Does my high school matter to colleges?

<p>Hello everyone. I know this topic has been brought up time and time again but I really need some advice on my current situation. I am currently a freshman attending a public high school that would probably be considered to be average or maybe a little bit worse. Education isn't valued much by the vast majority of students, which makes for a not-so-great learning environment. The school district isn't so bad that it's going to lose accreditation or anything that severe, but it isn't anywhere near great or even good. I have been thinking about applying for a private school, but I have heard many contradicting ideas about private school and the benefits of it, so I am really struggling with the decision to apply or not.</p>

<p>I would consider myself to be a solid, well-rounded student, and I really want to do what will benefit me the most academically, and provide me with many opportunities. I want to get in to a very good college, and I don't want the school I attend to hinder that goal. So now for the big question: Will attending my current public high school, and taking the most rigorous schedule possible be good enough? Or, is there any bias by college admissions officers towards accepting students who attended private school, and did the same thing?</p>

<p>There is also one other factor, for me personally, that plays into this (although it isn't as important to me as my main question): I have a schooling fund of around 100 grand or so that can be used for whatever schooling I choose to use it on. Would it be better for me to spend a large chunk of this money on private schooling, and hope for financial aid/scholarships in college (I don't want a lot of student loans), or, should I just stay in my current school and save the money?</p>

<p>Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.</p>

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<p>It depends on what the most rigorous courses are at your current school. If the school offers AP or IB courses, find out how well the A students in those courses do on the corresponding tests.</p>

<p>Also note that not many private schools are not academically elite; they may have missions other than purely academic ones.</p>

<p>As far as your question about spending on private school versus college, it depends a lot on the quality of the schools, the cost of the private school and colleges you are interested in, and what your financial aid situation would be like at colleges (try their net price calculators with your parents’ financial details). Of course, doing well in high school grades and standardized test scores will help you with scholarships.</p>

<p>There is no cut and dried formula that anyone can give you.</p>

<p>About finances you should be careful. You may or may not be eligible for any aid. The aid formula is based on your parents income and assets and your student income and assets. Are you a dependent student and are those funds in your name, parents name or 529 acct? </p>

<p>ucb makes a good point that you should select the private with a mind of what the qualities of the school are. But my daughter went to a private school that was rigorous and had some amazing students. It was an excellent atmosphere to soak everything up, learn to push yourself, rise to your highest standard and be extremely well prepared for colleges. There were also some pretty extraordinary extracurricular opportunities for a variety of interests. So I would always say to go for the best education you can get rather than not push yourself for strategic reasons. Strong privates place students extremely well. If you are even a moderate student you can usually get a pretty nice college.</p>

<p>However won’t that use up all your money? That seems kind of nuts to deplete college money for that. If you don’t have enough for both then you really don’t have the money for a private unless you get aid.</p>

<p>You can also do well at your public taking the most rigorous program allowed and finding ways to supplement when you exhaust possibilities, by dual enrollment, or online CTY type programs that won’t use all your money up. Also by developing your extracurricular interests to a high level (like talked about in How to be a High School Superstar.)</p>

<p>Don’t assume private schools will have better academics, in my area this is entirely wrong. Public schools offer IB, so if you’re a good student, you are way ahead of the privates that while offering AP’s might actually limit who takes them. Check out charter, early college, dual enrollment, magnets. Find out where the gifted programs kids end up in high school. and see if you can attend. Be prepared to travel outside of your area schools. </p>

<p>Thank you all so much for your responces! </p>

<p>The private school I’m considering at the moment is an academically elite school. The name of the school is John Burroughs…it’s in the St. Louis area. It has probably the most rigourous curriculum out of all the St. Louis area privates. There are a couple other decent ones but this is the school I thought would be the best academically.</p>

<p>My school does offer AP courses in every subject, which I will start taking as soon as I can. I will definitely look into how the A students in these classes did on standardized testing. I actually know a few people I can ask personally. I am not sure if my school offers IB classes though. Like I said, my school, and school district, is full of kids who would never even consider IB classes, so I wouldn’t think my district would impliment them as it might be seen as a waste of money.</p>

<p>As far as the money goes, it is in my parents name until I’m 18, and then I can take control of it. However, they allow me to make my own decisions about whether to spend it on high school or save it for college. I am very confident I could get financial aid in both high school and college, as my family has a household income of less than $40,000 a year to support 5 family members. Not ALL of my money would be used on high school, probably not even half, should I choose to attend a private.</p>

<p>Stick to your current school and take the best classes that you can. I wouldn’t spend it on a private. </p>

<p>If you have a $100 grand waiting for you, I dont see you getting financial aid for college. I would use this wisely since you have such a great head start. </p>

<p>Are you able to compete in a pool of academically elites in a private? Many of those kids will have arrived there through a feeder system for privileged kids from preK onwards. Do you have some quantifiables when in comes to your academics? test scores? Have you sat any ACT or SAT tests at all? Even just for fun? </p>

<p>I have not taken the SAT or the ACT yet, although I plan to sometime in the near future. I took the private school entrance exam and scored in 60-70th percentile in the nation…In the past 5 years, I have consistently placed in the 99th percentile for math and 97th for english in my state, but this was only at the public school level, and that test stopped after 8th grade. This probably doesn’t mean much now. I would have to take the ACT or SAT before I can give any good data. I am fairly confident I could compete with these private elites, but I don’t know for sure.</p>

<p>According to <a href=“http://jburroughs.org/admissions/tuition-and-tuition-aid”>http://jburroughs.org/admissions/tuition-and-tuition-aid&lt;/a&gt; , John Burroughs’ tuition is about $25,000; four years of high school there would leave you nothing left for college, severely constraining your college choices (basically, you would need almost a full ride).</p>

<p>However, it also says that you can get financial aid there, although it does not have a net price calculator to estimate the financial aid. To find out, you may have to apply and hope that it comes out as mostly grants, not loans or no aid at all.</p>

<p>Do not be overconfident about getting college financial aid. Many public and private colleges do not give good financial aid. Use the net price calculator on the web sites of various public and private colleges to get an idea. The most selective ones are more likely to have the best financial aid, but getting admitted to them is often unlikely even if you have a 4.0 HS GPA and high test scores. At the very least, try the net price calculators on the various public universities in your home state to get an idea of what you would need to pay there. High academic credentials can get you large merit scholarships at otherwise-less-difficult-to-get-into colleges, which can be another college funding option if you do get top-end high school grades and test scores.</p>

<p>JBS is a good school that will definitely offer you opportunities. The safe route would be to preserve all that money for college, but if JBS costs can be reduced so that you’ll still have $50K left for college, I would say JBS would be worth it since, worse comes to worst, you likely can go to a college where you get free tuition and your savings would be enough for room and board.</p>

<p>60-70th percentile? Would that get you entry? And for sure, state tests may not be worth much if you live in less academic states. Have you really looked at all your public school options, like the charters and special interest schools? You never qualified for any magnet programs? Outside of hard work and motivation, what is it that is making you feel you should be in an elite schools at this stage? As a freshman, academic talent in a generally low achieving pool would be obvious by now? Are you doing an AP this year? Are you picking all honors or more classes? </p>

<p>Well first of all, I would only be attending Burroughs for 3 years, since I am a freshman right now. This would drop the price down 25k and I think I could also get some financial aid. Last year I applied at a private school more expencive than Burroughs, and got over half of it paid for. I decided not to go though because I still thought the school was overpriced for what it provided. Even if I didn’t get this much at Burroughs, I still think I could expect to get something, which would drop prices down even further.</p>

<p>As for what Alfonsia said, yes, 60-70% WAS enough to get me into a private school last year. The test I took however, was the same test they give to incoming freshman and sophmores, so if I took it as an incoming sophmore, since it is the same level of difficulty, one would naturally assume I would have a higher percentile on the test taking it a year later</p>

<p>I also realize that Missouri isn’t the most academic state. Those standardized tests I took, like I said, were just for public schools. Generally, private schools do better on standardized tests as a whole than public schools do, so I wouldn’t expect those percentiles to be so high if they were compared to private schools as well.</p>

<p>I have not qualified for any “magnet programs”…I didn’t even know there was a such thing. I am currently taking all honors right now, and am doing fine in all of them. I don’t have the opportunity to take all AP until Junior year, but I can take 1 or 2 AP classes sophmore year.</p>

<p>The title of the thread is “Does my high school matter to colleges?”. There is your answer to why I want to go to an elite private school. If I didn’t think there was a chance that it mattered, it would be a no-brainer. </p>

<p>That shouldn’t be the reason to go, IMO. The extra educational and other opportunities to learn, grow, and develop (and make lifelong friends with intellectual peers) would be compelling reasons to go to JBS. You’ll appreciate what I said more when you are older and wiser.</p>

<p>The journey is the goal.</p>

<p>Well yes, those are all biproducts of going to a school like JBS. I was never denying that. Because it looks good to colleges is not the ONLY reason I’m considering it. I thoroughly enjoy learning, I love people, and I love growing as an individual regardless of if it helps with the goal of getting into a good college or not. This thread, however, was made specifically for that question. There are many other factors that are involved besides the ones that I’ve listed, but I made this thread about a few that I was unsure about.</p>

<p>I do, very much so, appreciate everything anyone has to say to me, including you. I realize that, only being 15, I wouldn’t have the same level of wisedom you have, but that doesn’t mean I only think of private school as an academic venture.</p>

<p>IMO, what colleges think of JBS should not factor in your decision, because they generally won’t care. So you’re asking the wrong question.</p>

<p>JBS <em>could</em> help you develop differently, and that may matter to colleges. More importantly, it may matter when it comes to your life.</p>

<p>JBS will also likely provide better/more guidance counseling resources and that could be important.</p>

<pre><code> Will being in the 60-70th percentile feel good though, I get going to a school for intellectual peers but is this what is on offer?
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<p>There are gifted programs, <a href=“https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/Program_ProceduresManual2014.pdf”>https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/Program_ProceduresManual2014.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
There are IB schools <a href=“http://www.midwestibschools.org/protected/member_schools_protected.htm”>http://www.midwestibschools.org/protected/member_schools_protected.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Check around before writing a check. Does this school have current vacancies? Really good privates have long waiting lists. </p>

<p>Oh right, did you get in to JBS? I thought that getting in after 7th grade was extremely difficult there.</p>

<p>Well if colleges don’t generally care, then is the difference in development, extra guidance, and slightly more opportunity really worth $20-25k per year?</p>

<p>I am a gifted student and was in the gifted program from 2nd grade to 8th grade. I was not aware that there even were gifted programs past middle school, so I will definitely look into one now. As for IB schools, I don’t even know what those are. Lol, Could you explain?</p>

<p>Also, Alfonsia, what did you mean by your first question? I didn’t understand what you were asking.</p>

<p>I’m honestly not sure of the difficulty level of getting in. I’m sure it is very difficult, given the fact that it’s ranked 48th in the nation for private high schools. No, I have not gotten in.</p>

<p>So it might be a moot point for you.</p>

<p>I would say: don’t exhaust all of your college money, but if you can go at a cost of $10K/year or maybe a little more, it may well be worth it. Try to talk to kids who are students there.</p>