Is it easier getting into top colleges from public vs. private schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school parent here who calls BS on whoever is telling you that your public school child has some unfair advantage. Every Ivy uses a regional admissions officer who knows all of the public and private schools in the area. So they know that a public school student with straight As who takes every AP offered may have a 4.8 GPA and that no local private school student does because privates don't weight for honors/AP classes. They will look closely at your child's course selection in the context of what's available at his/her school, not comparing them to the courses available at a magnet like TJHSST or a Big 3. And they'll know if the starting a club/EC is a big deal that requires lots of leadership and hoop-jumping or a whim. As PP said, they are focusing on the individual and how they excelled in context.

This is so true! Unfortunately, if your public school kid has a 4.5 GPA, it means very little in terms of admission to an Vvy because a high proportion of his classmates are doing the same thing. A kid with a 4.5 GPA in my son's private, however, will most certainly have a VERY strong chance of admission to an Ivy because he took every possible opportunity for an AP course and excelled at them. He is probably in the to 5% of the class. And his A grade honors classes were not given the same weighting as the pubic school (4.5 vs. 5). The regional admissions officer knows all of this. I chuckle all the time when my public school friend brags about her kid with the 4.5 GPA (mine only has a 4.2, but he worked just as hard, if not harder than the public school kid).

Private school parents seem obsessed by the weights for APs and magnet classes in public schools, but honestly, public school kids and parents don’t get your angst. We all understand very well that not only do colleges take unweighted GPAs, but most top colleges actually take the transcript apart and construct their own GPAs with their own, proprietary weights. The weighted grades in public schools are really no biggie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect the distinctions are not constant across student profiles. For example, it may be that the very top students at public and private have relatively equally shots at the top Ivy schools, Stanford, and MIT. My sense is that where kids at the top privates really get a benefit is in the middle of the class, especially if they are applying to SLACs. E.g., decent -- but not very top -- students at Sidwell, GDS, and Cathedral schools are getting to schools -- e.g., most NESACs (Middlebury, Wesleyan, Colby, etc.), Haverford, Colgate, etc. -- whereas kids at even the top publics need to be near the to for those schools.

Well, kind of. Middle-range kids at private schools tend to go to schools like NESACs alright, but it's because their parents can afford to pay for them. Similar kids at public schools are much more likely to go to state universities even if they could get into Haverford, Colgate, etc. because they just don't get as much aid as they need or their parents never let them apply there in the first place.

+1

So many DCUM posts assume that money is no object, and/or that everyone who applies will get enough aid to make a given elite or other private school work. Many, maybe most of us in the donut hole never look at elite schools including NESCACs, because we can't pay for them.

+2. The biggest advantage for most is actually being full-pay at the college. I give this some credit for DC getting into a “top” ivy from public school. A tiny fraction are development cases. But most private school parents who have been paying $40k for years can check that “full pay” box.

If you’re full pay, you can apply ED without worrying about comparing financial packages from different schools. Also, many colleges will give you a bump because they can use your full tuition payments to help somebody else. (Some schools claim to be “need blind” but I’ve read skepticism about that. In fact, a bump for being full pay isn’t necessarily inconsistent with being need-blind when considering FA applicants.)

Meanwhile, a LOT of DC’s friends in the public high school went to non-Ivies for the merit aid. None of the Ivies gives merit aid. That makes the Ivies a tough proposition for many public school families in the donut whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:same slices from each. Top 10% similar set of Ivies, top 10-25% similar set of competitive colleges, middle section same again, bottom of privates still go to college but bottom of publics might not go to a 4 yr.

No college acceptance advantage from top public HS versus top private HS.

There are other advantages to privates, and some only to publics.

Best thing would be to move to N Dakota or something.

Agree, top 25 colleges have to do their statistically diverse, student class construction magic each class so would never take a ton of intake (beyond its normal admit rate) from one since private or public HS, or city, or area.

Not a 100% merit system like much of the other countries' uni systems.