Reply to "Not a Meritocracy"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The flippant comments of the HOS are all the more infuriating when the fact is that most of the Big3 parents I know are not wringing their hands because their kid isn't getting into Harvard or Duke or Stanford.  They are worried because their child, who has good grades, test scores, ECs, recs, etc., and who is busted their butt in school for the last four years, is getting deferred from Wisconsin, Tufts, Emory and Georgia.  These are all good schools and 2-3 years ago, a strong (but not superstar) student at a Big 3 would have been an auto admit.  But now these kids are being deferred. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks, but many families are really questioning whether the slog of a Big 3 high school is worth it.[/quote]

Tufts acceptance rate is 13% and Emory is 14%. Why would anyone be an auto-admit?[/quote]

Ok, "auto admit" was a poor choice of words and is obviously rankling some people.  My point was just that good, but not tippy top, schools that strong Big 3 students were accepted at regularly a few years ago are now seeing many, many deferrals.  These threads always imply that Big 3 parents have their panties in a bunch because their special snowflake is not getting into Yale.  That is absolutely not what's happening, by and large.  [b]Most Big 3 parents send their kids to these schools because they believe in the education.  But is it hard to see your kid work herself to the bone [/b]for four years and get deferred from Wisconsin when her neighbor down the street -- an equally smart, engaging and accomplished kid -- who did minimal work at Wilson gets in.

By the way, my kids are in early HS and MS, so I'm just sharing experiences of friends and am looking ahead for my own kids.  [/quote]

We believe in education as well.  My kid graduated from a local public with high stats.  She worked hard but had plenty of time to socialize and had a positive, fun high school experience.  She is at a T25 and got all As her first semester in a difficult major.  I'll grant you that top private schools likely provide a more rigorous education, but to what end?  Why spend 200k and up for your kid to be miserable and have no better college outcomes than top public school kids?  Is it the prestige and/or peer group of private?  Do private school parents just not believe that smart and hard working public school students can receive a good enough education to excel in college?  (I'm genuinely curious and not judging.  If we had a lot more money, we would have considered private schools as well).[/quote]

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