Public or private doesn't matter.

You don't want a super high performing school with a high proportion of strivers.

You want a regular, decent school with a normal amount of opportunities/activities and fairly good teachers and lots of APs offered.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For an unhooked UMC smart kid?

We are trying to decide if we should switch our bright child to private school.

Depending on the kid and the school.

Generally speaking, for a smart unhooked kid but not ultra competitive, it's easier to get into non-ivy T20 or T10 lacs from a feeder private school.

For an ultra competitive kid, it's much easier to get in ivies and T5 from a really good public school.

If you can afford private you are likely not FGLI or URM, so you will eclipsed at most private school for competitive colleges. They are only taking so many kids from any given school district, and in public that is who get the slots — they know your life will be fine at Wake or Vandy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For an unhooked UMC smart kid?

We are trying to decide if we should switch our bright child to private school.

Depending on the kid and the school.

Generally speaking, for a smart unhooked kid but not ultra competitive, it's easier to get into non-ivy T20 or T10 lacs from a feeder private school.

For an ultra competitive kid, it's much easier to get in ivies and T5 from a really good public school.

Actually, it's exactly the REVERSE.

If you are ultra competitive from Sidwell, STA, NCS (i.e. you're top 5 in the class) you can almost guarantee a top5 school. I hate to say 100% but it's pretty close to 100%
I don't think you can say the same about publics.

Op here. I have seen some smart kids NOT get into ivy despite being double legacies and attending one of these privates. I assume they weren’t top students at their private.

I know people will say don’t pick private for college outcomes. We will be pissed if we spend 500k for our kid to end up at a college that could have been admitted from a public high.

We have a seven figure income and can pay for private but we aren’t rich rich. We are working rich.

If you have a 7 figure income you are rich. You might not be wealthy but you are quite rich. And, your kid is likely not going to a T10 because you are in a very competitive cohort. I hope they can play Lax or Volleyball.

What difference does it make?

Go to the HS that is the right fit - not because you think you need that to get into some particular college - that is a recipe for a dreadful life.

HS is life too!

Public school definitely has a better education than privates around DMV.

private

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to OP's question. Depends on the kid and the specific high schools. OP, be sure to check the School Profile document for each, especially GPA distribution and test score averages. Also look at availability of ECs that the kid might be interested in. Talk with parents from both, if you know some.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private 100%

There is way too much grade inflation in public school. Public school rewards executive function over academic quality. LOR can be an issue in public schools. Teachers are too busy to write meaningful recs, may not know what AOs look for in LOR and public schools do not care where you get in. Private schools have an incentive to get as many kids in as possible.

The downside in private schools is that they do care who gets in where. The counselor can be a gatekeeper which can help or hurt you depending on your relationship with the counselor and the school.

So true.

Can be helpful too. The counselor knows who you are competing against. They know about the legacy/donor and you don't. I don't think this is something that you have worry about if you are at public school.

Our public is down the street from our city's top private. Comparing the instagrams it looks like the private is doing better than the public until you look at how many athletes and legacies the private has. You also have to realize that the instagram posts are all ED applications at this point. Most public schooll kids can't ED because they are in the donut hole.

Anonymous wrote:I know people will say don’t pick private for college outcomes. We will be pissed if we spend 500k for our kid to end up at a college that could have been admitted from a public high.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what I came here to say. It is way too much of a crapshoot these days to feel confident sending your kid to a private school in hopes of having a better shot at (name your competitive school of choice). You might get lucky, but if there's any chance you think you'll end up regretting paying that kind of $$ for a private school education... don't send them to private school.

It really depends on the particular private school and what the public option is. There are about 20 private schools - mostly in NYC - that do seem to have exceptional outcomes at top 20 schools. But none of those private schools are in the DC area.

As for the DC area, I think it’s a wash for unhooked students. A lot of the students at Sidwell and NCS who are accepted to the top schools have serious hooks. For unhooked students, I don’t think there’s any boost attending private compared to a bright kid from Whitman.

Privates can select their students. Public schools can’t. So it’s not an equal measurement. But the top 20 percent or so of students at the W schools do just as well as the private school students in this area when it comes to college admissions. And if you have a STEM kid and are in a well-resourced high performing school district, you definitely want to go public. The privates in the DC area are not competing in this space at all.

NP here
I've sent kids to both private and public. Depends on what kind of colleges your kid is aiming for. If we're talking about full pay unhooked UMC kids...

MIT, Caltech, Ga Tech type top STEM schools:
best if top 5-10% from a rigorous public

HYP Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, JHU:
these are target schools (not reaches) if from top 5-10% of a private know to these Ivies

Stanford:
top 10% from top private or public but must be FGLI and/or unusual EC

Cornell, Columbia, Chicago, Rice, WASP:
top 10-15% from good to great privates (perhaps even top 30% is enough for Chicago if ED full pay). You need to be top 5% from a public to get into these otherwise it's heavily reliant on extraordinary ECs if not Questbridge.

T20-40, good LACS like Middlebury, Oberlin:
much better to be from a well respected private (top 30%-50% of class have a good chance getting in esp if from a top private)

Private

Anonymous wrote:Private 100%

There is way too much grade inflation in public school. Public school rewards executive function over academic quality. LOR can be an issue in public schools. Teachers are too busy to write meaningful recs, may not know what AOs look for in LOR and public schools do not care where you get in. Private schools have an incentive to get as many kids in as possible.

The downside in private schools is that they do care who gets in where. The counselor can be a gatekeeper which can help or hurt you depending on your relationship with the counselor and the school.

So true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For an unhooked UMC smart kid?

We are trying to decide if we should switch our bright child to private school.

Depending on the kid and the school.

Generally speaking, for a smart unhooked kid but not ultra competitive, it's easier to get into non-ivy T20 or T10 lacs from a feeder private school.

For an ultra competitive kid, it's much easier to get in ivies and T5 from a really good public school.

Actually, it's exactly the REVERSE.

If you are ultra competitive from Sidwell, STA, NCS (i.e. you're top 5 in the class) you can almost guarantee a top5 school. I hate to say 100% but it's pretty close to 100%
I don't think you can say the same about publics.

Op here. I have seen some smart kids NOT get into ivy despite being double legacies and attending one of these privates. I assume they weren’t top students at their private.

I know people will say don’t pick private for college outcomes. We will be pissed if we spend 500k for our kid to end up at a college that could have been admitted from a public high.

We have a seven figure income and can pay for private but we aren’t rich rich. We are working rich.

Ladies and gentlemen, the most annoying poster on DCUM today. (This week?)

If you look at the Instagram pages for one top DC private right now I'd say >80% of the top20 kids are hooked.

I'm not going which school I'm taking about but you have to take these pages with a GIANT grain of salt. If you don't have a kid who is going to be hooked then just scroll on by. Some unhooked kids will get in RD but it won't be many.

From TJ, it’s extremely difficult to get into a top university.