Regretting private high school investment because of colleges want more public school graduates

[Anonymous]

You posters are ridiculous. You should be embarrassed.

[Anonymous]

Barking up wrong tree. Success is tied to parents education and income. So, if it was the case that kids in privates do better it really has nothing to do with being in private school. It's because private school kids likely have parents who are highly educated and with high income. Incidentally however, no research confirms that private school kids get into better colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Both kids in private and yes, we mostly did it because it was the best fit for them. I just don’t understand why the best fit reason AND the best college admissions prospect reason for going private have to be mutually exclusive!
By the time both kids graduate, we would have spent over $500k in tuition per child. Way more if you consider that the money could’ve been invested in a fund that earned interest over the years. So yes, for that price, I want to have my cake and eat it too.
I’d be upset if, after all that investment , colleges put my kid at a disadvantage purely because they are at a private.

If I spend $1m on a car, should I be upset that it doesn't come with a free house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Been told by our college counselor that this year colleges are turning away from selecting most private high school kids because of their privileged education. That you now have a better chance coming from a public high school with good grades and top scores and activities. There’s no advantage anymore paying more money for private. None at all.

So for those of you looking to go private, don’t waste your money. Your private school kid, despite top gpa and test scores, will probably will be bumped in favor of someone from a good public school.

Regrets, regrets, regrets…

You can always send your kid to public right before college applications. Better yet, an underperforming one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t waste my money. My kid got a MUCH better education in private school. I know because I teach at the public HS he is zoned for. The difference in academic and behavioral expectations is night and day.

Even in STEM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are bunch of drama queens on this thread.

Public schools are not unilaterally in shambles people, come on. Ask any parent or kid at a higher achieving school in MCPS or FCPS or at Walls or similar and you will see: high achieving kids anywhere have similar outcomes. Account for wealth and SES, even more so.

The PP touting a 30% ivy admit rate would find that a similar demographic of kids at NCS and Churchill, or Bullis and Whitman, are going to have very similar outcomes.

Public schools are great for some kids, and the more people who send their kids to public school the stronger our schools are for it as a public good. That said, opting out for private schools is better for some kids and I don't wholly begrudge that, but you are being dishonest if you think that private schools aren't part of a larger societal problem, or that school shootings can only happen in public schools.

Do what is best for your family. But you're ignorant and short-sighted if you think private school alone is going to get your kid into Yale, or if you think dumb kids from public school took your kid's spot, or if you think all public schools are bad and all private schools are better. Be a little more honest and rigorous in your analysis.

Genuine question - how are privates a part of a larger societal problem?

Using Fairfax County as example, there are nearly 100 private schools with over 20,000 students enrolled. The average cost to educate a student in FCPS is $19,750. If we got rid of privates, these +20K students would cost FCPS another $400M and that doesn’t include cost of building additional classrooms. These private school families are already paying property and state income taxes that fund the public schools so, you can’t expect them to pay more. If anything, they are freeing up resources for public schools students.

I think you know but if you genuinely don't, I can explain.

The majority of parents who choose private school are weathier, and relatedly, value education. Basically all of the high-risk, low-SES, underperforming kids in the country attend public schools. Opting out of public school makes public schools lose resources, affects the demographics of a school or system, and perpetuates a growing divide. It's a classic example of valuing individuals over communities, which we would probably ALL do, but it's not good for society. To. be fair, moving to a "good school district" which almost always has higher priced housing is the same concept. We made this choice, so I am not attacking anyone. But all of us are smart enough to recognize that these things create problems, specifically for disadvantaged black and brown kids at scale.

How do the schools lose resources? They still get the rich families' tax money. Keep in mind that the richest families also tend to be the savvyest at being the squeaky wheel to get more attention and school resources than other families, so them leaving also frees a disproportionate amount of teacher/admin time.

[Anonymous]

They specifically want more low-income private school graduates. Sending your kids to MoCo publics won't cut it. A decent strategy might be to send your kids to Jackson-Reed, get the easy 4.5 weighted GPA and make sure they're a "superstar" in the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They specifically want more low-income private school graduates. Sending your kids to MoCo publics won't cut it. A decent strategy might be to send your kids to Jackson-Reed, get the easy 4.5 weighted GPA and make sure they're a "superstar" in the school.

After going through metal detectors for 4 years, no thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They specifically want more low-income private school graduates. Sending your kids to MoCo publics won't cut it. A decent strategy might be to send your kids to Jackson-Reed, get the easy 4.5 weighted GPA and make sure they're a "superstar" in the school.

Have you seen JR’s recent college matriculations on IG? They’re not impressive. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

[Anonymous]

Why do colleges want more public school students?

[Anonymous]

OMG this is a crazy thread for so many reasons. It is generally just very very difficult to get in from public or private, as a non-athlete, non first generation, non international student is basically competing for 30 percent of total slots for a male student, or 30 perrcent of total slots as a female student. (Or nonbinary etc).

First, has your college counselor mentioned that colleges are looking for 20 percent first generation college students? This basically is mostly 100 percent publicly school category.

Then, schools are about 12 percent athlete - this is a mix but I would guess favors families with financial resources to competitively train students and/or kids already receuited to atheletics and gettinf scholarship money in privates (so at least half private).

Then, international students (another 10 percent) - theae are not US public achool kids.

So that leaves you with remaining about 55-60 percent of school - probably a mix of public and private - of which 30 perdent to boys and 30 percent to girls.

So already, it is a small pool, and then divided down to evenly distribute majors.

The main reason to potentially regret private school is if you can’t afford it and have blown off saving for retirement in exchange for private as the odds are against your child either way competing for 30 percent of spots. If it were about the outcome, alone, you would know there is no guarantee here and save the money and invest it for yoir kid.

I am pro public and pro private - i chose private for my kid because of the social emotional development, whole child education, not because of outcome, as that is not guaranteed either in private or public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Been told by our college counselor that this year colleges are turning away from selecting most private high school kids because of their privileged education. That you now have a better chance coming from a public high school with good grades and top scores and activities. There’s no advantage anymore paying more money for private. None at all.

So for those of you looking to go private, don’t waste your money. Your private school kid, despite top gpa and test scores, will probably will be bumped in favor of someone from a good public school.

Regrets, regrets, regrets…

This is one of the dumbest reasons to choose private in the first place. For us, it would about the community of students, parents, teachers. Teachers who went above and beyond for my son over the course of 4 years outside of the classroom. An outstanding community of students that provided a network of friends and confidants. And a group of parents who also went above and beyond to help the students. Not to mention the administration, who also made the school a great place.

He got an outstanding education and is well prepared for college (as was my older son).

I see the kids from our local public floundering in college because of the lack of preparation for things like finals or grading that isn't overinflated. They freak out in college due to having actual homework. I also see some of the peer influences in public, along with the ridiculous curriculum and policies and I think every day that education was worth every penny.

And I'm sorry but this college counselor is full of it and is CYA that their schools rep may not be what you thought it was. Or their work wasn't as stellar as you paid them to be. I see plenty of kids from our private going to great schools, so I call BS. It's what you need to tell yourself that your sweet snowflake didn't get everything they wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Both kids in private and yes, we mostly did it because it was the best fit for them. I just don’t understand why the best fit reason AND the best college admissions prospect reason for going private have to be mutually exclusive!
By the time both kids graduate, we would have spent over $500k in tuition per child. Way more if you consider that the money could’ve been invested in a fund that earned interest over the years. So yes, for that price, I want to have my cake and eat it too.
I’d be upset if, after all that investment , colleges put my kid at a disadvantage purely because they are at a private.

If I spend $1m on a car, should I be upset that it doesn't come with a free house?

If they told you that this car would allow you the opportunity to purchase an exclusive house, and then you do not get offered the ability to buy the house, then yes you should be upset.

Nobody here is crying because they found out that Harvard isn't free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they told you that this car would allow you the opportunity to purchase an exclusive house, and then you do not get offered the ability to buy the house, then yes you should be upset.

Which schools are ever promising any specific results re: college admissions?

[Anonymous]

Private is so that I don’t have to worry every time a news report comes in that some kid was stabbed at school.