Reply to Any Parents Privately Disappointed with College Placement?

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Reply to "Any Parents Privately Disappointed with College Placement?"

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[quote=Anonymous]WTF right back-atcha.  You read *that* into those two paragraphs?  I think it says a lot more about who you are than who I am (wrong on every guess, BTW).  I especially liked the part where you simultaneously reassured me that not all public schools are like "those dreadful southeast DC high schools" and castigated me for presumably seeking an environment full of people who look exactly like me.  Personally, the peer groups at many local privates scare me a helluva lot more than the peer groups at many local publics.

Not surprisingly, I think the "naivety" is all on your part.  Perhaps you're confusing me with a different PP, but I haven't argued that private always gives a kid the edge over public -- depends on the kid, depends on the public, depends on the private, depends on the kid's class rank (which depends, in part, on the kid's cohort).

Yes, if the kid will be at the very top of the class regardless of whether s/he goes to public or private, and if your kid will not be a legacy at the school s/he most wants to attend, and if your primary goal in choosing a HS is college admissions (rather than HS education), then your kid is better off at public.

But guess what?  Very few kids will actually be at the very tops of their class, not all of them will get into the most coveted colleges, and parents (much less parents of elementary school-aged kids) are not the most accurate or objective judges/predictors of where their own kids should/will be.

If it's all about college admissions (which strikes me as the wrong approach but, for the sake of argument, I'll start from that premise), then the real question for most people here should be where will my kid be best off is s/he turns out to be a strong/capable student but not the star of his or her class?   There are certainly kids in that category who will be better off at a private school -- but, again, it depends on which private vs. which public.  [/quote]

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