<p>Anyone have any thoughts/experiences to share on the relative merits of Pasadena Polytechnic and Harvard-Westlake ? They seem to be close in academic temperature, but very different otherwise.</p>
<p>If I had to choose for my own, I’d go with Poly. Both are excellent, of course, and it might depend on the type of kid you have. Both of mine would have thrived at Poly, and H-W may have been a bit too intense.<br>
My D competed in sports with girls from Poly, and we were always impressed with their manners and sportsmanship, and the lack of unhealthy over-competitiveness.</p>
<p>I concur with Moonchild. H-W is very intense. And if your screen name reflects where you live, Poly seems like a no-brainer. Having friends in the neighborhood is a big advantage. Lots of kids from the Palisades or Santa Monica go to Harvard Westlake. Imagine the logistical nightmares involved with kids getting togethervwith friends.</p>
<p>Yeah, aren’t they like 20 miles of horrible traffic apart? Unless you are equidistant from both, and don’t generally live your life in one direction or the other, it would seem that location would be a huge factor.</p>
<p>Anyway, sitting here on the other side of the country, Polytechnic sounds nice, but I know nothing about it. Harvard-Westlake makes me snap to attention</p>
<p>I’m sure an unfair bias, but I associate HW with snobbery, and Polytech as being a very good, smart school. Plus it’s much closer to you, looks like.</p>
<p>I go with Poly. After all, the best thing people in Pasadena can do is send their kids to private schools instead of investing in our public schools like San Marino, South Pasadena, Arcadia, and La Canada have. It’s be sure to keep our property values just as high as theirs. Oh, wait…</p>
<p>Here on CC Harvard-Westlake is famous, but I think Poly is probably fine. I did have a friend who taught there a million years ago. I definitely wouldn’t want a long commute, and having sent my kids to a magnet elementary school I can tell you it really is a disadvantage not to be near your friends and that was only a matter of a couple of miles. We ended up moving so I do know what a difference that made!</p>
<p>Like RR, I really don’t understand why the Pasadena public schools are so shunned. The whole area is so gentrified from when I was there, there’s no excuse for bad public schools.</p>
<p>“Pasadena public schools” are not all the same animal. The rich areas- South Pasadena, San Marino, have their own school districts, their own property base, affluent families, and excellent schools. Pasadena Public School District has four high schools that pull from very poor areas. If you live in Pasadena proper, you don’t have the choice to go to South Pas, San Marino, La Canada, etc. The differences among the districts is very apparent when you live near here.</p>
<p>The whole area is not gentrified. Just some of it, and they do their own thing.
It wasn’t always so different. I have a good friend who went to John Muir HS, which is in the poorer section, and had a good experience. But now, she says, it’s not where you’d want to be. Nothing like it was 40 years ago.</p>
<p>Well a lot depends on how you design your school system. Our town is far from gentrified, but someone made a decision in the wake of the desegration cases to figure out a way to keep all the schools desirable. I didn’t have kids when I lived in Pasadena (early 80s) and did a pretty superficial visit when my oldest looked at Caltech (2009). I was pretty astounded at the changes though!</p>
<p>The thing is, much of Pasadena and Altadena are fairly wealthy. Yeah, it’s a little rough along the 210 corridor, but for the most part once you get a few blocks away it’s a really nice town. I know a lot of people that have fled to our neighboring cities with better school districts because paying a $300k-$500k premium on a house is a lot cheaper than private school tuition on 2-3 kids for 12 years.</p>
<p>Differences: HW has much bigger size of class, 300, vs Poly 100. HW has 2 clumps of kids, the uber rich, and the uber smart. Poly is more uber smart and pretty rich. Matriculation numbers, if you are looking at HYPS (only those 4) is HIGHER for Poly than HW, but part of it is because demoninator for kids per grade is lower at Poly while the numerator for uber smart at HW is watered down by the uber rich, ave smart kids. Ave sat scores - higher for poly over HW for same reason. HW much better sports/athletics. Poly more crunchy, bohemian. HW - new money, industry types. Poly - older money. HW - designer clothes. Poly - individualistic clothes. HW with bigger student body, might be able to have more kids to have similar interests with. Poly - fewer kids to choose from. HW - more kids, so more difficult to get spots in plays and sport. Poly - smaller so everyone who wants to can play whatever sport they want and everyone can be in the musical. HW - kids bussed in from farther; their friends may live farther. Poly - mainly local kids and the far kids get driven in rather than bussed. Both places: fairly stressful with academics and work load. Parents and kids from both schools are happy.</p>
<p>Clarification: matriculation numbers as a percentage of the class to HYPS</p>
<p>Not at all in the same league, but a really interesting new secondary school for a certain kind of kid is [A</a> Mennonite Christian Secondary School in Pasadena, California](<a href=“http://www.thepeaceacademy.org%5DA”>http://www.thepeaceacademy.org)</p>
<p>Wider class choices at HW. Also, intermittent cheating scandals at HW.</p>
<p>Have you visited the schools? A lot of the “facts” stated by some of the previous posters seem to be very broad generalizations. Both schools are great schools with great students. Harvard-Westlake seems to have a lot of judgement about the “rich kids” but a lot of that is false. Every single student at the school is very bright or very talented. Tour the schools with your kid and see which one they like the best.</p>
<p>YoHoHo gives the basics. It also depends if you are entering at 6th (only an option at Poly) 7th (a better chance at HW) 8th (tough at both) or 9th (good entry point at both)</p>
<p>Poly and HW will have a very similar student body. We know a good number of kids accepted to both. We even know a few families with one kid who went or is going to Poly and a sibling who went/is going to HW. The standards are fairly similar.</p>
<p>HW is bigger. It also divides Middle School/High School into 7-8-9 at the (newly renoed) Bel Aire campus and 10-11-12 at the (under construction for the rest of eternity) Coldwater/Studio City campus.</p>
<p>Poly, in general, is “kinder/gentler” from an administration POV. The Middle School is as closely aligned with the elementary as with the Upper School which is “across the street” and relatively separate. It feels like Poly has more administrative oversight of students at the middle school - although HW is still pretty gentle there, but even the addition of one upper grade (9th) make the 7th and 8th experience feel “older” at HW. Although I think the 9th grade experience at Poly is actually more intense because the kids jump in with the 9 - 12’s right away.</p>
<p>HW will tell you straight up it is a school for “sharks”, Poly tries to be more nurturing. Both will work you kid’s fannies off if they want to be getting A’s in the hard courses. HW has almost as many course options as a small college. Poly is a bit more limited. Poly is High School designed by Martha Stewart. HW is High School as mini-college. For instance at HW there are no scheduled lunches (at the Upper that is). Students arrange their schedule, college style, and find their own lunch time. Poly is more uniformly scheduled.</p>
<p>Socially, there are small differences. HW Middle School is in a residential area and you have to bus to the Upper School to do varsity sports and some other activities. Poly is K-12 on the same basic 2 blocks. 6th graders get to go to Lake Street in groups to get iced tea and look at J Crew sweaters after school if they want.</p>
<p>Both schools will give a smart kid a great education. At HW you can customize it more. Both schools have crazy rich kids and poorer crazy smart kids. HW has more crazy talented athletic kids (although Poly brings in some stars of their own. Their Girls Soccer won Div III SS State playoffs this year and ended up ranked just below the always strong HW girls program.)</p>
<p>You have more chance of doing things like the school musical at Poly simply due to smaller size.</p>
<p>HW has more clubs and extra curriculars due to size.</p>
<p>HW teachers have more degrees.</p>
<p>That’s all I can think of. The tours will tell your kid immediately which style they like.</p>