Just wondering if anyone has any insight into how AOs compare kids from vastly different schools.
Just as an example, I have one child in a private school (the one that is applying to boarding school) and one in public school. The private school is definitely more investing in my child getting into boarding school as their matriculation results are looked at by prospective parents, whereas the public school is not invested at all and sees children that leave as a loss of income. My child in private school is in small classes and has the same teacher multiple years, so they can write very specific recommendations. My child in public school is one of 80-100 kids her teachers see each day and as our district starts high school in 8th grade, they will have only known her a few months and will be comparing her to other high school students rather than middle school students.
There are also differences in EC and community service opportunities. Our public middle school offers only 1 EC (a school play) and no opportunities for community service. I know kids can seek these opportunities out in other ways, but do AOs take that into account when comparing to children coming from schools with unlimited opportunities?
I’m not really asking because this affects me directly, but it’s something that’s crossed my mind while thinking about how my town’s public school students would stack up as applicants.
They dont really: I forget where but many BS post what % of their students come from private verses public. We applied out of public and found the same phenomenon: slight hostility from the school. On the other hand: a kid who is groomed and prepped by a private school has a lot of apples of the same variety–LOL Personally a strong candidate from a public school looks far more interesting and in our case I think it helped.
I understand the dilemma well. I have a public school kid applying to boarding school. Her teachers have 4-5 classes with 35 kids in each. How could they possibly know every child’s name, let alone write a thoughtful recommendation for any of them?
In our city, it is not unusual for private school kids to get SSAT prep and essay help from their schools in addition to counseling on choosing and getting admitted to a private high school.
I am SO grateful to the parents and kids here on College Confidential. I’ve gotten information on particular schools, advice on helping my kid conquer test anxiety, and so much more. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
One of the reasons interviewers talk to applicants about their current schools is to get a sense of this directly from the student as well. The AOS understand the context. And they also know that just as all private schools are not the same, nor are all public schools.
@CaliMex My kids all went to public middle schools with large classes. Despite seeing 100+ kids per day, their teachers knew them and were able to write recommendations (although, since I didn’t see the recommendations I can only assume they were fine as my kids were accepted into their top choice schools.)