Don't send your kids to private school

[Anonymous]

I’m guessing this is satire as it sounds like your private school education prepared you well for what was ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to 'top' private schools and hated it so much. I always wanted to attend public school. I wish my parents invested the 50k year tuition (or just gave it to me) instead.

Public school = inflated gpas, easy classes, less workload, bigger campuses, and you actually get to choose your classes.

You know how maddening it is to have everyone tell us how "easy" we have it and how "privileged" we are when high school was miserable. I had to work 10x harder to get a mediocre GPA. Scored in the 97th percentile on my SAT and it simply wasn't good enough with such an awful GPA.

I attended a top 20 university that felt 100x less stressful than high school. Graduated summa cum laude with barely any effort. Meanwhile, there were countless public school students who entered university with absurd 4.5 GPAs, mediocre SAT scores, and struggled at the university level.

I even had roommates who FAILED classes when they were 'superstars' at their public high schools. And public school students all think they're geniuses because like 90 percent of them have at least a 4.0 GPA. Meanwhile, maybe 2 percent of students at private high school have a 4.0.

I attended the Dalton school in New York and National Cathedral School in DC. And only a handful of girls went to Ivys btw (my brother attended St Albans and more boys were accepted, but not many). Although my brother did go on to attend an Ivy league law school. Even with SAT scores above the 97th percentile, we STILL weren't competitive enough for the top 10 universities. Admittedly, I wasn't the most dedicated student back then, but I guarantee I would have had a 4.0 at public school with the same amount of effort.

If I have kids in the future (I'm still in my 20s), then I will never send them to private school. The education is not even superior, they just force more work on you. A few teachers were bitter weirdos who constantly guilt-tripped us and made us feel like trash for having wealthy parents & being "privileged". They would literally bring up their teacher salaries in front of us and tell us how 'lucky' we were constantly. What a lovely environment. [b]

Honestly, the best plan is to send your kid to public school (for less stress, more choice, and an inflated GPA). Just get them an SAT tutor on the side. Then invest the 50-60k you'd spend a year. It's the perfect combo.

One of my earliest memories of private school was brainwashing. We were frequently told how special we are and how are parent value education more. A lot of trash talking about public school. It was very strange.

Then I switched to public and remember being terrified of the bad school that I was told would be dirty and terrible. Except it wasn’t. In many ways it was better. Better physical education and more subjects. I didn’t find it easier especially in math. But regardless one wasn’t materially better than the other.

I’m still suspicious when others try to bash something and go on and on about it.

[Anonymous]

I do get the financial aspect, OP. It’s a huge waste of money for many families. I have in-laws who probably invested a million each in education and gosh we could use that money now. The in-laws frequently remind us how much they value education and we won’t make those sacrifices for our kids. Nope, we’d rather invest in a nice house in a good school district and invest the money we would have spent on private.

[Anonymous]

It seems your fancy private did not teach you much about logic.

“I had to work 10x harder to get a mediocre GPA. Scored in the 97th percentile on my SAT and it simply wasn't good enough with such an awful GPA.

I attended a top 20 university…”

Your scores obviously WERE good enough to get into a T20.

Are you upset you didn’t get into Harvard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to 'top' private schools and hated it so much. I always wanted to attend public school. I wish my parents invested the 50k year tuition (or just gave it to me) instead.

Public school = inflated gpas, easy classes, less workload, bigger campuses, and you actually get to choose your classes.

You know how maddening it is to have everyone tell us how "easy" we have it and how "privileged" we are when high school was miserable. I had to work 10x harder to get a mediocre GPA. Scored in the 97th percentile on my SAT and it simply wasn't good enough with such an awful GPA.

I attended a top 20 university that felt 100x less stressful than high school. Graduated summa cum laude with barely any effort. Meanwhile, there were countless public school students who entered university with absurd 4.5 GPAs, mediocre SAT scores, and struggled at the university level.

I even had roommates who FAILED classes when they were 'superstars' at their public high schools. And public school students all think they're geniuses because like 90 percent of them have at least a 4.0 GPA. Meanwhile, maybe 2 percent of students at private high school have a 4.0.

I attended the Dalton school in New York and National Cathedral School in DC. And only a handful of girls went to Ivys btw (my brother attended St Albans and more boys were accepted, but not many). Although my brother did go on to attend an Ivy league law school. Even with SAT scores above the 97th percentile, we STILL weren't competitive enough for the top 10 universities. Admittedly, I wasn't the most dedicated student back then, but I guarantee I would have had a 4.0 at public school with the same amount of effort.

If I have kids in the future (I'm still in my 20s), then I will never send them to private school. The education is not even superior, they just force more work on you. A few teachers were bitter weirdos who constantly guilt-tripped us and made us feel like trash for having wealthy parents & being "privileged". They would literally bring up their teacher salaries in front of us and tell us how 'lucky' we were constantly. What a lovely environment.

Honestly, the best plan is to send your kid to public school (for less stress, more choice, and an inflated GPA). Just get them an SAT tutor on the side. Then invest the 50-60k you'd spend a year. It's the perfect combo.

97 percentile SAT was not competitive for top Ivies even 20 yrs ago. You sound very entitled and I guess your education wasn't that great after all?

[Anonymous]

I’m a public school kid from K all the way through college.

I wanted to go private, and boarding school in high school. Preppy handbook

[Anonymous]

Wtf, OP.

You actually make the argument FOR private school:

“I even had roommates who FAILED classes when they were 'superstars' at their public high schools. And public school students all think they're geniuses because like 90 percent of them have at least a 4.0 GPA. Meanwhile, maybe 2 percent of students at private high school have a 4.0.”

And yet you found college easy. I guess the benefit of a superior private education.

My kids did public K-8 and thank me for their private HS experience. They see what our public HS is like. Oldest is headed to an Ivy, worked hard but wasn’t a stress case like u, had straight As. His HS is known to be rigorous and I’m comfortable he is well-prepared.

[Anonymous]

Amongst my peers in private I felt so stupid. I worked so incredibly hard to be in the middle of the pack ranking wise. I was not stupid and went on to a top undergraduate and Ivy for graduate. College WAS a walk in the park compared to my private high school years. I appreciate the college prep of my private but not what it did to my self esteem. I always felt so dumb. The competitive nature, braggy peers with even worse parents, make me question private for my own children. Self esteem and happiness carries weight in my book. If public makes a child happy and feel confident with their academics, well then that would be the best choice. I think private is great for some but not all.

[Anonymous]

This is a season opener for culling your competition as you ready to apply to Big 3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This post actually makes a very good point. Here is an NCS, summa cum laude Top 20 grad, who as a young adult, acts like a teenager and people are commenting suggesting the adult should get therapy. The poster is clearly someone with great academic ability but not great life skills. This is my reason for being cautious around schools like NCS: I don’t want a young adult without great life skills who needs therapy.

And who makes denigrating generalizations about kids who attended public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to 'top' private schools and hated it so much. I always wanted to attend public school. I wish my parents invested the 50k year tuition (or just gave it to me) instead.

Public school = inflated gpas, easy classes, less workload, bigger campuses, and you actually get to choose your classes.

You know how maddening it is to have everyone tell us how "easy" we have it and how "privileged" we are when high school was miserable. I had to work 10x harder to get a mediocre GPA. Scored in the 97th percentile on my SAT and it simply wasn't good enough with such an awful GPA.

I attended a top 20 university that felt 100x less stressful than high school. Graduated summa cum laude with barely any effort. Meanwhile, there were countless public school students who entered university with absurd 4.5 GPAs, mediocre SAT scores, and struggled at the university level.

I even had roommates who FAILED classes when they were 'superstars' at their public high schools. And public school students all think they're geniuses because like 90 percent of them have at least a 4.0 GPA. Meanwhile, maybe 2 percent of students at private high school have a 4.0.

I attended the Dalton school in New York and National Cathedral School in DC. And only a handful of girls went to Ivys btw (my brother attended St Albans and more boys were accepted, but not many). Although my brother did go on to attend an Ivy league law school. Even with SAT scores above the 97th percentile, we STILL weren't competitive enough for the top 10 universities. Admittedly, I wasn't the most dedicated student back then, but I guarantee I would have had a 4.0 at public school with the same amount of effort.

If I have kids in the future (I'm still in my 20s), then I will never send them to private school. The education is not even superior, they just force more work on you. A few teachers were bitter weirdos who constantly guilt-tripped us and made us feel like trash for having wealthy parents & being "privileged". They would literally bring up their teacher salaries in front of us and tell us how 'lucky' we were constantly. What a lovely environment. [b]

Honestly, the best plan is to send your kid to public school (for less stress, more choice, and an inflated GPA). Just get them an SAT tutor on the side. Then invest the 50-60k you'd spend a year. It's the perfect combo.

One of my earliest memories of private school was brainwashing. We were frequently told how special we are and how are parent value education more. A lot of trash talking about public school. It was very strange.

Then I switched to public and remember being terrified of the bad school that I was told would be dirty and terrible. Except it wasn’t. In many ways it was better. Better physical education and more subjects. I didn’t find it easier especially in math. But regardless one wasn’t materially better than the other.

I’m still suspicious when others try to bash something and go on and on about it.

You obviously didn’t go to a Catholic school. Ha! You’d be told the exact opposite: you aren’t special- and you owe service to others.

[Anonymous]

I went to public school through K-12 and then private for college and graduate school, and then taught in private schools.

I was floored by how the students were so entitled and living in their bubble. They talked about public school like it was a horrible place. They did work harder than I did in school, with more challenging classes. In comparison, college was easier for many.

I did not like the lack of exposure to other races and socio-economic backgrounds. Some students would flame out in college because their parents had not set them up to succeed on their own and learn to problem-solve without being coddled.

[Anonymous]

All the losers replying to me are probably former public school kids who plan to send their kids to private.

Well, they will be in for a miserable experience.

And I never have to work a day in my life (thanks to a trust fund). Literally none of my private school classmates are successful. A third of us don't even work btw. School was such a waste of time

The problem is all these dumbass parents sending us to miserable private schools they could never afford. So they have no idea what an awful experience it is.

The poor and middle class parents are even more of a joke. They are literally putting their kid at a disadvantage & draining their paltry life savings in the process lol

And universities don't CARE if you "went to a rigorous school". They ONLY care about the numbers (they have to report to college board to up their rankings). So they'll always accept the 4.6 GPA from some random public school over a 3.4 from an "elite" private. It's literally impossible to get above a 4.0 at private, so students have an inherent disadvantage

[Anonymous]

Weird humblebrag, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wtf, OP.

You actually make the argument FOR private school:

“I even had roommates who FAILED classes when they were 'superstars' at their public high schools. And public school students all think they're geniuses because like 90 percent of them have at least a 4.0 GPA. Meanwhile, maybe 2 percent of students at private high school have a 4.0.”

And yet you found college easy. I guess the benefit of a superior private education.

My kids did public K-8 and thank me for their private HS experience. They see what our public HS is like. Oldest is headed to an Ivy, worked hard but wasn’t a stress case like u, had straight As. His HS is known to be rigorous and I’m comfortable he is well-prepared.

sounds like they went to a low tier private. I guess the random private schools aren't as problematic as schools like Dalton and NCS. You have a high concentration of indians and asians who are hyper-competitive & annoying classmates who chastise you for getting a B or handing in a late assignment as a 14 year old. I'm sorry, but it's such a joke. My dad is extremely successful and always told me that grades aren't important in the real world. It's all about social connections & people skills (specifically in the business world). And I genuinely think private school negatively impacted my social development. No one cares about my degree (or that I graduated summa cum laude). I don't even know why I bothered.