<p>My D currently attends a fairly decent public high school. She applied and received acceptances from two private prep schools. Now that the time to decide is near, she is not even sure if she should move from the public school, let alone decide which one of the prep schools to go to. She's torn about making the choice ....</p>
<p>I thought I'd ask about the different reasons that motivated you to apply and accept a prep school over public school. Was the public school just not adequate? Not challenging enough? Did the prep school offer something more specifically in an area you were interested in? </p>
<p>Having been accepted at the prep schools, would you/could you have stayed back at the public school (other than for financial reasons)? If you did do this, I'd like to hear why. We currently have no FA from either school - this shouldn't be the main issue, but I am wondering if this is affecting her thought process...</p>
<p>My son's public school option would be an IB program (which does well and kids do go to top schools) but the program is located within a larger school that has issues with violence, drugs and alcohol. His middle school is the same type (ib program within a school) and it has been discouraging for him.</p>
<p>He decided to attend a boarding school for several reasons (these are his reasons -- as a parent, mine are different):</p>
<p>He wants a study hall -- he studies every day, but none of his friends do. they don't care about grades or schoolwork. He gets discouraged because they talk about spending hours every evening playing video games while he was doing his homework. </p>
<p>He wants to meet kids that want to do things -- not just watch DVDs and play video games and talk about forming a rock band. He loves to hike, play sports, talk, cook, volunteer, etc -- and none of his friends at school like these things. He feels pretty isolated.</p>
<p>He wants to be able to talk and ask questions in class. His classes are too large for that -- so they are primarily lecture.</p>
<p>He wants to do some things that can't be done in the local public school -- interesting types of arts, sports that aren't offered (crew, lacrosse), drama and a sport in the same year. etc.</p>
<p>If is local public school offered all these things -- the decision would be alot harder to make.</p>
<p>My son struggled with public and private last year. he is in gifted program of public school and has giep( Gifted Individual Education plan) not bad school district and we have been living here for a while and have good friends. After we visited a few private schools , we strongly feel private schools offer more than public school. Although the class size is not the much difference between his public school, but I think the teachers in private school is more responsive.</p>
<p>okkk. well i'm going to a
private day school. but
basically because my
public school is unconventional
chewing gum is allowed,
cell phones can be on and used in class,
no bells. no hall passes. you can wear hats,
and there's no real honors classes. you just
get an asterisk next to your grade.
awkwarddd, i know.
plus my class is terrible,
and i don't really like anyone that much at my
current school.</p>
<p>Well besides the violence and threats at my current school,
I chose prep school (Boarding) for a more ethnicaly and economically diverse enviornment. Obvious acedemic reasons. In boarding school I’ll have more opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities and try new things.I was looking for a smaller school.
and loads of other reasons.
I just feel SO blessed.</p>
<p>Because I didn't want to go to a Korean public school.
LOL</p>
<p>it's actually true. I was like a 2nd grader, mind you, so it's not like I had much of the whole "this school is DEFINITELY going to help me succeed in my academic career!" and our public school was verrryyyy good IMHO, it was smack off the edges of San Jose, places where public education was wonderful (our school was the 2nd best elementary school in the county, I believe). the people were very diverse, I'm sure that if you felt like kicking basketballs and waving your arms around everywhere, at least 10 people would want to join.
But I actually found out this was a good idea. Korean public schools are very generic and not a lot makes them different from another. I'd never be able to study in a school like that, though I would excel English classes (:
thank god I told my mom that someone was also going to an int'l school. then she considered it for a long time (it's extremely expensive, and though it's cheaper than what some people would say for day schools , it's still a lot if you think of the real estate, food, clothes, and other expenses as well as the fact they're less known than a lot of the good private schools in the US)</p>
<p>I posted a very similar question on the college board back in January...I know what this forum thinks about private vs. prep but wondered at the end of the 4 years what did those students/parents think...they are in the midst of the college application process, are they prepared enough? competitive in the applicant pool and was the $120,000 really worth it in the end....lots of responses..</p>
<p>See college admissions post 450647 or here's the link. </p>
<p>Cencible - thanks for that link - that thread had a whole lot of useful information. </p>
<p>My d is currently one of the top few in her public school and the thread addressed a lot of the same questions we are currently discussing. My gut feeling is that while she is in the top few at her public school, she would have to put in a great deal more effort and probably wouldn't be in the top 5-10% at the prep school. We had to talk to her about expectations - how she shouldn't get crushed if (when!) she got a B in the private school.</p>
<p>I am positive that the private school experience will definitely prepare her for college much better, be more intellectually challenging - the env makes me want to go back to school :-) But this is her life - and she has to be happy before she can do well. She's really torn about this decision...</p>
<p>Our view can be distilled to this. We are hypocrites. We believe strongly in public education. We have participated actively in our PS. We know our public HS well. It offers limited opportunities. We want more for D. </p>
<p>We are not sending D to BS to get her into a better college. We think she would get into decent colleges as a top student in her public HS, and will as a decent student in a good BS. But we believe that she will be a better student and have more opportunities at BS than we can provide her at home. So we are willing to sacrifice to give it to her.</p>
<p>my local HS is not challenging enough. the drug use there has gotten to the point where 20 random students are tested for use every monday. people there don't care about grades, their futures, and make fun of people who study/do well. I actually care about my future and I want to learn so my town HS was not the place for me.</p>