Public HS and college acceptances

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow! What nastiness in the previous post! As a future BCC parent I guess I should be glad you're planning to send your child elsewhere... that sense of superiority and entitlement just reinforces my aversion to the fancy private schools.

No doubt there are differences in the curricula and resources. I sure hope there would be if you're coughing up $35-40k in tuition bills for 12 years. And at a basic level I understand why the pedigree/brand name seems so important to some people. My husband, who came to the US in his teens from a place that is the subject of considerable discrimination and worked his way thru multiple grad degrees, is also enamored of the idea that a big-ticket private school is a ticket to the permanent American elite. As the product of middle American public schools and the Ivy League, I see things very differently. But I don't feel the need to castigate others' choices and priorities, and I trust that my child will do as well as his abilities enable him to do - or even better, because he has over-educated neurotic parents! Based on my experience, that's the best guarantee for a kid's success, not the number of zeroes on the tuition check.

My post was not nasty, nor was it meant to be. It was quite factual in that it is my reality. To suggest that you're glad that a total stranger whom you've never met won't have children attending the same school as your children...well, that's kind of nasty. Trust me. as an African American living in the United States, there is no sense of superiority and entitlement. Where have you been? Obviously in some isolated utopiaville where racism and discrimination doesn't exist, and where assumptions aren't made about you based on the color of your skin. I grew up in Mississippi, where I was thankful that at least it was all "in your face" and you knew where you stood versus here and elsewhere where it's politically correct (read, subtle and full of innuendo).

And if anyone is castigating other's choices and priorities, it is you. No one has questioned your (or anyone's) choice to send their kid to BCC. However, you have questioned my choice. And really, that's it isn't it? It's my choice and I'm happy with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very good analogy. I'm black and work in a law firm. The only black/minority candidates we will interview or hire have to have great credentials -- top law schools, grades, clerkships, law review. Not the same standard for white applicants, most of whom have great credentials, but not all -- some have gone to second or third-tier schools, but they or their parents know someone at the firm or some exception is made. This is a universal experience among all my black friends at law firms. Which is why my kid is always going to go the best school he can get into. This is nothing new. Most African American kids are told at a young age that they will often be held to a higher standard and that's just the way it is.

The white people you are talking about get hired not because of their color but because they come from a rich, well connected family.
White people from a low or even a middle class background need to have great credentials to get ahead in life as much as minorities.

NOT TRUE. Compare low income whites to low income blacks. The white applicants still have more wiggle room.

[Anonymous]

Also, 17:37, there are many wealthy well connected Black applicants that don't get a second look.

[Anonymous]

My DH went to Lake Braddock in Fairfax, then graduated from GW Univ. His half brother went to TJ(it's still a PH school)then went to Stanford. He was way ahead of others and took a semester off to do an internship in DC! My DH's older brother went to a PH in Burke, VA and went th UPA then AU for master's.
I cannot say about myself because I'm not from the US. But I went to public shoolds.

[Anonymous]

What a wonderful illustration of Obama's point thast race is still such a current and raw issue in American society... even among the well-educated elite. My oh my.

[Anonymous]

About Fairfax County public school students applying to VA State colleges. They are at a big disadvantage for many reasons. If a FCPS student is focused on the state system both the grading scale and the sheer number of kids applying from FCPS puts them at a disadtantage. This was not the case years ago. My oldest, who graduated from a great state school, could not get into even GMU today. I think it depends on where you are coming from and where you are going. I feel strongly that NOVA kids do not get treated fairly. That is not to say "looking for a break"..... just fairly. Race has nothing to do with it in this market. IT IS ALL NUMBERS!! At the end of the day none of us in FCPS will forget how they were treated by VA State schools. That will not fare well at the end of the day. All shades of beige, white and brown are treated equally terrible!

[Anonymous]

Did you read the Washington Post article today? Apparently other state universities enroll a much higher percentage of in-state students. How can we get Virginia to follow suit?

[Anonymous]

Good question. My wonderful daughter is graduating from a premier public high school with a solid B average (in the FCPS grading system that equates to 84-89). She applied to almost all the state schools and was accepted at GMU and VCU. My husband and I want to send her off for her college experience, but VCU feels like a tough option. GMU is being run by a bunch of morons.....check out this blog by the admissions "dean", http://notjustadmissions.wordpress.com/

Our current plans are to send our daughter to a small liberal arts college in PA (in a financial recession). It is going to be tough on our family but it is the only choice we have if we don't want her to go to NOVA (which is a ok starter school, but developmentally inappropriate in our case). Our daughter has worked hard throughout high school, done many different things in and out of school. It seems that none of that mattered in the decision process.

[Anonymous]

my son goes to TJ which is considred the best public school in the nation (per US News Report) and last yr there were not alot that went to Ivy league schools. Most went to UVA, William& Mary and Tech. Between Harvard, Yale, Princeton there were probably a handful from about 450 students. They all compete with each other
I went to school at San Jose State when the High Tech was starting and computers were new. We were not far from Standford and I recall Intel (abso based in Silcone Valley) said they would prefer to hire a SJ marketing grad vs a Standord Grad since we were more "well rounded" and not all about books.

Locally, I have seen kids get into Ivy League from most of the public schools and even catholic Schools.

Bottom line is some things are overrated.