<p>So... I have previously posted about the schedule I could possibly have if I attended my local public high school. However, recently it came to my attention that the local day school is interested in me. I think this mainly has to due with my state standardized test scores and my English teacher talking to them about me. Anyway, I am going to apply and have basically been assured of acceptance. The only question is the cost so I am attempting to win one of the four full(-ish) scholarships they offer to incoming ninth graders. This has nothing to do with my question though...</p>
<p>My local public school offers the following AP classes:</p>
<pre><code>* Biology
* Calculus AB
* Chemistry
* English Language and Composition
* English Literature and Composition
* Psychology
* Spanish Language
* Statistics
* Studio Art (Drawing, 2-D Design, 3D Design)
* United States History
* United States Government and Politics
* World History
</code></pre>
<p>I would have the opportunity to take about 11 or 12 of these. However, the local day school offers only eight AP classes, six of which I would be interested in or be able to take. I am not entirely hooked on the idea of the private school although I think the environment would be better suited to me and has more extracurriculars I am interested in. Although the public school is where all my friends are going and seems to be more diverse. So it comes down to this... what will help me in college admissions more; taking more AP classes or attending a Private school?</p>
<p>Ignore SmallColleges. He doesn't know what he is talking about. APs aren't everything, if your private day school is good it will be an advantage to go there. Especially if it is a better fit.</p>
<p>When you compare HS, number of APs is not a good bench mark. You need to look at quality of education and number of kids a school places at top tier colleges. Our daughters' private school regularly place 35% of kids at top 15 colleges. Our older daughter only took 4 AP courses in HS, but took 6 AP examins. As a freshman in college she was placed at all upper level classes. AP courses have very set curriculum, strength of private school education is it's ability to tailor its curriculum to best challenge its student body. Overall, private schools have a lot more flexibility than public schools because they are privately funded and they also give more individual attention to each student. My kids' school has one GC per 30 students, compare to one GC per 100 students at public schools.</p>
<p>I go to a private school and went to a public school for middle school and in all honesty public school would have been much better. AP classes are SO hard to get into in a private school that if you miss the application deadline for one by a day they wont even consider you, even if you've won a national writing award and you're trying to enter AP English. Don't buy into the "guidance counselors care about you" bull- they don't, they show just as little interest as public school ones would, and in fact I liked public school GC's much more because they gave me more respect in that I took my education seriously. Take the public school and TAKE RIGOROUS COURSES! Don't make the same mistake I did.</p>
<p>Not all private schools are equal, and not all private schools are better than public schools. It appears urmom had a very bad experience at his school, but overall it's not the norm.</p>
<p>uh, take urmom's post with a grain of salt; that's not to say that he's not trustworthy or anything, but what he described is specific to his school. I go to a private school myself and it's completely different from his situation.</p>
<p>enrollment of each section of AP classes is usually capped off at 50 except in special AP science and English CSR courses.</p>
<p>last year, for the APUSH test at my school, about 150 kids took it. about 20 people passed and there were roughly 80 1s (lawl). </p>
<p>in terms of high school ranking, were ranked relatively high because kids take so many AP/IB tests. the problem is that people seldom do well on them.</p>
<p>but my school is definitely overcrowded (one counselor per ~700 students). and the fact that like 60% of my school gets free lunch prolly contributes to the number of kids who take the tests. so its a meh situation.</p>
<p>in any case, private schools are prolly better for general student development. but for getting into college, it wouldnt matter much.</p>
<p>You guys are also making the assumption that private schools offer a better education, which is not always the case. In my area, the private schools tend to be religious, but if you are serious about your education, you'd attend the public school.</p>
<p>You should attend the school that will challenge you the most. Colleges don't place as much weight on public vs. private as they do on how well you utilize the opportunities available to you.</p>
<p>You should go to the private school if it is known to have a good amount of students going to top colleges.</p>
<p>I should have taken that path. I'm currently in Berkeley and to tell you the truth, I don't think I was prepared enough for college when I was in my public high school even though I was valedictorian by .1 points (4.516 v. 4.398).</p>
<p>If you can't afford private school, you can also consider magnet schools.</p>
<p>true the # of AP's available doesn't matter, it's the score you get.
My school offers very few AP's ( Bio, chem, phys B/C, psych, US History, and 1 or 2 others, also language AP's) and we're a private. Most people will have taken say 3-4 AP's after graduating but my school's percentage of 5's on the AP exam is very high. Most people get 5's or 4's, with the bottom few getting 3's.</p>
<p>I would go the private school route. I may be biased, but oh well. My school has no AP's, but the course load is such that everything is 'honors' or something along those lines. I feel very prepared for college, but it's obvious that my public school friends don't. Where I live, though, the public school are pretty bad.</p>
<p>Depends on the profile of the private versus the public school. Ap's won't matter that much. My D went to a very strong private with relatively few Ap's when compared to the larger public schools and had no problems.</p>
<p>Definitely depends on the quality of the private school.
For example, urmom's terrible experience was probably at a relatively bad private school, not the preppy, prestigious kind people think of (at my private school we don't even have any of the AP English classes, our English electives are so rigorous that we are assumed to be able to pass the tests in junior year without the AP class. This is the same as most other good private schools I know of).</p>
<p>If a good private school, which it probably is, there is no question that it will help prepare you for college better, and will help you get into a good college better. APs are not everything, many of the top private schools are straying away from offering AP classes because they think that their non-AP classes are actually both harder and better. Also, the ECs will always be better at private schools, you will always have a better college guidance counselor than at the public school, and your education in general will be much better.</p>
<p>But your question is ridiculous. "It comes down to which will help me get into college more." ***? Do you have no friends? Is all you care about college's perceived social diversity? If your not satisfied with your social life at your public school by all means choose the private school, but otherwise you'll also want to seriously consider whether you want to leave your friends for a better education (and yes, unless it is a religious school it is always better).</p>