<p>It is not really anyone's business as to what those of us with children in prep/priavte schools pay for their education. In our case, we felt son #1 needed the intimacy of a private school where he had more individual attention. We did not send him there to help him get into an Ivy or higher ranked college as frankly that sort of thing does not mean much to our family.</p>
<p>I do think he became a better student overall, a much better writer and his world has broadened considerably than if he would have stayed at our local public HS. His friends are more diverse in all ways--racially, socio-ecomonically.</p>
<p>I am one of those parents that paid for 12 years of private school for my daughter. She with the GPA of 4.1 UW taking mostly APs was turned down by Princeton and Columbia. For 30 seconds I questioned about the money we have spent on her private education ($25000/year), because that is one of the reasons(just one of many) why we sent her to this very good private school. She got into Tufts instead and is thrilled. She said that Tufts is her second choice after Princeton. She knew if she had gotten into Columbia or Harvard we would have pressured her to go. She likes Tuft for it's International Relations study, dance program, city environment, campus, and their vision. </p>
<p>This has been a tough year for IVY admissions, record low admission rate. Most of my daughter's friends, with very high GPAs and SAT (over 2200), were shut out of Ivies. People that got in were legacies, atheletes, or with some amazing stats. Her school normally send over 30% to ivies. </p>
<p>My daughter received a great education from her school. I know she is going to be well prepared for college. I could understand your parents' disappointment, but they will soon come to realize that it's not what school you go to, it's what you make of it. Good luck.</p>
<p>Oldfort: Your daughter will love Tufts! I'm an IR major (senior) here and have nothing but great things to say. I am guessing that by Tufts' "vision" you mean their internationalistic and civic view on life. It permeates the campus and is tangible in each and every student they accept and faculty member they employ!</p>
<p>Any questions please send them my way; we also have a group of "regulars" who are are super helpful and always willing to help on the Tufts CC discussion board. Good luck!</p>
<p>I feel for you. I went to a 7K a year private high school, and we don't exactly have much money. The public school in my town is terrible; it is at risk of losing its accredidation this year. I went to what is portrayed at a top-quality Catholic school, which the public looks highly on in this area. I got waitlisted at a safety (Northeastern) and waitlisted at two matches (Boston University and Hampshire College). Clark, another safety, gave me a scholarship, but because I will need finanical aid, it made no difference to my overall financial aid package. I was accepted to Bard, a reach, but I have not recieved my financial aid package. I'm praying they give me money. My dad rags on me all the time for not getting into most of my schools and claims that I was a waste for 28K. Kind of sucks...so I feel for you.</p>
<p>Tell them they should have controlled themselves and waited a few years so their kid wouldn't be part of this ultra-competitive population boomlet.</p>
<p>SweetLax, Neither you, Nor your parents have to be disappointed about the result of your College admissions. I would like to just put down some points and ponder if these make sense.
1. A good basic education will take you a long way what ever college you may endup joining. Your top of the line private school must have prepared you with its hard curriculumn to succeeed in the toughest schools.
2. The high school experience is once in life time experience and it will not come back. You should be thankful to your parent to provide you such an experience that will be with you for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>We are sending our child to a similar school with a tag of $30,000/year even though we have great public schools in the area. But whenever I visit these public schools and then go to my child school I realize the worth.
Schooling is not only academic but an overall experience for the child and it is that your parent have provided you. I'm really satisfied the my child is having an experience that I was never able to and hope that the future comes out good too.
You should not be discouraged and I'm sure you will achieve great things in your life.</p>
<p>you guys are quite ridiculous, i'm not trying to tell anyone how to raise/spend there money but for 25k a year i would hire a private teacher and just have her teach him everything.</p>
<p>And for all of those telling me i had the luxury of having a great public high school to go to, you must have never heard of maimi dade public school system, one of the worst school systems in the country-where spanish dominates as the primary language....but like i always say don't blame the system blame the kid.</p>
<p>I'm done with this thread, to the OP my point from the beginning is that Vanderbilt is a great school and you seem to be missing the point that you should be happy with the fact that you got into such a great place, at the end of the day its your education not your parents, and if they dont want to pay for it I don't think there entitled to have to pay it.</p>
<p>Most of my frustration from the beginning of the thread revolves around the fact that my parents would never be able to spend 100k on anything, well except our house, and it kind of seems unfair for the OP to sort of be complaining that his school's connection didn't help him out.</p>
<p>And to momofwildchild.....i'm sorry that my education cost less than your childs...chances are they live in a factitous bubble anyways. atleast i'm prepared for the real world/</p>
<p>FSU--you seem to be judging how parents choose to spend their money
It is not for you to judge if it is "ridiculous" for parents to spend 30K to send their child to private school--if we want to and we can afford it then why do you care?</p>
<p>We are making what we feel is the best choice for our particular child--
Son #1 has done the private route--that suited his needs best, Son#2 will do
public for now--he is a much different student</p>
<p>I'll agree with Momof2sons according to how parent want to raise their children should be totally upto them.
My wife and I always had the opinion of raising quality children so we never decided to have more than 1 child. We wanted to provide the child a caring environment not only at home but also at the school.
Private schools in our view provide the best controlled environment by bringing like minded people together.
We decided not experiement with the child by sending to public school instead look for something that have a proven environment.
In the end why not spend on a quality education if you can afford it. People spend tons on cars/gambling/vacation houses. We prefer to spend it on good quality education.
So it is the choice of the parent. Spend their hard earn money the way they feel best.</p>
<p>hahaha everyone is acting like Mr. T hahaha</p>
<p>parents do have the right to choose what they think best for their child(ren).</p>
<p>Just don't mock FSU for mocking a guy who was dissapointed with himself for only getting into vanderbilt after his parents spent 100k on an apparent not-what-it-is-worth education.
Or he just had bad luck... Either way. SweetLax have fun at vandy and be proud you got into such a great school and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.</p>