2008 College Placement for "Elite" DC Area Private Schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: 15:36, about public school students possibly not being able to "problem-solve" or be intellectually curious at top colleges: my spouse and I both attended Ivies. I came from a so-so public high school and he came from a highly-regarded private boarding schools where 20+ of his classmates went to Harvard. By the time he got to college he was exhausted from the academic pressure and did only the minimum, while I loved college, took as many courses as I could, and graduated with a far higher GPA. My experience in college was that the brightest, most ambitious kids were almost always from public schools -- it was obvious. On that basis I'd conclude that the standards were lower for admission from private schools. I wouldn't conclude, though, that the education was better.

This was exactly my experience at Yale.

PP here. Although I wouldn't say that standards for admission were lower, just that private school kids were less motivated/ambitious. Also, I would say that private school kids were on average better prepared.

[Anonymous]

I have a close friend whose DD will be attending Miami at Ohio next year. A fine institution. But my friend is kicking herself for having gone down the private school track, figuring her DD would have ended up there regardless, and thus basically feeling she's thrown her nest egg out the window for nothing. I don't want to say I told her so. But I told her so.

[Anonymous]

Poster of quoted comment here (I went to Princeton). It's funny: my high school education was not great by any measure, but I never felt out of my depth in college academically -- maybe because I was in the humanities and at that point so much learning is self-directed. I'd spent a lot of time reading and writing on my own.

But I remember going out for sushi freshman year and having no idea what to order and being embarrassed. That was one area in which fancy NYC private-school kids excelled....

[Anonymous]

I went to Harvard from a no-name public school. I didn't feel disadvantaged academically. Oxford University, which takes about half of its students from independent schools and half from state schools, has found that most of the students who graduate from Oxford with first class honors degrees originally came from state schools. They think that the independent school students' A-level grades represented a lot of tutoring, while the state school students, who didn't have access to so much tutoring, got their grades with raw potential.

One of the reasons that people concentrate so hard on a private school's college acceptance list is that private schools don't release test scores. Parents are therefore trying to measure quality in some objective way, because switching schools is costly and difficult. The schools, of course, don't want parents to select on this basis, but when they all give you the same cliches about "educating the whole child", what are people going to do?

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a wealthy suburb of Boston. This list (Maret) looks like the acceptance list of my public high school, for the most part. I believe it's all socio-economic. Kids from well-off/educated parents go on to good schools and that is the same whether the school is private or public. I imagine all these kids would be going to the same caliber school had they gone public.
Our kids are in private because we live in DC, can afford it and like the facilities and setting more than what the public schools offer. As for it "paying off" - - - we don't think like that. We just like the school and the people we and our children have met.

[Anonymous]

to 18:51 - a voice of reason and calm. Thank you. There are lots of reasons other than "getting your kid into Harvard" to send your child to a private school. If that is your ONLY reason, you probably are (in your view, not mine) wasting your money. Private school education is about so much more than where you end up for college. Also, money spent on a good education is never a waste IMHO.

[Anonymous]

Exactly, which is why OP should give up her spot and post what school and grade.

[Anonymous]

20:10

So where are you wait listed?

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that we are talking here about OUR high school experiences, which (presumably) were many years ago. There was not an as much of an emphasis on teaching to the test (and there was no No Child Left Behind) and over the years teaching has become even more and more devalued as an occupation, as evidenced by low salaries, etc. Used to be teachers would teach your older siblings and work their way through your family. Now there is so much teacher turnover that you are lucky if the teacher makes it there more than a couple of years.

It's a different world today in the public school arena. There are many public school teachers - even some who have expressed themselves on these boards - who have said they've just had it with the way things are today.

There is little doubt that the teaching done today in the public schools is different from that done years ago, since the entire climate has changed from teaching to raising test scores.

It will be interesting to see down the road if research shows that the kids who were taught during this time period in public school really did suffer as a result of what's going on politically/policy-wise in the school districts. Because the private school teachers aren't forced to show "progress" in these ways, I think that the kids might have more of a chance to actually be able to learn more deeply.

So, in sum, I don't think it is a fair comparison to say "We did fine in public school and turned out great" b/c our public school is not the public school of today.

(over-generalization, here, I understand - of course there are great places. but i think you will get my basic point).

[Anonymous]

I've been reading this treat for a while and, having attended Maret in during the 1990's, when it was not quite so competitive and sought after, I was very surprised by this years college placement information. My graduating class, and those around me, had a much more impressive college placement record. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the place. But what IS all the hype about Maret???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a wealthy suburb of Boston. This list (Maret) looks like the acceptance list of my public high school, for the most part. I believe it's all socio-economic. Kids from well-off/educated parents go on to good schools and that is the same whether the school is private or public. I imagine all these kids would be going to the same caliber school had they gone public.

The other thing to remember is that kids from well-off/educated parents are likely to be more confident and more ambitious about where they apply to school. They expect to have a shot at a good school and they go for it. And as one PP noted, they feel comfortable when their friends all go out for sushi because they have prior experience with it. They expect to belong.

A friend of mine grew up poor on Long Island and got a scholarship at Syracuse but didn't go because she couldn't afford to travel to get there. She went to a school near her home and she went to the book store to buy her books and all she brought with her was $20. Even 20 years ago, that wasn't near enough and she went home in tears. But she hung in there and got her degree.

The point is, that kids from a higher SES are more likely to go to better colleges whether they went to public or private school and part of it (but certainly not all) has to do with family expectations and sense of entitlement.

[Anonymous]

18:51 is completely correct. Where I grew up, public school graduates were not expected to be literate. Where DH grew up, public schools produced literate, intellectually curious kids ready for the best of colleges. There's too much variation to draw such sweeping gestures.

The decision between public & private should not be about the ultimate destiny of the child, but about the school experience itself.

[Anonymous]

St. Albans College Placement
The 77 members of the class of 2007 applied to 158 different colleges and received a total of 251 acceptances; 50 schools were represented among final matriculation plans.

Over the past five years, the following universities have enrolled the most St. Albans graduates: Yale University (17), University of Michigan (15), Georgetown University (14), University of Pennsylvania (14), University of Virginia (14), Harvard University (13), Princeton University (13), and Vanderbilt University (13).

http://www.stalbansschool.org/home/content.asp?id=1994#anchLink11

[Anonymous]

Sidwell

C L A S S O F 2 0 0 5 – S U M M A RY R E P O RT

With a definite nod to the Harper’s Index, we offer you the following statistical look at the year that was in SFS college counseling

113 seniors in the Class of 2005
774 applications initiated
724 total applications mailed
44 Early Decision applications
26 Early Decision applications resulting in an offer of admission
171 different schools applied to
24 largest number of applications to any one school (U. Pennsylvania)
149 different schools students were admitted to
62 different schools students will attend
7 largest number of students choosing to attend one school (U. Michigan)
8 number of schools that will enroll more than four SFS students (Columbia, Harvard, Michigan, NYU, U. Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale)
27 different states (+DC) where students will attend college
2 different foreign countries where students will go to college (Scotland and Canada)
2799.34 Miles from SFS to the school located farthest away (within the U.S.) from SFS (Reed College, Portland, Oregon)
2.96 Miles from SFS to the school located closest to SFS (Georgetown)
6 students who will continue to attend a school that has the Quaker as a mascot (U. Pennsylvania and Earlham)
4 students who will attend single-sex colleges (Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Trinity DC, Wellesley)
1 student who will attend one of the military academies (USNA)
16 “Blue” states where our students will attend college
$10,260 estimated total cost of application fees for SFS seniors (average cost: $60.00)
$35,151 total estimated testing related costs for class
$311.07 average estimated cost of testing per student in class

http://www.sidwell.edu/data/files/news/AlumniMagazine/summer_fall_2005.pdf, p22

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell

C L A S S O F 2 0 0 5 – S U M M A RY R E P O RT

8 number of schools that will enroll more than four SFS students (Columbia, Harvard, Michigan, NYU, U. Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale)

http://www.sidwell.edu/data/files/news/AlumniMagazine/summer_fall_2005.pdf, p22

This is, of course, the telling statistic and an impressive one.

However, I find it interesting that there has not been much discussion on this thread about the role of legacy status in college admissions for children from private school. While I have no data to back my assumptions up, it stands to reason that there are more parents who have attended Ivy League and other top colleges and universities in the population of parents who can afford to send their child to one of the private schools. And legacy status has a huge impact on college admissions.

That said, I am definitely in the camp of those who believe that selecting a school for your child, whether it is private of public, should be based primarily on considerations about fit and quality of life for the child during the school years. Not potential pay-off in terms of ultimate admission to a particular college or university.