The Winsor school vs. Milton vs. Andover? (Harvard: renting, lawyers)

[courtbas]

How would you compare these three schools in terms of academic and college placements? Thanks.

[smarty]

Never been able to compare independent schools. They never publish how many kids get accepted where. They only list the schools that the kids are accepted. Same kid can be accepted to 2 different schools.

Btw... if you can donate a wing/big building, you kid is "in" regardless of grades! Even the Admission deans admit there are a number of applications do not go through the admission office.

[courtbas]

Anyone can comment on this? Thanks!

[Parsec]

I had a friend who went to Andover and got rejected from MIT, so he went to his Georgia Tech as his safety. He planned on transferring to MIT after getting straight A's at GT, but he thought he was so smart he didn't study. He ended up flunking out of GT and never finished college. I guess it just goes to show it doesn't matter if you go to private or public school. The most important thing about your child's education is parental interaction. Sending your kid to a prestigious private school is not going to make up for being an absentee parent.

Since we're on the topic of private schools, grades and SAT scores don't matter as much as legacy does for college placement. The college placement of other kids in the upper echelon of private schools (such as the ones you mentioned) doesn't mean anything for your own child's placement. Their college acceptance has already been guaranteed before they even started high school.

[LovelyBoston]

Originally Posted by Parsec

I had a friend who went to Andover and got rejected from MIT, so he went to his Georgia Tech as his safety. He planned on transferring to MIT after getting straight A's at GT, but he thought he was so smart he didn't study. He ended up flunking out of GT and never finished college. I guess it just goes to show it doesn't matter if you go to private or public school. The most important thing about your child's education is parental interaction. Sending your kid to a prestigious private school is not going to make up for being an absentee parent.

Since we're on the topic of private schools, grades and SAT scores don't matter as much as legacy does for college placement. The college placement of other kids in the upper echelon of private schools (such as the ones you mentioned) doesn't mean anything for your own child's placement. Their college acceptance has already been guaranteed before they even started high school.

I disagree with a whole bunch of this. :-) Well, some of it. Parenting is a huge, absolutely -- parents who are absent, or, just as bad, parents who teach their kids to feel entitled, will raise children who don't have a good work ethic and who don't do well in college.

BUT: the school does matter. The academics at a private school are by far more rigorous because, frankly, they are "allowed" to be. Public school teachers have their hands tied in terms of how rigorous they can make their class because they are teaching to the whole spectrum of ability -- and they cannot leave the kids at the bottom half of ability behind. Teachers have to teach to the middle, basically, and that means the kids at the top are often bored (even with extra work teachers will give them). Plus, and this is even worse, challenging teachers get the most complaints from parents. A disturbing percentage of parents in a community get upset when a teacher assigns a research paper, for example. Parental complaints mean pressure to stop from the administration. My teacher husband knows this first hand.

In private schools the atmosphere is very different. One of my friends teaches at one of the prestigious northeastern prep schools. That school lets -- and expects -- its classes to be hard. And anyway, being in a class with 12 other kids is far better than being in a class with 30 kids. So you can get a better education in a private school. Not to bash public schools -- my kids go to public school, I went to public school -- but the difference is real.

Doesn't make up for bad parenting, of course. But if the parenting is good, a private school is going to prepare a child better for a rigorous college than a public school generally will. Of *course* there are exceptions, but by and large, with good parenting, the more rigorous the school the better the education and the more prepared for college and for life the child will be.

As for which have better college placements, it's six of one half dozen of the other. As Parsec said, those stats can be fairly meaningless. One, because at that level, many of the kids will get into good colleges, and so the differences are minimal, and two, because no school can guarantee admission to college. Depends on your family's attitude and your child's work ethic.

[Parsec]

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply there's no difference between private vs. public w/everything else being equal. I just meant to say the college placements of those schools shouldn't be the reason for courtbas choosing one school over the other.

[ocean18]

Hello,
I am a winsor and harvard graduate and know for a fact that winsor has better college placement to the best universities and colleges than milton and andover. In the country, winsor ranks 2nd in excellent college admissions. Apparently, 1/3 of Winsor's graduation class each year attends an Ivy League, and that stat. does not even include equally prestigious small colleges.

However, your school is not everything. Even at winsor, one must be a stand out student and active member of her community to get into a top college. The work at Winsor is extremely hard and the atmosphere is often stressful. But it is an excellent school and has amazing teachers and opportunities.

hope this helps.

[smarty]

Umm... I wonder if all schools should go back to single sex. This will reduce distractions. Don't have to worry about making out with all of the classmates (like Milton did).

Btw... what do you think is the median age of kids loosing virginity in Winsor vs Milton vs Andover?

In any case, if your parents can donate a wing (or a big building)... you're in...

[septimus]

Winsor has an amazing college placement... something like 1/2 the class goes on to Ivies. Its placement is similar to Roxbury Latin. Andover and Milton both have good placement too, but they are much larger schools with boarding populations. Also Milton has had some problems in the press in the recent past with sex scandals and such.

[howsitgoingdude3]

Wow, what the hell does buying a building have to do with which of these schools is better? I'll agree with your point. I mean John F. Kennedy Jr. was probably the dumbest student to attend Andover, but was accepted without any merit to Harvard and eventually ended up attending Brown or as I like to call it school for stupid TFB's, but I digress. Anyway having had family and friends, which attended all three schools including Roxbury Latin I would have to say, that the schools are all top notch in preparing children for the next level. They all have an extremely strong focus on the basics and allowing students to gain solid fundamentals in writing, math and the arts while also allowing them to pursue creative individual endeavors. These schools do an excellent job of preparing all students attending the school regardless of their parent’s net worth and their social standing. It is almost like comparing the 1980 Lakers to the 1980 Celtics and then comparing them to the 1990 Bulls. All of the schools have their strong points, but they are really more comparable than they are different. Also while on the topic the majority of families that send there kids there are not filthy rich! Yes, there are some billionaires kids at these schools, but that is not the majority. Most of the kids are typical upper middle class kids the sons and daughters of doctors, lawyers, corporate executives, and etc, so most of their parents cannot pay to buy a building at a school as the bulk of the students parents are not worth more than 100 million. I mean stop trying to lower their academic achievements based on the fact that some of them are extremely well off. Not all well to do kids are complete idiots like the Kennedy kids!