Also because athletes’ parents must pay their parent portion, no matter how talented their child is, I suspect some athletes attend other schools for the full ride scholarship based on their parents refusal to pony up 10, 20, 30 or 40 thousand dollars or more.
Just to clarify, attendance at a private school doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t need financial aid. My son attends a private HS and the only way we can swing that is we receive financial aid. His school is very generous and a majority of the student body receives financial aid. On the other hand the public schools in our area have very wealthy student bodies and much in the way of opportunities.
It probably depends largely where you are located…
The genesis of my thinking is that recruitment for athletics, apart from legacies, is probably the oldest “hook” of them all and it seems that the rationale for this has changed over time. I dont think that any of these schools cared a whit about diversity of the student body when athletes were welcomed with open arms in the 20s and 30s. Im just wondering if this is some sort of “fossil” that exists because it has always existed or if the school has periodically reexamined the process and the underlying reasoning. I assume that this happened when the Ivy League instated the no scholarship rule but I do not know that for a fact. As I have said, repeatedly, my own child had a non athletic “hook” and while he was in the median band of scores and grades there is no way on Gods green earth that he would be at Yale without that talent, I mean I love him and he is thriving at Yale but facts are facts. But yes, I know a few athletes who knew they were going to Yale, and Brown, and Penn…all of them for a couple of years before they graduated, I even know of two who were asked to retake their (perfectly good) SATs in order to get higher scores to raise the team average and that process seems like such a different one than the regular admissions process, I think we live in one of those recruitment catchments that Memmsmon is referring to. Anyway thank all of you for responding. Im honestly still not convinced that the whole thing isnt, ultimately, about money but evidently Im not smart enough to figure out how that works.
Totally agree @tonymom. My D got financial aid for 13 years in private school and gets some aid now at Yale. We are far from considered needy. Yale has very generous financial aid.
That’s actually one of the reasons that we sent our kids to private school. Our town is mostly white and affluent; the private school by contrast is 25% students of color, and with a significant spread in socio-economic background. The private school gives very generously to families who need it, and my kids got to go to school with many kids they would never have met locally. We feel that it amplified their learning.
@IxnayBob
Our HS is very similar. We are in shadows of Silicon Valley and many of the public schools look and act like prep schools.
At my son’s school well over half of the school gets FA and there is a very diverse student population. Many kids are also given full Scholarships to attend. In many ways it’s the only avenue for many struggling families to get their kids to college.
I’m sure there are plenty of private schools that do not do well in this regard (son’s is Catholic) and that’s too bad.
I remember reading somewhere that over half of Yale students hail from public schools but I could be wrong. It would be interesting to know the breakdown.
Our son attended a magnet high school in the St. Louis City school system. We live outside the city, in St. Louis County. ‘Metro High School’ in St. Louis is not for everybody, but… the city of New Haven has the same look-and-feel as the neighborhood where his school was located.
Freshmen Class Statistics (Fall 2013)
55% of matriculants attended public high schools
45% of matriculants attended independent, parochial, and other schools
http://oir.yale.edu/sites/default/files/Yale-College-By-the-Numbers.pdf
Freshmen Class Statistics (Fall 2014)
57% of matriculants attended public high schools
43% of martriculants attended independent, parochial, and other schools
http://oir.yale.edu/sites/default/files/Yale-College-By-the-Numbers%202014-15_1.pdf
@musicmerit
Thanks! Very helpful.
ETA: those are 2013 stats
At the public k-8 where I taught a few years ago we had a swell of affluent parents enroll their children after the economic downturn of 2008-2009. Seems our school was acceptable once disposable income was more difficult to come by…(insert snark)
Son received the “fat envelope” from admissions yesterday and alas they have replaced the previously hotly debated swag Yale sticker with a small Yale pennant! So no anguishing internal strife over whether to sticker or not to sticker…
@tonymom You will get a sticker too- the pennant just comes in the welcome letter. My daughter put hers up on the wall of the guidance office with the other pennants.
In my daughters suite there are 2 that were public and 4 that were private. One was boarding. It seems that her social groups are about the same percentages. Most of the private are highly exclusive private and several kids went to school together. Schools like Horace Mann in NYC. (she has several friends that graduated from there)
Here where we are located the only parents that send their kids to a private school are those that feel its a better education for their kids than the public one. The public school is fantastic so those in the private system are put in the category of those that feel they are better than the rest. The sad part of this is that my daughter is friends with some of the kids that went to the closest private school (which btw is a Catholic school and 40 min away) and nobody from their senior class was accepted to any of the Ivy schools and this year in our public school have two attending Yale. I can understand however if the public option is just not a good one or if there were faith based reasons for wanting a private education. .
We have a distant relative in town here that sent their youngest off to boarding school because they thought he would get better exposure for sports and a better education. They were convinced it was better than our local HS. It was a horrible heartbreak for his mom to send him off. But when he got there (and not on a scholarship) the coach that was supposed to be his big ticket left, their daughter dropped out of college so they lost that double student financial aid and now he isn’t going anywhere more impressive than he would have if he stayed local. I can’t help but wonder how much regret she feels now that all that money that could have been put towards a college education was wasted on HS. Or all that time lost with her kid that can never be recovered. Our kids had always been compared against each other while they were growing up and I can’t imagine how much it bothers her that we did just find with our regional HS.
I think the part that has been the most interesting for me as a mom so far are the questions regarding how prepared she was for Yale. It is so odd that all of these parents are past the part of being impressed and now looking for her to struggle because she came from a public school. I can’t tell if they are waiting for her to fail or if they are genuinely convinced she was not given the tools needed to succeed. She was straight up a regular student at our public school. She did not attend the magnet program or any of the specialized program schools that Connecticut offers. She was just a normal student. Even adults on our local board of education as these questions. It is so odd.
@Memmsmom First of all I went to boarding school and my son went to a NYC area private school. My younger son is in public school. The local public high school is great and sends A LOT of kids to Ivies. All of those decisions, where I went and where my children went, had nothing to do with feeling that we were better than anyone else (although I will say that several people took it that way). It had to do with what was the best fit for everyone, I wont go into details. Now having said all of that, there just simply is not a question in my mind that my son who went to private school is better prepared for college and its not close. That is not to put down my son who is in public school, or anyone else. Im sure that my younger son will thrive in college. But he will not be going to Yale, or any other Ivy, for that matter (well maybe a couple). I think for me the biggest difference in the public/ private schools is college placement. Im really amazed at how my older sons school “packaged” him, how the metrics set for particular schools was defined and met through guidance. But the fact that over 50% of Yale freshmen come from private schools should tell you a lot- that many more legacy children go to private schools than average and that these schools are much more of a known quantity to admissions The decision of where to send my children to high school had absolutely nothing with where I expected them to go to college, zero. It had to do with where I felt that they could learn the best. Im certainly happy for my son that he is at Yale but Im more happy that he is a well rounded, well educated human being as a freshman in college. I think that I will be able to say the same about my second son. There are many paths to enlightenment.
@Memmsmom
That’s unfortunate that some adults are waiting for your student to fail. There’s enough pressure on these kids today without adding that kind of negative crap 
Our decision to send our son to an all boys, Catholic HS had to do with our faith and what the school provided in terms of a service philosophy. There is a big emphasis on giving back to the community. The diversity in terms of race and socio-economic was also a strong consideration as my son had attended a very diverse public k-8 school.
Interestingly his HS has not sent many to Ivys. Rather, most attend a UC or a Catholic university. I can count on one hand those who attended or are attending Ivys.
So in some sense my kiddo is stepping out into a new world. He’s excited and understanbly nervous. My initial worry was culture shock as he’s a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy and my stereotyped impression of the Ivys is one of the preppy elite. That impression has been eased by the multitude of family stories I’ve encountered here as well as stepping foot in the campus and seeing, first hand, the fine collection of everyday youth.
I’m sure there will still be an adjustment but I feel his HS has prepared him well intellectually…
But we may have to convince him a nice blazer is necessary…
But do you feel he is well rounded due to your efforts in parenting or do you feel it is a direct result in his private education? I guess my point to the earlier post is that when you live in an area that is offering a very competitive education and nobody in the town is exceptionally wealthy, the choice to send a child to a private school is one that seems pretentious because aside from religious reasons, there is really nothing more that they offer in the end. I am obviously not talking about some of the very competitive private schools. That is a whole other animal.
I do know that this family member was absolutely convinced that their child was going to be at a better university (if not a professional sports team) because of the boarding school. It was part of their decision/discussion process. The mom was against it thinking it was a waste of money and the dad felt it was essential to his future.
If I were to ask my daughter how prepared she felt for Yale and how she rates compared to her privately educated friends, she would say they are all about the same. We have had this conversation before. The only difference so far has been opportunities to travel with school and some of the classes they were offered. They had high school classes that seem comparable to the UCONN classes she took in her school. Yale doesn’t take the credits from any of them so in the end they were all equal. She seems to appreciate all of her new friends and their various backgrounds. Whatever difference it made to begin with, in the end doesn’t seem to be affecting her while attending Yale.
@tonymom I am certain that jeans and a tee shirt are perfectly fine. I actually see few of the preppy type while visiting campus. He may have to invest in a few sweat shirts however because pretty much all of the kids I see on campus have that over their tee shirt.
I would love to attribute the fact (and it is an unbiased fact:)) that I have two exceptional children as the product of exceptional parenting. And in all seriousness, I understand our point, but in terms of college preparation, I give my sons (admittedly super competitive) high school much of the credit. For instance, I know kids who are at ivies who took four years of a language and placed into beginning whatever their freshman year. My son almost placed out of his language and he wasnt that good at languages (he has elected to start a new, harder IMO. language at Yale-kids). Im sure it doesnt make a difference at Yale, or in life, in the long run. In the short term, he has been able to hit the ground running in college and the work itself doesnt seem particularly daunting to him. And while I know that we are talking in gross generalizations, that has not been the general experience of children I know who come to similar environments from public school.
I’d like to think my son will be well prepared but he isn’t atYale yet so that has yet to be seen. I BELIEVE he is well prepared and of course that has everything to do with a combination of parenting, his HS experience, his family and, probably most critical, his personality. He has always been very analytical and naturally curious and I again BELIEVE that is a trait that will serve him well at Yale.
One thing I can say is that his HS has a zero tolerance policy for certain behaviors (drinking, drugs, fighting etc) and the students sign a contract. If behaviors become a problem a student is OUT and they know that.
I work at a public middle school and I know that there is a very high threahold for inappropriate behavior (maybe for good reason) there are many levels of interventions some of which work, many sadly don’t. From the point of view as an educator is helps with classroom management knowing there is a line that cannot be trespassed. The kids at my son’s HS understand that, some of the students at my school know there are many levels and work that. It becomes a distraction and takes time away from the students who are there to learn.
Again this is my personal experience and is probably not the case generally speaking but I am ever grateful that my son’s HS creates an environment where young men are expected to act like gentlemen.
And @memmeom we already have the prized Yale sweatshirt that gets worn crudy or clean EVERYWHERE…:-0