<p>Yes, but that’s not a universal. MIT (etc) doesn’t want just-private-school-kids-who-are-already-advantaged filling out their classes.</p>
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<p>But are you comparing academically elite private schools to typical public schools (not magnet or academically elite public schools)?</p>
<p>Not all private schools are academically elite.</p>
<p>I’m not sure universally how much diffference it makes whether you go to x private school or y public school. But there are a handful of schools where it makes a huge difference and you can tell that just by looking at their profiles. Trinity School for example-
<a href=“http://www.trinityschoolnyc.org/ftpimages/390/misc/misc_88044.pdf[/url]”>http://www.trinityschoolnyc.org/ftpimages/390/misc/misc_88044.pdf</a></p>
<p>Depending on how you define it, somewhere between 30 and 70% of the student body here end up attending very elite universities. So you certainly don’t need to be the Trinity school valedictorian to make it to the Ivy League. Not even close.</p>
<p>Same if you look up places like Exeter, Andover, Horace Mann, Harvard Westlake, etc. I can’t remember them all. Many of them have public profiles on the internet. There are probably something like 50 private and elite magnet high schools that fill up significant chunks of the entering class at the top colleges. Maybe a little more or less.</p>
<p>The high school in our neighborhood is well thought of, I’m sure. Maybe in the top 100 or 200 or so in the rankings and we’ve had a presidential scholar each of the last two years. Even so, our matriculation to the Ivy league is nowhere near this.</p>
<p>MIT took 67% of their freshman class from public schools. I’m sure the percent that came from private schools was probably over represented by a few biggies.</p>
<p>…in our area, it is rare for unhooked, non-URM public school kids to get into the most competitive schools, such as MIT, the ivies, etc. Whereas private school kids get in with relative frequency.</p>
<p>This can be a matter of the kid, GC or parents being savvy about what matters in your app. Take CC as an example of how hs kids misread what’s going to impress adcoms.</p>
<p>If you go into any sizable metropolitan area and ask, “What’s the most intellectual school? What’s the school that has the best mix of academics and competitive athletics? Where do the movers and shakers send their kids?”, the answers you get will be schools with decent Ivy League (etc.) admissions track records.</p>
<p>The additional factors you get with New York City private schools, like Trinity, are (a) they tend to be tiny, 30-60 kids/class, so they can be (and are) super-selective about whom they admit, and (b) a meaningful percentage of students come from families of extreme wealth, who already have buildings and professorships named for them, often at more than one college. Each college only takes a handful of “developmental admits” every year, but those kids come disproportionately from a very small number of schools, and for NYC day schools a few of those kids can be a double-digit percentage of the class.</p>
<p>“MIT took 67% of their freshman class from public schools.”</p>
<p>I know this looks like it favors public school kids, but it doesn’t take into account the pool of applicants. I don’t have the stats, but to really compare, one would have to look at how many kids apply from public and private schools, and look at the overall percentage of kids who go to public vs. private schools. I don’t have these numbers. I would assume, though, that most kids in this country go to public schools.</p>
<p>I was also suggesting that on some level, adcoms may consider the fact that if a parent is paying, on average, $20,000 per year for high school, the family probably has financial resources and an EFC high enough to require less financial aid. Yes, I know some kids go on scholarship to private schools, etc. And there are wealthy families at public schools. But if you had to roll the dice, one might assume that parents of private school kids can pay more for college. I may be cynical, but I can’t help but assume that this could play some role in the decision.</p>
<p>Well in Chicago, the CPD school district has less than a half-dozen academically strong public high schools, with highly selective and very competitive enrollment process that excludes many high-performing non-minority “A” students. The remaining CPD HSs are bad news, with low academic performances and significant disciplinary issues. In many of those poor-performing CPD HSs, a “B” is achievable for simply showing up and trying, doing homework but not doing well on tests.</p>
<p>The admissions reps for several Illinois public universities have made presentations at DS’ private HS. They’ve consistently said that Illinois state universities are compelled to view all submitted GPAs as equal, without regard to curriculum, school reputation, or perceptions of grade inflation - which is fairly rampant in public schools here. Test scores obviously speak for themselves, and consequently get more attention.</p>
<p>The admissions reps from many private colleges and universities, located in Midwest and beyond, also have made presentations and daylong school visits. They’ve consistently said that applicants from DS’ HS are viewed as “proven candidates” well-prepared for college academics and a lower GPA is acceptable than their norm. DS’ HS’ Navigance records prove this out. Reps from LACs as well as very prestigious universities have made these statements at College Night presentations as well as informal discussions.</p>
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<p>I suspect you are generally right; only a handful of highly-selective colleges have endowments large enough to be truly need-blind, the rest are merely need-aware. However, some colleges with lessor endowments have apparently been forced to compete with their centuries-old counterparts. I was really surprised that Northwestern, a quickly-rising national powerhouse in the last few years, offered my son financial aid on par with what the New England colleges were offering.</p>
<p>I would just note that there are probably some small private schools that selective schools might be quite suspicious of–small non-Catholic Christian schools. Kids from those schools probably do need good standardized test scores if they’re going to compete.</p>
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<p>why single these out?</p>
<p>There is no predicting which sort of kid, which sort of schooling or world orientation, will lead to a less competitive or less interesting app. Many kids with tippy top stats blow their own chances through cookie cutter activities, misunderstanding what leadership means, or ridiculous essays. You can find them on CC, going on about passions. Or asking if they should retake that 2250 SAT.</p>
<p>One of the most important steps, imo, is to identify colleges that would want our sons and daughters. That’s not as simple as where you fall in the freshman profile of SAT scores and gpa- it’s also about how his interests match the school’s strengths, how his goals match their opportunities.</p>
<p>“But if you had to roll the dice, one might assume that parents of private school kids can pay more for college. I may be cynical, but I can’t help but assume that this could play some role in the decision.” </p>
<p>I agree with this and also want to note that most colleges are openly not need-blind. The other issue which can make private school kids look like they do disproportionately better in admissions at very top schools is that more of them are likely to be alumni kids. </p>
<p>My kids graduated from very good suburban public school but, along the way, attended private and public schools. I actually think if you take the same kid and put him in either a good ps or a good private school, he or she is likely to end up at the same college even though the numbers may be different. I think the important thing is getting the child a good education. In our area, while we have very good private schools, each of my kids preferred the variety of courses and ecs available in public school.</p>
<p>My child went to a small private catholic school for the first two years of high school (as well as grade school), but for the last two years of high school went to public school. I cannot speak for all private schools, but the one that my son attended was extremely far behind any public school in my area. In the private school they were not allowed to read classic literature, only Christian books. They were only offered one language and the teacher could not control the students long enough to actually ever teach anything. My son was in College Prep English in his private school and when we asked the headmaster what that meant, she said, well, it doesn’t mean anything as far as your GPA or rank or when you apply to college, however the course-load was three times as much as the remedial English class. In other words, he was expected to do three times the amount of work and get absolutely nothing for it. Math and sciences were a joke as one science class didn’t even have a teacher present, but was taught via satellite over a screen. In another science class they spent the first 15 minutes of each class watching Sports Center. When my son went to public school for his Junior and Senior years I had to get him a tutor so that he could catch up to the students in his grade. And of course all of his “religion” classes counted as nothing- as a matter of fact I believe the school called them “study hall” so when he applied to college it looked like he was pretty much a slacker through high school. He is finishing up his BS degree right now and planning to go to continue his education further and pursue his Master’s degree. Through college he maintained a 3.5 GPA and worked part-time and volunteered, so he is by no means a slacker. I believe that his private school did not prepare him properly for the future. If I had to do it all over again, I would have absolutely sent my child to public school. As a matter of fact, looking at our country today, I would have encouraged my child and do of friends and family now to consider a vocational high school. Even if they do decide to go on to pursue academics they still have a trade to fall back on. My niece who had her Business degree worked as a corporate training officer for a mega bank and about 4 years ago her position was eliminated. She was very thankful that she had taken Dental Assisting as her vocation and was able to find an job shortly after being laid off in a lucrative industry and hasn’t looked back since. And what might come as a surprise to some, she makes really good money as a dental assistant. </p>
<p>Of course where we lived while he was still in school had excellent public schools so I think it depends on where you are. I agree with some of the other posters, in that grades don’t matter if the student hasn’t actually learned anything.</p>
<p>emmarosewrites, In our area, there are a handful of excellent Catholic schools but most are poorer academically than the public schools. That also holds true of most Christian schools and the Jewish day schools. The purpose of those schools is to raise the kids in the faith. While there are some that offer excellent educations, many have an education which is accessible to all kids (not necessarily college prep) and may not have certified teachers or expensive lab equipment. In our area, some of those schools are better alternatives for inner city kids but not for suburban high-achievers. However, there are also private day schools with competitive admissions (some with no religious affiliation, some with a religious affiliation including Catholic schools) that provide excellent educations and will prepare a child for any college in the country. I really think it depends on the choices available to your family and your child.</p>
<p>In our area there really isn’t any distinction between the private schools and the public schools (except the inner city schools-which are really bad). For the most part the public schools are 'better" only because they are larger and can offer more classes. I would say that if you took a percentage of the college bound kids at the public schools and private schools you would see fairly close percentages of kids going to Ivy caliber schools, maybe a slightly higher number of private school kids going to top 30 schools, but after that the numbers are very similar. I’m VERY surprised at the number of private school kids going to lower end state schools or community colleges though. I guess I don’t see why you would spend $15,000+/year on high school and “cheep out” for college??</p>
<p>I’m VERY surprised at the number of private school kids going to lower end state schools or community colleges though. I guess I don’t see why you would spend $15,000+/year on high school and “cheep out” for college??</p>
<p>Spending $20,000 per yr on k-12 may have tapped out the education fund. That amount is on the low end of COA for an instate public university, and perhaps student didn’t find enough merit aid to lower costs. Cost is also not the determining factor for quality.</p>
<p>I agree with SteveMA on the mystery of expensive private K-12 followed by a college or university to which admission is easily gained by graduates of decent public K-12.</p>
<p>Here in Atlanta suburbs, there are many good public schools but there’s also a segment of the population that fiercely believes that all public education is atrocious. Yet significant portions of the graduating classes of the most highly regarded (and very expensive) private schools move on to regional publics such as U of Georgia and Ole Miss. Masses of graduates of the local public high schools move on to the exact same universities. The families who’ve spent $25K or so per year for their kids to attend the private high schools have presumably bought something of value to them, but a more exclusive college education isn’t part of it, for many.</p>
<p>Some people believe, and I’m one of them, that with a strong k-12 foundation, academic success in higher ed can be found easily. I think it’s less risky for the academically and intellectually developed high school grad to attend state U than it is for the borderline/average student. I think that’s the kind of student that some posters are referring to when they say it’s not where you go but what you do when you get there that matters. If I had $50000 to spend on education, I’d spend it on an excellent high school education over a couple years at a pricey university.</p>
<p>emeraldkity4-but why spend the dollars on the K-12 education in the first place. Ok, if you live in Washington DC or Detroit or such, I get that you need to send your child to a private school but even those public schools are going to prepare a student with involved parents well enough to go to any community college, so again the question, why spend so much on the K-12 education and not plan for money for college? $20K/year for college is VERY doable in many areas and even more so if the student takes out federal loans but again, they could have banked the $260,000 and been full pay at ANY college in the nation.</p>