Spend college money on private high school instead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A reason you should consider Private is they have much better college counseling than DCPS.
This past year, the DCPS counselor for 12th graders at Wilson went out on leave in the fall. The kids were scrambling to get recommendations in.

OP simply cannot afford private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A reason you should consider Private is they have much better college counseling than DCPS.
This past year, the DCPS counselor for 12th graders at Wilson went out on leave in the fall. The kids were scrambling to get recommendations in.

OP simply cannot afford private.

Well the same thing can happen at private. And I know a student at Wilson who is accepted into Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A reason you should consider Private is they have much better college counseling than DCPS.
This past year, the DCPS counselor for 12th graders at Wilson went out on leave in the fall. The kids were scrambling to get recommendations in.

There isn't much a counselor can do when the parents don't have money for college and the kid doesn't qualify for aid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A DC private as a 10th grader probably won't offer that much aid, even for Catholic.

Even teachers can only expect 50% (If they work at the school).

You are looking at 15K-25K (maybe 30) for 3 years, and tuition will increase each year.
Your kid will also have the impression that private college is a given.

Add in beach weeks, uniforms, textbooks and related social expenses. Sports, theatre, AP exams, band...they all have fees.

If you can use your college savings for tuition, replenish the college fund while they are in HS (almost impossible) you could get away with it, but if your child is content, you may want to keep it going as you have it.

I doubt OP needs to spend on the things you mention (beach week? Yeah, no.). Also, many schools do not even have fees for any of the things you list, except AP exams, and if OP is on financial aid, which I expect at any shcool they would be, those would be covered. Personally, I'd never pay tuition to a school that charged for textbooks and sports or musics/theater. Ridiculous. Also, millions in scholarships are offered by strong colleges to kids at less talked about D.C. private schools every year (same with DC public schools). They are exactly who colleges are looking for (even my full pay kids were offered nearly full scholarships at 2/3s of the colleges, add TAG and OPs 10K, and you'd be surprised at where that kid could go). The risk is that there are no guarantees, and a more welcome risk that, like my kid's friend, you may have to turn own a top school for that full ride to a lesser known school -- but that is only bad news on DCUM.

The problem with this site, is that you get way too many comments from people who are wealthy, only know of a handful of expensive private schools, and believe they are gunning for top 20 colleges full pay -- that is not OP's situation, so a school that isn't "worth it" to them likely works really well for OP, and one that has all sorts of hidden fees and social pressure to spend money isn't on OP's list anyway.

OP, the admissions people at private schools are not boogeymen, they can be very helpful; you can call and talk to them and be honest about your situation and get frank responses in return. And if you don't get that vibe from them, thank them for their time and call another school.

Sure, you be that parent.

FWIW, many independents charge for textbooks.

Many don't. And many kids don't want to go to beach week. Mine doesn't.

You are trying really hard to miss the point.

In my experience, the more successful my children became in their areas of interest, and the more popular they became, the more things there were to spend money on, which were covered at the public schools were I had taught (in both affluent areas, and Title 1 communities).

We don't say yes to everything, and some things become "this airplane ticket to Nationals IS your birthday gift" but I wish I had known about those things in advance.

It sucks to be the person who is often in a position to have to say no when what you are trying to do is offer them the best education you can (kind of) afford and it can lead to some resentment if you don't go in with eyes wide open. I thought the kind thing to do was to explain how, as a parent who is on financial aid for a school that is not $30K+ a year, there are financial concerns besides tuition, if you want them to be able to access the same social opportunities as their classmates.

For example, if they try out for the school musical, kids will show up with sheet music they rehearsed in advance with their private voice choice. The starting players on most teams play that sport year-round on a travel team. There are no-cut sports but there are hidden expenses you'd be naive not to plan for if you were making a grand gesture that could fall flat.

You do you, though.