Public magnet or private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You are rejecting your kid’s choice based on your desire to be around parents you prefer? Seems highly silly and downright disrespectful toward your kid. You are not going to be spending much time with those other parents anyway.

Also, if it’s a high quality magnet, I suspect your kid would do well with college admissions anyway, assuming good grades, etc.

Community is a legitimate concern/desire though.

Community for who? Denying your kid the community your kid wants because you like to think of yourself as part of the “private school crowd” is bonkers.

Our child chose magnet but I get it. Our older child's private HS had so much more communication with the parents and parent events that we felt more connected. It wasn't a social thing for us but more about feeling like we were an important stakeholder, lol. They would talk about admin, teacher, curriculum changes and help parents understand all the schedule options and next steps as the children progressed year to year. In public the schools basically trust HS kids to do everything. I didn't even look at DC's schedule and had no idea registration happened because there's almost no communication.

For the most part, a HS kid should be able to figure out their classes with their counselors. But, parents do get a heads up email/letter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking at both magnet and private. We received magnet acceptances but are still waiting on privates.

If we get accepted into a private, we will decline our magnet positions based on this fact alone-

What our magnet options do not offer is an elevated college counseling experience. The privates we visited were much more hands on and provided more support to the parents.

While our student has a preference for the magnet program based on "the vibes", which I totally get, the vibes for us parents mesh better with the private school crowd.

You can buy an "elevated" college counseling experience for far less than the cost of 4 years of private school. If you want the "vibes" of a private school community for the parents, go join a country club and let your child go where they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You are rejecting your kid’s choice based on your desire to be around parents you prefer? Seems highly silly and downright disrespectful toward your kid. You are not going to be spending much time with those other parents anyway.

Also, if it’s a high quality magnet, I suspect your kid would do well with college admissions anyway, assuming good grades, etc.

Community is a legitimate concern/desire though.

Community for who? Denying your kid the community your kid wants because you like to think of yourself as part of the “private school crowd” is bonkers.

Our child chose magnet but I get it. Our older child's private HS had so much more communication with the parents and parent events that we felt more connected. It wasn't a social thing for us but more about feeling like we were an important stakeholder, lol. They would talk about admin, teacher, curriculum changes and help parents understand all the schedule options and next steps as the children progressed year to year. In public the schools basically trust HS kids to do everything. I didn't even look at DC's schedule and had no idea registration happened because there's almost no communication.

For the most part, a HS kid should be able to figure out their classes with their counselors. But, parents do get a heads up email/letter.

What counselor? In public most kids don't even know who their counselor is. They have hundreds of students each.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You are rejecting your kid’s choice based on your desire to be around parents you prefer? Seems highly silly and downright disrespectful toward your kid. You are not going to be spending much time with those other parents anyway.

Also, if it’s a high quality magnet, I suspect your kid would do well with college admissions anyway, assuming good grades, etc.

Community is a legitimate concern/desire though.

Community for who? Denying your kid the community your kid wants because you like to think of yourself as part of the “private school crowd” is bonkers.

Our child chose magnet but I get it. Our older child's private HS had so much more communication with the parents and parent events that we felt more connected. It wasn't a social thing for us but more about feeling like we were an important stakeholder, lol. They would talk about admin, teacher, curriculum changes and help parents understand all the schedule options and next steps as the children progressed year to year. In public the schools basically trust HS kids to do everything. I didn't even look at DC's schedule and had no idea registration happened because there's almost no communication.

For the most part, a HS kid should be able to figure out their classes with their counselors. But, parents do get a heads up email/letter.

What counselor? In public most kids don't even know who their counselor is. They have hundreds of students each.

Well both my kids do/did meet with their counselors to discuss the course selections. Sometimes it's just a rubber stamp; other times there is a discussion about goals. YMMV obviously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are on the fence at my house. Kid is in 8th grade at a private that goes through 12 so we don’t need to wait for admissions.

From what I can tell, the magnet has more variety in STEM courses and he could spend a larger portion of his day on STEM which is what he loves. STEM extracurriculars are also stronger. Magnet also is closer to home, and has more diversity.

Private has higher quality instruction in humanities, particularly writing. Kid spontaneously does a lot of STEM but doesn’t read or write much unless pushed. Kid’s other parent also worries about safety in public. I don’t but obviously Dad gets a vote too.

Not worried about college, I figure it will work itself out.

FWIW, we had a similar kid who we knew would specialize in a STEM field. We encouraged the private high school due to the classes required there that really weren't available elsewhere, and that we knew DC would not pursue in college. DC chose a STEM college, and we were right: all the STEM stuff he loves is there for the taking in college, but there is no room in the schedule for the full breadth of what he was required to take in high school - humanities, Latin, classical ethics, art, music, drama, theology, film - all of which he loved, and he learn so much. He goes into his STEM specialization with a seriously well-rounded classical high school education. Plenty of kids in his college classes attended STEM magnets, and they are all on the same page with the STEM course work.

So, I'm glad we took that approach with his education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are on the fence at my house. Kid is in 8th grade at a private that goes through 12 so we don’t need to wait for admissions.

From what I can tell, the magnet has more variety in STEM courses and he could spend a larger portion of his day on STEM which is what he loves. STEM extracurriculars are also stronger. Magnet also is closer to home, and has more diversity.

Private has higher quality instruction in humanities, particularly writing. Kid spontaneously does a lot of STEM but doesn’t read or write much unless pushed. Kid’s other parent also worries about safety in public. I don’t but obviously Dad gets a vote too.

Not worried about college, I figure it will work itself out.

FWIW, we had a similar kid who we knew would specialize in a STEM field. We encouraged the private high school due to the classes required there that really weren't available elsewhere, and that we knew DC would not pursue in college. DC chose a STEM college, and we were right: all the STEM stuff he loves is there for the taking in college, but there is no room in the schedule for the full breadth of what he was required to take in high school - humanities, Latin, classical ethics, art, music, drama, theology, film - all of which he loved, and he learn so much. He goes into his STEM specialization with a seriously well-rounded classical high school education. Plenty of kids in his college classes attended STEM magnets, and they are all on the same page with the STEM course work.

So, I'm glad we took that approach with his education.

Plus one to this. There's a reason that even people in STEM fields value a liberal arts education. Your kid is what, 14? He shouldn't pigeonhole himself in 8th grade. He also shouldn't not do the things he isn't as good at. That's not how life works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are on the fence at my house. Kid is in 8th grade at a private that goes through 12 so we don’t need to wait for admissions.

From what I can tell, the magnet has more variety in STEM courses and he could spend a larger portion of his day on STEM which is what he loves. STEM extracurriculars are also stronger. Magnet also is closer to home, and has more diversity.

Private has higher quality instruction in humanities, particularly writing. Kid spontaneously does a lot of STEM but doesn’t read or write much unless pushed. Kid’s other parent also worries about safety in public. I don’t but obviously Dad gets a vote too.

Not worried about college, I figure it will work itself out.

FWIW, we had a similar kid who we knew would specialize in a STEM field. We encouraged the private high school due to the classes required there that really weren't available elsewhere, and that we knew DC would not pursue in college. DC chose a STEM college, and we were right: all the STEM stuff he loves is there for the taking in college, but there is no room in the schedule for the full breadth of what he was required to take in high school - humanities, Latin, classical ethics, art, music, drama, theology, film - all of which he loved, and he learn so much. He goes into his STEM specialization with a seriously well-rounded classical high school education. Plenty of kids in his college classes attended STEM magnets, and they are all on the same page with the STEM course work.

So, I'm glad we took that approach with his education.

I also think this approach makes a lot of sense, especially if there's no room in the schedule in a magnet for these types of classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are on the fence at my house. Kid is in 8th grade at a private that goes through 12 so we don’t need to wait for admissions.

From what I can tell, the magnet has more variety in STEM courses and he could spend a larger portion of his day on STEM which is what he loves. STEM extracurriculars are also stronger. Magnet also is closer to home, and has more diversity.

Private has higher quality instruction in humanities, particularly writing. Kid spontaneously does a lot of STEM but doesn’t read or write much unless pushed. Kid’s other parent also worries about safety in public. I don’t but obviously Dad gets a vote too.

Not worried about college, I figure it will work itself out.

What kind of safety concerns? I don't think you should worry about anything really serious like getting knifed or being in a fist-fight if you are talking about FCPS or MCPS. You can look at the statistics yourself. These incidents are really rare and it's unlikely your child will see any of these incidents much less be involved. But if you're talking about kids stealing things, roughly bumping other kids in the hallway on purpose, or making disparaging remarks that is something that can come up and your child should have be prepared to handle that. It's not like privates where you can leave your North Face jackets and airpods lying around and no one will touch them for weeks. If your child would find that upsetting I think you might want to hear the other parent's concerns out a bit more to make sure you and your child still feel comfortable.
GL PP!

I don’t have the same concerns, and he’s my ex so I am not hearing all the details. I think school shootings are a big factor in his thinking.

[Anonymous]

They do do shooter drills now. It's a depressing part of public education in 2024

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They do do shooter drills now. It's a depressing part of public education in 2024

Private schools do too.

Ex’s point is that even if we assume that kids at public and private are equally likely to be school shooters, a shooting is going to be ten times as likely at a 3K public school be a 300 student private. Which I do concede is probably true.

[Anonymous]

You're right he's right about that but I think the chances are still remote. The bigger worries should be about daily interactions. When DC switched from private to public it was different. There are more weapons at school and things like that but still felt okay in terms of safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They do do shooter drills now. It's a depressing part of public education in 2024

Private schools do too.

Ex’s point is that even if we assume that kids at public and private are equally likely to be school shooters, a shooting is going to be ten times as likely at a 3K public school be a 300 student private. Which I do concede is probably true.

Nah, but really what are the legit statistics? I'm sorry....but I don't hear a whole lot about private school shootings in the news! I'm sure statistically it's much safer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are on the fence at my house. Kid is in 8th grade at a private that goes through 12 so we don’t need to wait for admissions.

From what I can tell, the magnet has more variety in STEM courses and he could spend a larger portion of his day on STEM which is what he loves. STEM extracurriculars are also stronger. Magnet also is closer to home, and has more diversity.

Private has higher quality instruction in humanities, particularly writing. Kid spontaneously does a lot of STEM but doesn’t read or write much unless pushed. Kid’s other parent also worries about safety in public. I don’t but obviously Dad gets a vote too.

Not worried about college, I figure it will work itself out.

What kind of safety concerns? I don't think you should worry about anything really serious like getting knifed or being in a fist-fight if you are talking about FCPS or MCPS. You can look at the statistics yourself. These incidents are really rare and it's unlikely your child will see any of these incidents much less be involved. But if you're talking about kids stealing things, roughly bumping other kids in the hallway on purpose, or making disparaging remarks that is something that can come up and your child should have be prepared to handle that. It's not like privates where you can leave your North Face jackets and airpods lying around and no one will touch them for weeks. If your child would find that upsetting I think you might want to hear the other parent's concerns out a bit more to make sure you and your child still feel comfortable.
GL PP!

You are so wrong. I hate to say it but the fighting/danger in mcps is very real. I would choose private if you can afford to.

[Anonymous]

How so? What has your child experienced?