Reply to "Not a Meritocracy"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Ok.  Everyone is disappointed when their hard working student does not get into a desired college.   That is true across the board.[/quote]
Yes, but private school parents seem to be blaming the private school, as if paying for the $$ private school should mean they should get special treatment.[/quote]

I have no dog in this fight but it seems the position of the private schools is that their kids with lower GPAs are being evaluated more harshly. Like the appropriate adjustments are not being made for the rigor of the grading. [/quote]

This. My kid has been in public and private. Public school was not rigorous (even though it’s one of the “top area public schools). My kid’s gpa would be much higher in public. Maybe colleges were never really distinguishing between the rigor of schools or mandatory SATs disguised this.[/quote]

The public school applicants have AP scores to validate their grades. If we're talking about public school kids applying to the type of schools the OP think he kid deserves to attend, you are talking about a lot of 4s and 5s in classes with curriculums that are supposed to be consistent across all schools offering the course. [/quote]

Alll I know is everytime my kid's public school Blair goes up against these big 3 privates in academics they destroy them.[/quote]

The best academic schools in metro DC aren't the NCS/Sidwell/GDS, they are Blair, TJ and AOS. [/quote]

Private school parents have a really hard time accepting this fact. There may be some privates that are tougher than some publics, but on balance, public schools are where the smartest kids are. Dual NIH parents with 3 kids are sending their kids to RMIB, not Sidwell. [/quote]

They are caught in their own trap. They sent their kids to these schools specifically to give their kids a competitive edge and the "aura" of being better than other kids, especially when it comes to college admissions. You can dress this up any way you want, you can say it's about the whole package of the school, the community, etc. That's fine, but it's just another way of saying the same thing - you pay these outrageously high tuition bills because you think it will make your kid better than other kids, and thus more successful in life, including more successful in the college application race.

But the problem is that SIMPLY BY VIRTUE of making that choice, you diminish the quality of the school your child is attending. These schools are filled with kids whose parents were like "I want to give my kid an edge by sending them to the most expensive, prestigious, name brand private school in the area." In other words, filled with kids whose parents were hoping to game the system. Which of course means that these schools are filled with many very average kids who they are trying to make look exceptional by slapping "Sidwell" or "GDS" on their transcript.

As has been pointed out in this thread, the private schools are not, themselves, a meritocracy. They could be, just like colleges could be. They could change their admissions systems to really, truly only admit the most high achieving, smartest kids, by whatever metric or metrics they wanted. They could change their financial position to ensure that if a student who could not afford to pay tuition but who was phenomenally qualified got in, they'd award merit scholarships for whatever the gap was. Sure, they do this a bit on the margins with some URM admits, but these admits are brought in more to give a veneer of diversity to the school. But they could make admission a true meritocracy if they wanted to, or as close to one as you can get in the age of test prep and application consultants.

But they don't, and the parents know they don't, and actually benefit from it because it means that they can send their average kids there, which is the whole point because they want their average kids to look above average simply by virtue of having attended an elite private school. But everyoe knows these schools are elite becsue of the price tag and often the "ins" you need to gain admission, and not because their academics are so much better or more rigorous than other schools. Everyone knows. Colleges know. You can't trick anyone with this. Some kids at these schools are truly exceptional and they will be more competitive on college applications. Many/most are average and they will still receive the benefit of going to a high quality private instead of a mediocre public, but they will not be automatically treated as more qualified than the many exceptional students attending public schools, especially not the ones attending public schools renowned for their extremely high standards.

There's no short cuts, sorry.[/quote]

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