Free advice from a senior high school parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The shocker is how hard it is to get into even a big state school not in top 50. With GPA inflation out of control and TO, private school kids with robust grading (and grading oj curve)are getting royally screwed.

I don’t think GPA is out of control anymore.

[Anonymous]

Out of control public GPAs is a myth private school parents tell themselves.

[Anonymous]

Because I send my child to a top all girls private HS, she is surrounded by students who are driven to achieve. She is also not distracted by boys who might be carrying guns or trying to rape them in the bathroom. I like our small safe school honestly. Will she get into a top college? I suspect she will. Does it matter that she attended this school and not our local public? Who knows? But I do like that she will make it out of HS without all that trauma. And she has also expressed to me that she appreciates the opportunity to be in such an excellent school. Those two things alone make it worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Out of control public GPAs is a myth private school parents tell themselves.

+1

[Anonymous]

OP where are your stats? I randomly picked an fcps high school, and it had a senior class of 550. My child’s school senior class last year had 75 kids. The top 15% of kids went to a top university (hypsm + Duke, Cal tech, Penn, Brown, Columbia). Based on your post OP, are you saying that greater than 83 kids from any random DMV public high school went to a tippy top school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, what's striking to me is how all the privates seem to have the same college outcomes: Bullis, Sidwell, NCS, Holy Child. They're getting kids into the exact same schools. There is no longer any benefit for suffering through Sidwell or NCS over Flint Hill or St. Andrews.

The way things are going, the admissions will be BETTER from these easier schools this year or next. The schools that are holding out on to super strict grading (NCS, Sidwell, to a lesser degree GDS and STA) are going to have to pivot or really become irrelevant.

Flint Hill is a joke. They are very protective of this matriculation data. Wonder why…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP where are your stats? I randomly picked an fcps high school, and it had a senior class of 550. My child’s school senior class last year had 75 kids. The top 15% of kids went to a top university (hypsm + Duke, Cal tech, Penn, Brown, Columbia). Based on your post OP, are you saying that greater than 83 kids from any random DMV public high school went to a tippy top school?

Not OP but your analysis is not apples to apples. Lots of public school kids may have been gotten admitted to top schools but had to choose a lower ranked school based on merit. The wealth of private school parents skews the numbers when it comes to enrollment in top schools.

Signed, private school parent with a kid enrolled in top 20 at full pay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP where are your stats? I randomly picked an fcps high school, and it had a senior class of 550. My child’s school senior class last year had 75 kids. The top 15% of kids went to a top university (hypsm + Duke, Cal tech, Penn, Brown, Columbia). Based on your post OP, are you saying that greater than 83 kids from any random DMV public high school went to a tippy top school?

Not OP but your analysis is not apples to apples. Lots of public school kids may have been gotten admitted to top schools but had to choose a lower ranked school based on merit. The wealth of private school parents skews the numbers when it comes to enrollment in top schools.

Signed, private school parent with a kid enrolled in top 20 at full pay

Ok, so over 83 kids were admitted to the very top schools per DMV public high school?

I have my doubts about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're considering a private school for your kid b'c you think it will improve their chances for admission at a competitive college, think again. Especially in the DMV, where there are some great public school options, it is 100% not worth it to go private just for college admissions.

If you want to do private b'c you think it will be a better experience for your child, that's another issue altogether. That's why we chose private and for that, it's been great: smaller classes, teachers who know the kids, etc.

But kids aren't getting into the super-selective colleges at any higher rate than they do from good publics. They did back in the '90s and before, but those days are over.

So if college admission is your goal, save your money!

Thank you for saying this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because I send my child to a top all girls private HS, she is surrounded by students who are driven to achieve. She is also not distracted by boys who might be carrying guns or trying to rape them in the bathroom. I like our small safe school honestly. Will she get into a top college? I suspect she will. Does it matter that she attended this school and not our local public? Who knows? But I do like that she will make it out of HS without all that trauma. And she has also expressed to me that she appreciates the opportunity to be in such an excellent school. Those two things alone make it worth it.

Your daughter will probably be pretty messed up though for college with these views you’re teaching her. Good lord. Better move to a convent next so she can avoid the trauma of college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP where are your stats? I randomly picked an fcps high school, and it had a senior class of 550. My child’s school senior class last year had 75 kids. The top 15% of kids went to a top university (hypsm + Duke, Cal tech, Penn, Brown, Columbia). Based on your post OP, are you saying that greater than 83 kids from any random DMV public high school went to a tippy top school?

Not OP but your analysis is not apples to apples. Lots of public school kids may have been gotten admitted to top schools but had to choose a lower ranked school based on merit. The wealth of private school parents skews the numbers when it comes to enrollment in top schools.

Signed, private school parent with a kid enrolled in top 20 at full pay

Ok, so over 83 kids were admitted to the very top schools per DMV public high school?

I have my doubts about that.

Perhaps they were or perhaps they could have gotten in but didn’t apply because they could not afford it.

It’s silly to believe that the smartest kids all go to private schools. Not when getting into those schools is so often based on hooks rather than merit and requires a whole lotta money to get in and to pay tuition.

[Anonymous]

This may be true for the top students, but those below the top 10% all the way to the bottom of the class have markedly better college outcomes that similarly ranked kids from public school.

Regardless, for most of us, private school is about the experience, not the college admissions. No one spends 13+ years of private school tuition only for the hope of getting admitted to certain schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many of us know this...and yet we still choose private school. I truly don't care where my kids decide to go to college, but I will sleep well knowing that they won't be walking into the public school we are zoned to on Monday.

This, exactly this.

[Anonymous]

Most people do not feel that way about their local public. Most people had moments of thinking maybe I should use my excellent public and decided private because thought it would be nurturing with good college placement. Without placement private goes back to being for really wealthy who are legacy and kids who are in a dangerous school pyramid. The middle is lost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a pathetic thread. The only goal of HS is to get into the right college. How about an actual education for your child?

Reading is fundamental.