Top rated public school vs selective private day school

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
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I know there are many factors that should go into evaluating school fit. But I am wondering what folks have seen in terms of college admissions for the same kid: would a top rated public high school (Gunn in Palo Alto CA) or a selective private day school (like Crystal Springs or Castilleja) offer a better shot at getting into a selective college?

One of the things I am thinking about is kids applying to a college from the same high school get compared together. I imagine the public school would have a bigger pool of very hardworking kids, the private school would have more wealthy families who can pay for private counseling and unique extracurriculars. Thoughts?

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Just some thoughts…

At any school, recruited athletes and legacies will have an “in” at the schools they choose. Whether there are more at one school or another depends entirely on the school and the community. (I can think of a few public districts near me that have a lot of fac brats or legacies, so it really isn’t a public private divide.)

Overall, private schools have more flexibility in accommodating kids with special ECs that could be resume builders. Elite athletes who need to travel for competition or who need to train may be better off at a private.

Private schools have a more vested interest in making all the kids shine – it’s what you are paying for. They may make more of an effort to distribute leadership roles or help kids put together a class schedule that lets them develop and showcase their interests, whether STEM or film or creative writing.

At either, you can hire your own CC.

You MAY find more competition around stats at a public because there are kids who are chasing admission to top colleges with generous FA. But there are privates that can also be this way because of family expectations. Then again, parents at privates may be more likely to encourage fit over prestige.

Really, you want to pick the place that will give your child the most positive 4 years and allow them to become the best version of themselves. And that fits your education budget (high school and college). It’s really not as simple as "college placement ". These are important years developmentally, socially, academically. Where will she thrive?

The benefit of choosing a high school, rather than just going through the progression, is that you can be really thoughtful and intentional about what you want those 4 years to be. You’ll have the best options for college if you get this right.

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To the OP - if I lived where you did, with a top rated public school….I would choose the top rated public school over the private day school.
Truth.

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My wife attended an excellent boarding school for high school and then Yale for her B.A. degree. She once told me that if she had to do it all over again and had to choose either her boarding school or Yale to attend, she would go with her high school boarding school, hands down.

My point for the OP is that the high school experience is an extremely valuable one, for many reasons; and the high school decision should not just be about what college or university her daughter can get into, but which is best for her overall development – especially since it seems that whichever high school she attends on the list provided will have resources to get her to a college or university that is best for her.

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Getting into a selective college is difficult any way you cut it. Either top public or private, the hurdles are there. Without getting into details, at a high level if your child is hooked, and you are full pay then a private school will probably yield the best outcome. If your kid is unhooked, or if you need to save for college, then you might be better off with public school (with supplementation).

If you’re willing to share more details, we could provide more advice.

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^All true. But most of all, I don’t think you can think about this assuming that your kid will be the exact same candidate coming out of each option. These are formative years and your kid will hopefully be changed by them.

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Sorry what does hooked mean? I realize there are many other factors that are subjective for us to consider. Assume we are talking about full pay.

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:100:

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Hooked means that you have something that makes admission to one or more college easier. Typically, the following are counted as hooks.

  • Recruited athlete
  • Child of a alum
  • Child of a faculty member
  • Development: Your parents can donate big $$$
  • Under-represented minority
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Ah got it. Our child only has the “lowest value” hook (child of alum) but so do many many kids at these schools so I don’t really consider it a hook.

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Child of alum / legacy would only be a hook at the specific college where the alum graduated from, and then only if that college favors legacy applicants (some, like MIT and the UCs and CSUs, do not).

If the “selective private day school” has well connected dedicated college counselors, they may be able to give better information to students about which “selective colleges” are more likely to admit, beyond looking at student stats relative to college stats (HS GPA, test scores). This does not mean that they will improve the chances of getting into a specific “selective college”, but may be able to inform students about “selective colleges” that are more likely to want them that the students may not have otherwise considered applying to.

Graduates from “selective private day schools” do appear to be more likely to attend private colleges (versus public colleges) compared to public high schools (even “top rated” ones), although this may vary with specific schools.

Of course, money is the major limitation for most students’ choice of college. If spending money on a “selective private day school” would limit the college budget, that must be considered in the decision.

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I wonder how much of this effect is due to differences in demographics. Top rated public schools have plenty of average kids who happen to have parents able/willing to live in the right area, private schools get to select their student body. Private schools have wealthier parents more willing to pay for private colleges, etc.

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Palo Alto schools also have a high percentage of parents that can pay for unique ECs and private counseling. Gunn has a high percentage of Asian kids and the academic pressure is significant. Keep in mind that many Stanford professors live in the area and send their kids to those schools. Consequently, your kid’s chances to go to Stanford are very low, even if you are an alumnus.

As a parent of kids that went to a top public school - the quality of the teaching is hit and miss. There are excellent teachers that have been teaching their subjects for years. There is also high turnover, and quite often inexperienced and/or bad teachers teach advanced subjects. In my son’s year, the physics teacher retired and the administration picked a middle school science teacher to teach AP Physics C. My son ended up self-teaching the material.

You will make a good real estate investment in PA but, if money is not an issue, I believe a private school may give your child a better education. Which is ultimately the goal, isn’t it?

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DS will attend a private boarding school that is a good match for him and give him great support for his EC. DD will likely attend a public HG magnet that is very famous and competitive and we will pour a lot of money into her EC. I think college chances are about equal because even though they have different strengths, grades are the same. It will probably depend more on the desirability of EC and how much we can contribute to college.

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Child of an alumni = legacy. You’d be surprised at how much of a benefit this provides. In the recent Harvard litigation, legacy kids had an odds of admission between 3-6x higher than non-legacy. Keeping all other factors constant, this translates to a probability of acceptance between 55-65%. Contrast this with the RD acceptance rate at Harvard College of about 7%.

This is an enormous advantage. Colleges place different values on legacy though. Notre Dame is very keen on legacy, and other colleges not so much (MIT, Chicago, state U, etc). Legacy is one of the best hooks out there. Thats why so many boarding/private schools carefully screen which colleges the parents attended. This is to fill their class with legacy kids who have a great shot.

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Agree, but noting that Harvard is at the high end of legacy weighting- the weighting at peer schools is quite variable.

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This was a topic of discussion at our house the other day…

We live in a town that people “move to” for schools. Affluent, but there are large sections of town that remain accessible for families with average incomes. The residents are very proud of the schools. The most common response from other parents when they found out we were paying for schooling was “why do you live in town then?” Not sure where we were supposed to live, but they obviously feel pretty good about the public school options here in town.

I grew up in town. I have a brother and sister who graduated the HS, and a sister and I who attended private school. I only mention that as background…

We moved back to town 15 years ago. Job-related…but had a 6th grader and 3rd grader who we were struggling to find challenges for in their prior (public) school. We decided to enroll them in the private school in town (not where I attended…another long story). The school has been around since the US was 11 years old, and has a long reputation for exceptional graduates.
Both of our children graduated from this school and went on to highly selective colleges. Both attended their first choice of school. Both love their K-12 experience, and now that they’ve graduated college…they continue to wear their HS rings every single day…never purchased college rings.

All of that is background.

Our younger one went off to college, and became very close with 2 kids from our town. So close, that the kitchen table discussion was prompted by our daughters’ feeding of one of their cats while they’re moving the friend into Grad school (both local HS kids are going to grad school this fall). She knows the parents…they know her…all 3 are good friends and live within 3 miles of each other…and never met until college. Our daughter probably knows 40 - 50 kids her age in town through activities and socializing, but never ran into her friends in HS.

Obviously, the local HS is successful in providing opportunities for graduates. So that begs a few questions from a parent who spent as much on schooling before college as I did during college…

“Do you ever wish you had gone to the HS” - No

“Look at your friends…they attended the local school, went to college with you, and didn’t spend all that money” - So

“So was it worth private school” - Yes

She then went on to explain a series of subtle differences in understanding, consideration, consequence. It could just be her and us (her family)…not the schools, but she feels that the school had a major impact. She is confident that she is a better student and a better person than she would have been graduating from the local high school. She’s comfortable not going on to grad school, because she doesn’t have a focus yet where she can learn more by studying than doing. She’s not against going back, but wants to take some time to make sure she knows what she wants, and isn’t just “taking the next step” and going to grad school like nearly all of her friends.

In the end, the decision about public or private school may not make a difference in which college you attend, but it will have an impact on who you are when you get there. Pick the community you want to engage with for the next 4 years. Every environment is different, and going to the private school for a reputation or assumption of opportunities may not pan out the way you think it will. You can be successful at both…which one will make you happy? Go there.

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Assuming unlimited money, focus on the quality of the high school education and the match for your child, rather than on affecting the odds of admission to top colleges. Consider all aspects of the high school experience. For example, my kids benefited immensely from our district’s strong arts programs, which a private school could never match.

When I compare my private high school education to my children’s public education in a good suburban district, I noticed that they had FAR fewer written assignments, probably because of the larger number of students that the teacher had to teach. Also, I would say that only half the teachers that they had were good teachers - many were abysmal, some were fantastic.

Consider your child’s social style. Are they quirky, unusual kids who need a large pool of classmates in order to find that small group of similar students? Of would they fit in anywhere, including in the smaller, more socially competitive environment of a private school with many very wealthy families?

Do they love playing high school sports? At the private school, they’d have a much larger chance of making the teams. But if they’re outstanding athletes, the public school will offer more competition, and more exposure for sports scholarships.

And even if you can afford it, consider that private high school is going to cost you over 200K. Add on private college at 300K. Does all of this REALLY mean more for your child than a gift of an investment account with 200K, or 500K in it?

For most kids from families that are not very wealthy, it’s pretty clear that a good public high school is the right choice. But for your child, private school might be the better choice.

As for unique access to competitive colleges, yes, certain prestigious private schools do seem to have that access. But that may actually wind up working against your child, as those “access” spots could wind up going to the wealthy donor family’s child from the private school.

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Hey :wave: there…

Kiddo recently had two information interviews with AO’s from 2 well known schools - one a well known SEC school the other ACC -who had no earthly idea what DA was. So, Kiddo asked if they heard of PEA, Choate or Hotchkiss. Nope - never heard of them. One asked “Are those schools for LD or behavioral problems?”:wink: :rofl:

So, then Kiddo asked for the name of the school’s admission rep for New England. Both schools did not yet have one on board - previous ones left and they are in the process of recruiting reps for New England. I think I will apply.

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Agree with the general sentiments expressed in many of the comments that it depends on the kid, the public and private schools in question, and that choosing one of these options based on which will provide a leg up for selective schools is misplaced. If you are worried about optimal college results, the questions should be under which environment will your child most likely thrive.

One thing that I did not see mentioned, and which factored in our decision to send our kids to a public HS, was socialization with diverse classmates, race and SES. Perhaps privates are more diverse than in my day with scholarships and aid, but we felt it important as part of our kids’ life education to be with kids with varied backgrounds and circumstances. The AP and dual credit programs were strong enough that we did not worry about the academic rigor.

The big difference I did notice was our GC’s were just trying to get kids graduated. My close friends whose kids were in private prep schools on the East and West Coasts had a much different GC experience. We ended up hiring a private counselor for our older child and by the time her brother was up, I was up to speed on the routine.

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