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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Would a valid way to construct a comparison be to take the top 25% of each school, and compare just their results?

For example: Top 25% of Whitman (~100 students) vs. top 25% of STA (~20 students).  Rank the college destinations of each group, and compare how they look.  If the schools are truly equal, then the college quality for those two groups should be about the same.  The same could be said for SAT scores.

Not sure if data is available for all this.  Just wondering if that construct might allow for a "fair" comparison.[/quote]

I think this might work. I assume you mean top 25% by GPAs. You'd probably need SES data for both groups, too, because family finances drive a lot of college decisions. FWIW, I'm the person arguing with the "let's compare percents across schools" poster, and I'm an economist and statistician. I tend to go a little nuts when I see sloppy thinking - but I think you might be on the right track here.[/quote]

I'm a Whitman booster and I can tell you that STA will win this one.  The top 25 kids in each school are comparable, probably even the top 50, but not the top 25%.  As others have pointed out public schools take all comers.  There is a large special ed group at Whitman, plus plenty of normal average kids.  There is also a large high performing group.  I don't think anyone is claiming that a public school is equal to a private school since the private school pre screens and counsels out kids (some of whom end up at Whitman in fact) so they should have a nearly perfect group by he time they get to 12th grade.  But for a top student I think either school can be a good fit and end up with very similar college outcomes.

Overall I doubt there are that many people really weighing the two based just on college admissions.  If you want to go to a small, single sex, religious school then Whitman is not the place for you.[/quote]

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