Breck or Blake school? (Minneapolis, St. Paul: law school, cost of, law)

[roxyrn]

I had three daughters who attended Blake Highcroft even though we were in the Wayzata School District. It was a fabulous education and provided them with wonderful educational roots. I cannot say enough about the teachers, curriculum and community. When we moved to a highly regarded east coast school district (New Canaan, CT), my kids were an entire year ahead of their classmates and all three were in the gifted programs at their schools as well as qualifying for the Johns Hopkins' summer programs. More important, they had an great love for education that the Blake schools nurtured. And healthy self-esteem.

They still are in contact with their Blake friends.

[rsdplaya]

personally, i think you can get a good enough education from public schools in the minneapolis area without having to go the private route.

[jen6r]

First of all, these are very different schools. Blake can be a pressure-cooker and if the child can't cut it in MS/US then they will be "counseled out". That said, it can be the ideal environment for highly motivated and intellectually gifted students. Breck has a more diverse population in terms of abilities and the support services to go along with it. Blake requires IQ testing as part of admissions; Breck is not interested in that data.

Blake is also more competitive athletically, if that is important to you. At Breck, everyone gets to play.

Breck has a very strong community feel. Blake not so much, in part because of the separate campuses.

In terms of private vs. public, there IS a difference and since I have had children in Breck and also Mtka and Edina publics, I can say this with certainty. Teachers at these two schools are in a whole different league, and class sizes are significantly smaller. Also, the college counseling process at both starts earlier, is more personalized, and has a developmental approach than you would find at the publics.

They are both really good schools, just depends what you are looking for.

[uptown_urbanist]

Originally Posted by jen6r

In terms of private vs. public, there IS a difference and since I have had children in Breck and also Mtka and Edina publics, I can say this with certainty. Teachers at these two schools are in a whole different league, and class sizes are significantly smaller. Also, the college counseling process at both starts earlier, is more personalized, and has a developmental approach than you would find at the publics.
.

That may be true in some cases, and sounds like for you it was that way, but given that I have friends who have had children in both Blake and Breck and in local public schools (the public schools in question were in the SLP and in the MPS system) and who have decided that they thought the public option was better, I wouldn't say it's a given. They could say with equal certainty that they felt their public school option was better.

As for college counseling, I wouldn't personally select a school on just that factor; there's always private firms if you feel that your child needs ongoing, early college counseling.

There's a place for both public and private schools, and you've got to do what's best for your own child, but an all-size-fits-all approach (as in private schools are always better, or public schools are always better) isn't fair, either.

[MaryAnon]

Blake-Highcroft and Blake-Hopkins are very, very different. Highcroft has very little class, ethnic or political diversity - a huge number of parents are in finance and mostly GOP. Hopkins parent population much more diverse -ethnically and class-wise and far more openminded.

[nononsense123]

Does anyone know where International School or Providence Academy academics and environment compare to Blake or Breck? I plan on investigating these schools in addition to Blake and Breck. Thanks

[Purjed]

Originally Posted by kathymn

I came across this conversation after googling a question asking which school is better...Blake or Breck. And, believe it or not, I have one child who has already completed upper school at Breck and I have another who has spent grades 2 - 7 at Blake. And I am still asking the question....which school is better? Would I be better off sending my youngest to Edina HS or switching him to Breck?

I also have a son who just graduated from college at the top of his class and has landed a highly coveted job at a prestigous company. He attended a very highly respected private college preparatory school in another state. It is ranked among the top 25 private schools and it just keeps getting better each year. And my daughter, who attended Breck, attended a wonderful all-girls school prior to going to Breck.

I feel that both Blake and Breck fall drastically short of the two schools my kids attended before moving to MN. Breck did not prepare my daughter academically for college. And the college counseling office was abysmal. We had to hire an education consultant just to help her sort out which colleges would be a good fit for her. While she loved her years at Breck socially, the overall teaching was poor (with the exception of a few great teachers).

I will say with 100% certainty that the Arts and Drama programs at Breck are far superior to those at Blake. And we feel that Breck has a warmer, friendlier, more supportive environment compared to Blake. And I feel that Breck has less tolerance for bullying and has a culture of more inclusiveness at Breck. And while Breck had its share of cliquey, snobby, kids who felt they were superior to the others, there are far more kids like that at Blake. There is also more diversity at Breck, although Blake is working on that (although they seem to be accepting more Asians and Muslims than African Americans, which is interesting).

I cannot compare the upper schools of Breck & Blake academically, but from my daughter's experience at Breck, I think Blake is most likely stronger. The middle school at Blake has been excellent academically (although still not at a level it should aspire to.) I think Blake kids have better acceptance rates at more elite colleges.

But another thing to consider is that Breck has a new Headmaster who could be making some real changes for the better. Although he has been there for two years and some of the flakier teachers my daughter had are still teaching.

It's very complicated. I welcome any thoughts.

As a former Breck Student, I have to disagree about either school being drastically inferior to other schools outside of MN. I was at Breck for grades 1-10 and then went to an elite New England boarding school for 11-12 and found Breck to be more challenging, more enriching and much more progressive. I also attended the 5th ranked Liberal Arts college and found the majority of kids from top tier schools (Andover, Exeter, Horace Mann, Chapin, etc.) to be no more better prepared. In fact, when you look at their knowledge of simple geography, they failed miserably because they don't think anything matters but NY/New England.

If the goal for your children is to stay in Minnesota for their entire lives (and I have NO problem with that) then I think that Edina/Hopkins/Tonka even Southwest are probably just fine. In fact they will probably have a better professional network as more than 50% of my classmates are no longer in MN. But if you want them to attend a top notch university and succeed anywhere in the world, then Breck is an appropriate choice. I say this as somebody who is actively trying to relocate back to MN and would likely investigate Breck to see if I can afford it and if not try to send my kids to Hopkins.

As with any school, the quality of education still rests squarely on the parents being involved and making sure that the education is working for their kids. Almost any school can be great if the parents are pushing their kids for all AP courses and to be well rounded and most importantly having a quality summer JOB. Colleges like to see kids having job experience on that college application.

[uptown_urbanist]

^ I have a feeling that if you look at the top students in the public schools (i.e. those who are also academically and professionally ambitious) you wouldn't find much of a difference between the public schools mentioned versus Breck or Blake, and professional networking wouldn't be much use; I could be wrong about that, however. Certainly my IB Southwest classmates are scattered across the country and world (and probably in similar percentages to the privates), but I don't think there's much networking value from high school. Then again, there isn't a strong alumni culture -- there's some, but nothing like what you find at the big name privates. Not sure how Breck/Blake stack up on that front. I assume having, say, an alumni magazine, alumni/development relationships staff, and other such amenities help foster that sense of longer-lasting connections or allegiance. My private school friends seem to have far closer connections to their high schools than I do, although I think our actual educations were about equal, and our peers are doing equally interesting things, and we all had overall positive school experiences.

ETA: that's really just a long-winded way of saying that I think if it's high school connections and networking that one is after, they're probably better off with a local private school. Then again, I also don't know how much that matters, especially since around here most of the privates (including Breck and Blake) aren't particularly competitive as far as admission goes, and attendance doesn't reflect much more than the parents' ability to pay (or in some cases, decent financial aid.) I would certainly expect a certain level of competence from any Breck or Blake graduate, but it's simply a different school climate here than what you find in some parts of the country, and simply attending one of the private schools doesn't (I don't think) have the prestige factor that you find with certain schools in other cities. I think most people consider Blake and Breck to be solid, high-quality schools, but there's no obsession about, say, coaching their preschooler for an admissions test due to some fear that an afternoon at age four will make or break their chances of getting into HYP, and I don't think most people look at the average Blake or Breck graduate and assume that they are academically "elite". I also wouldn't make any bets on whether or not a child is going to stay in MN permanently -- people move around so much these days that I think realistically many kids will spend at least part of their adult years in another city or state, even if ultimately they do end up returning to Minnesota.

[danielle_pal]

After considering everything my husband and I are going to send our kids to public schools. The person on this board who said go on family vacation instead of spending that much on school because it is not worth is really stood out to me. I feel horrible they felt like they did not get a real-world experience and had problems socializing with others later on in life. I also feel like public schools have better extra-curricular activities due to their size probably. Being talented in other ways like band, choir, sports, mathematics, science you name it, can help a child get into a great university just as much as a 4.0 GPA. I also agree there is no best school but I think there is a best school for your child. If I have a kid who would great make use of a challenging robotics class at Cretin Durham then I would send them there as it would be worth it. If you have 1 or 2 highly successful parents who are working many hours a week, going to a school where your kids get more individual attention would make sense. I plan on having a lot of time to spend with my children doing homework and reading together at home and luckily we can afford that. I am interested in Woodbury's Math and Science Academy.

[mn001]

Originally Posted by nononsense123

Does anyone know where International School or Providence Academy academics and environment compare to Blake or Breck? I plan on investigating these schools in addition to Blake and Breck. Thanks

Can anyone help with comparison or advice between providence academy , International school and blake school as well?