Do you think your top 20% kid in private schools would fare better if done in public, in terms of college outcomes

[Anonymous]

No.

Public schools are better for STEM, and public schools are full of super achiever Asians. So the top 20% of private school will probably rank in the middle of the grade in public.

Buy, hey, you can try it of you want.

[Anonymous]

No. DS attended a Catholic HS which was a strong feeder to his first choice school(s) namely Notre Dame and Boston College. ND is a tough admit out of MCPS, so we are confident the outcome would not have been as good out of public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think up until a few years ago, your analysis would be correct OP: I think top students at public schools were relatively likely to do a little bit better than similarly situated peers at private schools, particularly coming from schools like Jackson-Reed rather than Whitman. Of course there is a lot of noise. I think test optional has changed the game a little, what I noticed as we went though the last couple of cycles is that the kids from our high-end private did somewhat better than expected. In a perverse but predictable development, I think kids at private schools were in some ways seen as a safer bet because colleges can rely on grades a a bit more reliably, and better college counseling/essay coaching resources make more of a difference in a text optional world. Just another equity measure that backfired and really served the interests of the connected, the well-resourced, and those with superior skills in gaming the system. Just my opinion, of course, as one who has recently been through this process.

I’m not going to dig up the article, but there was an NYT piece a year or so ago about the backlash against test optional admissions that had data to back up your observation. Going to test optional indeed hurts minority kids, poorer kids, and others coming from public schools.

But does the test optional policy not matter or even help you if you’re a high achieving public school student who got a 1590 on the SAT?

[Anonymous]

No, our public would have been a disaster for our student. They would have been miserable and unable to do as well academically.

[Anonymous]

From our experience Catholic HS is much more rigorous than public. Even the standard level courses can be demanding and require more work and thorough understanding of the subject material than an AP in public. (DCPS - one kid who just finished public and 1 currently in catholic)

[Anonymous]

It depends on the public high school. The top 20 percent of students at schools like Whitman, Langley, and the magnets are at a different level, particularly in math and science. They all have GPAs well north of 4.0, scores above 1500, and often really outstanding ECs. Pre-Covid, these students did really well when it came to college admissions.

However, test optional threw things asunder. Widespread grade inflation helped no one. And it's now difficult for these students to distinguish themselves from their peers. And now with widespread cuts to federal funding, I think private school students again have an advantage. Whether stated or not, obvious full pay applicants will likely rise to the top of the pile at a lot of schools. And it's easier for students in small private schools to cultivate more unique applications. But for raw brain power, talent and drive, the top 20 percent of students at the well resourced public schools are usually leaps and bounds ahead of the private school students in the DC area, especially in STEM. But for college admissions at present, I think the advantage is with private school students today, except for those applying to engineering. The public school students still have an advantage there.

[Anonymous]

No, this is a coping mechanism of parents in private. My kid’s very good public school gets maybe one kid a year into Yale OR Harvard, some years none. The kid is generally extraordinary (this year, a single kid got in both: a musician winning *global competitions* with perfect grades and SAT scores). Meanwhile excellent kids not at that level get in from private, sometimes a few in a class. Schools take less impressive candidates from private all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The same unhooked kid.
They may get in what, Georgetown Cornell perhaps Duke or Williams, in private schools. Would they get in HYP if done in public?
Why, or why not?

They likely wouldn’t get into any of them from public, assuming the same socioeconomics. These are all harder from public. Williams takes one from our class of 409, at most, and about 30 apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, this is a coping mechanism of parents in private. My kid’s very good public school gets maybe one kid a year into Yale OR Harvard, some years none. The kid is generally extraordinary (this year, a single kid got in both: a musician winning *global competitions* with perfect grades and SAT scores). Meanwhile excellent kids not at that level get in from private, sometimes a few in a class. Schools take less impressive candidates from private all the time.

I’m not sure why I need a coping mechanism. We made the choice to send our children to private schools for a lot of reasons, with college admissions simply being one of them.

Our child got into her top school. I suspect she would have if she went to a public high school, as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, this is a coping mechanism of parents in private. My kid’s very good public school gets maybe one kid a year into Yale OR Harvard, some years none. The kid is generally extraordinary (this year, a single kid got in both: a musician winning *global competitions* with perfect grades and SAT scores). Meanwhile excellent kids not at that level get in from private, sometimes a few in a class. Schools take less impressive candidates from private all the time.

I’m not sure why I need a coping mechanism. We made the choice to send our children to private schools for a lot of reasons, with college admissions simply being one of them.

Our child got into her top school. I suspect she would have if she went to a public high school, as well.

Because it’s said all the time by private school parents, but the bias clearly runs the other way — a top UMC kid from public probably would get into better schools had she been coming from private. That is changing, but it’s still true. You only have to look at the percentages of kids from private high schools at top universities to see how overrepresented they are.

[Anonymous]

Public schools are far more competitive in this region.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Valedictorians at DCPS have their choice of Harvard, Princeton, Stanford. Not the case for many privates.

But there education was built on DCPS. What about k-11 private, than 12th grade DCPS?

Kids whose parents do this to them (K-10 private, then 11-12 public) typically end up doing horribly in public school because they cannot handle it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The same unhooked kid.
They may get in what, Georgetown Cornell perhaps Duke or Williams, in private schools. Would they get in HYP if done in public?
Why, or why not?

They likely wouldn’t get into any of them from public, assuming the same socioeconomics. These are all harder from public. Williams takes one from our class of 409, at most, and about 30 apply.

Talk about not getting the point. The elite colleges have determined that the private schools in your area offer better qualified candidates.

[Anonymous]

You can really tell when a topic has triggered the public school parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, this is a coping mechanism of parents in private. My kid’s very good public school gets maybe one kid a year into Yale OR Harvard, some years none. The kid is generally extraordinary (this year, a single kid got in both: a musician winning *global competitions* with perfect grades and SAT scores). Meanwhile excellent kids not at that level get in from private, sometimes a few in a class. Schools take less impressive candidates from private all the time.

So your answer is yes, private schools do better with college placement, which was what op’s question was.