Applications for Private schools - Fall 2013 (top school, prestigious, money)

[snsh5713]

Originally Posted by chabang

It is slightly different now. At the time, I called the admissions team to gently remind them that single never married people are parents too and their application would not allow me to submit without filling out information for a second parent (I'm sure cementing my kid's chances of never going there). The director apologized and told me they were using an older template and they planned to update that section. So at least I made them aware of the issue. I just thought that Westminster was purposely trying to keep out any kids not part of a typical nuclear family. Also, every school I looked at asked for a pic of your kid, but Westminster is the only one that asks for a pic of your kid AND a pic of the entire family. That combined with the questionnaire made me a little suspicious.

Chabang...I also wondered about the family photo. Not sure why they asked for it.

There is another question that almost all private school applications seem to ask...."Have you applied to our school before".
I can't understand why this question is asked. Can anyone shed any light on this

[CMMom]

I think that they ask that question because some schools actually give some degree of preference to previous applicants who weren't admitted during the year in which they applied (often due to lack of space in non-expansion grades), but were deemed as good applicants. I know that's the case at Schenck (which is, admittedly, a specialty school, but also very competitive in terms of admissions due to space issues).

[AnsleyPark]

The family photo? They make a big poster with it and put it on the walls of school as a welcome to the students on their first day. It's not anything nefarious.

[lastminutemom]

Originally Posted by LovelySummer

Wow, this is great advice. Thank you. Do you mean average or average for Westminster? Obviously two different things. And congrats to your daughter on her success. She finished Westminster with almost all A's. I just cannot understand how much more a college could ask for. I guess colleges don't consider as much the rigor of the program? I guess that may be too difficult to do.

They do consider the rigor and they consider the student and what courses they took compared to the rigor. I wonder where in the class the 3.6 child ranked.

Keep in mind that a school full of achieving students are more likely to "earn" As. It is a rare teacher who curves downward because so many students perform well....

I want you to look at the Westminster profile for a recent graduating class. Look at the grade distribution -- really heavy on As. I am guessing that most pubic schools don't have that high of a percentage of As. (Simply because they educate a wide variety of students from a huge variety of families.)


http://www.westminster.net/ftpimages...on_Profile.pdf

Also, be sure to look at where the kids went to college. Maybe 15 or so at an Ivy plus MIT or Stanford. Given the economic affluence of most of the families, the education level of the parents (plus where they went to college), etc, it is not surprising.

[chabang]

I was trying to find out where Grady grads are most likely to go which I couldn't, but Grady does have a college prep handout for students that lists the GPA for entering students if I'm reading correctly. The average GPA for entering UGA students is 3.82 (wow is all I can say), that's very close to Emory (3.84) and Georgia Tech (3.8). I was also surprised at some southern colleges. For example Univ of SC has entering GPA of 4! and Univ of Florida 4.2. My kid might be going to my alma mater which is Mississippi State Univ (entering GPA of 3.29). :roll eyes:

[lastminutemom]

Here is the Grady Profile

They list acceptances, not attending, so it is a bit tricky to know how many students were accepted to the top schools as I said above. However, I think this is a really impressive list. It speaks to the quality of potential peers and it speaks well.

http://www.atlanta.k12.ga.us/cms/lib...%20Profile.pdf

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by lastminutemom

Here is the Grady Profile

They list acceptances, not attending, so it is a bit tricky to know how many students were accepted to the top schools as I said above. However, I think this is a really impressive list. It speaks to the quality of potential peers and it speaks well.

http://www.atlanta.k12.ga.us/cms/lib...%20Profile.pdf

I would think the good public high schools are comparable to the private schools.

[snsh5713]

I'm beginning to feel that in all the schools (public or private)...the very top tier of students get into the very top tier of colleges. The schools that they go to get the credit...but in my opinion, the underlying factor that drives their success is the student themselves. They are probably hardworking, focused, goal oriented, and ambitious.

[LovelySummer]

SNSH, we had this discussion maybe about a year ago (why parents send their kids to private if they are not going to ivies afterward given the financial investment). You can do a search as it was really, really insightful. I think I started the post. What I have learned is that people (at least the majority of those on the C-D boards sending their kids to private) do not do so to give their kids a better chance of getting into an ivy. They just want their kids in a private school environment based on factors such as small class size.

My understanding was similar to yours - if you spend 200K for private, it is to put them into a college they wouldn't be able to go to without the private school education. Otherwise, what am I paying 200K for? However, what I have learned is that the privates are so competitive that the reality is that it may actually place the kid at a slight disadvantage when it comes time to apply to college because the kid cannot stand out like he/she might if he was at a public school with a wider distribution of kids with all types of abilities. I am talking the normal high school with a wide distribution of kids, not a school like Northview, which I consider to be more of an anomaly as public high schools go.

This is why I have heard that some parents actually pull their kids out from private for 11th and 12th grade and let them go to the neighborhood public school - so they can shine more and improve chances of getting into really good college. Also, some colleges do not want to take too many students from one school so they pull their kid out and send them to the neighborhood school and their kid may be the only one with the academic prowess to get into the ivy. Wham! Admission to an ivy.

There is quite a bit of thinking and strategy that apparently goes into this process.

I think it is a little bit too bad that colleges will look at a kid with a 3.6 from Westminster and wait list the student. I am sure that 3.6 from Westminster was probably harder to come by than a 3.6 from many public schools from which 3.6 GPA students were admitted to UGA. However, the reality is that if they really preferred kids from private schools bc the program may be more challenging, parents could effectively buy their kid's way into a program and the public school students would be left behind. It's not really fair (although colleges always want to know if your parents are alums and that is a little unfair too to the candidates whose parents are not alums but I digress).

I guess it boils down to, parents can send their kids to private but know that they may be at a disadvantage when it comes time to apply to college. Interesting twist, I think, and one that I am struggling to get over because I really would like for our kid to go private having seen all of the mess of public school education from the inside. I guess you just gotta send them to private because you want them in the small class size, like many on this board have indicated.

Can I just say that I not being from Georgia, I really have no idea what state schools are considered prestigious and which are not, other than Georgia Tech. But GTech is on a national stage. It's not a regional school. I guess UGA, USC and Bama are considered prestigious. Or are they? For example, are they even on par with Vanderbilt, Duke?

What are the prestigious state schools in the southeast?

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by snsh5713

I'm beginning to feel that in all the schools (public or private)...the very top tier of students get into the very top tier of colleges. The schools that they go to get the credit...but in my opinion, the underlying factor that drives their success is the student themselves. They are probably hardworking, focused, goal oriented, and ambitious.

I think that is absolutely 100% correct.

And what constitutes a "top tier" student is clearly more than just grades and what high school they attended.