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[quote=Anonymous]I'm new to this board because DD is applying for private middle schools - our public middle and high school has gone downhill and is incredibly overcrowded, so we want her to be in a better environment. This board has been great for providing information about the process.

I've seen that a number of parents are laser-focused on their kids getting into the "Big 3" or "Big 5" or whatever the prestige rankings are. As someone who worked in a college admissions office for a few years after graduating, I'm a little surprised by how focused they are on this. At least in my experience, the prestige of a private school will not make a big difference in admission. I know that all colleges vary a bit, but the main areas where the applicant's high school mattered were the percentage of their graduates who went to college (which I'm sure for any of the local private schools is above 95 percent) and how the school's graduates have historically done at our college (which was always quite good for pretty much any private school). It's a different story if you're comparing a private school with an overcrowded public school that sends 40 percent of its students to college.

Of course, students at the very top private schools are having more success at the ivies, but that has far more to do with the students than it does with the reputation of their private school. A student who gets into Potomac at grade 7 probably has a better chance of getting a very high SAT and a boatload of AP classes.

I'd also imagine that most of these students will go on to law school or medical school or an MBA program, where undergraduate school matters, but not nearly as much as undergrad grades and standardized test scores.

Anyway, that's all to say that we applied with a focus on factors other than prestige - things like the proximity to our house, transportation, the types of activities available, bullying prevention, etc. [/quote]

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