<p>I went to a public k-12 with around 555 students, with no NMSF, no APs…average ACT of around an 18. Wut wut.</p>
<p>This is going to sound very snobbish and elitist, but frankly, I don’t care if anyone thinks of me that way. It’s the truth.</p>
<p>Public high schools are garbage. The school is filled with trashy kids from lousy families. More intelligence could be found in the bathroom of Harvard-Westlake than in all of Saugus High School.</p>
<p>The teachers suck, the number of AP courses is sparse, drug and alcohol use is everywhere and it is a horrible environment. 80% of the kids go to a community college or some California State University.</p>
<p>I’m sending my kid to a private school.</p>
<p>@Saugus</p>
<p>I hope your little rant is only directed toward your specific high school. A generalized statement saying all public high schools are garbage is extremely idiotic and ignorant. High schools in affluent areas of very competitive states are just as good if not better than many private institutions.</p>
<p>I went to a public school (before I transferred out). We sent 40% of our students to community college and about 20% to four year colleges, but almost all of those were in state and none of those were to schools that CCers would recognize (except for College Park, our flagship, where we sent 2-3 students a year). The other 40% did whatever, and then from freshman year to senior year we had about a 20% dropout rate. We have a National Merit Semifinalist usually once every few years; my 198 was the highest my school had seen in at least two years, possibly more. The quality of my school was extremely low at best. It was rural/suburban in a lower-middle income area. Honestly, I thought that was pretty average for high schools.</p>
<p>My public high school sends around 97% of each class to a 4 year institution. Around 10% of each class goes to a Top 20 University and we have 20-30 NMSF’s a year. Just goes to show you that not all Public HS’s are as bad as the ones described above.</p>
<p>My public school district is located in a VERY rich area, so my public high school may be different… idk… it’s also one of the top districts in country, and my public high school is one of the top high schools in the nation.</p>
<p>It has a very rigorous academic program, 20+ AP’s offered and an IB program too. Most of our athletics are #1 in our state for the 5A division. They usually have 35+ national merit finalist yearly, and my older brother, who went through the program, got a perfect on the SAT and could be on college jeopardy.</p>
<p>However, the classes are getting really large (35-45 kids in a classroom). My private school usually has around 10-15. I like that better, so that’s why. If my public school was smaller, I would def. go there.</p>
<p>In your case, if you can afford it, I would go private if they have what your interested in. Many private schools make you spend a day there, so you can check it out.</p>
<p>If I were in your situation, I think I would opt for the private school.</p>
<p>My reason being, based on your description of your public school, it seems entirely dreary. I don’t believe you would be intellectually stimulated in the least bit, and you wouldn’t necessarily have as many diverse opportunities. True, many people can come out of a rural school district and still succeed, but seeing as you have the option of attending a decent private school, it might be the better educational option for various commonly known reasons.</p>
<p>I don’t the social aspect will be be that deleterious, unless you are considering a very elite private. The disparities tend to be amplified in those cases, otherwise from what I’ve heard from private school friends it really isn’t that big of a deal.</p>
<p>@Saugus
I believe you are overgeneralizing, and your viewpoint a bit insular. Certainly, not all public high school are the way you describe them, seeing there are several in various affluent neighborhoods that are not composed of a “trashy” student body. Although your points may be valid for your high school, I think it would be wise to realize that this isn’t the case in every single public school nationwide. So be careful before you make such blatantly inaccurate and broad statements.</p>
<p>I go to a private school in Toronto, Ontario. I’m not sure how different the private school systems are in Canada, but I can tell you there’s a noticable difference between public and private in my city. I attended a public school up until grade 5, and I’ve been in a private school since then (I’m in grade 11 now). The academics are much more… intense at my current school, but I’m grateful for it. It’s challenged me and made me a much better student. And most of my peers are conscious of their grades and university, etc… And given, there are a lot of snobs at my school, there are some middle class folk like myself. And many of my closest friends attend my school on scholarship, so you could always look into that.</p>
<p>As for social life, there are a lot of hard partiers at my school (myself excluded). But I think no matter where you go, if you want a social scene, you’ll find one to some extent.</p>
<p>Hope that helped!</p>
<p>I go to a public school. It’s “nationally ranked” in the top 50 but rankings of public high schools are all pretty useless. I should mention though, that it gets to cherry pick students who score above average on a certain test. It doesn’t really mean that our population is very intelligent, just that we’re not out and out idiots. And from 8th grade on (at my 6 year HS), the “smart” kids, or at the very least, the ones who get good grades, are isolated from the rest, so I only know, for the most part, people who are fairly intelligent.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, our school had 19 NMSF this year, hardly rare. I was looking at a list of the schools with the most NMSF yesterday, and our percentage of NMSF is the same as the top private schools. But NMSF is, like, embarrassingly easy to get and probably has more to do with a kid’s personal intelligence than with how well the school is doing, so I don’t know if it s a good way to compare schools. But the same could be said of all of this stuff, except perhaps average standardized test scores.
In my general opinion, if you’re smart and motivated, you’ll do well anywhere. My parents could have easily sent me to private school, if we’re talking money, but they didn’t. Not just to save money, but also because they wanted me to be in an environment that was more socio-economically and racially diverse. They didn’t want me to be the only black kid in a class - though we’re undoubtedly rare in advanced classes in my school - or to be surrounded by incredibly rich people - which was my experience when I had an internship one summer with mostly private school kids.
I think a guy I worked with at that internship, who was my school’s val in '09 and is currently as Columbia, said it well, when he mentioned, one day when our fellow private school interns were not around, that we had all the same opportunities as them, in terms of what the school offered us; that what little we were “dragged down” by the intellectually weaker members of our school, we made up for with our personal intelligence; and that we had experienced a level of diversity they hadn’t, which we had all enjoyed. He went off to an Columbia, as I said, the siblings of a guy I worked with there (current senior, don’t know where he’s headed yet), who also did that internship, went to Columbia and Yale after attending my public school, and I was just accepted by MIT, Georgetown, UChicago EA, so I think we’re doing okay. 99% of my school goes to 4 year colleges (I think the official statistic might be 95%), msot to UCincinnati or other Ohio schools, so again, we’re doing okay on that front.</p>
<p>As far as wealth, there are some kids to whom it matters in my school. I remember after Christmas in 9th grade, every girl in Honors came back with a Northface fleece.But again, the Honors, AP, and AA classes are generally composed of more well-off kids than the regular classes. And I sort of dress extravagantly (my outfit today for doing nothing more than hanging out with my friends included and Longchamp purse, Tory Burch shoes, an Hermes scarf, and a BCBG skirt) so I probably wouldn’t notice that sort of competitiveness or snobbery.</p>
<p>Overall though, private’s better. There are many individual public schools that have good academics, but if someone just asked, 100% generally, public vs. private, I’d have to say private.</p>
<p>Just sayin’ before me my school had never in its entire history sent someone to a school ranked in the top 100. And my school has been here since the 1800’s.</p>
<p>^You go to Emory…</p>
<p>Okay? I said before me. I was the first person to be admitted to a school in the top 100.</p>
<p>^Haha, sorry, i guess i read that too fast!</p>
<p>Congrats!</p>
<p>Np 
Thanks!</p>
<p>Wow this thread grew fast!</p>
<p>Thanks for those who have given me advice so far. To those of you who have posted otherwise as well.</p>
<p>Truthfully, I’m probably not going to transfer. Part of this reasoning comes from the fact that I do actually want to benefit my school. We have kids who do take things seriously. I can get intellectually stimulated at my school, just this stimulation comes from very few sources. In my mind I want to prove to myself and others that we can succeed in the environment we have. Though, my CC side screams for me to switch schools to raise my acceptance chances at my top picks.</p>
<p>I know it sounds cheesy, but I hope I can actually change other students’ outlooks on their education. Even if it’s just a few peers and underclassmen. </p>
<p>Anyways, I still like hearing what others think.</p>