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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m the OP, and I’ll come clean.  Yes, I am (was) a public school parent.  But it was entirely and deliberately by choice.  We had more than enough money to pay for private, and our kids had the smarts and we had the connections to get them into a good one, but honestly we couldn’t stomach the idea because we dreaded the thought of having to mix with the parent community.  The incessant references to the “Big 3” on this board only reinforces that our decision was the right one.

I also wonder what these folks are paying for.  I always thought that one of the key benefits of paying tens of thousands of dollars a year for a top DMV private was better college counseling.  I can understand public school parents having to resort to a forum like this for college admissions advice, but is it really necessary for a Big 3 parent?   I’m guessing it’s not - it couldn’t possibly be! - but that those parents who come here anyway are simply too anxious about the whole process and too embarrassed to approach their schools directly.  Is that what’s going on?

Of course, many Big 3 parents will argue that they didn’t send their kids there for college admissions / counseling purposes but for the education, but we all know that’s not true.  I mean, sure they care about the education but, at least in part, they care because of college.  So you can’t separate the two.  [/quote]

Thanks for your honesty, OP.  There are lots of reasons to choose privates and lots of reasons to choose public school.  It sounds like you made a good choice for your family.  My kids are at private and are happy so that choice works for us.  Being at the end of this journey, I think the best parts for my kid have been the teachers, his friends and the traditions - but I happily admit there are great teachers, kids and traditions and lots of other public and private schools.

As to why a private school parent comes on this board, I have gotten some off-the-record tidbits that I wouldn’t get from the CCO.  And, sometimes I ask what I deem a silly question that I will try to figure out myself before emailing the CCO.  Actually, I have never emailed the CCO - I try to save that for my kid to do as he is driving this train … but sometimes this board assures me he is on the right track. :)  I can’t imagine those reasons are specific to private school parents.

And I too, dislike the term “big 3” as I find it pretentious and unhelpful as there are significant differences between privates.  But I admit, it is a quick shorthand, and therefore occasionally useful in realizing my kid’s grading scale or whatever is different than what another poster is mentioning.  I don’t think anyone would use it in conversation.

Like any community I have been a part of, private schools have stereotypical jerks but also fundamentally good humans that I feel grateful to know. I don’t think you can lump us all together any more than I would lump together all the parents at your kid’s school.

Your response makes me believe you see differences between posters when you come to this board but I am usually left feeling that we are all more alike than different - parents simply trying to do the best they can (with an occasional prankster high school troll). [/quote]

Thank you PP - this was a really great reply.

I have this to add to the OP:
- choosing private schools is not all about college placement
- caring about education and finding the right learning environment for a child (before college) for most people is a different decision than college placement
- paying a private tuition does not mean you get some special concierge great college counseling 
- for most of the things private parents post here, they are NOT saying out loud to others in public - DCUM is the place where they can ask questions without stirring up anxiety within the parent community at their school

Our CCO is good at making sure kids have a balanced list (ours already did thanks, in part, to time spent on DCUM) and at doing the administrative work to make sure the right information gets sent at the right time. I get SOOO much more useful information from this board or online sessions from schools or companies in the college counseling realm than from our CCO. They only want to talk to kids and many kids don't want to include parents in the process. CCO are almost too low key because they do not let parents know really useful things along the way. They assume because of the few hyper focused people, that everyone is that way. But they aren't, and many are left scrambling when it wasn't necessary.

I'm sorry OP (and others) have such a distaste of private parents. I don't like to advertise that my children are in private, we have no bumper magnets, and even my kids don't like to wear school branded clothing.  When we first sent our children to private, I got so much obnoxious attitude back from people like you and most made assumptions about us and our views that couldn't be further from the truth. I learned to ignore it.  My true friends realized they were wrong in those assumptions and people (outside if parent-world) who know us and then find out our kids are at private are surprised because we don't fit their stereotype. All of our parent friends at private school are like us, I think you'd be surprised. There are also some obnoxious ones, but by HS they've already made their friends and usually aren't at parent events anyway. And, in our neighborhood, we have an equal share of over the top competitive college crazy parents whose kids are at our local public school (and like you, have plenty of $ to have chosen private).

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