<p>Yes, we don’t have to believe that best schooling will change life for good for sure (although I am so tempted to) but as you two implied, we should believe that best education/schools we can find, afford and our kids can reach are tremendous opportunities and the best gift we can give to our children. This belief shouldn’t be changed just because we see PS stars getting into Harvard or even people without best education are successful, not only because a best education is not just about tangible “success” but also because a best education in general and more likelydoes indeed prepare people for living a more productive and successful life.</p>
<p>DA, Most of your posts make you sound like a BS salesman. Do you work at a large BS?</p>
<p>I work for an organization called “Best Schools Matter”.</p>
<p>I wonder how that can be quantified. Clearly BS perform better than the majority of public schools but the operate at an advantage:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>campuses that rival small and medium size colleges</p></li>
<li><p>per capita spending rates 5 or more times the allocation for a public school student</p></li>
<li><p>ability to choose only those students already vetted to be able to do the work</p></li>
<li><p>class sizes 1/3 to 1/2 the size of their public school equivalents. I suspect a lot of public school teachers would be thrilled to teach classes limited to 12 bright, literate students most of whom enter above grade level.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>On the other hand, bright students have done amazing things with the hand they’ve been dealt in a non BS environment. My DH and I see them all the time in college interviews.</p>
<p>As the article said - better schools matter most for those students who have never been exposed to that level of discourse (academic or social). Does it really make a difference for those coming in with the appropriate exposures and social stimulation in their home and school environments? Are the latter MORE successful for the $150,000-$200,000 investment? If college entry is the only litmus test - or future success - that’s debatable. One need only look through an alumni bulletin to know that’s not entirely true.</p>
<p>Still, the converse - given the number of amazing and qualified students on the CC boards who did not find a home this year - is that waitlist or declined students may indeed go on and fulfill their destiny along a different path - and will likely be just as successful because they share the same drive as those who matriculated.</p>
<p>It’s the ones entering boarding school hoping solely that it will “gain” them some edge that are most often disappointed.</p>
<p>It must be fun to work for phantom organizations.</p>
<p><<does it=“” really=“” make=“” a=“” difference=“” for=“” those=“” coming=“” in=“” with=“” the=“” appropriate=“” exposures=“” and=“” social=“” stimulation=“” their=“” home=“” school=“” environments?=“” (in=“” attending=“” bs)=“” are=“” latter=“” more=“” successful=“” $150,000-$200,000=“” investment?=“”>></does></p>
<p>This is what I’ve been trying to ask, the very same question, yet I’ve been called on the carpet in the past for wanting some “return on investment.”</p>
<p>Highly motivated kids who are in good public school settings esp those with programs enriched by parent funding publicly or privately (CTY programs, music programs etc.) will do very well without attending BS.</p>
<p>For this parent, our endpoint has changed. Getting into an ivy that hopefully would afford a top education is no longer the goal. Reading where college admissions are going and the ever decreasing percentage of kids who get into the top ivies on CC and the crapshoot college admissions has become, the reason for our child attending BS, is more to be in an environment where students and faculty both value education. I know our son is being challenged to deliver his best and to develop his full potential both academically and athletically and I like that.</p>
<p>I do think in the end, as he becomes an adult, he will be better off as more is being brought to bear at this formative stage in his development. It may not be as big a difference as someone who comes from a mediocre public school, but still more I am certain nevertheless. I also think he will still have more opportunites whether it be to go abroad for study in high school or join the Economics Team or get better exposure as a recruited athlete.</p>
<p>And I don’t work for any BS.</p>
<h2>After reading the whole thread last night. I had a dream.</h2>
<h2>I found a very competitive BS school from internet. The admission criteria only need to take SSAT. During the interview, students also need to take IQ test. When students’ SSAT score get square, school will take high IQ kids. If a student took SAT and got 2300+, he/she guarantees a spot and qualifies scholarship. School claims the admission rate is less than 10% and yield rate is near to 90%. My little 10 years boy yelled to me and said “Wow. This is the school I want to go”. </h2>
<p>I suddenly work up and sweated all over my body and could not sleep anymore. I began to think about my best friend at middle school who was the top one graduated and attended the best area high school. He was an early matured guy and could memorize all middle school stuff. He was struggling at high school and told me he could not memorize all those high school materials anymore. He did not go to college at the end. He now owns a customized bike store and has a very enjoyable life.</p>
<p>I plan to call my daughter tonight to tell her “Do your best but take it easy”.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Nicely stated! Welcome to the club. Really - where public schools are going (even many privates)-- the culture of BS, the richly diverse (and equally smart) peer groups and all the other non-quantifiable aspects of the experience are the greatest takeaways.</p>
<p>Yet 99.999% of the kids go to public school.</p>
<p>Sorry to be a literalist, but Pulsar you do realize that would leave about 150 kids for all the private schools, right? :)</p>
<p>Not so, pulsar. According to CAPE (Council for American Private Education) 11% of all students in America in Pre-K through grade 12 were enrolled in private schools in 2009, and private schools made up 25% of the schools in the US in the same year.</p>
<p>[CAPE</a> | Private School Facts](<a href=“Home - Council for American Private Education”>Home - Council for American Private Education)</p>
<p>I absolutely agree with redbluegoldgreen about the impetus for attending a boarding school. I didn’t come to boarding school with hopes to get into Harvard - I came because I had exhausted my old school’s academic offerings and was also looking for more extracurricular activities plus exposure to some seriously gifted, motivated, and, most importantly, interesting, students. These are things that were hard to come by at my old school, but I found them in bulk at boarding school. Moreover, my exposure to these amazing kids and amazing adults has raised my level of discourse and writing, and I’ve been able to grow uninhibited thanks to a complete lack of stigma against achievement and intellect. I don’t care that I’m not going to an Ivy. I care about who boarding school has helped me to become and about the goals that I’ve achieved and the new goals that I have my sights set on.</p>
<p>Wanna know one of the most valuable things that Andover taught me? It taught me that I have physical limitations. In fact, I worked myself to the point of immune system exhaustion and contracted mono after my very first term here. I wasn’t willing to admit physical limitations, so I pushed through the mono and continued to stay up late to get all my work done, and it was fruitful - I scored high grades, skipped right over AB calculus into BC calculus after pre-cal, and was elected president of the largest club on campus and elected to the board of two other clubs. I never gave myself a break, and I tried to have my cake and eat it too. My achievements were strong, but my body wasn’t. I lost 40 pounds and was prescribed antidepressants, and my mono continued through June. I had contracted it in January.</p>
<p>Fall term this year and I still hadn’t quite learned. I lost more weight when my appendix exploded in October but I was still so addicted to work that I had a phone conversation with my club co-head about organizing our upcoming weekend events - while I was in the back of an ambulance with its sirens blaring on the way to Lawrence General Hospital. After my surgeries, my house counselor finally stepped in. He forced me to take a hiatus from ALL of my extracurriculars until the beginning of winter term. I thought it was the end of the world, but it was actually a great thing. I started watching hulu with my “extra” time. I took naps. I walked slower, and stopped to smell the flowers (okay, it was late fall. There were no flowers).</p>
<p>So it was that boarding school taught me to work with my body and not against it, to make healthy decisions, and to take time out for fun. I’ve learned not to spread myself too thin, and I think that my academic work and achievements in my clubs speak to that fact. I might not have learned these lessons until college if I had stayed at my old school. I adopted an attitude that I think many people do not associate with boarding school: that work should be and is only a fraction of the experience. If it gets late, I go to bed now instead of staying up to finish. It’s healthier. I’ve learned to ask people for help when my personal tasks become too much. And I’ve learned to talk out my problems - better out than in.</p>
<p>In that way, Andover’s biggest gift to me has been the realization that I’m a person like anyone else. I don’t think many people enter boarding school wanting to hear that, but it’s true. I think that there are a lot of people that just need to embrace their humanity and learn to work with it, and I learned that here. That, to me at least, means a lot more than going to Princeton, and I’m glad to have learned these lessons sooner rather than later. I plan on being genuinely happy in life, and I want to feel fulfilled. To that end, I know that absolutely spending myself might not be the way to do that. I plan on doing what I love and loving what I do.</p>
<p>I’ve been humbled by the people at boarding school, and while I may not have made my own contribution to mathematics like my classmate Wenyu Cao, I know for certain that I’ve never taken this place for granted and that I’ve taken advantage of every opportunity that’s been offered, and that Oscar Tang’s scholarship fund was not wasted on me. I’m not going to Yale, his alma mater, but I think he knows I’m happy anyway.</p>
<p>That was quite a bit longer than I had planned. Guess it just needed to come out!</p>
<p>As I said before for each successful TomTheCat at Andover there will be many JerryTheMice at the bottom of the totem pole.</p>
<p>Sue22, That’s 99.999% of the kids in the world.</p>
<p>TomTheCat - keep having those cathartic posts - a lot of gold in your essay and it’s going to help a lot of parents and students involve in, or starting, this journey.</p>
<p>My husband and I call life a marathon. BS is part of the prep work and training to build up your stamina. Patience and steady progress is the key - and remembering to stop and smell the roses and relax so the experience can be internalized.</p>
<p>How wise that you’ve figure that out! Kudos.</p>
<p>Wow, TomTheCat, impressive post. Knowing your limitations and knowing what you don’t know is just as important in life and in any field of endeavor as achievement. It took me more than half my life to figure that one out and you already met that milestone. Congrats! I’ve no doubt you will be successful and happy in anything you choose to pursue! Well done.</p>
<p>Where you going Tom?</p>
<p>TomTheCat – fif enjoyed your post, has he has many others.</p>
<p>fif’s first job out of college was working for Oscar Tang and his partner Joe Reich in NYC.
Didn’t get to know him well, but he was very highly thought of within the firm and on the “Street”. He and his wife used to come into the little Italian place where we would treat ourselves occasionally and he never failed to come over and say hello.</p>
<p>fif is sure he’s proud of you. Good luck!</p>
<p>Ahhhh, yes. I made a messenger run twice each day to the offices of Reich & Tang in the Helmsley Building while I was a lad in high school and college. I went from an office at Park & 57th down the street. They gave me 60 cents car fare each way but I pocketed it and walked, which was faster anyway. So the $2.40 they gave me was like a free hot dog vendor lunch. I told my parents about this whole “money market” thing and they bought a bunch of shares in “The Daily Income Fund,” and made a solid 12-15% return. Fun times, fif.</p>
<p>P.S.: Methinks TomtheCat is an Honors graduate of the D’yer Maker Institute, with a degree in Word Count Maximization.</p>