<p>Does anyone know how Punahou compares to HADES? or other like day academies? Also, how hard is it to get in? I know it’s a day school, so one will be living in Honolulu, otherwise it’s quite a commute. But we may have a chance to move to Honolulu and I was wondering if we are better off leaving one child in BS on the east coast, if he would have a better chance matriculating to a top 10 or ivy or take them with us. Also, for child #2 does the school compare with other top day schools in the East (Hopkins, Winsor? Nobles?) better or worse?</p>
<p>Finally where do the kids matriculate to? I looked up Obama’s resume. He matriculated to Occidential College (in the top 25 USNWR?) yes, no?, then he transferred to Columbia. How do those kids fare on average? Can anyone with real experience or in the know weigh in?</p>
<p>my mother went from Punahou to princeton and was in obama’s graduating class.
she said the school was very big, bigger than A/E i think but I’m not positive. She took all APs in her junior and senior year so i can’t speak to difficulty of the school, but she tells me it was rather hard and that it prepped her for P’town. the one thing i remember about punahou is that they have the best and most ridiculous school chant ever.</p>
<p>Punahou is difficult to get in unless you are applying into Kindergarten and grades 4, 6, 7 and 9.
[Punahou:</a> Admission](<a href=“http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=1530]Punahou:”>http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=1530)
Which grade would you apply into? My kids went to Punahou every summer for eight years and they were excellent - one of the best summer programs in the country. My S even took Algebra and Physics for credit and went straight into AP Physics at Hotchkiss. My D only took non-academic courses there except for Chinese language and she is graduating from Andover.
The only difference I saw was that at Punahou, the school was not as open to having my 13 year old son take Physics as he was too young/not a Junior or Senior. After pleading, the school allowed it because he was not a student of Punahou. This is quite typical of day schools in my personal experience except for Hopkins in Connecticut. At schools like Andover and Hotchkiss, age and grades does not matter if you want to be challenged. They were more flexible. At any rate, my S who took credit courses at both schools thought the quality was about similar. He learned what he needed to learn.</p>
<p>If you want to hear about my experience with Punahou admissions, please visit my blog at [For</a> Parents of Kindergarteners: Applying to Punahou](<a href=“http://punahoupuns.blogspot.com%5DFor”>http://punahoupuns.blogspot.com). It is aimed at parents of Kindergartners. Or visit [Punahou</a> School: Admission Process For Kindergarten](<a href=“http://punahouadmission.blogspot.com%5DPunahou”>http://punahouadmission.blogspot.com). I find their application process stressful and arduous. It was hard on my son. Punahou has some of the best facilities, but it is extremely difficult to get into. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Given your own assessment of your kindergardner,
This was doomed from the start, if for no other reason than this private school (and especially the parents of the other kids there) do not want the distraction to the education and well-being of their own children that would come with educating your child. What you might think would be “fair” to your child (this famous school should be willing to educate my smart but autistic kid) would be grossly unfair to all of his classmates who would have to deal with the burden. We often see this among parents of handicapped children, who think the world has to stop for their kid and the impact on the rest of society (diversion of significant resources, teachers, time, money, effort, etc.) is irrelevant. Public schools have no choice but to deal with the entitlement psychology that you brought to Punahou; as a private school, Punahou could reject it without any blowback. Parents send their kids to Punahou explicitly to avoid “mild aspergers” or “mild autism” kids that they would otherwise have foisted on them in public schools.</p>