Well rounded and rigorous or specialised high school?

[Anonymous]

We were in this same position and ultimately went private. Student would have been top 10% of their class at the STEM magnet with all As and would have had an identical transcript to most of his classmates. They would have needed to really stand out with EC and essay to be competitive against his own peers. We would have been left to navigate this college admissions nightmare ourselves at the magnet.

Private
Pros:
-Will gain better writing skills
-More hands on college counseling
-Opportunity for activities that weren't available at the public- swimming & crew
-Student thrives with 1 on 1 relationships/intimate settings
- Every alumni we spoke with or know personally said that college was a breeze and they were able to absorb so many more elements of their experience because they were "overly prepared" for college.
- More opportunities to travel abroad
-Focus on unique opportunities within the community
-More funding for STEM/special interests

Private
Cons:
-Student won't be in the top of the class, we expect B's with some As.
-APs aren't "standard" and they're more difficult to register for.
-Weaker STEM program/robotics team
-long drive
-Less $$ saved up for college



We thought about a million different scenarios and we kept circling back to the fact that we want our student to feel the most prepared to achieve their goals when they step out independently. We just didn't see that quality support happening at the magnet.

[Anonymous]

Excelling from your ordinary neighborhood public HS means more to these prestige colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Option 1.

Definately, because they might change their mind in HS about interests. Would suck to be at a STEM HS if your kid now decides they want to follow anything not-stem

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were in this same position and ultimately went private. Student would have been top 10% of their class at the STEM magnet with all As and would have had an identical transcript to most of his classmates. They would have needed to really stand out with EC and essay to be competitive against his own peers. We would have been left to navigate this college admissions nightmare ourselves at the magnet.

Private
Pros:
-Will gain better writing skills
-More hands on college counseling
-Opportunity for activities that weren't available at the public- swimming & crew
-Student thrives with 1 on 1 relationships/intimate settings
- Every alumni we spoke with or know personally said that college was a breeze and they were able to absorb so many more elements of their experience because they were "overly prepared" for college.
- More opportunities to travel abroad
-Focus on unique opportunities within the community
-More funding for STEM/special interests

Private
Cons:
-Student won't be in the top of the class, we expect B's with some As.
-APs aren't "standard" and they're more difficult to register for.
-Weaker STEM program/robotics team
-long drive
-Less $$ saved up for college



We thought about a million different scenarios and we kept circling back to the fact that we want our student to feel the most prepared to achieve their goals when they step out independently. We just didn't see that quality support happening at the magnet.

I think this is a good list, but if your kid plans to major in a STEM field in college, I am not sure how to interpret the above.

I am not aware of any private school that overly prepares you for most college-level STEM fields. I could be wrong.

The reality is that at even at top colleges, it is not that hard to find an interesting class to fill a humanities requirement that doesn't require reading 5 books a week and writing 30-page papers each week. There are plenty of classes that might have you write three, 5-10 page pagers all semester and you read a couple of books.

So, I absolutely understand if you sign up for an intense college English class with lots of reading and papers...but that is a choice for a STEM major, not a requirement.

[Anonymous]

Kids who can actually code and make stuff in the tech world are just killing it in the job market. No one cares if you can read war and peace and write an essay about it anymore. But if you know c++ and python and have dabbled in multi variable calc and linear algebra by age 18? That is so valuable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were in this same position and ultimately went private. Student would have been top 10% of their class at the STEM magnet with all As and would have had an identical transcript to most of his classmates. They would have needed to really stand out with EC and essay to be competitive against his own peers. We would have been left to navigate this college admissions nightmare ourselves at the magnet.

Private
Pros:
-Will gain better writing skills
-More hands on college counseling
-Opportunity for activities that weren't available at the public- swimming & crew
-Student thrives with 1 on 1 relationships/intimate settings
- Every alumni we spoke with or know personally said that college was a breeze and they were able to absorb so many more elements of their experience because they were "overly prepared" for college.
- More opportunities to travel abroad
-Focus on unique opportunities within the community
-More funding for STEM/special interests

Private
Cons:
-Student won't be in the top of the class, we expect B's with some As.
-APs aren't "standard" and they're more difficult to register for.
-Weaker STEM program/robotics team
-long drive
-Less $$ saved up for college



We thought about a million different scenarios and we kept circling back to the fact that we want our student to feel the most prepared to achieve their goals when they step out independently. We just didn't see that quality support happening at the magnet.

I think this is a good list, but if your kid plans to major in a STEM field in college, I am not sure how to interpret the above.

I am not aware of any private school that overly prepares you for most college-level STEM fields. I could be wrong.

The reality is that at even at top colleges, it is not that hard to find an interesting class to fill a humanities requirement that doesn't require reading 5 books a week and writing 30-page papers each week. There are plenty of classes that might have you write three, 5-10 page pagers all semester and you read a couple of books.

So, I absolutely understand if you sign up for an intense college English class with lots of reading and papers...but that is a choice for a STEM major, not a requirement.

PP here- for any research in the STEM field, technical writing is a big piece of it. The magnet we looked at did produce some decent senior capstone projects, but we didn't want to pigeon hole them if they decided they were no longer interested in STEM.

[Anonymous]

If it's a top tier public STEM magnet like TJ or Bronx Science and they have any interest in STEM, go to the magnet. The non STEM courses are great there and they have sports there too. Unless you are very wealthy and their interest is in the humanities, then go private. There is a backlash against too many private school students getting accepted to the same college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were in this same position and ultimately went private. Student would have been top 10% of their class at the STEM magnet with all As and would have had an identical transcript to most of his classmates. They would have needed to really stand out with EC and essay to be competitive against his own peers. We would have been left to navigate this college admissions nightmare ourselves at the magnet.

Private
Pros:
-Will gain better writing skills
-More hands on college counseling
-Opportunity for activities that weren't available at the public- swimming & crew
-Student thrives with 1 on 1 relationships/intimate settings
- Every alumni we spoke with or know personally said that college was a breeze and they were able to absorb so many more elements of their experience because they were "overly prepared" for college.
- More opportunities to travel abroad
-Focus on unique opportunities within the community
-More funding for STEM/special interests

Private
Cons:
-Student won't be in the top of the class, we expect B's with some As.
-APs aren't "standard" and they're more difficult to register for.
-Weaker STEM program/robotics team
-long drive
-Less $$ saved up for college



We thought about a million different scenarios and we kept circling back to the fact that we want our student to feel the most prepared to achieve their goals when they step out independently. We just didn't see that quality support happening at the magnet.

I think this is a good list, but if your kid plans to major in a STEM field in college, I am not sure how to interpret the above.

I am not aware of any private school that overly prepares you for most college-level STEM fields. I could be wrong.

The reality is that at even at top colleges, it is not that hard to find an interesting class to fill a humanities requirement that doesn't require reading 5 books a week and writing 30-page papers each week. There are plenty of classes that might have you write three, 5-10 page pagers all semester and you read a couple of books.

So, I absolutely understand if you sign up for an intense college English class with lots of reading and papers...but that is a choice for a STEM major, not a requirement.

PP here- for any research in the STEM field, technical writing is a big piece of it. The magnet we looked at did produce some decent senior capstone projects, but we didn't want to pigeon hole them if they decided they were no longer interested in STEM.

I hear you...but my STEM college kid can technical write like nobody's business, but they are avoiding any 30-page paper humanities classes.

If you ask them to write up an analysis of Nvidia's next generation process vs. the AMD processor (I am not a tech person...forgive my basic example), they can literally produce a 20-page treatise in like 3 hours.

[Anonymous]

It really is going to depend on where you live and where your kid wants to go to college. Are you in New York State for instance? California? Michigan? Texas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
- Every alumni we spoke with or know personally said that college was a breeze and they were able to absorb so many more elements of their experience because they were "overly prepared" for college.

OP here. I agree that they are better prepared, in terms of rigour.

However, a student graduating from tech magnet will have probably 2 computer science APs, some programming classes, certifications.

In contrast, a student graduating from this private will have maybe one or two electives in programming plus whatever they did outside of school which is not going to be as much because they have very little free time past 9th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It really is going to depend on where you live and where your kid wants to go to college. Are you in New York State for instance? California? Michigan? Texas?

Alabama

[Anonymous]

The colleges will be outside AL - Northeast or North.

[Anonymous]

We took the road less traveled and let our child choose a public magnet performing arts high school. He has decided not to go into the arts (his talent is music) and his high school
choice may limit his college options somewhat (ask me in a year but he’s had a solid academic education and stellar grades so fingers crossed) but he is happy and thriving and I wouldn’t trade these past three school years for anything in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
- Every alumni we spoke with or know personally said that college was a breeze and they were able to absorb so many more elements of their experience because they were "overly prepared" for college.

OP here. I agree that they are better prepared, in terms of rigour.

However, a student graduating from tech magnet will have probably 2 computer science APs, some programming classes, certifications.

In contrast, a student graduating from this private will have maybe one or two electives in programming plus whatever they did outside of school which is not going to be as much because they have very little free time past 9th grade.

Neither of those really matter for college admissions in the face of USACO et. al; and neither really matter for personal development in the face of CS50 and the many many self-paced programming courses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP here. I agree that they are better prepared, in terms of rigour.

However, a student graduating from tech magnet will have probably 2 computer science APs, some programming classes, certifications.

In contrast, a student graduating from this private will have maybe one or two electives in programming plus whatever they did outside of school which is not going to be as much because they have very little free time past 9th grade.

Honestly, it's the math courses the STEM colleges look at. As long as they offer AB/BC calc, the electives shouldn't matter as much. As long as they pursue a rigorous math track, they should be aligned with most STEM tracks.