<p>Does it matter what type of high school you attend? I am currently attending a public school but was wondering if I should transfer to a gifted high school? Does it really make that much of a difference?</p>
<p>Colleges want you to make the most of your education and take the best opportunities possible.</p>
<p>Well, look at the breakdown at ivies: aprox low 60s% from public, 355 or so from privates and 3% from parochial schools. It's warped because only 7% go to private HS and much more than 3% go to parochial schools. So yes, private school kids have an advantage. But it gets complicated because it really depends on the school and the kid.</p>
<p>Go where you can excel. You will need to be right at the top of a public school, and near the very top of a private school to be competitive for the most selective colleges. Remember that there are always trade-offs--a private school may have more extracurricular opportunities, but you will probably have to do more to look well-involved if your school has a ton of extras. You may get more test prep, but colleges will understand this as well and your scores won't look as impressive in the context of your school. </p>
<p>The one big advantage that I think private school kids have is good advising and people who know what it takes to help students get into top colleges, but there really are trade-offs to both situations.</p>
<p>Top private schools send 30% plus to top schools.</p>
<p>Well, that's still near the top. Plus, is that what do we mean by top schools--the Ivies and Ivy-types only, are does that extend beyond the top 10 LAC's and top 20/25 National Universities?</p>
<p>So there is still a possibility of an ivy league school if you attend a public school.. but an obvious greater possibility if you went to a private school.</p>
<p>That 30% would be ivies plus S and M.</p>
<p>Well, I don't know if I would simplify it to that, Sarah Ann. Assumedly, the type of private schools that we are talking about are highly competitive, and so even though they send a comparitively huge percentage of their students to the tippy top schools, there are still 70% of the kids who don't get into those schools--I'm sure that they get into great schools, but not the Ivies specifically. It is an advantage if you perform extremely well, but performing in the upper third of an Exeter is a lot harder than performing in the upper third of a run of the mill public HS, assumedly. </p>
<p>I talked to plenty of kids from various tony privates HS's that faired the same or worse as I, the lowly public school kid--not even Val or Sal!--did at the Ivies. Now, of course I also talked to kids who did better than I, but a private school education is definately no guarantee to Ivy admission.</p>
<p>I hope private school do make the difference and that is the reason we send our child to a private school.
At her school last year</p>
<p>12% went to HYPMSC
another 13% went to rest of Ivies
another 25% went to rest of US News top 25 Universities.</p>
<p>another 6% went to top 10 Arts Universities
another 25% went to rest of US News top 50 Universiites</p>
<p>There by 81% of the class went to US News top 50 Universities.</p>
<p>This year should be better and will come to know sometime next month.</p>
<p>Can I respectfully ask you why you think that this year, the most competitive year to date, will be better? Most of the private school kids that I talked to were absolutely floored by how insane Ivy admissions were this year.</p>
<p>Just by looking at the outgoing batch statistics. The school profile for this year is better than last year so I think this year admission should be better.</p>
<p>I wouldn't necessarily say that going to a private school will significantly boost chances. Students who go to private schools in order to gain an edge in college admissions clearly care a lot about college, and they will probably go to a good college no matter what high school they go to. The high admit rates of a private school are, I would guess, more because of the student and parents than because of the school.</p>
<p>Parents who send their children to private schools in order to give their children an advantage will most likely be education-focused. It is this emphasis on education, and not the school, that produces the admit rate. And plently of parents who are education-focused send their children to public schools. But there are lots of parents who are not education-focused who send their kids to public schools, so the admit rates at top universities are not as high for a public school.</p>
<p>There is not a "greater chance of being admitted" to HYPS if you are going to a private school. There is a "greater chance of being the sort of student who is admitted" to HYPS, which is why the statistics seem so impressive. But the school won't change who you are.</p>
<p>This is not to say that all of the features that private schools provide don't make any difference. But at the end of the day, it is the student who is being admitted to the college, not the school.</p>
<p>You're also much more likely to be a legacy, dev candidate or recruited athlete if you went to a top private HS. Don't think it's the top 30% that is the 30% that go ivy.</p>