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No, and it might be counterproductive. Your kid is generally better off near the top of the class at a decent high school, rather than the bottom of the class at an elite prep school. “[J]ust in case” the kid has potential is, IMHO, a terrible reason to send him to prep school. If the kid isn’t obviously not challenged by even the honours classes at your high school, send him; otherwise, do not think it’s a necessity (and it might even be counterproductive).</p>
<p>And even then it depends. My older son was not particularly challenged by our high school - but it allowed him lots of time to pursue his real interest in computer programming. The experience he had -, teaching himself from MIT open courseware, from being cited in an academic paper for a program he wrote to analyze proteins, to a notice from a gaming magazine for a top mod to a popular program, to a job where his work allowed his employer to make a critical deadline all made for a very nice set of accomplishments. He did that on top of graduating tops in his class, taking a full complement of APs and being part of winning Academic and Science Olympiad teams. He might well have seemed much more ordinary coming from a prep school - though he also might have ended up more well-rounded.</p>
<p>Imagine you have to move from one state to another. How would you all go about finding a good school for your children? Assume you have no friends or relatives in the state. Assume, further, that your child is in first or second grade, and thus not clearly a STEM kid, a humanities kid, a musician nor an athlete (yet). You want to find a house, move in, and remain there until the kid heads off to college. </p>
<p>What do you look for? Where do you look for it? Who would be a good resource?</p>
<p>I’m a private school student, but I don’t think its nesscary unless you think your kid will learn better in a private school with more foucsed attention. For me, moving from public to private was to get tailored indivualized learning; also I’ve honestly learned more critical thinking in private as at least my school doesn’t have AP courses. Class sizes are small, but some may succeed in bigger envorionments. </p>
<p>All tubes funnel down the same drain. Kids go to the same colleges, get the same degrees and work the same jobs. All Prep schools do is give them a solid foundation.</p>
<p>Honestly, very few people remember and are proud of where they went to HS. College, yes, but ask the average 70 year old about high school and they probably won’t remember much. </p>
<p>My dad and his two brothers and sister all went to a fancy boarding school in Switzerland. All of them went on to attend great universities and have successful careers. All of them had the means to send their kids on a similar experience (in the US, not just SZ) and all of them chose to send their kids to Public high schools in their district. </p>
<p>@Periwinkle - Yeah, it is hard to move. But that is how our work is. </p>
<p>Thanks all for the responses. So so good to read through. Thanks again !!</p>
<p>@Mandalorian I have to disagree that people don’t remember high school! It is a critical time in development and change! I am not 70 yet, but I definitely remember high school, and have both fond as well as cringeworthy memories. 
I also remember most of my teachers’ names. I am pretty sure these memories will still be with me in another 20 years.</p>
<p>How to locate good schools? I went to the local library and found that the high school had won a Blue Ribbon Award designation (National Award) a few years earlier. (I’m less impressed with the current criteria for winning this award.) There’s also a local magazine that does a roundup of the the local schools every year. There are various on-line sites that have some school statistics, and of course each school’s own website. (I can tell that our Science Olympiad team hasn’t done as well as it did when my kids were on it. :D) greatschools.org is also a good resource - test scores and parent comments.</p>
<p>As for high school, I remember it very well indeed. It’s where I learned to write, it’s where I was first taught art seriously. It was where my opinions were first taken seriously. Even though we have scattered to the winds I keep in touch with friends I made there. Like LBowie, I remember most of my teacher’s names. I even remember the name of the headmistress’s dog.</p>
<p>Mandalorian, I don’t know about that. My parents are both in their 50s and love their public high schools. Many, many fond memories. In fact, my dad was so proud of his that despite moving all around the country after high school, he made it a point to move back to this school district when I was in middle school so I could go to the same one </p>
<p>If I had the choice, I’d send my kids to my high school in a heartbeat… but that’s many years off. </p>
<p>My grandfather is pushing 80 and he remembers his high school days as well. Though he went to a private Catholic school and remembers all the ways he tried to avoid getting beaten by the rulers 
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<p>Totally disagree.</p>
<p>We have a member on CC who refers to his prestigious magnet school constantly. I didn’t attend a prestigious school, but I have many many memories of my high school years. I agree with above that these are very formative years.</p>
<p>You guys are the EXCEPTION not the rule. This website and the real world are far different places,</p>
<p>my very large, public high school actually offered better facilities, a wider variety of classes (including higher-level AP and IB classes), and a wider variety of sports and clubs than any of the private schools in my city hands down (including the elite ones). i guarantee if my parents had sent me to one of the private high schools in my city i wouldn’t have been able to take a fashion design class (literally learning how to design and make clothes), my sister wouldn’t have been part of a competition drum corps. or take AP music theory, i wouldn’t have had science lessons in a planetarium (our school also offered an astronomy class! i wish i would have taken it!), etc. etc. etc. i’m not saying this happens everywhere, but one should really be careful about sending kids to a private school with the notion that they may have better opportunities or that it makes them better. it’s all relative to what the public schools are like in your area.</p>
<p>with that being said, it’s definitely not necessary to send your kids to a prep school to increase their college admission chances. i have some very successful public high school classmates. i also have friends from the “elite” private schools in my area who ended up at state flagship u (not that that means anything, still a great school!). as others have said, it’s about the kid, not the school. and sending a kid to prep school for the sake of college admissions or spending the money on private school when your public school may actually offer a better educational experience is silly.</p>
<p>Gotta say I remember high school pretty well, too. </p>
<p>How to find a great school when you move? Greatschools, as mentioned. Google for National Merit Scholars and see where they go to school. It takes more time, but you can search the local paper or local magazines for lists of top schools. Now and then there is an article ranking local schools. When we moved a few years ago I went through these steps and then also emailed principals and PTA presidents. I was hoping to get a feel for the school’s culture. That step came once we were actually looking at houses. </p>
<p>If you are moving for a job, can you talk to other parents of same aged kids? If you belong to a church, you could talk to people at the new church. </p>
<p>You do the best you can. When we moved I took all these steps and was pushing for the top public district in town. My husband didn’t like any of the houses there, though, so I had to go with plan B. </p>
<p>My mother was on the Board of Trustees of the high school she attended. When she died, we had her memorial service there. I am about to go to my 40th high school reunion, and have been e-mailing back and forth with various people about it, which is how I reconnected with the friend who told me going to that school utterly changed his life. My public high school from which my kids graduated has a huge alumni organization that raises (sometimes) millions of dollars to backstop the funding shortfalls from the school district and do capital projects that would never happen otherwise.</p>
<p>So, yeah, people can care about high school, if they liked it and thought it was a good school.</p>
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<p>I don’t remember HS particularly fondly, but if you don’t remember HS at all, well, you might have graduated in the Seventies. </p>
<p>Well, very funny but not everyone who graduated in the seventies partook. Some of us just did not inhale. :)) </p>
<p>Pretty close to everyone who graduated from something in the seventies partook at some point or another. </p>
<p>In my first year of law school, in the late seventies, the Criminal Law professor asked for a show of hands for who had ever smoked marijuana. There was exactly one person, out of a class of 180, who did not raise his hand. We weren’t sure we believed him, and I sure as heck wouldn’t believe him if he made the same claim now. (Like William J. Clinton, this person was the product of a Jesuit education, so something may have turned on what the meaning of “inhale” is.) This was not a second-rate law school, by the way.</p>
<p>JHS- interestingly, I never smoked pot! I was somewhat of a WildChild ( apples, trees etc) but my crowd was all about alcohol. I never SAW drugs in HS ( suburban Phila)! Now that I have reconnected with so many high school classmates, I have learned that pot and other drugs were everywhere! I had no idea- way too busy with Ripple wine and Brandy Alexander’s!</p>
<p>Well yes, but we expect our kids to be the exception too. But more importantly, we want to send our kids to schools where they will have memorable experiences and make good friends. While there are few public schools that can match the tippy-top private schools, there are plenty that are good enough. My kids felt they got a lot out of their public school experiences, from knowing kids from K on, to really knowing kids from different economic and ethnic backgrounds.</p>
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<p>You are stating this as fact when it sounds like it is just your opinion. You haven’t said anything that is all that convincing that most people forget their high school years.</p>