I think private schools do a better job teaching kids how to study but there are some public school kids who figure it out on their own.
Ultimately it is best not to get obsessed by the top 15 colleges and universities. If you are able to send your kids to private schools, they will be blessed with many advantages in life that will help them be successful no matter which college they attend.
We need to stop with the resource hoarding

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re at a top private, you need to be more strategic about what elite sport your kid can get recruited for and showing that they care a lot about the poor and less fortunate. They probably should be starting their nonprofit serving the poor by 8th grade at the latest. Obviously sports needs to start from toddlerhood.

I know you think you’re funny but this is literally what people do.