“When kids start threads here with “I have dreamed of getting into Harvard/Yale/Stanford since I was a little kid” it makes me sad. It is such a hollow, paltry dream for such talented, smart kids. These kids should be dreaming about the great things that they will do during and after their college years. College should be a means to achieve the dream, not the dream itself.”
^^^^This! Please don’t focus on high school ratings and college admission stats, focus on where you kid will best fit in and thrive and how the logistics will work for your family.
My younger son commented to me that none of his friends in college seemed to have had as vibrant a music scene as his school did. Two regular choirs, a fabulous gospel choir, a capella groups, two bands, a smaller jazz band, two orchestras, and outside of school at least half a dozen rock bands that I heard, probably more that I didn’t hear, playing at various local venues including a monthly coffee house at the high school. We didn’t choose the district because the high school had great music, but it turned out to be a big plus.
In Chicago my son went to the top selective enrollment high school. He took a train to a bus about 35 minutes each way. Had after school activities etc. For a city kid just not a big deal. More of a norm. We hired act tutor when he needed that. If your schools are good save on the private schools. Put it toward a 529 plan or something for college . Don’t really see a huge difference in college admissions if your in a good public school tract.
We did choose where to move based on the strength of the school music programs, elementary through high school. The school also had a decent enough academic reputation. It wasn’t a tippy top high school in our area…but it had what we wanted…great music programs, semirural area with larger house lots, and easy accessibility to the things we wanted to get to.
Are you looking at public vs independent or public vs religious (e.g. Jesuit, Jewish, Catholic) vs independent? Which is most important to building the character of your child?
Almost all public schools that are not selective/magnet types have more behavior issues and larger class sizes. I’ve found them to be far less responsive to parents as well. On the flip side they often have superior sports and music programs because their size makes them more competitive. Private schools tend to give more attention to the students.
There are also early college programs in most states.
@TooOld4School my son and nephew were math kids in elementary school. His very well known private school would do nothing for him. (“All our kids are smart,” was their response.) My kid at the public school had various accommodations from doing math with a class two grades ahead, to working on different kinds of math, to being allowed to do computer programming during math time. You just never know!
@mathmom , glad you found a good public, ours were generally well regarded and terrible for our math kids. We moved to a private and the kids were placed 3 or 4 levels up, and they weren’t even the most advanced in the school.
Our public schools were more on the level of “barely adequate.” However, a couple kids went to Ivy from them every year, and a few others to other top schools. My S went to an Ivy and my D to a top LAC. I have always said that it’s the kid who gets into the college, not the high school.
For us, the four years were about a lot more than college acceptances. They were the last four years of their childhoods, the beginning of becoming adults in many ways besides academically, and so we didn’t focus on that. And if they hadn’t gotten into those schools, it would have been fine. they had solid alternatives.
If the city school is Dalton, Trinity, Chapin, Brearley or Spence then it’s worth going private if it’s affordable. Those schools do incredibly well in admissions.