Does going to a Big 3 school really help with college admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If in the top 10% of the class, yes, they will be in good shape. After that, no, I don't think it confers much advantage these days.

I agree with this. The problem being that it's really not easy to be in the top 10%. Pretty much everyone at a big3 for high school is very smart. Being in the top 10% is reserved for kids who study non-stop at the expense of almost everything else.
I'm beginning to realize that college admissions-wise my kids my kids would have been better off or just as good in public. They're well rounded kids--they work hard and do well in school, they play travel sports, they volunteer, they have active social lives---
but they're not going to be in the top 10%. That is reserved for the kids who are compulsive about school (more power to them but it's not most kids).

Curious. Does this really work? Denigrating other kids to rationalize your own kids mediocrity?

The top 10% kids at our school are all well rounded and play sports and do theater. That’s how they all get into top 10 schools. You don’t get in just studying all the time.

Do you know why your kid didn’t make the top 10%? They just weren’t smart enough. But continue living in your fantasy world.

+1 Having known kids who went to Ivy League, they didn’t just have top grades. They had various hobbies and excelled at them too. Incredible drive, passion, and intelligence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely but helps the bottom 90% more than the top 10%

How so, PP? Not snark, genuinely curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree. The kids at top public HS in MoCo, VA are very bright too. Their parents aren’t paying $40k/year for school—but these kids are as bright or brighter than Big 3 and have SAT scores and AP credits through the roof. You have to remember in this area, kids are coming from homes from parents with multiple degrees, PhD, law, medical, MBA, etc. that do choose strong public schools. It’s different than areas that the only option is private. It’s the Lake Wobegon effect. The same in places like Palo Alto.

+100 to this and the other poster about public HS in Ffx. Arlington,Montgomery counties.

The top 10% of all of these schools study hard and its extremely competitive. These aren’t kids that get into a school merely based on tradition or a family name and don’t have much under the hood.

It’s insulting and insular to think only top students at a Big 3 work that hard. Your kid would fail out of TJ.

Let me be more blunt. Lady, your kid ain’t that bright. It’s time to come to terms with the fact that she’s not as brilliant as you thought she was. Damn those top 10% nerds and all their studying/hard work.

[Anonymous]

Only 10 percent of Big 3 seniors end up at top undergrads?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely but helps the bottom 90% more than the top 10%

How so, PP? Not snark, genuinely curious.

Sub 15% admission rate schools are a deal shoot for almost anyone. But the next tier is much more forgiving of private students who .at fall in their lowest cohort in terms of gpa/test scores. So many schools that should be "reaches" are more !like "matches" in terms of actual results

[Anonymous]

*crapshoot, not deal shoot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a parent who has spent $$$$ on a top flight non DC private. I think the answer is no. One factor you haven’t considered is that parents like me are more likely to be top school alums themselves. Between all those factors, I think it doesn’t much change admissions outcomes. And it certainly isn’t why I pay for private.

+1 on all counts. I’m sure my kid would look extra appealing if he were coming from our (terrible) zoned school... but it ain’t worth it. I’d rather have him go to a lower tier college after having had a great secondary school experience.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if I if it does but that’s not why I sent my kid to one. It’s a better education though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree. The kids at top public HS in MoCo, VA are very bright too. Their parents aren’t paying $40k/year for school—but these kids are as bright or brighter than Big 3 and have SAT scores and AP credits through the roof. You have to remember in this area, kids are coming from homes from parents with multiple degrees, PhD, law, medical, MBA, etc. that do choose strong public schools. It’s different than areas that the only option is private. It’s the Lake Wobegon effect. The same in places like Palo Alto.

+100 to this and the other poster about public HS in Ffx. Arlington,Montgomery counties.

The top 10% of all of these schools study hard and its extremely competitive. These aren’t kids that get into a school merely based on tradition or a family name and don’t have much under the hood.

It’s insulting and insular to think only top students at a Big 3 work that hard. Your kid would fail out of TJ.

Let me be more blunt. Lady, your kid ain’t that bright. It’s time to come to terms with the fact that she’s not as brilliant as you thought she was. Damn those top 10% nerds and all their studying/hard work.

This is not true. I've had kids at both TJ and a Big 3 and the workload is equivalent. The difference is that the intense classes at TJ tend to be STEM-focused and the intense classes at the Big 3 tend to be humanities/social science-focused. Each of my kids - whether at TJ or private - are doing 3-4 hours of homework/night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Controlling for things like standardized test scores, athletic ability, legacy status, underrepresented minority status, and accomplishment in extracurricular activities, does going to a Big 3 school help students get into very selective colleges?

I've heard parents at MoCo public schools, especially the ones other than Whitman and BCC, say the answer is yes. They point to the fact that some colleges almost never accept students from certain public schools that churn out high achievers every year.

I've also heard parents at Big 3 schools say the answer is no. They say that students who would be at the top of some other school end up in the middle at a Big 3 schools and get rejected more often than they should. They also say that Big 3 schools have lots of students whose parents went to Harvard and Yale, etc., which means they get the benefit of more legacy admissions.

Let the fireworks begin!

No one knows. Insufficient data.

[Anonymous]

^ you essentially agree with the posters main point though. Top 10% at good public’s are working just as hard and are just as bright as the kids at $45k+ per year Big 3s. I can understand the bitterness that they feel when they realize all that $ paid didn’t confer an admission advantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ you essentially agree with the posters main point though. Top 10% at good public’s are working just as hard and are just as bright as the kids at $45k+ per year Big 3s. I can understand the bitterness that they feel when they realize all that $ paid didn’t confer an admission advantage.

*publics
Autocorrect

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree. The kids at top public HS in MoCo, VA are very bright too. Their parents aren’t paying $40k/year for school—but these kids are as bright or brighter than Big 3 and have SAT scores and AP credits through the roof. You have to remember in this area, kids are coming from homes from parents with multiple degrees, PhD, law, medical, MBA, etc. that do choose strong public schools. It’s different than areas that the only option is private. It’s the Lake Wobegon effect. The same in places like Palo Alto.

+100 to this and the other poster about public HS in Ffx. Arlington,Montgomery counties.

The top 10% of all of these schools study hard and its extremely competitive. These aren’t kids that get into a school merely based on tradition or a family name and don’t have much under the hood.

It’s insulting and insular to think only top students at a Big 3 work that hard. Your kid would fail out of TJ.

Let me be more blunt. Lady, your kid ain’t that bright. It’s time to come to terms with the fact that she’s not as brilliant as you thought she was. Damn those top 10% nerds and all their studying/hard work.

This is not true. I've had kids at both TJ and a Big 3 and the workload is equivalent. The difference is that the intense classes at TJ tend to be STEM-focused and the intense classes at the Big 3 tend to be humanities/social science-focused. Each of my kids - whether at TJ or private - are doing 3-4 hours of homework/night.

The jobs are not in social science/humanities. Better to be a STEM major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ you essentially agree with the posters main point though. Top 10% at good public’s are working just as hard and are just as bright as the kids at $45k+ per year Big 3s. I can understand the bitterness that they feel when they realize all that $ paid didn’t confer an admission advantage.

I don’t see how you get there. There is no reliable data as far as I know on matriculation from private or public schools much less the additional data you’d need to normalize for the other factors. The second and third sentences of your post are not logically connected. I would assume the second sentence is true. I don’t know about the third, and if you’re being honest, you don’t either.

What I would agree with is that you shouldn’t send your kid to private school based solely on the belief in that it confers an advantage in college admissions. Not because I think it doesn’t confer an advantage but because you can’t be sure that it does.

[Anonymous]

What isn't often discussed, but should be is that if you can fully pay for university and don't need any financial aid, you get an edge up in admissions. Most kids at a Big 3 have parents who can fully pay AND are willing to fully pay for private college. All thing being equal if you have two kids with similar stats, the full pay kid is going to be admitted.

It really is affirmative action for rich people. Most people have to fully pay. Our HHI is around $175,000. We can't pay for a Big 3 or private university.