Public V. Private??

Hi, this is my first post here. I am currently a high school junior. I go to the 3rd biggest high school in my state. I live in an urban city, and our high school is the only one in our city. There are around 4 thousand people in my school, and a thousand in my graduation class currently registered. We have some of the lowest test scores in our state, especially in math. We have a 78% graduation rate, but only 40% of a graduating class will attend college. In a comparison of me who goes to a large urban school with lower academic rate, someone who attends this school, how will I measure up against a private school student applying to college? Would they be more likely to accept a private school student/magnet school student in my state? Thanks!

When you apply to college, the college gets a profile about your school, to even the playing field a bit. So they will be looking to see if you took the most advanced classes at your school, basically that you did the best you could with what your high school offers. It could even end up to your advantage, an applicant from your school may stand out among all the private school apps.

@growen66 -
Congratulations on reaching out and looking for answers. Questions are good IMHO! My 3 kids all attended a large public HS in a Midwestern state. They all got into selective or highly selective colleges. And you can do this too!

Some things to keep in mind:

  1. 90% of High School students in USA attend Public, not Private HS. https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/public-school-vs-private-school. So numbers are on your side.
  2. Yes. Private school students will for the most part score higher grades and test scores. Doesn’t matter because…
  3. Your toughest competition might be the other kids in your school - College Admins know, or can find out, all about your HS’s rep. Your job is to maximize your scores from what YOUR school has to offer.
  4. Unless you are attempting to get into an Ivy or other highly selective school, it’s probably not going to affect where you attend college.
  5. Take the toughest courses you can at your school, do well at them, and you will be in a good spot.

Good Luck!

I’d say you could have a leg up compared to some other schools but it depends on certain factors. It is true that if you are one of few academic students you may shine brighter. And that’s not just about competition to get into the top colleges. It may mean you’ve always been identified in your high school as a standout. Thereby being the student teachers look to when opportunities arise from kindergarten onward. That’s a genuine plus. People on this site often talk in terms of the diminished competition for those coming from weak public high schools (poorly funded schools and/or schools in communities where few are college bound) to get into top schools. It’s the “stand out” factor as you go through school that I think is more influential.

But a second consideration is the extent to which you’ve been able to get educated. True, colleges tend to look at the extent to which you’ve maximized what you’ve been offered. So adcons do evaluate you in light of the schools curriculum. But it isn’t just that.

In low performance schools it is easier for standouts to nab top grades without working particularly hard which often translates into learning less. So they will also look at factors without consideration of context. They want to know if you got enough out of the past 12 years in public school to be a top student in their college. They will look not only at whether you took the toughest courses but how you performed on standardized assessments that compare you to a national sample.

The tests are more important for you than they might be for others-even if you are applying to score optional schools; the ACTs, SAT2’s and if you took them, AP scores (even tho not required) might help establish where you stand compared to a national sample. If you have your eyes set on highly competitive schools, I’d suggest loading up on either AP2s and//or sitting for AP tests in May for those tests that correspond to classes you’re taking even if your school does not offer the class as an AP (obviously self study from a book or on-line). Aim for high 700s (or 800) on SAT2s and 5’s on the APs if you want to attend a highly competitive college. The top scores are important to demonstrate that your high GPA has meaning.

If you have top scores you may be more competitive than a student with an identical academic profile from a more affluent community; especially compared to those from Northeastern communities where affluent students, raised in a climate of tutoring and advising until they have top quantitatives, are plentiful. You can be just as (or more) competitive than a private school graduate if you have a top GPA and top scores but only if the scores show you went beyond what your school offers (not just that you maximized the school offerings). That’s because a presumption would be that “going beyond” probably reflects your general stance to the world, which if constant throughout your education, means you were an exceptional learner outside school even though the school added little. And you will likely continue to be so while in college and beyond. Go for it! Good luck!

I agree with the above. I’d like to add that junior year is an especially important year to keep your grades high. Colleges want to see overall grade improvement over time.

Also – you may have good luck getting decent financial aid if you look at private colleges in addition to your state schools. FA is a complicated area but I want to assure you that many privates have decent amount of FA available. As a rough guide, the higher your grades, the better your chances are of getting decent FA. FA runs in two categories, merit aid and need-based aid. Some schools give one kind, some the other, and some a mix.

As a place to start, you may want to consult a website called College Navigator. That site has a search engine to help you find colleges. It also has a rough break-down of what a student can expect to pay ON AVERAGE if they attend X college. To find that out, find NAME OF COLLEGE then click on the “net price” tab. That will tell you for your income level the average cost. Public schools skew cheaper – beware though that out of state (oos) publics will be much more expensive for you. In-state publics will be cheaper. There are a few exceptions, including Alabama at Huntsville (it has automatic scholarships) and U of Maine at Orono (it has a scholarship that automatically matches your in-state tuition), and a few others. For the most part, look at your in-state publics and the privates that you may find using College Navigator. This forum can also help answer more of your questions as they develop. Best of luck to you.

Excellent answer from @lostaccount especially regarding test scores as they are one of the few things adcoms can use to compare all students.

I would encourage you to take the most rigorous set of classes you can and do as well as you can - hopefully your school uses weighted GPA for class rank - try to be as high as you can. And look beyond what your HS offers. Is there a community college where you can take a class or two?

Also at such a large high school your counselor probably has a lot of students to advise… go out of your way to spend time with him/her so they can get to know you and be your advocate.

Thanks for the point about the counselor… we have around 10(?) counselors for 10-11th grade, so it’s really hard to spend time with my counselor. I plan on trying to talk more with her as schedule planning for senior year approaches, so she can try to get to know me better.

You will likely need to advocate for yourself with your counselor… are there specific college/career counselors?

My daughter’s school is about a third the size of yours, suburban and 40% of students go on to 4 year colleges and 40% to 2 year (the local community college is pretty good). I would guess 90% of the 4 year college students go to the state flagships (great schools/affordable) and the rest go to private/Top 50. I think my daughter and one other senior (out of graduating class of 300) applied and were accepted ED anywhere. Pretty unusual for any to go to T20. The Naviance data is pretty scarce - does your school use Naviance?

My point is that the counselors may not have a lot of familiarity with selective schools, not that is necessarily what you are looking at, or schools outside of the state flagships that most of the college bound students might be attending.

Starting to do your research now is smart… this forum is a great resource.

From what I can tell, the advantage of going to a good private school is that you get more personal attention and the college counselor often has relationships with college admission people. That said, my daughter goes to a fairly large public school, and her guidance counselor has been very helpful. My daughter made a point early on making sure her GC really got to know her. You have to be proactive in a larger school.