<p>OP, I sent my Ds to an all girls private prep school (it is both a day school and boarding school, but we lived very near the school) for a variety of reasons. Positioning them to get into an elite college was not one of them.</p>
<p>My kids went to private prep schools and then boarding schools - and getting into an Ivy was not even a consideration in our choices. The one who was the biggest problem to raise and who got to switch schools a few times wound up at an a Ivy and the other is a happy Rice grad who had NO interest in any of the Ivy schools.</p>
<p>Op,
If your goal is to get you kids into an Ivy league college, this is what I would do. (I make no comment as to whether this is a good goal or not, I am merely answering the question asked).</p>
<p>Most private schools and many good public schools will have matriculation data available (which colleges their graduates are attending). They will also have info about the number of AP courses offered, # or % of student body who received NMSF, SAT scores (25%-75%) of their graduating classes etc. If you take the # of kids going to your school (s) of interest and divide by the graduating class size, then you could compare what the chances are of getting into, say an ivy, from that HS and compare among HSs. This matriculation data may be available on the HS school profile, or on the college counseling page of their website, or on their admissions page of their website.</p>
<p>This idea works if your kid is a super top student and you think that the kid would fall in the top of these very rigorous private schools, magnet schools, rigorous public schools.</p>
<p>However, this can work against you if your kid is not at the top. If your kid ends up being in the (gasp) bottom 50% of one of these top schools, then statistically your kid may get into a “higher ranked college” if kid had gone to more regular public school and was in the top 10%. </p>
<p>@YoHoYoHo - Thanks for the advice. Yes, the kid does very well at the local public school. </p>
<p>Find out if and how students are ranked at a public high school.</p>
<p>In our area, most of the top public schools, in addition to prep schools, no longer rank. A student who gets above a 1500 CR/M SAT and several 5’s on AP exams, and who has taken a rigorous schedule with only a few B’s, would not necessarily place in the top 10% at any of these schools, private OR public, were they to rank.</p>
<p>Our public high school saw an immediate jump in elite school admissions when they stopped ranking, although it was still arguably possible to figure out whether a given unranked student might have fallen into the top10% of the class or not.</p>
<p>Something else to consider - at many public schools, parents are often providing a good bit of enrichment and remedial tutoring to their students, at their own expense. Sometimes school funds are limited and participation in musical ensembles and on sports teams is limited to top performers. (Yup, some of us parents are looking to these venues as opportunities for our children to develop lifelong recreational skills rather than for college recruitment or resume enhancement…)</p>
<p>I know parents who have sent their students to private school even if the local public school enjoys a stellar reputation, because they did not want to have to worry about whether or how to get their students involved in EC activities, or did not want to have to navigate the logistics of finding tutors if necessary. Others have decided that it is much less expensive to go through the public schools and pay extra (whether for tutors or EC’s) as needed.</p>
<p>The intense and often brutal competition in ECs and academics at my very large and competitive public high school is definitely why many students who would have attended opted to go to private school. Competition to get involved in ECs was so intense that in most cases it felt like you had to mortgage part of your life to get a spot on the team or to get involved in an activity. Pretty much all of the sports teams cut a significant fraction of the students who tried out. They had no qualms with cutting freshman before they had even started high school and had an opportunity to show their skills and would also bump up the best underclassmen to the varsity teams so upperclassmen would get cut after playing for two years. </p>
<p>The cutthroat atmosphere extended beyond the sports into the classroom and academic and fine arts ECs as well. The orchestra seating auditions were an absolute nightmare as were the auditions for theater productions. They even cut kids from science olympiad and from leadership in positions in the social service club! I felt like the people in my high school had the belief that it didn’t matter how much potential you had or how hard you worked, if you couldn’t perform there isn’t a place for you. It was a pretty demoralizing experience at the time and it was very noticeable in every part of the school. Even though I ended up going to an Ivy league school, I thought my teachers didn’t think I was smart based on the way they treated me. A lot of them played favorites so this made me think that I would never be as good as many of the other top students.</p>
<p>Having gone to this type of high school was not a completely bad thing though. Even though I do not have fond memories of my high school and feel like I missed out on a lot of things because of it, the experience taught me that in life you need to be resilient if you want to succeed. Being cut from the team or made to feel bad about yourself is incredibly painful at the time, but if you are able to keep going, success just feels that much better.</p>
<p>I may not have felt appreciated in high school, but I learned to advocate for myself which largely contributed to my success later on. Now that I am graduating from college, I feel incredibly blessed to have found so many professors and mentors who have been incredibly supportive of me. It’s clear when I talk to them now that they are very proud of me and believe I have the potential to do great things. It’s a completely different feeling that I had when I graduated high school. I was able to build these relationships and have so much success in my research because I knew how to approach professors and show them what I had to offer. I knew how to work hard and thoughtfully and had the persistence to go on when things got tough.</p>
<p>I remember my orchestra conductor basically implying that some people in the orchestra were just great without trying and I could never be as good no matter how hard I tried. While it is true some people have incredible natural talent, I think this was a terrible and demeaning way to put it. In the end, talent can’t be developed without a ton of hard work and ingenuity, and I think this is what my high school did not emphasize at all. This is just their loss though. </p>
<p>I didn’t feel the need to send our kids to private school, but my 16-year-old daughter has a friend who will be attending Exeter next year as a junior. This girl has already burned through all of the math and Spanish curriculum at the high school. She’s also an excellent musician. Her parents were thinking about sending her to college early, but I’m glad they changed their minds. I’m a little sad for my daughter, though, because she won’t get to see her friend very often anymore.</p>
<p>Our (public) high school just fielded two science olympiad teams when too many joined. My son was on the B team freshman year - and they were the ones who did so well that they went on to states, that year and every year that cohort of freshman was around! One year they even had three teams. Nothing like a winning team to make being a nerd popular! One orchestra was open to everyone, the other was by audition.</p>
<p>It’ certainley isn’t required, but it’s a great option.What many consider the best prep/boarding/magnet schools ARE In the northeast, but you def. don’t have to go there. There are some really great ones in the south/ texas,too. People say it costs a lot, but most private schools,especially the best ones, offer SPECTACULAR Financil aid. For some,such as the Groton School and Phillip Exeter Academy, anyone with an income less than 75,000 will recieve FULL FINANCIAL AID.Yep,I mean free ride, no tuition-related costs, nada free ride. The kind you hear about at the Ivies :0 Lol Good luck FEELL FREE TO PM ME!!! I MYSELF AM APPLYING TO BOARDING SCHOOLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL, SO I’M PRETTY EDUCATED ABOUT THE TOPIC!!! 
Good luck!</p>
<p>And contrary to what this thread has said, most of these schols aren’t filled with complete rich snobs! There are of cousre exceptions but they def. aren’t the norm. These schools are also VERY Diverse. Idk what you say, they have ALOT Of international students and many soc.</p>
<p>“Forgive my ignorance here. Yeah, I get that a large % of the kids at these elite prep schools are on FA. But they had to have had highly involved parents in the first place in order to even have an elite prep school on their radar screens as something to aspire to and seek out. The idea of sending a kid to a boarding school just isn’t on the radar screen for probably 98% of families in this country. It’s a little hard for me to swallow that these schools are all that “diverse” from a socioeconomic standpoint. Not that they need to be - they can structure their classes as they see fit, and don’t need to answer to anyone.”</p>
<p>Actually, Many of the non-white students were most likely informed by their middle schools.There are a number of charter schools, such as KIPP Schools, that advertise the many high school options, and boarding schools one of them.They just want their students to go to good high schools, and News Flash: Boarding schools ARE Good schools.Of cousre their are soc, such as myself, who seek this out by themselves, the middle school is most likely a huge part of it, no doubt.With recommendations and such, it’s happining.</p>
<p>And wheter you can swallow it or not, it’s true. As an example with charter schools again,KIPP Sends a lot of its students to Deerfield Academy. Keep in mind, KIPP Schools serves some of the poorest neighborhoods with a mainly minority student body. In general, prep school kids aren’t completely loaded. I’m gonna attend boarding school for certain, the best, when I apply( not to sound braggy, just hopeful! :D), andmy fam. makes 40,000-50,000 per year. This is for a family of 7 people.This country is changing, and our boarding schools R doing so too.Rollllllll with it B)</p>
<p>I’ll just chime in on the diversity and generosity of many of the well-known NE boarding schools. For the 2013-2014 school year, Choate awarded $10.5 million in aid to 273 of its 850 students who come from 40 countries and 40 states with 33% reporting as students of color. Thought not need-blind, Choate offers funding in the form of grants (not loans) to meet 100% of a family’s demonstrated need for each accepted student who requires aid. The average award is $38,000.</p>
<p>Another “not required” example: I went to a reasonably good standard large public high school in a small untrendy city, was accepted everywhere I applied including Ivy. Daughter went to same (now probably even more average) public high school, was accepted at Harvard. Her close friend was accepted at Yale. And I remain very fond of my big public high school, staying in touch with former teachers and my principal, and my many classmates who now live all over the world, who have been successful in a wide variety of ways. If your local schools aren’t safe, go private. If your kid is distracted from academics by non-academic friends, go private. But going to a normal public high school is great preparation for understanding and flourishing in American society, and there are plenty of good teachers and academic challenges for any kid who is motivated to look for them. And it really isn’t going to matter for college admissions.</p>
<p>I don’t doubt that Choate and similar schools are generous w FA. I just think that the whole idea of a BS is basically completely unknown to the majority of diamonds-in-the-rough low income kids who could most profit from it. (Ditto, of course, for most elite schools. Your poor kid in the 'hood doesn’t have Harvard on his radar screen either, even though he could go there for essentially nothing if accepted.)</p>
<p>When I think about prep schools with high need students, I now think about how naturally materialistic some kids ( many?) are. To go to school everyday with friends who have live in household help, and may have a summer house in France, while your family struggles to keep their cars running, is difficult no matter how stellar the classroom experience.
They can grow resentful that they didnt have the same life as their classmates, maybe not for ten years, but they will be thinking about it all along.
Public schools, even in tony suburbs have more of a socioeconomic mix, including magnet schools.</p>
<p>@pizza, FYI</p>
<p>Prep for Prep
</p>
<p>Here is a list of prep schools that Prep for Prep has placed its students into-- schools that rich WASP parents would gladly sell their soul to Satan to get their kids into…
<a href=“http://www.prepforprep.org/podium/default.aspx?t=126418”>http://www.prepforprep.org/podium/default.aspx?t=126418</a></p>
<p>First, so as not to completely hijack this thread, the answer to the OP is that it is definitely not required to send your child to any type of prep/magnet/charter school for great college admissions results.</p>
<p>emeraldkity4: How the kids live at home is not very evident in the tiny dorm rooms they inhabit (no, none of them are furnished extravagantly; if you have throw rug on top of the carpet, you have a “nice” room) or even in the way most of them dress. Lots of kids who like to wear brand names are very savvy about how to dress that way for less, but most of the kids either don’t care or pay no attention. Cars aren’t allowed on campus, so no drama there. Our son is a junior and has no idea who’s on FA and who isn’t and is always surprised when he finds out (from someone else) that one of his friends family is wealthy. Kids just don’t talk about these things. Is there general knowledge that some families are wealthier than others? Sure. Are kids resentful? Not that our son is aware of. They all get along just fine, and he’s been surprised at how non-cliquey the school is. He has friends from every quarter and though we are not considered wealthy by BS standards, our kiddo says it just isn’t an issue. For anyone. The level of wealth at home just isn’t apparent and doesn’t seem to be important on campus. Once on campus, it’s almost impossible to tell the kids apart. Everyone has the necessary electronics (if you’re on FA, the school supplies them free or at the cost that the family can afford), everyone is able to participate in all school activities and trips (again, FA will make sure that each student is fully able to participate in the life of the school), and Choate even has a “Beyond the Classroom” fund available for things like the varsity jacket that an athlete might not be able to afford. These schools work hard to ensure that no student feels left out due to family finances and they do it in such a way that no student needs to feel embarrassed because no one knows who’s receiving aid.</p>
<p>People who are resentful of wealth will resent it no matter where or when they find it: boarding school, college, the workplace, etc. Attending a boarding school is not where this resentment is bred.</p>
<p>@2014ProfDad, do your D and her friend have legacy status at Harvard or Yale?</p>
<p>Choatiemom, as I hoped was more evident, I am speaking of students at preparatory day schools, like Lakeside.
Although I do have one that attended a private college where many of the students did not have any need, and many were equally clueless that people lived on much less than their own family.</p>