East Cobb schools vs. In Town private Schools comparison (college, price)

[10 feet tall]

Originally Posted by deacongirl

One other consideration--having our kids at the neighborhood school makes for a nice sense of community, and it also makes arranging playdates etc. much more convenient.

Agree. When every kid on a street goes to a different school, it robs a neighborhood of a sense of community and cohesiveness.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by deacongirl

...One other consideration--having our kids at the neighborhood school makes for a nice sense of community, and it also makes arranging playdates etc. much more convenient. As kids get older, I just cannot imagine navigating Atlanta traffic to enable them to see friends who are further spread out.
...

Originally Posted by 10 feet tall

Agree. When every kid on a street goes to a different school, it robs a neighborhood of a sense of community and cohesiveness.

Yes.

[AtlJan]

Yes, I agree with 10 Feet Tall, families that I know don't send their children to private school in order to get them into Ivy League schools. With more conservative folks, inside and outside the perimeter, there is a distrust of Northeast colleges as being too liberal. It matters more to me what my kids learn and experience in high school than where they go to college. By the time they are 18, their character has already been formed.

[deacongirl]

Originally Posted by AtlJan

Yes, I agree with 10 Feet Tall, families that I know don't send their children to private school in order to get them into Ivy League schools. With more conservative folks, inside and outside the perimeter, there is a distrust of Northeast colleges as being too liberal. It matters more to me what my kids learn and experience in high school than where they go to college. By the time they are 18, their character has already been formed.

Interesting. I am so curious what schools would fall into this category, and also which people are choosing top Atlanta private schools for the religious component. Because the only one I can really imagine that being a factor is Marist? The people I know who are wealthy, conservative, and religious, are not suspicious of NE colleges and would certainly be thrilled to send their kids to Harvard if the kids were admitted. (Maybe not Brown! lol!) And I spent a lot of time at college with grads of Christian private schools--as a whole their character was not more formed than their public school counterparts. I totally respect choosing a school in part for religious education, but at least for the people I know that is not the driving factor.

[AtlJan]

I am thinking of Whitefield and Wesleyan as schools where families choose private over public for religious reasons. For families choosing among private schools only, I have talked to several moms recently who chose Westminster, Lovett, Holy Innocents because of at least a nominal religious component. I know many who chose Pace because it does not have a religious component. I can think of a handful of people, both friends and family, who were accepted to Ivy League schools and/or second tier northern schools and chose to stay in the South for reasons of social connections and family tradition, and several who chose to go to Southern state schools over elite NE schools for financial reasons. So not for all, but for some Southern families, the NE schools don't have the same pull they often have for recent transplants to Atlanta.

[deacongirl]

Originally Posted by AtlJan

I am thinking of Whitefield and Wesleyan as schools where families choose private over public for religious reasons. For families choosing among private schools only, I have talked to several moms recently who chose Westminster, Lovett, Holy Innocents because of at least a nominal religious component. I know many who chose Pace because it does not have a religious component. I can think of a handful of people, both friends and family, who were accepted to Ivy League schools and/or second tier northern schools and chose to stay in the South for reasons of social connections and family tradition, and several who chose to go to Southern state schools over elite NE schools for financial reasons. So not for all, but for some Southern families, the NE schools don't have the same pull they often have for recent transplants to Atlanta.

Yes, I agree with the bolded. Actually we have told my own dd if she wants to go somewhere other than UGA she better study and practice that violin and get a scholarship. But I also know long-established local families who were happy to send their kids to Northern schools. Just like everything else, depends on the individual kid and the family!

[LovelySummer]

City-data is really eye opening. I would have never guessed that people who can afford an ivy would encourage their child to stay in the south for tradition. Very eye opening.

[alliejay]

For those who utilize the east Cobb public schools, what are class sizes like?

[AtlJan]

LovelySummer, I know so many super bright kids who either don't apply to schools outside of the south because they don't want to go, or who apply out of curiosity, but when it comes down to it, they stay in the south because the tradition is so much a part of their upbringing--Georgia/Auburn/Ole Miss. For the boys it's often about business connections in their home town. I'm thinking of a friend's daughter who turned down Yale and went to Agnes Scott (close to home and family connection to the school). Plenty who go to UNC/UVA over Ivies. A young man I know in Mississippi who didn't apply anywhere north but turned down UVA to go to Ole Miss. Another from Atlanta with perfect math SAT who went to Vanderbilt and didn't apply to NE colleges. All of these from families where tuition would not be a hardship. . . Sewanee/Davidson/W&L get these students also. . .Sort of off point for the OP, but interesting. I guess my point is really, don't make huge sacrifices to send your kid to private school because you think it gets them in to a better college--it's not about that--it's about the experience they get while they are there. A top notch student will rise to the top at any decent high school...Send them to private school if you can afford it and if it is the experience you want for them.

[10 feet tall]

Originally Posted by AtlJan

LovelySummer, I know so many super bright kids who either don't apply to schools outside of the south because they don't want to go, or who apply out of curiosity, but when it comes down to it, they stay in the south because the tradition is so much a part of their upbringing--Georgia/Auburn/Ole Miss. For the boys it's often about business connections in their home town. I'm thinking of a friend's daughter who turned down Yale and went to Agnes Scott (close to home and family connection to the school). Plenty who go to UNC/UVA over Ivies. A young man I know in Mississippi who didn't apply anywhere north but turned down UVA to go to Ole Miss. Another from Atlanta with perfect math SAT who went to Vanderbilt and didn't apply to NE colleges. All of these from families where tuition would not be a hardship. . . Sewanee/Davidson/W&L get these students also. . .Sort of off point for the OP, but interesting. I guess my point is really, don't make huge sacrifices to send your kid to private school because you think it gets them in to a better college--it's not about that--it's about the experience they get while they are there. A top notch student will rise to the top at any decent high school...Send them to private school if you can afford it and if it is the experience you want for them.

This has been my experience as well. Tradition carries a lot of weight in the south.