Anonymous wrote:We sent our child to our "great" neighborhood ES -- the only
problem was, it was not great, not even close to being good - for our child or for us. Being at the right private school for our child and family is worth the $. And yes, we have calculated the full cost.

+1. You can't put a price on having a thriving child. Our private is worth every penny. The experience our kids would be getting at our top MoCo public doesn't come close. Sure, we could save a ton of money but it's all about priorities.

Anonymous wrote:To the PG County posters:

Your calculation sounds like ours. I work in PG County. DH works in DC part time, from home part time. We moved to Baltimore City, to a small rowhouse, which cost 160k. The more expensive private schools in BC are 20-27k. Seemed like a good gamble.

We really get sucker punched on commute time, but we live in a neighborhood we like, in a really small house, and have a choice of schools. I'll always be wondering about the wisdom of buying a more expensive house and going public. But that's the gamble we've tried.

This sounds like us, although we have less of a commute problem for various reasons. Very happy with our house, our choice, and DC's private school.

To the PG County posters:

Your calculation sounds like ours. I work in PG County. DH works in DC part time, from home part time. We moved to Baltimore City, to a small rowhouse, which cost 160k. The more expensive private schools in BC are 20-27k. Seemed like a good gamble.

We really get sucker punched on commute time, but we live in a neighborhood we like, in a really small house, and have a choice of schools. I'll always be wondering about the wisdom of buying a more expensive house and going public. But that's the gamble we've tried.

In 10 ten years time, your kid will be able to go to a top college at a fraction of the current cost via MOOC, so no worries!

Anonymous wrote:Calculate the cost of the school from start to finish in today's dollars. So add up what that preschool costs for 1-2 years, then what your preferred elementary school will cost, then high school. I just did that with my son (just starting 11th grade). I have spent half a million dollars.

Wait....what.....really? I had no idea.


Does anybody that has the money to pay for private not done this math?

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand this. Why not send your kids to a great public? I went to one, ended up at H/P/Y, and it was apparent that my classmates who attended the country's most elite private schools (Andover, the DC and NYC schools, etc) were no better prepared and in some cases behind. Meanwhile, my parents paid nothing and in fact could count the local high school's great performance as part of their property value.

That's like saying "why not put all your money in stocks; I did in the 80s and 90s and I made a ton of money".

People making this decision today have to assess how the "great publics" will do over the next 12 or so years, not how they did in the past. I can certainly say that with respect to MCPS there are legitimate questions to ask.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ Your parents paid a lot to live in the right school district. Real estate in the top performing DMV clusters is 800K plus.

Exactly. And there ain't no financial aid for housing…

Right, but you're also never getting that money back (unlike with real estate in the better school districts in this area).

yea, but then you are stuck at that school. Kid being bullied? Too bad. Not all "good" schools are goof for each kid.

Anonymous wrote:I'm one of the small-house-in-PG posters. The assumption that you will get your money back in the end if you invest your half a million in a house doesn't seem iron clad anymore, anyway. At one point my house was way under water and I couldn't move. I have lost any feeling of financial security linked to real estate. I would rather pay for exactly what I want when I need it, if I can make it work financially. Right now what I need is education, so that is what we pay for. I realize my distrust of real estate may bite me in the butt financially one day, but if it does it will only be in the sense that, from a comfortable retirement I might look back and say "we might have been rich..." I can live with that.

That's because your house is in PG.

I don't think very many parents in this area choose private schools because they believe their graduates have a stranglehold on competitive university admissions. We all have neighbors, colleagues and friends whose kids graduated from public high schools and went on to top colleges. Rather, most parents who choose private want their children to have a different kind of experience than the public schools can offer. For us, it was all about size; our MoCo public high school is great, but it's really big and we wanted our kids to experience a smaller school with a more favorable teacher:student ratio. Our kids have made great friends, both among their classmates and teachers; they love to learn; and the older two, who have graduated, were extremely well-prepared for college. They've actually thanked us for sending them to the school they attend/ed. I'm not saying that public school students don't have these outcomes; I'm sure that many do, but we feel like our money was well-spent, and we'd do it all over again.

We bought into a great school district. Older DC is now at an Ivy, and at some point we may draw on the housing equity to pay the $60K+ tuition and for DC#2. We also found that it was possible to save for college with a mortgage on a $900K house, but we couldn't have saved for private school if we had had to send two kids there.

But I completely understand why others make different decisions. We tried private for elementary school.

The public vs. private debate is played out. Just live your life the way you want and respect other people's choices.

We pay because the benefits are worth the cost.

$120k 6-12, partial FA... Mortgage payment $1500/mth

Anonymous wrote:Calculate the cost of the school from start to finish in today's dollars. So add up what that preschool costs for 1-2 years, then what your preferred elementary school will cost, then high school. I just did that with my son (just starting 11th grade). I have spent half a million dollars.

Most people I know who go to private have a great FA package, so it's really not that much at all.

Anonymous wrote:We are paying for private because doing so allows us to live in a neighborhood that works for us every other way. Living in a good school district would mean a 45 minute commute for each of us each day, vs the 5 minute commutes we now have. We also could never find a house of the type we like in the better school districts. We can afford the cost of private, even though we are aware that we are never getting the cost back, but of course, yes we could use that money for other things. We weighed things. It works for us.

I went to public school and H/P/Y like a PP, but I can still see an argument for private for us. Private is also a nicer fit for our kids, although I am 100% aware a good education can be had at many public schools.

And while I was not necessarily less prepared than my boarding school peers, public school did not prepare me socially for these places the way an elite private would have. Something else to consider.

+1 to all of this – except for the last paragraph. I went to public school and felt completely comfortable socially at my Seven Sisters college. Although maybe I wouldn't have at H/P/Y.