<p>I am looking back at all the money we spent with private school tuition .While my D did get into an Ivy , I keep thinking that she would have done well anyway .Do other Prep School parents ever question sending a child to a Prep School ? Just curious .</p>
<p>I don’t have a prep school kid, but your answer is within basic statistics. There are thousands of prep school kids and millions of public school kids. Any time you get into big numbers, there is going to be a span of reviews/outcomes/feelings. </p>
<p>There will be public school parents who beat themselves up, thinking “If only we had sent Jane to Highly Wonderful Prep, she wouldn’t be a . . . today.” There will be private school parents who will be saying “My God, what a waste of money. We spent $20K a year and Junior is a . . . today.”</p>
<p>If your intuition about your particular child is that she would have done well in a variety of settings, please just embrace her breadth of ability and don’t lament the money that you can’t get back at this point. You can quietly let a younger parent know that you have come to have some reservations about the prep school path so that parent can research and think deeply for their own offspring. Beyond that, you just have to move on.</p>
<p>^^^totally agree with Olymom’s post.</p>
<p>Can she cook, raise chickens, and shovel snow?</p>
<p>My older son also got into an Ivy and didn’t go to a prep school. We considered it (and my parents offered to help pay for it), but it seemed that for his particular interests following them on his own seemed a better path. It didn’t hurt that the high school (unlike any of the previous schools) was completely open to acceleration. </p>
<p>Our younger son was interested in participating in our high school’s (highly regarded) music program so we didn’t even think about private school for him.</p>
<p>I went to private school because at the DC public schools were pretty abysmal and my parents knew that they would probably be assigned to a posting in Africa before I graduated.</p>
<p>I don’t think there is a simple yes or no answer to this. Some prep schools are great, some aren’t. Ditto with the publics. </p>
<p>I do think that if you have a kid who is in the top 2% or so of a public school class going private may not make that much difference in terms of admissions results. At least that’s what it seemed to me comparing kids I knew who were in my older son’s cohort.</p>
<p>OP, at least your kid got into an Ivy. It must be really annoying if you spend a fortune on prep school only to have the child end up at state U with all those other public school kids.</p>
<p>As a student who attended a highly regarding prep school sending many students to top schools, I have no doubt that it was worth it, but this is certainly not because of my school’s track record with the Ivies and other such colleges. I would like to think that one does not attend a prep school simply to maximize one’s chances at attending an Ivy, but because the chosen prep school had excellent teaching, stimulating peers, and other interesting opportunities. (And, of course, there are many excellent public schools with these qualities, so the same logic would obviously follow for choosing a public school) </p>
<p>Yes, my school sends nearly 15% of its graduating class to Stanford each year, and quite a number of students to Ivies and other top schools. I myself now study engineering at a very well regarded engineering school. I am incredibly grateful for my high school experience. I can honestly say that choosing to attend my private high school (after attending public elementary/middle schools) is one, if not the, best decision I have made in my (admittedly short) life thus far. But that statement honestly has nothing to do with the college I now attend. Instead, it has to do with the truly amazing, inspiring teachers I had - some of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met; I often couldn’t believe that many of them simply chose to teach high school students when they could have done very well in more lucrative fields. It has to do with the level of my peers - there are always exceptions, but for the most part, everyone truly wanted to be there, unlike my middle school, and that really showed in the class discussions. I could go on and on… However, my main point is that in the end, I simply don’t think the cost and benefit analysis should be that simple.</p>
<p>Would I have ended up in the same place had I gone to my local public school? Maybe, maybe not. I generally consider myself a fairly intelligent, motivated individual, and like to think that I would have found a way to succeed in a number of environments, even if they were less than ideal. However, it was really the experience of my high school, not the end result, that made it so worthwhile.</p>
<p>I think prep school is worth it- especially if your child grows up to publish a paper like this.
[JOURNAL</a> OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS](<a href=“http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1311997/pdf/jaba00061-0143a.pdf]JOURNAL”>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1311997/pdf/jaba00061-0143a.pdf)</p>
<p>public school is not an option in some locations. they are horrible in places.</p>
<p>emeraldkity4–Thanks for posting that! I love it!</p>
<p>The very best college prep schools – perhaps one such as CaliforniaDancer describes – are selective and academically challenging. Cost issues aside, they are a not a fit for every student – partly because of the high academic expectation and partly because they are small and do not necessarily provide the best social environment for everyone. By the end of the first year the handful of students who are not a good match typically leave, often to the public system The parents of the ones who stay rarely doubt their decision to send their children to such schools, and in my experience are incredibly thankful that they had the option to do so.</p>
<p>I have a friend sent their S to Phillips Academy in Andover. The kid was way too advanced for our local public school and the teachers just can’t teach him in a level that fits his learning ability. After an entrance exam, the kid got into Phillips with almost full scholarship. He got to play with the rich and smart kids in Andover and worked through a 4 year cut-throat competitive environment. At the end, he choose to apply for a good college in the mid west, as opposed to getting into Harvard or MIT. Could have he gotten into Harvard or MIT or his current school had he stayed at our local public school? Based on what I know, I think he could have. The snobby environment in prep school drove him away from applying to these East Coast elite schools.
Take home message: A golden nugget will shine no matter where you put it. Prep school can be helpful and can also have negative effect on kids as well.</p>
<p>This has been discussed endlessly on the Prep School forum. Prep school was right for my Ds, but certainly it is not for everyone. </p>
<p>D1 is self-motivated and was always a hard worker. She is at a highly selective school that she probably would have gotten into from anywhere. She loved the academics at prep school, but it was right for her becasue her primary EC was part of the daily life of the campus. This was great after years of having to leave her grade school community to pursue her EC at school.</p>
<p>D2 will certainly go to a better college becasue of her prep school experience. Bright kid who never did more than 5 minutes of homework a night all through middle school. Found other, less productive, ways to entertain herself. The rigorous environment of prep school, with astounding, challenging, committed teachers, and bright students who want to be there, was exactly what she needed to find her inner nerd. </p>
<p>Prep schools are an investment in your child, not an investment in a college application. If it is what your particular child needs it is great, but it is not a magic get into an ivy card.</p>
<p>Agreed. On the other hand, if the child hates cut-throat environment and hates to be surrounded by kids “born with silver spoon in their mouth”, that would be a bad environment. At the end, it is a personal choice.</p>
<p>It is totally up to the individual family. My sister sends her children to prep schools because she wants to ensure they go the Ivy route. One daughter did and is doing well in grad school. The other one is a high school freshman and enjoying her school. What I don’t understand personally is that they drive 40 minutes each way to the school and bypass an excellent public school in their neighborhood where they pay a ton of taxes.</p>
<p>I love public schools. I graduated val from a public school and had no problem getting into a top college. I think the trick is understanding the public school system. Before I moved to my neighborhood, I spent time understanding how african american students did on test scores in different levels. I compared each town we were thinking about moving into based on these scores. It was the best investment of time I have made. Now my teens are in high school and have done well throughout school. They have had the same group of friends their entire life so we don’t have the issue of peer pressure and trying to fit in. I am also very involved in the school by attending open house, communicating with teachers, attending a principal monthly parent meeting and attending their sporting events. </p>
<p>My senior son has already been accepted to many of the schools he wanted to attend. I highly doubt he will get accepted to the Ivy he has applied to, however not sure if attending a private school would have guaranteed his acceptance either with less than 10% admit rates this year. If he truly wants to go to an Ivy, he can do that in graduate school.</p>
<p>The key for our family is that both kids are happy and enjoying themselves in high school. We have used the private school savings by traveling around the world (when the economy was better). They have done a great summer programs which my son highlighted in his essays. </p>
<p>Again it is truly a family decision. My sister believes her way is better and I am very happy with the way my husband and I selected.</p>
<p>If you son got into Phillips Academy, it is very likely that he will have better chances getting into an ivy. Here is the detailed record in public domain.
[Phillips</a> Academy - College Matriculations & School Profile](<a href=“http://www.andover.edu/ACADEMICS/COLLEGECOUNSELING/Pages/SchoolProfileCollegeMatriculations.aspx]Phillips”>http://www.andover.edu/ACADEMICS/COLLEGECOUNSELING/Pages/SchoolProfileCollegeMatriculations.aspx)</p>
<p>My experience has been similar to that of lacrossemom. We live in an area with excellent public schools. My D1 excelled in HS and was accepted to an Ivy. D2, who is a strong but less intense student, did well also and was accepted to several good colleges. They had good teachers, motivated classmates, and access to a large array of AP courses. Most importantly, they are comfortable with a diverse group of friends. They have been exposed to cultural, racial and socio-economic differences and have enjoyed an environment of acceptance and collaboration. The students from our HS are well prepared for college. I know that public schools in some areas are a not good option, but in our case things have worked out very well.</p>
<p>My kids feel the same way as CaliforniaGirl. I think if you were to ask them what was the biggest benefit in going to their prep school, getting into top tier colleges would be pretty low on the list.</p>
<p>D1 went to our local good public school for a semester, even at second grade she knew there was no comparison. D2, as a junior, is at the best international school at this new place we are living, is breezing through IB.</p>
<p>If I only have options of sending my kids to great prep school or top tier private college, my choice would be to spend the money on the secondary education. With good, solid foundation (math, english) from K-12, they could easily build on top of that in college. </p>
<p>There is one thing I would like to address that kxc1961 brought up - “those top prep schools are cut throat.” I disagree with that. On average, students work harder, but they are not cut throat with each other. The level of work they are expected to perform is higher, and more often then not, they are encouraged to work together. Our kids’ school did a lot of things to build school spirit and comaraderie among the students. Four years later, D1 is still in touch with her high school friends. She is going to room with one of them when she graduates from college this May.</p>
<p>@ Oldfort,</p>
<p>My comment of “Cut-throat” came from the kid who went through Phillips Academy and graduated at the top of the class. Being a kid grew up in Mid-West, he found the culture is not as mellow as he was used to. Back-stabbing and not helping each otherer was a common place in the environment he was in at the time.</p>
<p>Most high-achieving students would probably benefit from prep schools, unless they don’t like being surrounded by other intelligent high-achieving peers. It’s like going to a top LAC except in HS. </p>
<p>Also, there is just as much if not greater diversity in these prep schools, including racial, socioeconomic, geographic, ethnic, ideological, etc. Many many public schools are class and racially segregated.</p>