Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA’s alumni magazine had a big front page spread & article on how many first generation college students they have now. So they’re def looking at that/working towards that.

I often wonder what supports schools like UVA have in place to help those students. I work for a nonprofit that supports impoverished minority students and helps them get into college & funds it. All of them are first gen. We have a 95% acceptance rate but only 57% make it to graduation. It’s a challenging problem.

Almost any first gen student making it to a school the level of UVA will definitely graduate and potentially thrive. Being poor and first gen doesn’t mean your educational background is poor, and those types of students tend to be exceptional people in general.

Is it money or performance?
If its money, then get them some money.
If it's performance, try targeting the first gen children of immigrants. Those parents are clueless (andf I am not trying to be insultiung) that they can really use some guidance.
If your mission is to help "inner city" blacks, then you have to convert them to the religion of education

Anonymous wrote:UVA’s alumni magazine had a big front page spread & article on how many first generation college students they have now. So they’re def looking at that/working towards that.

I often wonder what supports schools like UVA have in place to help those students. I work for a nonprofit that supports impoverished minority students and helps them get into college & funds it. All of them are first gen. We have a 95% acceptance rate but only 57% make it to graduation. It’s a challenging problem.

Almost any first gen student making it to a school the level of UVA will definitely graduate and potentially thrive. Being poor and first gen doesn’t mean your educational background is poor, and those types of students tend to be exceptional people in general.

This thread really deteriorated, but I will chime in to provide a point of view that I don't believe has been expressed yet, in the off chance that OP is still reading here.

All of our close friends send their kids to private schools, so we understand the reasons why people send their kids to private. In fact, I went to private school for high school and my husband went to private school for elementary and we saw the pros and cons from that perspective.

We decided to send our three kids to public mostly because the very best private school that's close to us is about a 45 minute drive from our home and would require our teens to have to wake up super early to beat traffic. There are schools that are not quite as good but closer, but I think most of the kids who go to those schools are kids who couldn't get into the top school and their parents seem to talk down about the top school, which I think is unfortunate.

The plus side is that their friends from school all live nearby and they can meet for ECs, group projects, etc. within miles from our home. For a two-parent working family, any school that's located far from your home is going to make life difficult in a lot of ways (especially with driving to sports practices, etc.)

My kids haven't gotten into college yet so we will have to wait and see. However, I can already tell that their school has plenty of rigor and that if they do their best in their classes, they will end up fine. Another parent here mentioned that the counselors at the private schools are better and that is definitely true. Our college counseling is terrible, so we are one of many families who have hired a private college counselor.

Anyway, keep in mind where the schools are located and what capacity you as parents have to drive them around.