Anonymous wrote:The reality is you'll never know, and it will vary from year to year, class to class, and kid to kid.

Have your child go to the HS that's best for them, and then the college/university that's best for them. Then you can't go wrong.

What is such a sensible, sane, and true response doing here?

Anonymous wrote:Attending a competitive private school probably does hurt your chances overall. A bright, motivated kid will stand out from the pack more at a public school. Ivy League schools will reach a bit farther into a private school class, but not that far.

Private schools are also juggling a lot of competing priorities. Competitive universities will only take so many from a single secondary school, and the counselors can only push for a few at each university. Your application to UPenn might be sacrificed on the altar of the ambitions of a child of a major donor. Private schools even limit applications, so the strategy of aiming for several reach schools might not be an option.

The kid who benefits from private school is the kid who is sensitive to his environment. In a school full of self-starters, he'll adopt that posture. If he is surrounded by stoners, or kids who aren't pushing themselves, that's the route he'll take.

As a private school parent going through college application process right now, these are so true. Continuously adjusting expectation in this process.
DC is premed bound, thus the prestige of the college may not come as important. That took a lot of stress away from the family. May end up at a liberal art college and be happy with it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NCS alumna (top 20%) and Georgetown University graduate (mid-2000s) here.

While Georgetown isn't an Ivy, as a reference point for a top-25 liberal arts college, I would say 50% of my college classmates attended private high schools.

Based on that stat alone, it would seem that attending a private school would meaningfully improve one's chances of getting into Georgetown.

Just one example.

You must have missed the stats class at GT.

The relevant question is not what % of top-25 college students were private school students.
The relevant question is what % of private school students became top-25 college students.

Exactly, and not to mention but Georgetown is well known for favoring private schools and not all top schools do that. Georgetown is long well known for rich Ivy League rejects.

Anonymous wrote:NCS alumna (top 20%) and Georgetown University graduate (mid-2000s) here.

While Georgetown isn't an Ivy, as a reference point for a top-25 liberal arts college, I would say 50% of my college classmates attended private high schools.

Based on that stat alone, it would seem that attending a private school would meaningfully improve one's chances of getting into Georgetown.

Just one example.

You must have missed the stats class at GT.

The relevant question is not what % of top-25 college students were private school students.
The relevant question is what % of private school students became top-25 college students.

NCS alumna (top 20%) and Georgetown University graduate (mid-2000s) here.

While Georgetown isn't an Ivy, as a reference point for a top-25 liberal arts college, I would say 50% of my college classmates attended private high schools.

Based on that stat alone, it would seem that attending a private school would meaningfully improve one's chances of getting into Georgetown.

Just one example.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, that's just rich people cope.

Are the very top students at Big 3 schools not getting into Ivy League schools?

A few do. Most don’t. It is absolutely not a guarantee. So if that is the reason you want to go, you may be disappointed in the outcome.

The top at Big 3 are going to Ivy's, vast, vast majority are not.
The top paid musicians are millionaires, vast, vast majorities are poor.

Go to Big3 because they are a good fit, not to go to Ivy's.
Become a musician for the love of music, not to become a millionaire.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am looking at private schools for kid. Not DC but in Baltimore. I went to a well known prep school in another city and cannot but help make comparisons to the 1990s. Also went to an Ivy. In glancing at the 2025 classes Instagram, there are fewer prestigious college placements than you would expect. Of those, disproportionate are black, especially those of African ancestry. Most kids seem to be going to big state universities across the country. Far fewer LACs, which really surprised me.

It has made me pause a bit.

Far fewer kids want to go to the Ivies, particularly certain ones. My kids and a few of their friends all said no thanks to Columbia, Brown and Penn the past few years. Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and for some kids, Harvard are still in vogue.

Yes, because their sub 10% acceptance rates show they're so out of vogue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am looking at private schools for kid. Not DC but in Baltimore. I went to a well known prep school in another city and cannot but help make comparisons to the 1990s. Also went to an Ivy. In glancing at the 2025 classes Instagram, there are fewer prestigious college placements than you would expect. Of those, disproportionate are black, especially those of African ancestry. Most kids seem to be going to big state universities across the country. Far fewer LACs, which really surprised me.

It has made me pause a bit.

Far fewer kids want to go to the Ivies, particularly certain ones. My kids and a few of their friends all said no thanks to Columbia, Brown and Penn the past few years. Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and for some kids, Harvard are still in vogue.

Brown surprises me in the avoid list. It is still popular with our non-DC kids. I’d love to understand why some are not interested.

Broadly, I agree that state flagships are attracting some kids who would have gone top-tier SLAC a decade ago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am looking at private schools for kid. Not DC but in Baltimore. I went to a well known prep school in another city and cannot but help make comparisons to the 1990s. Also went to an Ivy. In glancing at the 2025 classes Instagram, there are fewer prestigious college placements than you would expect. Of those, disproportionate are black, especially those of African ancestry. Most kids seem to be going to big state universities across the country. Far fewer LACs, which really surprised me.

It has made me pause a bit.

Don't know what's happening in Baltimore. But hey, it's Baltimore. The top DC schools still have stellar records at getting kids into top schools.

Um, Tulane, Northeastern, NYU, etc are “top” schools only in the minds of a few. The Ivies, Stanford and MITs are no longer banging down the doors at any DC privates begging for their students.

Anonymous wrote:I am looking at private schools for kid. Not DC but in Baltimore. I went to a well known prep school in another city and cannot but help make comparisons to the 1990s. Also went to an Ivy. In glancing at the 2025 classes Instagram, there are fewer prestigious college placements than you would expect. Of those, disproportionate are black, especially those of African ancestry. Most kids seem to be going to big state universities across the country. Far fewer LACs, which really surprised me.

It has made me pause a bit.

Far fewer kids want to go to the Ivies, particularly certain ones. My kids and a few of their friends all said no thanks to Columbia, Brown and Penn the past few years. Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and for some kids, Harvard are still in vogue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, that's just rich people cope.

Are the very top students at Big 3 schools not getting into Ivy League schools?

A few do. Most don’t. It is absolutely not a guarantee. So if that is the reason you want to go, you may be disappointed in the outcome.

Not our experience with 2 kids at 2 different Big3 schools in the past 2 years. If you are top10 in the class then an Ivy is almost a guarantee. This is where attending a Big3 can be an advantage over public. At a public there is a far greater percentage of kids at the top of the class and these kids' college admissions are sorted by their extracurriculars, random chance, etc. Some get an Ivy or other top20 spot, some do not. That all said, it's incredibly hard to be top10 in a Big3 class.

Sure it is, but don't be obtuse about how hard it is to be Top 10 anywhere that has a fairly affluent, high achieving population (Ws, Langley, Blair Magnet, etc...). Being at the top of your class of 70 is just as hard as being at the top of your class of 700. The #s, proportionally, work out the same. Some may argue that it's harder when there are no politics or special treatment or over-familiarity (I'm not) but in any case, Top 10 when taking 6 APs and pouring yourself into activities is what it is. And imagine that some kids do it without SAHMs to bend to their needs and housecleaners and all the comforts of being a 3%er or more! I know what I find more real-world impressive!

Anonymous wrote:If my kid wants to attend an Ivy League or similar university after high school, will a top private school hurt their chances due to the intense competition?

It depends. Can he be in the top 20-30th percentile of the class at an elite school?
If not, he’d get better chances going to a slightly less prestigious high school if he can be in the top 5 percentile there.
Big fish in the small sea principle …