Reply to Did private schools get a bump in elite college admissions?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
You're so naive, OP. Here are some hard truths:

1. Top privates select at entry. It stands to reason that the student body would therefore be more capable and go to better universities on average than students in public.

2. Top privates are expensive, and the parents there are more often graduates of elite universities than parents in public. Having an alumni parent gives the kid an edge during college admissions. If you did not graduate from an elite institution you are targeting for your kid, your kid has practically ZERO chance of getting in from a top private school, because these universities have quotas for each high school, and they will prioritize the top students from each school, *who also have* hooks. Most of the time, it's stellar athletic performance and/or having an alumni parent. There is too much academic excellence in every school, public and private, for Ivies to admit solely based on that. In public, the competition is equally fierce but seems more "equitable" on the surface: the kids who go to Harvard may not have alumni parents, but maybe they created a thriving non-profit (see multiple threads on that controversial issue).

3. Money: your goal should be building generational wealth for your kids. With the galloping prices of a college education, private universities are not within the reach of most middle class families. If your kid has to pay back expensive loans for decades, this will set them back significantly in their wealth growth. A lot of private universities are in the 90-100K a year range, total cost of attendance (tuition, room and board). State colleges are in the 30-40K a year range.

4. Due to the rising education costs for the middle class, state colleges have become more selective, because more students are enrolling, due to being financially shut out of more expensive options. Your State U was maybe considered a safety a few years, and now your kid might not even get in! Ex: UMD rejected kids last year who had a 4.2 weighted GPA, multiple APs and decent extra-curriculars.

5. Therefore it becomes a matter of economic necessity to have an overall attractive profile to keep costs down, either in State U or with merit aid in private university, with the long-term goal of not wasting money on branding that might not be worth the very high price. And as it happens, you can built yourself a very nice profile, with academics, ECs, etc, in public.

[/quote]

Great analysis.  [/quote]

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