Public or Catholic or Prep HIgh school

E has set his mind to get into a combined med program. Just about to get into 9th grade now. Pretty good and excellent creativity / hard working. First generation raised here in US. Any suggestions as to what is better - pros and cons to
sending to public high school Vs Prep high school Vs Catholic High school. Besides financial considerations what else should be looked at. Most of the schools do not offer AP & he is high math/LA and science already. No RSM or external class.
Looking for thoughts and suggestions from Seniors that have insights to help.
Appreciate the time

It depends on the specific schools, since public, non-religious private, and Catholic schools all have better and worse ones.

If quality and fit are similar, go with the least expensive, to conserve money for college (and medical school if the student does go there).

Typically public schools have a greater variety of classes and extracurricular curricular activities than Catholic schools, which can provide greater exposure and opportunities for your kid. On the other hand, I know someone who got into a Catholic med school because of the strength of the recommendation of his Catholic HS principal, who was in the same Order as the head of the med school and they were friends. And I know of a private HS which has faculty who are connected with a local med school. So I agree with @ucbalumnus that the pros and cons are intensely fact specific to the individual schools you are considering, as well as your individual child. I think you should pick whichever school you think your child will like best and thrive at, because the rest will follow.

He has been in Catholic (rigorous with more focus on LA , well disciplined small school setup ). Not sure about the high school - as we do not have exposure to the same. Schools in consideration - Chelmsford Public High School, Lowell Catholic , Central Catholic, Groton, Brooks, Bishop Guertin, Lawrence Academy. Agreed with melvin123 as well that private and catholic schools have that connection & say. But could E be the kid they recommend - that’s difficult to say & no idea what goes into it. He would definitely “like” private but I want to do what is right for his college. Again , private schools are very expensive & unless a “lot” of help in scholarship that’s beyond me.
Also this is the right time for good friendship and peer group. Given that I have no exposure to High School here, worried and concerned that we help him make the right choice

Also online reading shows reqs for more AP’s. Most of these schools offer AP as junior and senior. Especially the catholic and public school. Not sure how kids can do so many AP’s. + Guidance counselor help. We hear varied response with regards to that from Parents that had children in Catholic or Public. No first hand info from the listed private schools. Hoping what he does leads to get good scholarship for college.

@eeshu227 Parent perspective (not directly related to your specific question) based on 1 child experience.

  1. Since not familiar with MA schools, no comments on any of the schools you listed.
  2. Since hard to know now which university student will get admitted for UG or MD, making decision on high school choice on any specific criteria may not be beneficial. So make the choice of Catholic or Private or Public based on your financial situation and based on student's characteristics and personality. That is the key.
  3. You/student have a significant trump card since able to form an idea at this stage about medical career and BS/MD program. So consider the school choice as 1 factor and not the end factor.

BS/MD admission is based on many factors and notably on GPA, Test Scores, EC, Essays/Prompts, Interviews, LOR.
In general many focus on GPA and test scores since they are easy to compare. But EC is the most critical and that is where your child can take a lead by doing some thing he is passionate and helping the under served and vulnerable population from this summer.
Number of AP is not critical at all and most schools will offer APs from junior year and doing 4-8 AP is strong.
There are many threads for BS/MD in ‘Multiple program’ section and you can review them.


Here is the sample but from diagonally opposite location of the country and with a different demographics.

Most popular Private school (Harker - which started 100+ years back as a preparatory for Stanford) and charges $30k/year and many parents send kids there for the entire 12 years!Catholic school (Bellarmine, Moreau and charges $20k and many parents (irrespective of religion) send since some area where public school is good is so expensive to buy and hence they send here.)
Most popular public schools (Lowell, Monte Vista, Lynebrook, Mission San Jose etc).

Since I had friends whose children went to all the above 3 categories and I did not see any difference in BS/MD admission. Anecdotally felt more students from public schools got in to BS/MD. Harker school enabled students to get in to Ivy / Top 20 UG schools (of courses those parents can still afford $250k for UG since they have spent $250k to secondary education itself). The one BS/MD aspirant from Moreau had bad experience though she had 4.0 in HS and went to UCB and did well etc. Don’t know much about what she did with all other aspects other than GPA, Scores.


Living in bay area for decades and one observation.
What parents and students does contributes a lot to the school and rankings and will change significantly more than what school district or city officials do. (I salute all the teachers in which ever school and thank them) Lowell and Monte vista folks consider the greatest and the price to buy a hut was so expensive and no one can now afford and people move out (to Mission). Now Mission top ranked in bay area. But affordability is gone here. Now the neighbor Irvington is equally strong and sends so many kids to BS/MD or Ivy/Top20 schools. Musical chair!


Disclosure: My D went to public high school and she was determined to attend only public all way. So happened she attends public for UG and will start her MD in public again next fall. She had her AP only in Junior and Senior years and did 3 + 4. But she did 2 APs on her own in summers. She met her counselor only during college admission cycle since each counselor supports 520 students in Public school. She is BS/MD student though did not have strong EC (since decided for medical career only in Junior year).

Choose the school that is the best fit for your child in terms of not just academics and price but peer groups and other activities offered. What ECs is he interested in? E.g. If he wants to play a sport, do most students make the team or are many students cut? Is there a good band or journalism program?

Thank you. and Congratulations to your D. Chelmsford Public High is ranked not too high but decent I suppose. Westford/Acton/littleton/lexington are all ranked well but affordability is gone. Parents that sent kids to Westford had said their kids lost good admission opportunity because of the competitiveness there and that 30 kids getting a 90 hurt their chances. Worried about peer groups as CheddarCheeseMN says.
interests in Tennis, music (indian classical ) and percussion, journalism definitely and community service.
if not for counselor support, how do kids get support? Is it on the Parents?
And for AP in summer, where do you enroll? Are these expensive? Some parents send their kids to MIT and Harvard summer programs from early middle school - week courses range from 2K to more at times.
We cannot afford Groton or any Private unless there is a LOT of scholarship granted.
Thanks again. your detail notes help. lot to ponder over

Thanks CheddarCheeseMN. Will look up on the sports. assumed should make the team if they want to try out. Is the GPA based on final test score only or averages through the years?

@eeshu227 Taking AP exam and grade is independent of what schools offer AP courses. Though it makes sense to do the course at the school and year end take the AP exam for subjects like Bio or Chem or Math etc, it is not uncommon for some subjects students can do self read and take the AP exam, like Music or Psychology. It costs whatever the exam fee with college board some $50 or so.