Reply to Early Decision Results at Top DC Privates

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] I would wager that 9 out of every 10 students from the elite private schools that are admitted to HYPSM would have been admitted even if they attended a top public school.  In other words, it’s the student (and the hooks they have) not the school.  The main reason well to do parents send their children to private school is to put them in an environment where their peers are socially adept and well connected.  Another benefit is the small class size and personal attention.  But long time private school families know that the schools themselves are not responsible for admission to elite colleges – those admissions are destined (or not) before the DC enters high school.[/quote]

+1 and the ED results support this[/quote]

[Edited to fix sentence fragment]

I am a private school teacher and I agree with this.  To just add on one thing in the "benefit" column that is perhaps subsumed in the poster's reference to "small class size and personal attention":  I would say that the one thing I hear back from my talented students who've gone on to college and grad school was that they appreciated (maybe not at the time, but later) how much they had to write in their classes.  Tbey were comfortable in college when very bright peers from big public schools where it is structurally more difficult to assign a lot of writing (think: an English teacher at a private with 4 classes grading 60 essay tests versus an English teacher at a public school faced with 120 essay tests) struggled to master some of the college-level writing.  This might be why the public magnet STEM schools compare most favorably with elite privates -- the bigger class size is not as much of a barrier to what the teacher is trying to accomplish.  [/quote]

As the parent of 2 recent grads from a DC independent, I agree completely that writing instruction in high school lays a critical foundation for success in college.  Our kids are among those who are grateful to their high school English and history teachers for helping them become strong writers.  I disagree, however, with the original poster's assertion that all parents who opt for private school for their kids are seeking networking opportunities for their offspring.   We were looking for a deeper, richer education focused on critical thinking and creative problem-solving -- not social connections.  If you're interested in the latter, any suburban public school with a high-SES student body will do fine.     [/quote]

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