<p>Crash_Blair, to add on to what somebodynew said, some private schools will also require you to write an entrance exam. In order to get into the school that I'll attend in the fall (first time in a private school...) I had to spend an entire day there writing exams and essays.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, I forgot, I also had to take an entrance exam, the SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test). However, I heard that it doesn't really affect admission at my school all that much. Thanks CDN_dancer.</p>
<p>Everyone around here knows about my (public) school. We came about only like five or six years ago as the second high school in the district, and now we're the North high school and they're South. Well, it's a regional district with two towns - West Windsor and Plainsboro. West Windsor is mad rich (median income well over 100,000) whereas Plainsboro is known as the "ghetto" side - though it's nowhere near ghetto.</p>
<p>What's funny is that we've surpassed South even though we're so new. We have much better facilities and the building is comparatively HUGE. NJ Weekly said we're the #1 public high school in the state.</p>
<p>A few kids went to Peddie (a nearby private school) after eighth grade, and people kinda looked down on them. We generally consider Peddie to be inferior to us :P. It's known as the prep school for druggies. Then again, a couple of my friends went to Lawrenceville - which is apparently a feeder school for Harvard? We all envy them. I also know a bunch of people at Exeter and all. A friend of mine got into Exeter but turned them down after her freshman year here :D.</p>
<p>Anyway, I don't think we have as many opportunities as some others schools, just because we're more academically focused. Like we don't offer many elective fields, and the academic classes are limited in scope but rigorous in difficulty. Everyone pretty much as the same schedule.</p>
<p>Also, people here do a lot less. Nobody has entered ISEF or the Intel STS or Siemens or anything. Yet we had five kids get into Princeton ED this year, and at least three at Penn. In fact, in the past three years, 74 kids have gone to Ivies, MIT, or Stanford.</p>
<p>My school published this in a college handbook: in the class of 2003, 69 people applied to Cornell, and 22 were admitted. Their average SAT was 1440, GPA was 3.88/4.00, and WGPA was 4.26/5.00. But only 5 people have gone to Cornell in the past three years!</p>
<p>I've heard people say that the Ivies love us :P.</p>
<p>I live in a big city with a ton of public high schools and a couple of elite private ones (as in the daughter of the guy who owns Shaw cable and the kids of all the rich hockey players go to S-T). I go to a public school and I think it rocks. Why? Lots of reasons... </p>
<ul>
<li><p>More people (as in 2000 in grades 10 - 12) = more options. I had the choice to go to a private school in my city, but in the end chose not to because they didn't offer French Immersion IB. My school is the ONLY one in the city that does. Not only that, but we are the only school to offer Math HL, International Languages, Fine Arts Certificate, Work Experience, Career and Tech studies, Film Studies, Sports Med, World Religions, Sports Conditioning (as a class!) and International Politics. This makes the high school experience a lot more like university, as you can customize your schedule to do what you want as long as you fulfill the provincial diploma requirements.</p></li>
<li><p>There are a couple teachers who teach every subject. That means that if you aren't happy where you are, it's not too tough to switch classes and get somebody who better suits your learning style. </p></li>
<li><p>Most clubs and sports of any school in the province... and we achieve well in them. We're the first school in the city to have travelled internationally after 9/11 - on a trip to Paris for a the Harvard Model Congress. We had 18 sports teams make it to city playoffs (10 in the finals, and 3 went to provincials)... everything from Track to Rugby (we even have a girl's Rugby team) to Swimming to Volleyball. As for clubs well... Pilates, Math Contests, Science Contests, Business, Band, Choir, Jazz everything (3 bands, 2 combos, 1 choir), Drama, MUN, Amnesty, Interact, Cheerleading, Debate, Yearbook, Newspaper, Volunteer, etc. </p></li>
<li><p>The 04 seniors recieved over $1 million CAN in scholarship money, including 10 prestigious national non-university entrance ones (as in Millennium, Telus, etc.). </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Western Pride! </p>
<p>That being said, high school, in any situation, is totally what you make it. You can go to the most expensive private school and be perfectly content knowing that your parents paid for your grades or you can go to a normal public school and take advantage of the opportunities that come with having the numbers. The oppostite is equally true. In fact, my school, while having a ton of great opportunities, if far from perfect. The graduation rate is still only 85%, and last year there was a fight and one kid bled all over the hallway. We offer IB, but we also offer the 13-14 level courses, which mean that the student doesn't do much better than a 60% in most cases. </p>
<p>My point is that it doesn't matter where you go, but what you do with what you get is completely up to you!</p>
<p>At top privates, day and boarding, you don't just show up with a huge check. It's exactly the same as applying to college. The application is just an in depth, you need 2 letters from teachers as well as a counselor recommendation, you are interviewed and you take a standardized test. Top privates take one out of 5 or less. So the bottom line is you have a school where everyone is smart and motivated!!</p>
<p>This is not to say that there aren't good publics, but it would be hard to compare with a top private that has oodles of money and a great student body.</p>
<p>I went to a private school for about 8 years..then I transferred to a magnet school. I doubt the education quality was much better than my home school, but private school usually doesn't have the usual peer pressure of cliques and stuff as do public schools. Most are like families, my magnet school too..lol. Usually going to a private school or like magnet school hurts your class rank and admission into top colleges, because although they say adcoms consider the competitivity and small class size of your school..it seems like they don't.</p>
<p>How many students in each class receive an A (in an AP, Honors, etc.) in a private school or public school? At my school, normally 3 or 4 (1 person in my AP USH class!) in a class of about 20 receive an A for the semester. How many students get an A in a private school? (By the way, I go to a public school). How do those numbers at my school compare to other public schools? Is it more/less/about the same ratio A's?</p>
<p>KRabble88, it depends on the difficulty of the class and the caliber of the students. For instance, in any given Algebra I class, something like 5 to 8 out of 20 may get an A for the semester. But when you move into the Honors and AP classes, the caliber of the students is higher (even though the difficulty of the class also rises) and so more get A's (in my AP English class something like 12 out of 18 got an A for the year). However, there's always exceptions.</p>
<p>I'd say the average is that in any given class, 20-50 percent get As.</p>
<p>In our AP/Honors class, for every 20 students or so, only 3 or 4 (about 20%) receive an A. I think this is mostly because: 1) You need to be a quick learner (there is tons of material) OR2) You spend your weekend and every other waking second with a book open. For example, in our AP USH class, only 1 person in about a class of 18 or 19 received an A. There was an even distribution of B's and C's (about half-half) and probably one D. This is mostly because the tests are impossible to ace (the teacher would never give a perfect on ANY essay). Tests in our honors/AP classes follow much of the SAT format, where multiple choice questions are a big part of the test and there is almost no "subjective" part of a test (where partial credit can be given). A major change from middle school "honors" classes to high school honors/AP classes: there is no homework grade- your grade is based on essays, tests, labs, and a few projects. I know this is only for the better- preparing for college. Any thoughts or maybe I just got some tough teachers this year.</p>
<p>By the way, I understand that in an Honors/AP class, there will be more academically motivated students, but the material is also significantly harder. I believe there's an unwritten rule at our school that if more than 4 people in a class get an A, then there's something wrong. Does sound familiar/fair?</p>
<p>I've never heard of that. It doesn't seem all that fair.</p>
<p>It tends to be a popular trend- teachers administer tests that can only be passed by those who spend their lives studying the book from cover to cover. I can't imagine the last time a class was half-filled with students receiving an A (actually, I remember this in middle school, but never in high school). It sucks!</p>
<p>In my public school A percentage completely varies. In AP Econ probably 90% get A's, 8% B's, and 2% C's. In my AP English Lang. class everyone got an A. Overall in 3 classes I think it was like 50 A's and 5 B's or so (and no C, D, or F). But, on the other hand, in our AP Chem class 2 people got A's, probably 5 people got B's, and the rest got C's and D's. The people in AP Chem are the smartest people in the school too. It really varies by teacher, class, and school.</p>
<p>Not all public schools are good, and not all of them are bad. It really depends on where you live.</p>
<p>Is AP Chem generally a tough course? Probably 3 of us got an A this year. The trend I was describing is only in my core subject classes: English, math, social studies, science, and language. Electives are generally easy, but it doesn't guarantee an A. Unfortunately, I was never able to take an "easy" elective, instead I always doubled up on languages or science. It was definitely interesting, despite the loads of work!</p>
<p>
[quote]
How many students in each class receive an A (in an AP, Honors, etc.) in a private school or public school? At my school, normally 3 or 4 (1 person in my AP USH class!) in a class of about 20 receive an A for the semester. How many students get an A in a private school? (By the way, I go to a public school). How do those numbers at my school compare to other public schools? Is it more/less/about the same ratio A's?
[/quote]
Not too many of us IB kids make As. Unless you're in Ms. Border's Chem class or Ms. Mill's spanish class. THen its hard NOT to make an A. XD</p>
<p>As someone who goes to a private school I have to say that the people who've posted thus far (with the exception of a few) are very ignorant when it comes to private schools.
People choose to go to private schools for different reasons.
I chose to go because my mom can't just teleport her two stores from town to town, hoping to find a better high school experience for myself and my brother. It isn't sensible to give up a life you have been piecing together for the past few years only to have to start over.</p>
<p>The highschool, although a top-notch high school in the state, was not the exp. for myself or my brother. I live in a town of 7,000 people, and
after moving from L.A., it was hard to fit in. </p>
<p>I chose to go to a private school because I wanted attention, and learned best from discussion. I hate sitting in classrooms with rows of desks. I love having roundtable discussions. I have learned more , and reached a higher intellectual level than I ever could have at my public school. </p>
<p>Also not all people who go to private high schools. Sure I've met people with more money than I can ever dream of having. But I along, with most of the people I know, receive some form of scholarship.</p>
<p>As far as top-notch public schools go, what determines it is "top-notch"? Is it the state -standardized tests? the SATs? the AP scores?
For a lot of people (not all), these are the determining factors.</p>
<p>It is sad when how well one fills in a bunch of bubbles using graphite determines the quality of one's learning.</p>
<p>It's more than test scores. It's also student:teacher ratio, how up to date the school is, success in competitive clubs, graduating rate, student involvement and dedication, and more I can't think of off the top of my head.</p>
<p>thanks atomicfusion!</p>
<p>You can't just show up w a check to get into some private schools... my private day school has a lower acceptance rate than Harvard!...</p>
<p>The reason I goto private school is because I live in NYC and have always gone to private school to avoid the terrible public school system. I got into Stuy in 8th grade but I decided against going bc I also got into a really good private that I'm at now.</p>