If you had a crystal ball...

[Anonymous]

I agree with pp. The really smart kids rise to the top at any public. And the kids with learning disabilities get plenty of attention too. But the middle 80% of kids - the general ed population - for those kids a private education with all the support structures is probably a better environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of the kids who go to a Sidwell, STA or NCA - the real - highly competitive academic schools may do better staying in public schools. Those are kids who are smart enough to excel in an above average environment but will fall below the top 5 percent in a the more more competitive academic environment. These are kids who score 2100 or above on SATs - have a B+ average but would had a 4.0 -4.5 in public school

Not so fast, it absolutely depends on the public school. You assume public schools offer an "average environment" and that a kid who gets Bs in a top private would get A's in a public school. This is not necessarily the case if the public school is Whitman, Wooton, Blair, BCC, Richard Montgomery or others. It might be hard to believe, but there are plenty of smart, hard-working kids at these schools who don't happen to have parents who can plunk down $40K/yr. Sure, public schools have to take kids of all intellectual abilities and tge discipline problems, but at the top of these and other schools is a solid core of smart, motivated kids. Where the difference may be is in the fewer legacy, political appointee, and really wealthy kids your DC would be competing against in a public school.

I've actually heard the opposite, FWIW. That private school is better for kids who wouldn't stand out in public, because of the individual attention and the vastly superior college counseling.

I may have been a little flip but I'm really thinking about the top academic private schools where the environment is highly competitive. I purposefully didn't refer to GDS - while it's a high caliber academic institution, it does not have the high level of competition that exists at Sidwell, NCS and STA. I say all of this as a parent of kids at some of these schools and as a graduate of one of these schools. GDS for instance is well known to have the best college counseling in the area - that school makes a huge effort to get smart but underperforming kids in to good colleges. I don't mean to make sweeping generalizations that disparage public schools. I just think that there is a very large group of kids at private schools would have a stronger academic record even at Whitman or its peers. For instance, private schools don't give 4.5's for an A in an honors course. The highest GPA you can get is a 4.0.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of the kids who go to a Sidwell, STA or NCA - the real - highly competitive academic schools may do better staying in public schools. Those are kids who are smart enough to excel in an above average environment but will fall below the top 5 percent in a the more more competitive academic environment. These are kids who score 2100 or above on SATs - have a B+ average but would had a 4.0 -4.5 in public school

Not so fast, it absolutely depends on the public school. You assume public schools offer an "average environment" and that a kid who gets Bs in a top private would get A's in a public school. This is not necessarily the case if the public school is Whitman, Wooton, Blair, BCC, Richard Montgomery or others. It might be hard to believe, but there are plenty of smart, hard-working kids at these schools who don't happen to have parents who can plunk down $40K/yr. Sure, public schools have to take kids of all intellectual abilities and tge discipline problems, but at the top of these and other schools is a solid core of smart, motivated kids. Where the difference may be is in the fewer legacy, political appointee, and really wealthy kids your DC would be competing against in a public school.

I've actually heard the opposite, FWIW. That private school is better for kids who wouldn't stand out in public, because of the individual attention and the vastly superior college counseling.

I may have been a little flip but I'm really thinking about the top academic private schools where the environment is highly competitive. I purposefully didn't refer to GDS - while it's a high caliber academic institution, it does not have the high level of competition that exists at Sidwell, NCS and STA. I say all of this as a parent of kids at some of these schools and as a graduate of one of these schools. GDS for instance is well known to have the best college counseling in the area - that school makes a huge effort to get smart but underperforming kids in to good colleges. I don't mean to make sweeping generalizations that disparage public schools. I just think that there is a very large group of kids at private schools would have a stronger academic record even at Whitman or its peers. For instance, private schools don't give 4.5's for an A in an honors course. The highest GPA you can get is a 4.0.

I'm the poster you're responding to, and I actually agree with you - there are plenty of smart kids at top DC schools who would do just as well at top area public schools, in terms of GPA and SAT scores within the graduating class distribution, at least. I'm not sure they'd get into as good colleges from public schools, because there's the lousy public school guidance counseling, but that's a different issue. My kids have been in public and private and I have seen super-smart and pretty average kids in both places. I was just responding to the idea that a so-so kid at a top school could transfer to Whitman and suddenly be at the top of the class - I think there'd be way too much competition from super-smart Whitman kids for that to happen.

FWIW, publics don't give 5.0 for an honors class. You only get a 5.0 for A in an AP class. More important, colleges look at unweighted GPA not weighted GPA, so the bump-up for AP classes doesn't help much.

[Anonymous]

life is a journey. i want my children to enjoy the ride not just the destination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:life is a journey. i want my children to enjoy the ride not just the destination.

Which can be done in a broad variety of schools, private and public, even magnets for the kids who love acceleration. Is there really any question about this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with pp. The really smart kids rise to the top at any public. And the kids with learning disabilities get plenty of attention too. But the middle 80% of kids - the general ed population - for those kids a private education with all the support structures is probably a better environment.

Bingo! My children are the middle 80%. That's why we switched to private.

[Anonymous]

Smaller schools, yes, that's almost always private, give a higher percentage of their students the chance to participate in leadership roles at the school. This is helpful in life, regardless of the "competitiveness" of the university one may attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of the kids who go to a Sidwell, STA or NCA - the real - highly competitive academic schools may do better staying in public schools. Those are kids who are smart enough to excel in an above average environment but will fall below the top 5 percent in a the more more competitive academic environment. These are kids who score 2100 or above on SATs - have a B+ average but would had a 4.0 -4.5 in public school

Not so fast, it absolutely depends on the public school. You assume public schools offer an "average environment" and that a kid who gets Bs in a top private would get A's in a public school. This is not necessarily the case if the public school is Whitman, Wooton, Blair, BCC, Richard Montgomery or others. It might be hard to believe, but there are plenty of smart, hard-working kids at these schools who don't happen to have parents who can plunk down $40K/yr. Sure, public schools have to take kids of all intellectual abilities and tge discipline problems, but at the top of these and other schools is a solid core of smart, motivated kids. Where the difference may be is in the fewer legacy, political appointee, and really wealthy kids your DC would be competing against in a public school.

I've actually heard the opposite, FWIW. That private school is better for kids who wouldn't stand out in public, because of the individual attention and the vastly superior college counseling.

I may have been a little flip but I'm really thinking about the top academic private schools where the environment is highly competitive. I purposefully didn't refer to GDS - while it's a high caliber academic institution, it does not have the high level of competition that exists at Sidwell, NCS and STA. I say all of this as a parent of kids at some of these schools and as a graduate of one of these schools. GDS for instance is well known to have the best college counseling in the area - that school makes a huge effort to get smart but underperforming kids in to good colleges. I don't mean to make sweeping generalizations that disparage public schools. I just think that there is a very large group of kids at private schools would have a stronger academic record even at Whitman or its peers. For instance, private schools don't give 4.5's for an A in an honors course. The highest GPA you can get is a 4.0.

The fallacy here is that colleges compare the GPAs of kids at private schools that dob't give A+s with kids at public schools that do. The colleges are familiar with the grading system at each school and look at the applicants within the context of their current school. They don't compare GPAs from different schools with different grading systems.

[Anonymous]

For me, you know it when you see it. There are just certain places that you know would be great for your child-- for whatever reason. And I mean actually great for the kid now, not for some future attainment of wealth/status/college admissions. So not that private is better or worse or whatever, it's just that for right now, this particular place is great for a child. When that changes or ends, we'll find another place, public or private that feels the same way.

[Anonymous]

Something that colors my own views is my own personal experience in public and private schools. I spent most of my school career at a very highly regarded public school, consistently ranked as one of the top handful in the state where I grew up. I took all the honors classes and did extremely well without actually trying very hard. For high school, my parents switched me to a top private school in the area. At the private school, I found many more academically advanced students, the workload was much more challenging, and I had to learn much better study habits to get similar grades.

The world certainly has changed a lot in 25 years, and I don't know whether the public/private dynamic I experienced has changed. However, I know it affects how I view things.

Absolutely nothing wrong with public schools. And certainly every school is different. Maybe my experience would have been entirely different if I'd come from MoCo HGC public school, and attended a less challenging private school. But my experience certainly shaped my views.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of the kids who go to a Sidwell, STA or NCA - the real - highly competitive academic schools may do better staying in public schools. Those are kids who are smart enough to excel in an above average environment but will fall below the top 5 percent in a the more more competitive academic environment. These are kids who score 2100 or above on SATs - have a B+ average but would had a 4.0 -4.5 in public school

Not so fast, it absolutely depends on the public school. You assume public schools offer an "average environment" and that a kid who gets Bs in a top private would get A's in a public school. This is not necessarily the case if the public school is Whitman, Wooton, Blair, BCC, Richard Montgomery or others. It might be hard to believe, but there are plenty of smart, hard-working kids at these schools who don't happen to have parents who can plunk down $40K/yr. Sure, public schools have to take kids of all intellectual abilities and tge discipline problems, but at the top of these and other schools is a solid core of smart, motivated kids. Where the difference may be is in the fewer legacy, political appointee, and really wealthy kids your DC would be competing against in a public school.

I've actually heard the opposite, FWIW. That private school is better for kids who wouldn't stand out in public, because of the individual attention and the vastly superior college counseling.

I may have been a little flip but I'm really thinking about the top academic private schools where the environment is highly competitive. I purposefully didn't refer to GDS - while it's a high caliber academic institution, it does not have the high level of competition that exists at Sidwell, NCS and STA. I say all of this as a parent of kids at some of these schools and as a graduate of one of these schools. GDS for instance is well known to have the best college counseling in the area - that school makes a huge effort to get smart but underperforming kids in to good colleges. I don't mean to make sweeping generalizations that disparage public schools. I just think that there is a very large group of kids at private schools would have a stronger academic record even at Whitman or its peers. For instance, private schools don't give 4.5's for an A in an honors course. The highest GPA you can get is a 4.0.

The fallacy here is that colleges compare the GPAs of kids at private schools that dob't give A+s with kids at public schools that do. The colleges are familiar with the grading system at each school and look at the applicants within the context of their current school. They don't compare GPAs from different schools with different grading systems.

I disagree. I think there is a lot of grade inflation at public schools (driven by local and federal government policies). A kid who is a B student at a private school can often be an A student in public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:.

I may have been a little flip but I'm really thinking about the top academic private schools where the environment is highly competitive. I purposefully didn't refer to GDS - while it's a high caliber academic institution, it does not have the high level of competition that exists at Sidwell, NCS and STA. I say all of this as a parent of kids at some of these schools and as a graduate of one of these schools. GDS for instance is well known to have the best college counseling in the area - that school makes a huge effort to get smart but underperforming kids in to good colleges. I don't mean toO make sweeping generalizations that disparage public schools. I just think that there is a very large group of kids at private schools would have a stronger academic record even at Whitman or its peers. For instance, private schools don't give 4.5's for an A in an honors course. The highest GPA you can get is a 4.0.

The fallacy here is that colleges compare the GPAs of kids at private schools that dob't give A+s with kids at public schools that do. The colleges are familiar with the grading system at each school and look at the applicants within the context of their current school. They don't compare GPAs from different schools with different grading systems.

I disagree. I think there is a lot of grade inflation at public schools (driven by local and federal government policies). A kid who is a B student at a private school can often be an A student in public.

What are you basing this on, do you have a kid in public HS or is this more your opinion? Because DC and friends at Sidwell, top area publics compare notes and DC thinks the opposite is true. There's no top school admin official in DC, MoCo or VA issuing edicts to teachers to hand out A's. But private school teachers have to answer to private school parents who don't want that C to keep Johnny out of Cornell. I've seen that dynamic in action....

[Anonymous]

I don't think about college when applying. I want a good fit for my children, where they can develop into the best learners and young adults. University will fall into place, as it should, when they are ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I disagree. I think there is a lot of grade inflation at public schools (driven by local and federal government policies). A kid who is a B student at a private school can often be an A student in public.

Dream on! Absolutely wrong.

[Anonymous]

Is it maybe that if there is a problem with your kid-- or maybe a smart kid who isn't doing as well as they should, there is more spring to action at a private.. All hands on deck. Some kids would just do well anywhere-- but if you can afford it, why chance it? Thoughts?