// this has been a notice from Flame Detection Bot Services Corp. Responses to this Bot are not monitored

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4600214&forum_id=2#40730357)

Move

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4600214&forum_id=2#40729332)

IME the difference was not quite night-and-day, but it was quite significant. for one thing, classes are just physically smaller and the teachers are decidedly more 'student focused.' there wasn't one monolithic model of teacher at my prep school--some were known for being 'nice' while others had reputations as hard asses--but they all felt invested and focused on individual student experience in a way that (most) teachers at public school just weren't, even many of the good ones.

part of this is just the physical reality of having class sizes that average 8-15 students, versus 20-30 for public schools, even in 'honors' or AP courses. this means not only that there is less 'noise' impeding the path of the classroom message to 'get through' but also that teachers get to know students on an individual level, and could provide individual curricular attention based on personal knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses.

in reading/writing/arts & humanities type subjects teachers identified me as being towards the top of the 'advanced' classes and were curating SCHOLARLY level books in philosophy and history for me to read in full outside of class to pursue my interests, whereas they might only be mentioned or summarized second hand in our textbooks. in math and science where I'd always considered myself less 'gifted' naturally I had a couple of teachers take me aside and say they could tell I was smart enough to excel in those courses too, and either work with me individually to learn to 'see' the material in a way that worked with my more left-brained thinking or, perhaps more importantly, got in my face and challenged me to challenge myself and apply myself in studying material that wasn't naturally easy for me, rather than accepting B+s as 'good enough.'

at least one of those pedagogies seemed to get through, because by senior year I was getting top grades in my schools 'advanced' STEM courses, and had 5's in AP Physics, Chemistry, and BC Calc, when college was said and done I had a double major, half of which was in a 'hard' STEM field that certainly didn't come 'easy' to me by the time I hit upper division classes, but where I maintained top 3rdish overall grades in my program. I firmly believe that if I'd stayed at my 'top' public school through HS none of those things would have come true--I'd have been slotted in for advising as a kid who was good at humanities type stuff and 'pretty good to okay' at STEM stuff, which I would have gone on to not study at all in college beyond the 2 semesters of introductory lab science necessary for distribution requirements, where I would have gotten B or B+ grades and called it a day (my college would also almost certainly have been a non-ivy outside the top 20).

*a note on my 'elite' 1337 HS experience and possible advise for OP if he's read this far:

I'm not going to explicitly out it, but many people on here know where I went to HS. I think it's fair to label it as 'elite' by any reasonable metric. no, it is not on par with Exeter or Andover or Groton in terms of raw or per capita HYP matriculations, so if 200 year old northeastern boarding schools are the beginning and end of 'elite' high schools, then I guess mine missed the cut. but I think that's like saying that HYP are the *only* prestigious colleges and short of that you're better off taking a 'scholly' some place like Utah StaTTTe and grinding out a 3.85 in accounting in some alleged 'business college' -- a fun bombast to toss around on xo but reflecting a poor understanding of the real world.

my school is widely regarded as either the #1 or #2 private school in a very large state, has a ~17% acceptance rate for 9th grade matriculants (clearly not just admitting kids for the income stream) and according to its most recent data sheet, had a median SAT of 1520 (780M/740V) for the most recent class (considerably higher than the average I remember of around 1430 but idk if that's a one yr aberration or just reflects how much crazier the admissions game has become) and sent ~40 out of ~85 grads to USNWR top 15-20ish ugs.

I think those numbers are objectively high across the national set of private HS's and I've not heard of any schools outside the northeast corridor Andover et al. type schools that's better. also keep in mind that sent another 20 of the remaining kids to UT, and while the numbers aren't broken out if they're anything like my class a significant number of those UT admits are actually in Plan II or Business Honors, where admissions competitiveness tends to be on par w lower ivies. looks like ~12 of ~85 went to HYPMSC schools. that's slightly lower than what I think I remember, but I'd guess stacks up favorably against anything other than maybe the Exeter/Stuy tier private/publics.

while I obviously had a good experience and am arguing that in some sense private school can often be 'worth it,' I think it's worth noting that the quality of students at my HS was objectively pretty high and I have no idea what the comparison is like for near-elite NYC day schools. also, the cost of my HS in 2020 dollars is a full 40% less than the $50,000 OP is quoting for his kid in NYC, which seems ... steep for tuition only/no R&B at a private school. my hunch is that the thing about smaller class sizes and more chance for individualized attention that helps your kid excel or up his game in an area otherwise written off as weak will still be there versus public school. what that's truly 'worth' economically, and where/whether/when it really makes sense to start putting that kind of investment into a kids education in terms of pre-HS grades, I imagine those are definitely important considerations, but I don't consider myself to be in a position to say anything intelligent about those factors.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4600214&forum_id=2#40730800)

https://www.berkeleycarroll.org/admissions/tuition

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4600214&forum_id=2#40731244)

are you serious?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4600214&forum_id=2#40731412)

If not, she should probably take a seat.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4600214&forum_id=2#40731533)