Better college admissions for a not top student from public or private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hwould think chances are better at public.

Smaller grade size in private, lots of rich kids with tutors and connections. If your kid is not at the top he’s still being compared against his class and there’s tough competition.

Public has a lot of smart kids but at least connections and legacies tend to be less and there are always lower performing kids.


If you’re a middle class family with an average kid, without money for an army of tutors, no connections, and no hooks-private does your kid no favors.

Again with the opinion. You can actually looks at this question, which agreed is the wrong question. You can compare PS matriculation to public school admission. It was very clear for Big3 that the placement as compared to a top local public was significantly better. Very clear.

Understood that your extremely unhappy child at private school doesn’t make it worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can do the math on admissions data. It’s not perfect but pretty insightful. I compared our (very good) public and a big3, and big3 was much better. Publics give admission—not matriculation—but even giving the public all the benefit of the doubt, the private was materially better at placement. Can’t speak to nonbig3

And, as others will beat you down on, it ultimately didn’t come down to admission data for us but rather the happiness and stoking curiosity for our child.

Ugh...what measure are you using for this. You can't use %age of a graduating class or anything like that...you have to just look at the nominal number of kids from say Whitman going to Top 50 vs. say Bullis. Again, OP said they are not going to a Big3 (looking at Bullis, Landon), so it's not relevant.

Also, OP specifically asked about schools 21-50...on this measure, I don't think you will see any real statistical difference. All this assumes, that you would be fine if your kid goes to Ohio State (#50) vs. say UCLA/Emory (#20).

I would welcome your analysis, but it appears to me that you are offering an opinion.

And the PP clearly said Big3; did you think OP could not read?

Dude…read the post. OP said they are NOT considering a Big3 for private.

Are you going to make the same mistake a 3rd time?

OMG you are dense. They clearly understood that point and made the distinction. You just think that distinction is everything. Thus any sortof similar comparison for non Big3 is useless. Let OP be the judge of that.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I think my kid would be at the top 15-20% of our highly regarded public. There are a lot of very smart kids at our public. I do not think he would be top 10%. I see him taking a mix of honors and a few APs and won’t be straight As. Our public has kids taking 15+ APs and my son won’t be one of those kids.

I have no idea where DS would fall in a decent but not Big3 private. From looking at the college lists, it seems like one half or at least the top 1/3 of private school students seem to be going to what I consider good college. I originally thought it was T50 but it is more like T30. I can’t say for sure but it feels like chances may be better from private.

We are not URM, first gen and will not be a recruited athlete. DS will be legacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can do the math on admissions data. It’s not perfect but pretty insightful. I compared our (very good) public and a big3, and big3 was much better. Publics give admission—not matriculation—but even giving the public all the benefit of the doubt, the private was materially better at placement. Can’t speak to nonbig3

And, as others will beat you down on, it ultimately didn’t come down to admission data for us but rather the happiness and stoking curiosity for our child.

Ugh...what measure are you using for this. You can't use %age of a graduating class or anything like that...you have to just look at the nominal number of kids from say Whitman going to Top 50 vs. say Bullis. Again, OP said they are not going to a Big3 (looking at Bullis, Landon), so it's not relevant.

Also, OP specifically asked about schools 21-50...on this measure, I don't think you will see any real statistical difference. All this assumes, that you would be fine if your kid goes to Ohio State (#50) vs. say UCLA/Emory (#20).

I would welcome your analysis, but it appears to me that you are offering an opinion.

And the PP clearly said Big3; did you think OP could not read?

Dude…read the post. OP said they are NOT considering a Big3 for private.

Are you going to make the same mistake a 3rd time?

OMG you are dense. They clearly understood that point and made the distinction. You just think that distinction is everything. Thus any sortof similar comparison for non Big3 is useless. Let OP be the judge of that.

Now I don’t even know what you are referring…talk about dense…you have completely lost the thread and have devolved into incoherence.

Please, start over and try big girl thoughts.

[Anonymous]

The experience at public high school can have a prison feel, from the cafeteria food and cement building to the attitude of students who are not there for an education, that I did not want for my child.

More broadly, focus on the environment where child would thrive. There is a fit aspect for your individual child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I think my kid would be at the top 15-20% of our highly regarded public. There are a lot of very smart kids at our public. I do not think he would be top 10%. I see him taking a mix of honors and a few APs and won’t be straight As. Our public has kids taking 15+ APs and my son won’t be one of those kids.

I have no idea where DS would fall in a decent but not Big3 private. From looking at the college lists, it seems like one half or at least the top 1/3 of private school students seem to be going to what I consider good college. I originally thought it was T50 but it is more like T30. I can’t say for sure but it feels like chances may be better from private.

We are not URM, first gen and will not be a recruited athlete. DS will be legacy.

I think you need to think about it this way. If your kid is likely to be 100th in the class at public…likely they will be about 100th at the private. Don’t think they will be in the top 20% at a private (that would mean they are like #25 out of 125).

The way you describe your kid is not a kid going to a top 25 college. However, I do think there are some targets/reaches in 25-50.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think chances are better at public.

Smaller grade size in private, lots of rich kids with tutors and connections. If your kid is not at the top he’s still being compared against his class and there’s tough competition.

Public has a lot of smart kids but at least connections and legacies tend to be less and there are always lower performing kids.

If you’re a middle class family with an average kid, without money for an army of tutors, no connections, and no hooks-private does your kid no favors.

We are UMC with high income (7 figures). Between DH and I, we have attended five T25 schools including 2 ivy grad schools. We have some not so strong connections. DH does interviews, has a conference room named after our family, knows some admissions people, etc. We know many students who got rejected despite both parents being alums, solid stats, parents having worked at the school, etc. They got rejected from T10 schools where these small hooks seem to not matter.

7 figure income is NOT umc.
🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The experience at public high school can have a prison feel, from the cafeteria food and cement building to the attitude of students who are not there for an education, that I did not want for my child.

More broadly, focus on the environment where child would thrive. There is a fit aspect for your individual child.

What public school do you feed? I mean Whitman’s new buildings look great. Honestly, the age of the school and the wealth of the district is more important than private vs public.

I have to believe Sidwell will overhaul their US in the near future. That physical building is in very bad shape…especially compared to brand new GDS and STA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can do the math on admissions data. It’s not perfect but pretty insightful. I compared our (very good) public and a big3, and big3 was much better. Publics give admission—not matriculation—but even giving the public all the benefit of the doubt, the private was materially better at placement. Can’t speak to nonbig3

And, as others will beat you down on, it ultimately didn’t come down to admission data for us but rather the happiness and stoking curiosity for our child.

Ugh...what measure are you using for this. You can't use %age of a graduating class or anything like that...you have to just look at the nominal number of kids from say Whitman going to Top 50 vs. say Bullis. Again, OP said they are not going to a Big3 (looking at Bullis, Landon), so it's not relevant.

Also, OP specifically asked about schools 21-50...on this measure, I don't think you will see any real statistical difference. All this assumes, that you would be fine if your kid goes to Ohio State (#50) vs. say UCLA/Emory (#20).

I would hope my kid would be able to at least go to Boston University or Northeastern. How sad if my kid can’t even go to Northeastern from public or private.

My kid likes school like Duke, USC and NYU. I feel his chances will be quite low from public. NYU and USC is T25, not T50. I would be pretty disappointed if my kid went to Ohio State.

I think that the poster who was calling everyone delusional was being rude. People shouldn’t call you names. But, unless “good student” means your son will likely have an unweighted GPA over 3.8 in rigorous classes, and the equivalent of SATs over 1500 or higher, your understanding of how college admissions works now is poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I think my kid would be at the top 15-20% of our highly regarded public. There are a lot of very smart kids at our public. I do not think he would be top 10%. I see him taking a mix of honors and a few APs and won’t be straight As. Our public has kids taking 15+ APs and my son won’t be one of those kids.

I have no idea where DS would fall in a decent but not Big3 private. From looking at the college lists, it seems like one half or at least the top 1/3 of private school students seem to be going to what I consider good college. I originally thought it was T50 but it is more like T30. I can’t say for sure but it feels like chances may be better from private.

We are not URM, first gen and will not be a recruited athlete. DS will be legacy.

Your son’s on track to get into some place more in the Top 40 to Top 200, like Fordham, George Washington University or Indiana University, or maybe a liberal arts college like Gettysburg College.

If your son catches fire on his own and somehow pushes himself into a Top 50 research university or the equivalent, that’s great, but your son isn’t currently on track to get into one of those and do well, and you shouldn’t be wrecking his life by trying to turn him into something that he’s not to fit with your outdated ideas about college prestige levels.

Love him and respect him for the wonderful, energetic kid that he is now, send him to high school where you think he’d be happy and learn a lot, and talk to him very clearly about the financial constraints involved. If you have the money to pay for four years of private school, at, say, $90,000 each, help him explore the great options he can get for that. If you’ll have to struggle to pay $40,000 per year, stop badmouthing Ohio State. If you’re in the DMV area and can’t spend $50,000 per year, it’s out of your price range, anyway.

[Anonymous]

American InterContinental University.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The experience at public high school can have a prison feel, from the cafeteria food and cement building to the attitude of students who are not there for an education, that I did not want for my child.

More broadly, focus on the environment where child would thrive. There is a fit aspect for your individual child.

What public school do you feed? I mean Whitman’s new buildings look great. Honestly, the age of the school and the wealth of the district is more important than private vs public.

I have to believe Sidwell will overhaul their US in the near future. That physical building is in very bad shape…especially compared to brand new GDS and STA.

“ That physical building is in very bad shape…” Tell me you’re a Sidwell hater, without telling me you’re a Sidwell hater. 😂

Btw, Sidwell will build a brand new Upper School building on the new property, and gut and renovate the current US building to turn it into the LS building. But haters will still hate…

[Anonymous]

Top 10% class rank from a lower quality public HS (e.g., one with limited AP offerings, lots of FARMS kids) might be seen more favorably at admissions time than a lower class ranking from a high quality public or private. This will vary from one college to another, as with all other admissions things.

[Anonymous]

Better to spend the money on fake achievements like a research paper program or founding a nonprofit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The experience at public high school can have a prison feel, from the cafeteria food and cement building to the attitude of students who are not there for an education, that I did not want for my child.

More broadly, focus on the environment where child would thrive. There is a fit aspect for your individual child.

What public school do you feed? I mean Whitman’s new buildings look great. Honestly, the age of the school and the wealth of the district is more important than private vs public.

I have to believe Sidwell will overhaul their US in the near future. That physical building is in very bad shape…especially compared to brand new GDS and STA.

“ That physical building is in very bad shape…” Tell me you’re a Sidwell hater, without telling me you’re a Sidwell hater. 😂

Btw, Sidwell will build a brand new Upper School building on the new property, and gut and renovate the current US building to turn it into the LS building. But haters will still hate…

Not a hater at all…you literally agreed with me that the US physical building is in bad shape and they are building a new one. That is what I figured.