Advantage of BS over PS

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>I like to ask why you want to go to BS in stead of PS(Public School)? or Why do you want to send your kids to BS instead of PS? </p>

<p>In the top 5 BS, it is very difficult to get a good GPA and about 20% to 30%(max) students go to Ivies + 2(MIT and Stanford). If it is top 10 BS, less than 20%. If it is out of top 10-20, barely 10% of the students make ivies +2. On top of that. tuition is obviously a lot expensive? </p>

<p>Let's talk about the advantages of BS over PS. I'd appreciate your honest opiniios.</p>

2

<p>Our local paper recently published a list of our town’s graduates, and their college choices. Of some 100 students, 1 will attend an Ivy/MIT/Stanford, giving an average of 1%. It’s an affluent, professional town, and the schools are well funded. They don’t choose to offer what I would consider a sufficient college-prep curriculum to the student body. One reason the Ivy/MIT/Stanford matriculation rate is so low, in my opinion, is because they don’t offer APs in the humanities. Access to lab sciences is limited, because they don’t have enough lab space. Nearly a decade ago, the accreditation team visited the high school, and noted that it didn’t have enough space to meet the educational needs of the student body. Since then, the campus has not grown, but the student body has grown by 10%.</p>

<p>It’s anyone’s guess as to how low state tax receipts will be this year. When the state cuts the public schools’ allowance, the schools cut programs and teachers.</p>

<p>I want my children to be prepared to succeed at college. The worst thing would be for my child to win admission to an elite college, while lacking the skills to succeed. </p>

<p>I could go on about the value of a BS education. My kid’s made a smooth transition, and seems very happy. I like the effect of required sports (or drama), and the positive effects of living and studying with a group of smart, nice kids.</p>

3

<p>Never have I been to a public school that matches up to a boarding school. Public schools are state funded and often times very very very under funded. My school doesn’t have enough textbooks for everyone due to an increase of new students, so I am recieving photocopied pages if we need to read something for class. Although we have some good teachers, most dread teaching and don’t care what we do during class as long as we get our homework done. The quality of education at a public school is nothing compared to BS.</p>

4

<p>My daughter attended a public in one of the most affluent and educated areas of our state, yet struggled her first couple of years in college because she was not used to having textbook reading assignments. She took all college prep and honors classes in high school; very few classes had a textbook. She had one excellent course, an Honors US History class. The instructor had a degree form Yale and was one of the instructors at her school who truly pushed to make the students perform to their fullest. He came in early in the morning and stayed after at night for test review. Not many like him, though. I credit her very high SAT writing score to him. My son spent one year at the same school. His honors freshman English class was co-taught and had 60 students. His largest class at his prep school has maybe 14. He is someone who did not necessarily engage readily; here he has no choice.</p>

5

<p>You shouldn’t go to a BS just to get into college.</p>

6

<p>I agree, PBush. I don’t think anyone on this thread said that, though?</p>

<p>If you can get in to boarding school, you will be able to get in to college at the end of high school. Attending a boarding school, for students who would rank at the top of their public school class, will hurt their chances of admission to the most competitive colleges.</p>

7

<p>But still, I am <em>hopefully</em> going to attend boarding school, and yes, I am in the top ten of my class. My public school is over-enrolled, falling apart, and not a place where I can get a good education. My school is so crowded that you have to run to the lunchroom to get a chair and if not you will end up sitting on someone’s lap or standing up.
Boarding school is the chance for a better education, one that will force me to look outside of the box. It will prepare me for college and give me opportunities my public school never could offer.</p>

8

<p>To the original question. 1st, I personally would never ‘send’ a child to boarding school. I would permit them to go (and have) only if they have the maturity to benefit and the ability to thrive. Yes it is more academically challenging, but colleges are very much aware of that when they look at applicants. For the top schools, students have far higher SSAT’s (and SAT’s) than the mean for almost all public schools. And you have classes with play sports with, eat meals with and live with similarly talented students every day of the week. </p>

<p>So what happens? The boarding schools effectively ‘cherry pick’ some of the most talented students, place them in classes with other similarly talented students, give them challenging classes (in most cases with no upper limits), and produces an exceptional group of mature and bright graduates. </p>

<p>I have an MBA, retired years ago, but am in the midst of a Masters in Education (for fun). So I spend endless required hours observing classes in a full spectrum of schools. I can assure you that the quality of the learning is dramatically better in the boarding schools than inner city, suburban, or rural schools I have observed. Obviously there are wonderful AP and honors classes in all schools, but at the boarding schools you see students discussing what they are doing 24-7 with teachers and fellow students. It happens in the dorm rooms, on the paths and in the dining halls. That is different.</p>

<p>Why else a boarding school? Before they go to college, most of these students are already used to living away from home, setting their own schedules and establishing priorities. At. St. Paul’s (and others) they are even used to Saturday classes, cleaning rooms, choosing courses, doing laundry and buying snacks. When they get to college, the transition is easy and they ‘hit the ground running’. </p>

<p>Or read and review the info at either of these links:
[The</a> Truth About Boarding Schools](<a href=“http://www.tabs.org/theTruth/truth.cfm]The”>http://www.tabs.org/theTruth/truth.cfm)
[Why</a> Boarding School? - Boarding School Review](<a href=“Why Boarding School?”>Why Boarding School?)</p>

<p>Obviously, I am a believer. BUT boarding school is not right for everyone. If the teen has problems, the top academic schools described here will not solve those problems. The same with maturity, substance abuse or academic failure. BUT for a talented and mature teen, it can be a unparalleled opportunity. (and no I do not work for a school)</p>

9

<p>

If they have the amazing ability to not only be the top in their public school, but also in their boarding school chance it will be an amazing catalyst for their admission into BS. And of course, it is somewhat of a pipeline (less so, now) if you are a URM, legacy, or athlete.</p>

10

<p>I appreciate all of the good comments. My D was so outstanding in the public middle school in a good school district. She is now in BS and she is working hard and gettig
a good grades(High honor) in the BS. High honor is average A-. There were only 4-5 High Honors out of about 70 9th graders. Now they added about 20 more to the tenth grade and the total 90 students in the tenth grade. While she is doing well, she has to work so hard to do all the works and sports. Thereore, I am questioning myself if I am doing right things for my kid. If she were in public HS, she could have a lot more enjoyable life having straight As. And by having a low GPA in BS comparing to PS(Public high school), I wonder she might have some disadvantages in admission. Most of the top liberal colleges consider the rigor of the BS curriculum. But I do not know how other big universities take that kind of GPA and rigor during admission process. One thing that I clearly see as an advantage of BS is that she is surrounded by many good kids like her even if I hear some kids’ suspensions once in a while due to violations. Even if BS is not just for college prep, I hope she goes to a good college after all. The relatively low GPS comparing to PS may be a concern. It may be not a concern. But I like to ask!</p>

11

<p>We came from a good but not excellent public school, so the academics in the BS are definitely better and he gets the challenges he needs and learns more. In terms of extracurricular activities, BS is so much better. GPA wise, I agree that he has to work much harder to get the kind of GPA he could get in PS with less effort, which depending on how you see it is not necessarily a bad thing. In general, I think BS provides a much different “total experience” than PS (even an excellent PS). We just neded to get over the idea that BS would help you get into an IVY league school. After that, it became clear that BS was the way to go.</p>

12

<p>My public high school has an excellent reputation, which is why we moved to where we are. But it doesn’t compare to the top tier boarding schools which is why I am applying to Andover and Exeter, if I don’t get in, my safety is my public high school.</p>

13

<p>Periwinkle: There’s absolutely no way to draw that conclusion. There are way too many factors to say definitively that going to boarding school hurts college admissions. I’m not denying that it may hurt some students, but it helps others too. Even those who very likely would have been at the top of the class.</p>

14

<p>If you are concerned about how her grades will affect college admissions, ask your school if you can view their Naviance data. Take a look at the scattergrams with SAT scores and gpa from your school by college. It will show acceptances, denials and waitlists. You can also ask to see the school profile which is provided to colleges. It shows grade distributions by course. This way, colleges evaluate your daughter’s grades in the context of her school. If she is able to keep in the high honors group, and your school has an honor society, then she may be elected for Jr. year which is a distinction.</p>

<p>Most colleges evaluate candidates in the context of their schools. </p>

<p>I don’t know whether or not going to a very competitive schools puts an applicant at a disadvantage. What I do know is that college admission to very competitive colleges has become much harder for everyone, and everyone is looking for reasons that s/he was not admitted.</p>