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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yeah, we were gunning for a top private but after both virtual and in-person events, we're not so sure anymore.

Pros: A bit more confident in the academics and college preparation in general compared to our public, but less so on math. Beautiful facilities.
Cons: Less diversity, both racially and economically. Financial impact (see below). May be harder to get into top colleges than coming from our public.

Ultimately it's a cost-benefit analysis. We're in that boat where we make enough to not qualify for any significant financial aid and engender no sympathy for having to make such a choice, but the cost is high enough that it has *severe* tradeoff implications for our travel (we like to take an extended trip each summer that is part tourism but also part cultural experience, learning about other parts of the world and ways of life being part of their holistic education), retirement/529 contributions, extracurricular/camp budget, and so on. Basically tuition would eat up the vast majority of our saving/disposable income not allocated to covering basics like mortgage, utilities, food, clothes, etc. In fact we'd probably have to cut back on some of those things. Contrasted to going to our public and having ~$100k additional per year available for savings and disposable income purposes. Given how much we realize we'd have to give up, the benefit has to be REALLY worth it, and after a lot of research and talking to other families and getting down to those financial brass tacks and thinking about the opportunity costs, the value just doesn't seem to be what we thought it would going into the process.[/quote]

Your family situation sounds a LOT like ours, right down to the details about travel, camp, etc.  Renovations, whatever. I have a 45 yr old kitchen.

Just posting to say that we are so. glad. we stayed the course and kept kid in private all they way through (a secular k-8 then big 3).  We gave up a lot of $ things and we were never close to being eligible for financial aid.   The education and overall experience was excellent.  Choose wisely, yes, but don't let anyone tell you that the public K-12 experience around here is "just as good" in 2022.  Not on balance it isn't.[/quote]

+1[/quote]

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