<p>Not sure if this is true but my friend who goes to public school keeps telling me that generally, parochial school students are usually not accepted to those big name colleges. I do not know the reasons but I’ve researched a little bit and I’ve seen statistics that say that only 5% of their class comes from a parochial school while 35% comes from private and say 45% comes from public school. Is this something I should be afraid of? I want to go to ivy league schools but now I’m a little bit nervous.</p>
<p>In my large metropolitan area, parochial schools are well represented for admits to my HYP alma mater. I think it’s more the individual than an entire class of HS education system.</p>
<p>How many Catholic schools are there overall compared to public and private schools? This doesn’t surprise me at all.</p>
<p>[Annual</a> Data Report - National Catholic Educational Association](<a href=“http://www.ncea.org/news/annualdatareport.asp]Annual”>http://www.ncea.org/news/annualdatareport.asp) says that there were 138,943 12th graders in Catholic schools in the US in 2011-2012, who presumably (mostly) graduated this spring. This is only about 4.3% of the approximately 3,200,000 who graduated high school this spring in the US, according to
[Facts</a> for Features — Back to School: 2011-2012 - Facts for Features & Special Editions - Newsroom - U.S. Census Bureau](<a href=“http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb11-ff15.html]Facts”>Facts for Features — Back to School: 2011-2012 - Facts for Features & Special Editions - Newsroom - U.S. Census Bureau) .</p>
<p>Note that [CAPE</a> | Private School Facts](<a href=“Home - Council for American Private Education”>Home - Council for American Private Education) says that, as of 2009-2010, Catholic K-12 schools enrolled about 42.8% of private K-12 school students; most other private K-12 schools students are at other religious schools, with only 13.6% at non-sectarian schools.</p>
<p>So correct me if I’m wrong but your using this data to tell me that because so little kids attend catholic schools, that is why there is a low percentage? Odd it seems I see Catholic schools everywhere. Anyways, call me crazy but I don’t know if I should transfer to a private school. Friend tells me that it’ll help increase college chances because of reputation but I’ve seen tons of info that reputation affects admissions a bit.</p>
<p>In the Philadelphia area, Catholic schools provide the best education in the area. Plus, the schools in the archdiocese are well respected, including my school. In fact, most of the kids at my school end up going to Penn State, UDel, Rutgers, and other big name colleges in the Northeast</p>
<p>What you see everywhere is a personal observation. You have to use the actual numbers. Also just saying “Catholic schools” is really a generality. There are some catholic high schools that are are every bit as competitive regarding elite school admissions as the top prep schools in the country, and then there are some that have a large number of non college prep students. In my area there are examples of both. No, I would not expect elite school admissions from ABC Catholic school and its profile is not anywhere nearly as college prep as my public high school. Not all the students there go to college. Most of the kids at my public high school do, as they tend to ship out the ones that are not so inclined to alternative schools. But only few miles away are two Catholic Preps with a 100% rate with a very small margin of error in terms of going to college and about 10% of the class do go on to higly selective schools from what I’ve seen in the listings. Go 10 miles further and th e % not only increases, but the selectivity of the colleges that those not in the top 10 or even 25% are better than those in the public school. Go 10 miles more, and you have a school where admissions to the most highly selective colleges is a hallmark. All catholic schools and I’m skipping a number of them. Getting accepted to Our Lady of Sorrows is a whole other story from getting accepted to Cistercian or Regis or Archmere just to name a few. </p>
<p>The generality has often been made about private schools as a whole. There are a number of reasons for a private school to exist and only a few of them what they call themselves “the independent schools” that generally have about 25% of the kids going to top colleges. And going to such a school does not necessarily mean you increase your personal chances of acceptance to a highly selective school. The grades are often unweighted at these schools and there are many kids who are very strongly flagged for elite school admissions. Legacy, development, celebrity and connections are all things you don’t get going ther, but you do meet classmates in those situations. How it’s going to help YOU get into those schools, I don’t know. I don’t think so. In fact, my son transferred with a solid B average from such a school half way through, went to a much more run of a mill school where he was at the top of the class and ended up with better choices than his peers at his old school which did cause some rancor because the comparison was pretty clear in that case. </p>
<p>The problem with picking a school to enhance ones chances for certain college chances is that until you look back at the high school experience, which is then too late, you can’t say what would have been a better choice. A student who is one of the first in his class at Andover or Exeter, is one that would probably have had his Harvard chance boosted over a mediorcre high school where he would have likely equally excelled but may not have had the school support that those prep schools could provide. Most likely got a better education too. But someone who is B student at the prepschools who would likely have been one of the top kids, in fact perhaps his lifetime academic rival before he transferred is the val, ummm, I don’t know. There are some bad feelings each year about this very situation. No one can say exactly what would have happened had the other path been taken, but one can often guess with certian comparisons in place.</p>