<p>Some people think that the unreasonably high proportion of private school students in Ivies is due to superior academics. At just an average suburban public school, I can tell you that this is simply not the case. </p>
<p>Private schools lack both academic rigor and EC activity. They seldom have as many APs as the regular decent public highschool and almost never have the same EC oppurtunities. Although my highschool is not that great, it still competes in math competitions, sciO, fbla, etc. All the winners are public schools. Where are the private schools? The all girl academies? Either they don't compete or they're at the bottom of the list. Some of these rich private schools are too small to even have a decent school orchestra, since only 6 kids play the violin and 2 of those 6 are even half decent. And academics. What separates my school's Calc BC and a small private school's? Nothing, except the availability. At a small private school the # of APs are limited and often don't fit in schedules. It's a shame that they can't be rigorous academically and EC wise.... yet....</p>
<p>they get into the Ivies. This is explained by their well-connected Guidance Counselors who are all acquainted with Ivy-admissions officers. What a shame. </p>
<p>I talked to some friends who are at Ivy-League schools and they all comment on how their classes are filled with 25% brilliant students and the bottom half are just... unmotivated and unintelligent students who fail. I can't help but think that these are kids who attended private schools and never tried to compete in a FBLA competition or take a billion APs and suffer the academic rigor of a competitive public school students. </p>
<p>It's simply a shame that at my school kids will do these ECs and ace AP tests yet we will get maybe 1 student gets into Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stanford per year, if at all. We only got one who broke that HYPS barrier, and that was for sports this year. Yet at the private school 20 min down the road, with less than half the oppurtunities, they get at least 10 HYPS out of their 50 students per grade..... HMMM.....</p>
<p>Crybaby. You obviously haven’t heard of private schools like Phillips Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy, Hotchkiss School, St. Pauls School, and Cate School have put your little public school to shame.</p>
<p>Your using Yahoo Answers as a source. That’s not really a good idea, those people never know what their talking about and its mostly opinion. And your grouping all private schools as the same, and all public’s as the same. The big difference, public schools are largely funded by the government, if a state like California and New York both swimming in debt, the first thing they do is cut funds. There goes those awesome EC’s, great teachers. A private school has money coming from various places and coffers swimming in cash (most do). Schools like Exeter, Andovers and the likes have more money then a large chunk of schools, They can afford to have the top teachers, top Ec’s top everything. And many of their students are highly motivated. </p>
<p>This is like another rant on private schools get over it, life is not fair.</p>
<p>Just as there are SOME good private schools, there are good public schools. I won’t say that Exeter or TJ are bad schools. I’m talking about those local private schools that charge a crap load per year and have no requirement for getting in</p>
<p>You’re thinking too much about Ivy league-caliber students. A brilliant student will find a way to succeed wherever s/he goes. Look at the middle 50% at any public or private school and you’ll notice the difference.</p>
<p>Private schools like mine work to get the middle 50% in at colleges where they wouldn’t otherwise have had a chance due to being grouped into classes with bums and gangsters (where I live) and teachers who don’t care. It’s great if you can get into and AP or IB track at a public if you can, but I’ve heard horror stories of good kids turned off to school and life in general because they couldn’t.</p>
<p>The most motivated students will thrive no matter where they go or no matter how many AP or ECs are offered. Pay attention to the middle 50%, that’s why some parents choose private schools.</p>
<p>You, sir, have no idea what you’re talking about. Your post reeks of prejudice, generalizations, and pointed misinformation.</p>
<p>-Good private schools tend to get people in to good universities because THEIR STUDENTS RECEIVE GOOD EDUCATIONS. In general, private schools have excellent teachers. Moreover, Prep schools generally have admissions processes that weed out bad students on the whole. The student pool is just better. A high percentage of people get into Ivy-caliber universities because they’re better, smarter, more talented students to begin with.
-Sure, the college admissions office is well-connected, but tbh, it’s not like the students are unqualified. What was it you said? Oh yeah, “unmotivated and unintelligent students who fail.” The truth is that, more often than not, they’re VERY GOOD [generally the best in the class] students. The guidance counselors don’t “get you into” college, they just make very good candidates stand out a little more.</p>
<p>-All of this, however, matters little in comparison to something else: upbringing and family. The kind of family that pushes their child to succeed and spends a lot of money on education, or else finds a way for tuition to be covered [good private schools give lots of financial aid money, you see] tends to produce the kind of child that succeeds. The kind that does well in school and gets into a good university.</p>
<p>Also, screw you. Just thought I’d through that out there.</p>
<p>I just finished ninth grade at an extremely well-regarded public high school. I’m moving on to a boarding school, one that was mentioned in an earlier post. Sure, while some public schools might be superior to their private counterparts, I can say that your post is filled with generalizations that haven’t been very well researched. Most students get into Ivy League schools because of academic merit, or general potential. If anything, I know more PUBLIC SCHOOL students who are less deserving of an Ivy acceptance than private school ones. (Athletic recruiting…) And trust me, just having a few connections won’t get you ANYWHERE, not even in prep school admissions. A guidance counselor “knowing somebody” might get an application looked at more closely, but I highly doubt anything more.</p>
<p>Eh, private schools are often a waste of money and a way for rich parents to dump their kids at some sleep-away place that will raise them, but they are also often not that and instead something worthwhile. It depends on the individual situation, and I don’t really care to make sweeping generalizations about everyone.</p>
<p>I do, however, believe that public education should be the best. The US has some of the best public schools in the developed world, but also many of the worst. Instead of worrying about where rich people choose to send their kids, worry about where poor people have to send theirs.</p>
<p>As in public schools, some private schools are good, some are not. Depending on where one lives, the public school may be better than the private or vice versa.</p>
<p>A lot of private schools AREN’T better than public schools, but it depends on the age of the private school (younger ones obviously struggle because they lack students and don’t have as many funds), and location. Many of the big private high schools in my area offer just as much as the public schools, even more. I live in Texas, where our education is CLEARLY not the best (we’re ranked like…45 or something. I may even be giving us too much credit). And where I live, the public school is pretty much terrible (unless you’re talking Plano or Highland Park). The private schools in our area are EXCELLENT for the most part (there are of course, exceptions). There are tons of ECs to be had at private schools, at least in my area, and there are plenty of ECs you can find outside of school. Just because a school offers XYZ number of APs doesn’t even mean the APs are good. You can hardly argue that every private school has far less academic rigor than public schools. If I went to the public school offered in my city, I’d do next to no work, even in the AP classes. My school has both Honors and AP courses, and it is definitely rigorous. Just because we may not necessarily be able to fit every single frickin’ AP in our schedule doesn’t mean our work isn’t rigorous, or that the people we send off to HYPS don’t deserve it. And I highly doubt that they’re all the ones sitting in HYPS unmotivated, lazy and failing.</p>
<p>It’s funny how all the other responders on this thread go to private schools and are angry b/c they’re offended. I think the whole private school college admissions is analogous to URM college admissions. A URM w/ a 1980 can get into a top ivy, yet a person of any other race who gets that score would have no shot. But relative to other URMs, the scorer preformed well and is relatively bright and motivated. Similarly, a private school kid, even though he/she is weaker compared to top public school students, relative to other private school kids, is strong. It’s all relative and at private schools, the bar seems to be lower for them in terms of ECs and course rigor. Anyways, I hope I inflamed some private schoolers</p>
<p>I disagree with the OP. The issue is that at private schools, there are less students per class, which usually results in better student-teacher relationships and ultimately more satisfied and well rounded students.
There are probably some students who get in from prep schools due to quite significant legacy at the big schools. It seems as though most Ivy grads with stable incomes don’t want to send their kid to public school.
I guess everyone has their issues with both systems, but I think it’s wrong to make such a sweeping generalization.</p>
<p>I am a triplet with two brothers. Until tenth grade, we went to the same public school system, but that year I switched to a private school. I find several things wrong with your post, but you do touch upon a subject that has bugged me for a long time. </p>
<p>First of all, the academics at private schools are no less challenging or less available. I have only 60 kids in my class and they will create a class with only one person should the other AP classes be full. At least 10 girls in my class next year (senior year) are taking 5 or more AP classes. Comparing my academics to my brothers, they have taken more APs than me overall, based on what was available, but I don’t think that was to their advantage. Their teachers are not encouraging and often that fosters competition, which is not always a good thing as you seem to believe. Though many kids at their school do well on their standardized tests, I know that that is because some resort to cheating, which would never be considered at my school. </p>
<p>In addition only about 5 girls in my grade don’t do at least one sport. Our band and orchestra are small, but every girl who plays in it is also part of a larger regional or state orchestra, or has been taking private lessons for years. They are no less talented because they don’t compete with the public school bands. Our theatre programs is also incredibly small, yet has won numerous awards. There are areas that we don’t have ECs in, such as the ones you listed, but that does not mean that the students at my school do not excel in the select activities that they do. I know this post might sound defensive, but I really believe that a private education is no worse than a public one, but no better either in regards to what colleges are looking for. </p>
<p>The main reason that private school kids do well, which frustrates me greatly, you pointed out. Its not that our college counselors have connections so much as they know how to get us in and care about us. Our counselors make sure we play our cards the right way, we apply to enough schools so that we get into at least one good one, and they write incredibly detailed and phenomenal recommendations. At my brother’s public high school, I know they don’t’ have this resource, which I really regret for their sake. Really, the people at their school and the people at my school are the same applicants, except we have an added edge. In general, you aren’t any better than us and we aren’t any better than you. We just have an unfair advantage when applying to schools that public school students need to accept as a fact of life instead of being bitter and discrediting our ECs and academics.</p>
<p>It would be really interesting if everyone who replied to this thread mentioned whether they attended a private school themselves. Public schools definitely have the potential to be better than many private schools, no doubt, but this is leaning more toward the end of exception rather than rule. I know quite a few kids who attend TJ (which btw is public), Flint Hill, and one who attends Exeter. They are all very bright, but not all got into ivy league schools. The ones who got in were truly deserving, even in my public school eyes, of going to ivy league schools, and others settled for public ivies within the state, which per se is no minor achievement. Being from a well-known school helps in many cases, but it may also work against an applicant since more may be expected. i.e. If your parents can afford for you to do all these things, you better damn well have done every sport, club, hour of community service you had access to, just as a public school kid would be expected to make use of his (usually more limited) access to EC’s, clubs, etc. It’s about making use of what you have that decides admission sometimes, not just having access to more resources.</p>
<p>I currently attend a private school, but I did go to public for 7 years. My brother graduated from public and had a fantastic education. From what my friends at public have said, and what I have experienced, my private school is much harder than my public. I made 97+ in all my honors classes in public. I need to work hard to maintain an A in private school, and some aren’t in honors.</p>
<p>I think my private school is preparing me well for college and more, but I think that my older brother (public graduate) gained a great education as well, and it was not lessened just because he went public.</p>
<p>What a silly and uninformed rant. It completely depends on the school. I know plenty of private schools with many unmotivated students that are just trying to pass and stay in the school. I don’t see why anyone would think these people end up going to Ivy League schools. However, I do know private schools where a handful of students get into Ivy League schools. Why? Because the environment is so competitive and everyone works hard. I also know public schools that reflect both of these examples.</p>
<p>Yes, going to private school may have a slight advantage in terms of resources (in some cases). Nevertheless, you act like everything is a walk in the park just because of the school you go to. It’s not.</p>
<p>P.S (From an AdComs perspective) It doesn’t really matter how many of this or that type of class a school has, but how a student takes advantage of what ever is available.</p>