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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We were in this same position and ultimately went private. Student would have been top 10% of their class at the STEM magnet with all As and would have had an identical transcript to most of his classmates. They would have needed to really stand out with EC and essay to be competitive against his own peers. We would have been left to navigate this college admissions nightmare ourselves at the magnet.

Private
Pros: 
-Will gain better writing skills
-More hands on college counseling
-Opportunity for activities that weren't available at the public- swimming & crew
-Student thrives with 1 on 1 relationships/intimate settings
- [b]Every alumni we spoke with or know personally said that college was a breeze and they were able to absorb so many more elements of their experience because they were "overly prepared" for college.[/b]
- More opportunities to travel abroad
-Focus on unique opportunities within the community
-More funding for STEM/special interests

Private 
Cons:
-Student won't be in the top of the class, we expect B's with some As. 
-APs aren't "standard" and they're more difficult to register for. 
-Weaker STEM program/robotics team
-long drive
-Less $$ saved up for college

We thought about a million different scenarios and we kept circling back to the fact that we want our student to feel the most prepared to achieve their goals when they step out independently. We just didn't see that quality support happening at the magnet.[/quote]

I think this is a good list, but if your kid plans to major in a STEM field in college, I am not sure how to interpret the above.

I am not aware of any private school that overly prepares you for most college-level STEM fields.  I could be wrong.

The reality is that at even at top colleges, it is not that hard to find an interesting class to fill a humanities requirement that doesn't require reading 5 books a week and writing 30-page papers each week.  There are plenty of classes that might have you write three, 5-10 page pagers all semester and you read a couple of books.

So, I absolutely understand if you sign up for an intense college English class with lots of reading and papers...but that is a choice for a STEM major, not a requirement.[/quote]

PP here- for any research in the STEM field, technical writing is a big piece of it. The magnet we looked at did produce some decent senior capstone projects, but we didn't want to pigeon hole them if they decided they were no longer interested in STEM. [/quote]

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