Reply to Public School Kid Has MUCH Better Ivy Chances Than Private School Kid

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[quote=Anonymous]Fighting about one year of TJ vs Sidwell is such a dumb argument, because I can always find outlier years that prove one side or the other.

I go back to my point above: the difference in the elite private schools has to do with consistency and relative volume.  You consistently have a better chance at an elite private than you do at an elite public, given class size.  Having been in a rich inner public school for many many years, I do not for a second believe that there are fewer smart kids in public, that there are fewer legacies, and that there are fewer athletes -- I'm talking DC specifically here.

Beyond class size, the elite institutions know and respect the preparedness of the private school kids.  The grades have real meaning and there is transparency about where kids actually stand.  It's difficult for elite universities to know the differences between all the valedictorians in APS for example.  It's very unclear who the Top Students truly are, because the school isn't communicating that clearly.  And also, the elite privates can write recommendations differently because the same small group of adults is involved; they can represent, this child is the best this year, the best in five years, the best we've ever seen, for math for english for whatever.  They can make meaningful representations that the elite institutions rely upon, not in some sketchy secret way but due to the volume and rigor and history.  And elite institutions track the kids, they know that the kids who come from the privates are extremely well prepared and they want those kids.  It's not true always and in every case, but generally speaking they know that if you've been trained to write at elite Big 3 whatever and you earned stellar writing grades you can write.  They don't have that confidence coming from big public, because of the track record of students who come before. [/quote]

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