I never claimed causation. Although the Forbes article makes a pretty good case as to the reasons. You claimed that public school kids do as well or better than private school kids and did not even provide correlation. |
The 40% of Harvard’s class that comes from private schools is much more than Andover and Exeter. |
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Our DD is at private. It's not for college placement. I don't think she's the type that would thrive (or get into) a top-10 school. She'll find one in the top 50 that suits her well. We don't view private as a path to an elite college -- most people have a "hook" like they are an alum of the college, which has nothing to do with going to private. If you really want to focus on an elite college, move to a rough part of town and send your kid to a rough school where they can write about their experiences encountering drug dealers at school and the like - admissions officers like those kinds of stories.
Instead, we have ours at private because class sizes are small; her teachers all know her; and they are all easy to reach. She came to school a few weeks ago nervous about an upcoming test, and one of her counselors noticed, took her aside and talked to her, then checked in with her throughout the day.. and also emailed us to let us know. We like that she's required to do sports and a foreign language. She'd probably not be so motivated otherwise. We like that the school has nice facilities, like a swimming pool, modern libary, and performance theater. Oh, and much better food in the cafeteria than she got when she was at MCPS. We like that it's a lot less likely that one of her classmates will be arrested for a violent crime; come to shoot up the school; or drug dealing, as these are less likely to happen at an all girls school. The public school she would have gone to has had numerous incidents in the past year, including hateful graffiti and kids who commandeered a vacant house across the street from school and used it to have a party with drugs.. during school hours. For us, the cost is affordable, and what would we spend it on otherwise? We already take nice vacations, and have enough material possesions. Spending on your child's education is pretty high up there priority-wise for our family. There's no one right or wrong choice for everyone. Visit schools and see what works best for your child. |
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Holton sends, on average, 12% of its class to the Ivy League.
That’s actually not that much lower than Andover’s 15% last year. So yeah, I’d say top DC area privates perform very close to the NE boarding schools. Source: the class profiles from each school |
For many of these people it is based on the many, many posts on here that say that. But DC is a place with industries that place a high value on credentials. And that’s what the Ivies are for these people, a credential. In the rest of the US, credentials don’t have anywhere as a great a value. I worked for one of the largest , most successful US companies and where one went to college made little difference. |
The public school parents on here claim it is. The people actually sending their kids to the school do not think it’s all about college. |
Meh. I have been in Dc for 20 years and nobody cares where you went to college after maybe your first job. |
And actually, in smaller places it can matter more. If you want to be a lawyer in a more rural area, for example, going to the local law school can give you more local credibility and trust than going to Harvard. |
But if you grew up here, you get asked where you went to high school all the time! |
If your child is graduating in the bottom quarter of the class, it’s a good investment. The same kid graduating from Churchill or Whitman will probably end up at Towson. |
Same thing happens when other New Yorkers find out I’m from there. This isn’t unique to the DC area. |
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I'm from NoLa and went to Tulane. That city is very tempting to kids who had a very controlled, nurtured and protected life. I discourage my DC area friends from it. Grad school? Sure. That med school is top notch. But undergrad? Only if you can really trust your kid's ability to manage temptation or not be tempted. |
I would amend this to say that college in any city is tempting to kids who had a very controlled, nutured and protected life. |
You just described by our daughter goes to Holton perfectly. |