Anonymous wrote:It's not so uncommon for kids to switch schools for high school, even if they are at a K-12. I've certainly heard of other families leaving for SHSAT or screened publics for high school. I think if you're not rich and are full pay at a private and your kid can get into a good public then it might be worth it to switch. You can save money for college and probably have plenty of money for private college counselors. In high school you also have to be more concerned with who your kid is spending time with and things like partying and drugs. I might prefer to have my kid at a good public and around other smart, hardworking kids of diverse backgrounds. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some gatekeeping at some of these schools. I have heard that it happens at Trinity. Seems to me moving from HM to BS is not such a crazy choice.

Anonymous wrote:Kids went to HM. She pulled them when the oldest was in 8th grade and sent them to public. Says HM was gatekeeping the top school application support, leadership activities, only for the nepo babies. Thoughts?

Kids went to Stanford and Cornell from public, third kid entering Stuyvesant now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So... everyone's experience also corroborate what Zarna was describing?

Her experience is more relatable to the transplant and the immigrant experience rather than many who are from the area and are sending their child to an environment they are familiar with for multiple generations.

My child is ahead of her public school peers and enjoys going to school every day. Only if you turn it into a competition and focused on maximizing college outcome does it start to feel in the way she described it.

So I'm a bit confused by this. Are you saying in your experience that what she's described in terms of favoritism does happen but it's for minor things that don't materially impact the student's experience (e.g. leadership titles for organizations that aren't that significant as opposed to say who captains debate)? Also, what does this have to do with being a transplant vs multi-generational family? I think the concept of fairness goes way beyond maximizing college outcomes...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So... everyone's experience also corroborate what Zarna was describing?

Her experience is more relatable to the transplant and the immigrant experience rather than many who are from the area and are sending their child to an environment they are familiar with for multiple generations.

My child is ahead of her public school peers and enjoys going to school every day. Only if you turn it into a competition and focused on maximizing college outcome does it start to feel in the way she described it.

Anonymous wrote:So... everyone's experience also corroborate what Zarna was describing?

Anonymous wrote:So... everyone's experience also corroborate what Zarna was describing?

Anonymous wrote:Not OP and have a child in lower school TT. I thought the podcast was very eye opening and merits discussion. What was very notable was that her daughter essentially corroborated everything negative that she said and had essentially nothing negative to say about her transition from HM to Bronx Science. We're not a donor family nor have immense social capital of any kind so we would be in the same boat as her family when they were at HM. So far in lower school we haven't experienced any instances where favoritism was apparent and roles have been doled out based on ability and maturity. However we know this dynamic may change in Middle and High School when things start to matter for college exmissions. The fact that Zarna's daughter 1) tested into Bronx Science in 8th grade after having a 27th percentile ERB in 5th grade and 2) got into Stanford from a place like Bronx Science points to her being a very capable student. If their impression is true that both her high school experience and college outcome would likely have been worse had she stayed in HM then I think that begs the question for the typical dual income family at these schools just what are we getting for our tuition? Would we all in fact be better served to take a humanities track at a SHSAT?