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Is it worth leaving private school for public school to get into a good college?
pault289
38 replies19 threads Junior Member
I am highly considering leaving my private school because I feel that public school students have a higher chance because they have more opportunities, and more kids, so it's easier to be top 10% whereas in private school there's only 50 kids in my grade meaning top 10% would be top 5... I want to get into a good college. (Stanford, UCLA, USC, Berkley). I'm willing to make changes but is it worth transferring? Do my chances increase exponentially if I were to be in a public school?
P.S. The reasons that are holding me back are friends, and that I've attended private school my whole life so I'm not used to classes with over 500+ kids in the grade. I'm also nervous to make the change, because I've never attended one, and I don't know what to expect.
8 replies P.S. The reasons that are holding me back are friends, and that I've attended private school my whole life so I'm not used to classes with over 500+ kids in the grade. I'm also nervous to make the change, because I've never attended one, and I don't know what to expect.
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Replies to: Is it worth leaving private school for public school to get into a good college?
For the reasons that you stated, just stay in private school.
The schools you mentioned will not that you only have 50 kids in your grade, they will note how many opportunities that were available to you.
If you take advantage of what's given to you, then it's fine.
Your chances are not great coming from either a private nor a public school. Think hard about the fact that only around a third or so of the accepted students at HYPS are coming from public schools and you may begin to understand that these selective schools are looking for great students, from wherever.
These selective colleges understand the differences between the school profiles. They know that GPA and therefore rank in some private schools is not really at all comparable to high schools with a very different demographic population. They understand that at a private high school, almost all of the students are motivated and by definition have a more supportive family environment where education is valued. At a public high school, there tend to be more students who struggle with many more types of family issues (not just poverty).
But these schools also know that students in large public high schools tend to have more choices - more kids means they are more likely to offer multiple AP courses, and usually there are more EC options.
These colleges also understand the vast differences between suburban, affluent high schools compares with inner-city high schools. They know that a very high graduation rate means that the students in the middle of the pack are generally well-prepared. Similarly, a school with a low graduation rate means many of the students in the middle may not be prepared to handle the academic challenges of a selective college.
For this reason, I'm betting that your private school does a lot better on placement at the more selective schools than even an affluent public high school.
There are good reasons to transfer to a public school from a private one, but this isn't one of them.