Bias against privates high school in admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s the secret:
OOS flagships do not really have holistic admissions in the same way and tend to like AP and weighted GPA. Many private high schools have neither….
But private universities understand that very well.

Said another way OOS flagships are meritocracies….

Or if you prefer private universities provide opportunity hoarding services for the wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hahahaha. Poor private school kids. No. They plenty of admissions advantages.

Exactly. GMAFB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe expand your horizons beyond the neighbor’s kid who goes to a public and got into UVa, but your friend Sally’s son didn’t despite her saying that he’s doing really well at Gonzaga.

According to the WSJ:
Among all high-school students in the U.S., 8.5% attend private high schools, according to federal data. Among the eight Ivy League schools, the percentage of students who graduate from a private high school is about four to five times that.

So for every 100 spots in an Ivy League, 40 of them are taken up by a student from a private school.

These 40 students have the strongest academic backgrounds and can afford to pay full tuition, ensuring the Ivy League school at least four years of tuition revenue. This allows the school to provide merit-based aid to attract the other 60 students with super high academic record, which contributes substantially to the school overall academic ranking. They dont want just rich kids, but academic rich kids, so that school academic reputation is still intact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Might be true for public flagship universities but definitely not true for private colleges.

ITA. Take the UCs. They generally don’t take many private school kids but those same kids have no problem getting into other top private colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy people just don’t use public high school. Personally I never even considered it.

Omg did you type this with a straight face?

Honestly, I wouldn’t have said that but I pretty much agree. We never considered public. We send our kids to private because we can easily afford $50k tuition (x4) and we really don’t know many people that send their kids to public school. Maybe for elementary school they do public? I don’t know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe expand your horizons beyond the neighbor’s kid who goes to a public and got into UVa, but your friend Sally’s son didn’t despite her saying that he’s doing really well at Gonzaga.

According to the WSJ:
Among all high-school students in the U.S., 8.5% attend private high schools, according to federal data. Among the eight Ivy League schools, the percentage of students who graduate from a private high school is about four to five times that.

So for every 100 spots in an Ivy League, 40 of them are taken up by a student from a private school.

These 40 students have the strongest academic backgrounds and can afford to pay full tuition, ensuring the Ivy League school at least four years of tuition revenue. This allows the school to provide merit-based aid to attract the other 60 students with super high academic record, which contributes substantially to the school overall academic ranking. They dont want just rich kids, but academic rich kids, so that school academic reputation is still intact.

So you agree that rich private school kids are not at a disadvantage in college admissions?

OP, I give you points for posting to this forum where you might get more balanced responses, rather than just posting to the echo chamber know as the private school forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools are not going to be an advantage going forward unless you have a hook-legacy, athlete, URM etc

Agree about privates being a particular disadvantage when applying to flagship state schools due to lack of AP exams and classes offered. You are competing with public magnet school students at Michigan and UVA and it helps to have that quantitative data. I had my kids study for AP exams on their own and take them, which was an extra expense with the AP exam tutor. Ludicrous to me that they ever got rid of them and now many schools bringing them back (Sidwell and Cathedral schools).


As for privates offering a better social-emotional exprrience-don’t count on that. Especially if you aren’t a lifer. We found cliques to be soul crushing and relentless at our private which is mentioned many times on this board. Kids and parents not inclusive and don’t create a welcoming environment for all. Only certain kids invited to parties and everyone else is ignored. Very dog eat dog environment. We stayed for the academics and kids did well with college but I question if it was worth it. Just being honest so you don’t think privates are a panacea of perfection-they really aren’t!

You obviously never had a kid in public. First, cliques exist at every school, public or private. When your kids are in classrooms with multiple kids who constantly act out even when assigned aides, tracking by ability dropped in the name of equity and the county demands teachers teach to a script, it’s not hard to understand the advantages of private schools.

And you would be wrong…all my kids went to public until HS. In a smaller setting, the social piece becomes all the more highlighted. You have less people to choose from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy people just don’t use public high school. Personally I never even considered it.

Omg did you type this with a straight face?

Honestly, I wouldn’t have said that but I pretty much agree. We never considered public. We send our kids to private because we can easily afford $50k tuition (x4) and we really don’t know many people that send their kids to public school. Maybe for elementary school they do public? I don’t know.

Good lord. You all live in some crazy bubbles. Bet you don’t know anyone who cleans their own house or mows their own lawn either. It’s great to be well off. You might ponder whether you might expand your circle a bit though. Unbelievable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy people just don’t use public high school. Personally I never even considered it.

Omg did you type this with a straight face?

Honestly, I wouldn’t have said that but I pretty much agree. We never considered public. We send our kids to private because we can easily afford $50k tuition (x4) and we really don’t know many people that send their kids to public school. Maybe for elementary school they do public? I don’t know.

Ditto….
Small classes/bespoke curriculum /Amazing eye-opening ECs, research ops and independent studies and no rowdy distractions- well worth it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy people just don’t use public high school. Personally I never even considered it.

Omg did you type this with a straight face?

Honestly, I wouldn’t have said that but I pretty much agree. We never considered public. We send our kids to private because we can easily afford $50k tuition (x4) and we really don’t know many people that send their kids to public school. Maybe for elementary school they do public? I don’t know.

Good lord. You all live in some crazy bubbles. Bet you don’t know anyone who cleans their own house or mows their own lawn either. It’s great to be well off. You might ponder whether you might expand your circle a bit though. Unbelievable.

Not sure why this bothers you. My kids have never gone to public school other than to use their tennis courts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy people just don’t use public high school. Personally I never even considered it.

Omg did you type this with a straight face?

Honestly, I wouldn’t have said that but I pretty much agree. We never considered public. We send our kids to private because we can easily afford $50k tuition (x4) and we really don’t know many people that send their kids to public school. Maybe for elementary school they do public? I don’t know.

Ditto….
Small classes/bespoke curriculum /Amazing eye-opening ECs, research ops and independent studies and no rowdy distractions- well worth it

Did you just use “bespoke” with reference to your child’s education?? Please, please stick to private school.

[Anonymous]

The good privates know how to play the admissions game. Their matriculation stats are incredible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy people just don’t use public high school. Personally I never even considered it.

Omg did you type this with a straight face?

Honestly, I wouldn’t have said that but I pretty much agree. We never considered public. We send our kids to private because we can easily afford $50k tuition (x4) and we really don’t know many people that send their kids to public school. Maybe for elementary school they do public? I don’t know.

Good lord. You all live in some crazy bubbles. Bet you don’t know anyone who cleans their own house or mows their own lawn either. It’s great to be well off. You might ponder whether you might expand your circle a bit though. Unbelievable.

Not sure why this bothers you. My kids have never gone to public school other than to use their tennis courts.

Not going to public school and not knowing anyone who goes to public school are two very different things.

[Anonymous]

My DC private school kid and several friends got into UVA EA. All submitted high test scores/rigorous courses/high GPAs.

It was just an incredibly tough year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Silly post
Look at Harvard Westlake’s College Admissions for 2023 as an example - tell me there’s a negative to attending private
https://www.hw.com/Portals/28/Harvard-WestlakeProfile2023-24.pdf

That school has many high profile and celeb parents. Hard to compare to most privates.