Is "Big 3" the entire world? In various posts, there are always some dingbats jumping out saying "in our big 3" ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you can afford it, hands down the best academic preparation for a young man or woman. Additionally, the social connections my children developed attending Big3 schools (at 2 of the 3) have continuously provided a significant life benefit, both professionally and in social circles. Really prepared them for life in ways a public school never could..

Yep. ‘Nother rich cracker doing rich cracker things. Thank goodness!

sorry if the truth hurts! the big3 is a wonderful experience for most kids, and provides clear and tangible lifetime benefits - but so does the grit and perseverance that successful public school kids are required to develop - neither path is “better”, only different

Let’s not overstate the Big3 benefits…poor kids that go to a Big3 really don’t get much lifetime benefit unless they are able to cross the demographic divide (which most don’t). Even UMC get few lasting benefits.

It’s the same complaint about the poor kids going to Ivy schools and can never fully benefit because they just don’t have the ability to jump the income chasm.

Do you have data to support this assertion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you can afford it, hands down the best academic preparation for a young man or woman. Additionally, the social connections my children developed attending Big3 schools (at 2 of the 3) have continuously provided a significant life benefit, both professionally and in social circles. Really prepared them for life in ways a public school never could..

Yep. ‘Nother rich cracker doing rich cracker things. Thank goodness!

sorry if the truth hurts! the big3 is a wonderful experience for most kids, and provides clear and tangible lifetime benefits - but so does the grit and perseverance that successful public school kids are required to develop - neither path is “better”, only different

Let’s not overstate the Big3 benefits…poor kids that go to a Big3 really don’t get much lifetime benefit unless they are able to cross the demographic divide (which most don’t). Even UMC get few lasting benefits.

It’s the same complaint about the poor kids going to Ivy schools and can never fully benefit because they just don’t have the ability to jump the income chasm.

Do you have data to support this assertion?

This is DCUM…stop with these stupid data requests. If you don’t want to research it that’s fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure College admission counselors see a DMV Big 3 app and think "cha-ching", here's a full pay.

Bingo

Why is it a bad thing if our family pays full tuition for our kids? Where does financial assistance come from? Tax dollars, donations to the college? Why the hate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if

Let’s not overstate the Big3 benefits…poor kids that go to a Big3 really don’t get much lifetime benefit unless they are able to cross the demographic divide (which most don’t). Even UMC get few lasting benefits.

It’s the same complaint about the poor kids going to Ivy schools and can never fully benefit because they just don’t have the ability to jump the income chasm.

Do you have data to support this assertion?

Really? You make this claim based on what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if

Let’s not overstate the Big3 benefits…poor kids that go to a Big3 really don’t get much lifetime benefit unless they are able to cross the demographic divide (which most don’t). Even UMC get few lasting benefits.

It’s the same complaint about the poor kids going to Ivy schools and can never fully benefit because they just don’t have the ability to jump the income chasm.

Do you have data to support this assertion?

Really? You make this claim based on what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure College admission counselors see a DMV Big 3 app and think "cha-ching", here's a full pay.

Bingo

Why is it a bad thing if our family pays full tuition for our kids? Where does financial assistance come from? Tax dollars, donations to the college? Why the hate?

No hate. Plenty of amusement, though, when private school parents brag about the great admissions results without acknowledging the fact that being full pay gets their kids into good colleges where equally “qualified” kids who need aid are not admitted or cannot attend due to the cost.

Kids who go to expensive private schools get admitted to expensive private colleges. Quelle surprise!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if you can afford it, hands down the best academic preparation for a young man or woman. Additionally, the social connections my children developed attending Big3 schools (at 2 of the 3) have continuously provided a significant life benefit, both professionally and in social circles. Really prepared them for life in ways a public school never could..

I have a big 3 graduate and yes great preparation, but the connections are for only those who happen to make friends within the inner circle. Very hard to do this. No connections for my DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if you can afford it, hands down the best academic preparation for a young man or woman. Additionally, the social connections my children developed attending Big3 schools (at 2 of the 3) have continuously provided a significant life benefit, both professionally and in social circles. Really prepared them for life in ways a public school never could..

Having had friend's kids go to all 8 of the Big 3, this isn't even close to true.

It's a high quality education in a more relaxed environment than someplace like TJ but if your kid goes from any of these local private schools to a highly competitive school (especially in a hard major like engineering, math or hard science), they are more likely to struggle compared to the kids from TJ, so academic preparation-wise, TJ is probably better.

When it comes to social connections, the graduating class at these schools are so tiny that these connections are not really any better than at any other rich school with tuition higher than UVA. I mean take a school like Flint Hill, definitely not one of the "Big 3" but still an expensive private school and the connections there are probably similar to Potomac. The academic preparation is better at Potomac but that is probably more the result of a more selective screening process at Potomac than anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you can afford it, hands down the best academic preparation for a young man or woman. Additionally, the social connections my children developed attending Big3 schools (at 2 of the 3) have continuously provided a significant life benefit, both professionally and in social circles. Really prepared them for life in ways a public school never could..

The trade-off? An average student at big 3 with a 3.5 gpa goes to T100 colleges. They could have been a straight A+ student in a public school.

But then they would struggle with writing three consecutive sentences or reading a whole big book. Not a risk our family was willing to take.

There’s one born every minute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is it a bad thing if our family pays full tuition for our kids? Where does financial assistance come from? Tax dollars, donations to the college? Why the hate?

No hate. Plenty of amusement, though, when private school parents brag about the great admissions results without acknowledging the fact that being full pay gets their kids into good colleges where equally “qualified” kids who need aid are not admitted or cannot attend due to the cost.

Kids who go to expensive private schools get admitted to expensive private colleges. Quelle surprise!
Bethesda families whose kids attend Whitman and don't spend tons of money on private school tuition have less money saved to be full pay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure College admission counselors see a DMV Big 3 app and think "cha-ching", here's a full pay.

Bingo

Why is it a bad thing if our family pays full tuition for our kids? Where does financial assistance come from? Tax dollars, donations to the college? Why the hate?

No hate. Plenty of amusement, though, when private school parents brag about the great admissions results without acknowledging the fact that being full pay gets their kids into good colleges where equally “qualified” kids who need aid are not admitted or cannot attend due to the cost.

Kids who go to expensive private schools get admitted to expensive private colleges. Quelle surprise!

You seem unfamiliar with need blind admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you can afford it, hands down the best academic preparation for a young man or woman. Additionally, the social connections my children developed attending Big3 schools (at 2 of the 3) have continuously provided a significant life benefit, both professionally and in social circles. Really prepared them for life in ways a public school never could..

I have a big 3 graduate and yes great preparation, but the connections are for only those who happen to make friends within the inner circle. Very hard to do this. No connections for my DC.

I have a kid who made these connections at a Big3 and we (the parents) are nobodies. He is super charismatic, very high EQ, quick witted.
I have another kid who did not.
It's definitely true that making a world of elite social connections works for some and not for others. I see kids left on the social sideline all the time--including some of the wealthiest kids.
But it's all about who the kid is, not who the parents are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you can afford it, hands down the best academic preparation for a young man or woman. Additionally, the social connections my children developed attending Big3 schools (at 2 of the 3) have continuously provided a significant life benefit, both professionally and in social circles. Really prepared them for life in ways a public school never could..

Yep. ‘Nother rich cracker doing rich cracker things. Thank goodness!

sorry if the truth hurts! the big3 is a wonderful experience for most kids, and provides clear and tangible lifetime benefits - but so does the grit and perseverance that successful public school kids are required to develop - neither path is “better”, only different

Let’s not overstate the Big3 benefits…poor kids that go to a Big3 really don’t get much lifetime benefit unless they are able to cross the demographic divide (which most don’t). Even UMC get few lasting benefits.

It’s the same complaint about the poor kids going to Ivy schools and can never fully benefit because they just don’t have the ability to jump the income chasm.

Absolutely untrue. Let’s deal in facts here, not your uninformed opinion.

Stacy Dale, a mathematician at Mathematica Policy Research, and Alan Krueger, an economist at Princeton University, explore the long-term effects of school choice on two groups of students—one that attended college in the 1970s and another in the early 1990s.

The paper found, among other things, that “the most selective schools really do make an extraordinary difference in life earnings for ‘black and Hispanic students’ and ‘students who had parents with an average of less than 16 years of schooling.’” The article continues that despite the fact that it is easier to get into elite schools if you are wealthy or a legacy student, minority and first-generation students are likely to benefit the most from going to an elite undergraduate institution because “minority students from less-educated families are more likely to rely on colleges to provide the internship and job networks that come automatically from living in a rich neighborhood with wealthy parents.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/what-is-an-elite-college-really-worth/521577/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure College admission counselors see a DMV Big 3 app and think "cha-ching", here's a full pay.

Bingo

Why is it a bad thing if our family pays full tuition for our kids? Where does financial assistance come from? Tax dollars, donations to the college? Why the hate?

No hate. Plenty of amusement, though, when private school parents brag about the great admissions results without acknowledging the fact that being full pay gets their kids into good colleges where equally “qualified” kids who need aid are not admitted or cannot attend due to the cost.

Kids who go to expensive private schools get admitted to expensive private colleges. Quelle surprise!

Do your kids get merit aid or financial assistance? Where does that money come from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you can afford it, hands down the best academic preparation for a young man or woman. Additionally, the social connections my children developed attending Big3 schools (at 2 of the 3) have continuously provided a significant life benefit, both professionally and in social circles. Really prepared them for life in ways a public school never could..

Yep. ‘Nother rich cracker doing rich cracker things. Thank goodness!

sorry if the truth hurts! the big3 is a wonderful experience for most kids, and provides clear and tangible lifetime benefits - but so does the grit and perseverance that successful public school kids are required to develop - neither path is “better”, only different

Let’s not overstate the Big3 benefits…poor kids that go to a Big3 really don’t get much lifetime benefit unless they are able to cross the demographic divide (which most don’t). Even UMC get few lasting benefits.

It’s the same complaint about the poor kids going to Ivy schools and can never fully benefit because they just don’t have the ability to jump the income chasm.

Absolutely untrue. Let’s deal in facts here, not your uninformed opinion.

Stacy Dale, a mathematician at Mathematica Policy Research, and Alan Krueger, an economist at Princeton University, explore the long-term effects of school choice on two groups of students—one that attended college in the 1970s and another in the early 1990s.

The paper found, among other things, that “the most selective schools really do make an extraordinary difference in life earnings for ‘black and Hispanic students’ and ‘students who had parents with an average of less than 16 years of schooling.’” The article continues that despite the fact that it is easier to get into elite schools if you are wealthy or a legacy student, minority and first-generation students are likely to benefit the most from going to an elite undergraduate institution because “minority students from less-educated families are more likely to rely on colleges to provide the internship and job networks that come automatically from living in a rich neighborhood with wealthy parents.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/what-is-an-elite-college-really-worth/521577/

Came here to post the same article. Dcum is over the top with conjecture