Did private schools get a bump in elite college admissions?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
It amuses me when people post about the Big 3 here in the DMV. What they perhaps don't realize is how many *better* private schools are out there. If you really want to give your kid an edge, then shell out for those schools, whether by sending your kid to boarding school or moving.
The highest-ranked DMV school on the Polaris List, for example, is GDS at 37. It's not a perfect list but it's at least based on real data. https://polarislist.com/best-private-high-schools-in-america |
Anonymous
How do you know he would not have gotten into similar schools from public? I'm not saying you are wrong but it's just not so clear to me. I have a high stats kid who went to public and got into top schools; suspect he would have gotten into the same kind of schools if he went to private. |
Anonymous
Except there is not zero legacies in the W schools or McLean, etc… you’ll find just as many hooked kids. |
Anonymous
| A B+ student at a private has a much better option than a B+ student from a public. |
Anonymous
Colleges do not compare private school kids against public school kids. It is not the way the systems works. They look at the stats for that school not a certain number. |
Anonymous
|
My son is in a private HS. We enrolled him for the smaller classes, closer relationship with teachers and more innovative curriculum. It's been a home run on all those fronts, but I wouldn't recommend to do it based on college matriculation alone.
Most of the parents we're in private school community with bring advantages to the school with them: they're legacies at top 30 schools and very wealthy with a lot of resources to push their children in terms of experiences and support. I think that skews the results. |
Anonymous
| no but attending a private school is a nicer experience! like flying business or first class versus coach. you still get to the same destination, but the ride is more enjoyable. |
Anonymous
This. Every day. X10. The debate is not about the 3.95uw student. It’s about kids in the 3.4-3.7uw range. |
Anonymous
<yawn> you guys are truly ble$$ed. |
Anonymous
Why did you post this link? This is a terrible ranking system. This data is from 2019 and 2020, and it only tracks results from 3 colleges: Harvard, Princeton and MIT. |
Anonymous
Nothing mid range about Emory or any T25 school. Tulane is barely T100 at the point, nice try tho. |
Anonymous
And 3 area publics (TJ, Blair and RM) rank above GDS on this list if you toggle to public plus private. |
Anonymous
This list also does not seem to adjust for class size. Some schools have 300 kids in a class and others have 50. |
Anonymous
| Having been through the process with one and starting with the second child at a private school, I can tell you that their chances of admission is contingent on them, their grades, test scores, etc. However the biggest advantage in private school in our experience is the counseling department. Much more attention given to your child and stronger advocacy. You can rely better on them for strong rec letters as well. My first got into a top 20 with no hooks. |
Anonymous
| My take on this is that high-end independent schools has a pretty good outing this year, which actually kind of surprised me. I thought all of the uncertainty re: affirmative action and test optional was going to cut the other way. In general, I think that most students take a small hit by going private, and they would actually do slightly better coming from most public schools if you are solely concerned with optimizing college prospects. |