Sound off - Ivy grads & high income earners who chose public schools over privates

[Anonymous]

We prefer Public for primary school education but in later years some of the private undergraduate, graduate and professional venues may get the nod.

[Anonymous]

Georgetown quadruple grads (both undergrad and grad )
HHI: about $400.
Churchill cluster.

[Anonymous]

Georgetown quadruple grads (both undergrad and grad )
HHI: about $400.
Churchill cluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, I don't know who is smugger, the public school parents patting themselves on the back for toughening up their kids in the rough and tumble world of JKLM or MCPS, or the private school parents banging on endlessly about their "Big 3" and comparing matriculation stats down to the third decimal place.

43% of kids in MCPS now receive, or have at some time in the past received, free/reduced meals. That's not rough and tumble?

There are people in MCPS (even people who went to Ivy League colleges!) who don't live in Bethesda or Potomac.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown quadruple grads (both undergrad and grad )
HHI: about $400.
Churchill cluster.

also not an ivy, notwithstanding presence of lots of ivy.

[Anonymous]

We earn 500k plus and my husband attended the top engineering universities in the US. I did not Our kids attend the Whitman cluster. Like others have said, we moved to Bethesda specifically for the schools. I think public is the right decision for us, but I do reevaluate our decision on a regular basis. The reason we chose public is because our kids are part of a larger community of kids in our neighborhood and I didn't want the continued pressure to stay in a high earning job if things change in the future.

[Anonymous]

One Ivy parent, two lawyer family. HHI above $350k. Moved to MCPS for the schools. Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On another thread, someone suggested that most Ivy grads and high-income families choose private schools, so there aren't many of those in area public schools.

NP here. That sounds strange. I think the income level where public school is not your default is a lot higher than 350K. I don't know anyone that makes so much that they don't blink at spending 60-90K per year (2-3 children) for K-12. Also, I don't see sending your kid to a top scoring public school as some huge risk. If you are making 350K plus and Ivy League educated and didn't buy/rent in a top public school pyramid and did not choose private school, I would find that newsworthy.

[Anonymous]

Both my husband and I are physicians and Big 3 grads. Our DC is in a DC chartered school, by choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the proportion of study subjects who also live in DC proper and send their kids to private will be materially greater than those who aremin the strong suburban districts cited in all the prior posts. People with education know to value it highly. You can pay to be in a strong school district or you can pay for a strong school.

Just for kicks, I looked at DCs class list and of the parents I know well enough to know where they went to school, I counted 13 ivy grads. This is a JKLM in DC proper, so given that 50% of the parents in one classroom alone are ivy grads (the rest are no slouches either), I think your assumption could be wrong. But who knows? Of course, I have no idea what their incomes might be, but I'm certain that they know to value education highly.

[Anonymous]

You said Ivy and OR >$350k, right?

Non-Ivy
HHI>$350k
DC Charter Schools. We have options (IB for Wilson), we're looking at both charter and private for HS depending on how DC turns out (socially, academically, sports) - DC is 6.

[Anonymous]

Ivy equivalent in the UK i.e. Oxbridge (both DH and I)
HHI > 350k pa
Kids in public for elementary. Will revisit in middle.

[Anonymous]

OP again. Thanks for all the responses. So I guess it's safe to say the local public schools have quite a few students whose parents are alums of top colleges, and quite a few students whose families have HHI over $350k. Not all (and maybe not even most) families fitting these profiles choose private schools.

And to be clear, I understand we're *not* saying those wealthy children of top-college alums are percentage-wise a large portion of the local public schools, because there are certainly plenty of students who don't fit those profiles.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

^^ OP, interesting thread. Thank you for starting it. Our family is one of the one Ivy parent, two lawyer, high income, MCPS public school families.

Over time, I've been surprised at the offhanded mean-spiritedness of some in the DC area dismissively talk about the public schools (some clearly never even investigating the schools for their own kids). Looking at this area's public schools in this way is shocking to me b/c it is so at-odds with the reality.

Our Bethesda public is full of engaged, smart, high-achieving parents who are very involved in all aspects of school life. As a result, the school is a thriving center of learning and community. I always laugh when someone describes how they just "have" to pay go private because it is the only way to provide their child a good education. It is simply not true. Parental education level is the single most important factor in a child's educational success. Period. When you have public schools full of smart, well-educated parents, you have great public schools. I'm happy to have my kids in a great one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On another thread, someone suggested that most Ivy grads and high-income families choose private schools, so there aren't many of those in area public schools.

NP here. That sounds strange. I think the income level where public school is not your default is a lot higher than 350K. I don't know anyone that makes so much that they don't blink at spending 60-90K per year (2-3 children) for K-12. Also, I don't see sending your kid to a top scoring public school as some huge risk. If you are making 350K plus and Ivy League educated and didn't buy/rent in a top public school pyramid and did not choose private school, I would find that newsworthy.

We are ivy league educated and earn $700k+. Our kids are not yet school aged but we live in Alexandria in FFX County. For now, we love our house and lifestyle. We live way under our means. Our house is close to TJ so hoping our kids will be able to get in for high school. We are undecided on whether we will move to Arlington/McLean when the kids are older.