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When we talked to both CA and Wellington, I think the racial diversity was about 15% kids of color at each, which really isn't that different from our local suburban school district.
I was much more concerned about the lack of economic diversity at the private schools AND the way that "scholarship kids" were handled at one of the private schools. I saw a scholarship sponsorship letter from one of the schools that listed the race and neighborhood of one of the scholarship recipients in a letter (I can't remember if it was a solicitation letter or a thank you for supporting the scholarship) which made this kid completely identifiable to his/her classmates. The person who received the letter told me they used to even include the scholarship students' photos. The person who shared this information with me let me know that the school was "very concerned" about the difficulty retaining kids of color (even with those with scholarships) and I can understand why that might be a problem if you are advertising their economic status to their classmates' families. (We didn't need a scholarhip, btw, but this information really turned me against the school in question and left a bad taste in my mouth. I had heard things about the elitist culture of this school, so it was just one more strike against it for us.)
When we talked to both CA and Wellington, I think the racial diversity was about 15% kids of color at each, which really isn't that different from our local suburban school district.
I was much more concerned about the lack of economic diversity at the private schools AND the way that "scholarship kids" were handled at one of the private schools. I saw a scholarship sponsorship letter from one of the schools that listed the race and neighborhood of one of the scholarship recipients in a letter (I can't remember if it was a solicitation letter or a thank you for supporting the scholarship) which made this kid completely identifiable to his/her classmates. The person who received the letter told me they used to even include the scholarship students' photos. The person who shared this information with me let me know that the school was "very concerned" about the difficulty retaining kids of color (even with those with scholarships) and I can understand why that might be a problem if you are advertising their economic status to their classmates' families. (We didn't need a scholarhip, btw, but this information really turned me against the school in question and left a bad taste in my mouth. I had heard things about the elitist culture of this school, so it was just one more strike against it for us.)
Yeah. 15% makes 85% White. I'm trying to guess what suburb you live in, but I think I might be off by saying you are in one of the Olentangy school zones? Not Powell, but more toward Lewis Center. Anyway, yeah.. I don't know why, but economic diversity is something that almost doesn't exist in private schools, and when you do have a "scholarship student" in the system, s/he's not always treated like the other ones. I don't fully understand why I like schools with economic diversity because even D-C HS has a little bit of economic diversity, but no elitist culture. Maybe bragging rights, but definitely not elitist. Economic diversity should be slim/not present, or in the median income at ($106,000+) so you at least have an upper middle class and a few wealthy, not just all one socioeconomic status. The divide definitely shouldn't be extremely huge. Then again, what kind of individuals send their kids to a private school in Columbus? That's a question I want answered.
I guess the reputation of Wellington is that it doesn't really have one. Whenever former students say they went there or teachers say they teach there, no one seems to have heard of it much, and assume that they're talking about being from the village of Wellington about 100 miles away.
I guess the reputation of Wellington is that it doesn't really have one. Whenever former students say they went there or teachers say they teach there, no one seems to have heard of it much, and assume that they're talking about being from the village of Wellington about 100 miles away.
Yeah, and this goes back to what I have been saying constantly through this thread. Columbus doesn't have the private school culture.
You're not giving me enough information to work with. Where are you going to live in Columbus? Where are you coming from? Well anyway, I checked both of the schools for you very thoroughly and the private school system has never ceased to disappoint me. Just so you know, you're look to pay roughly $20,000/year for some of the worst curricula I have ever seen. You would be better off sending your kids to Dublin City, Hilliard City, Westerville City, or New Albany, depending on where you live. All of those are public schools, and I don't think anyone from Columbus on here is going to promote and speak up for private schools because Columbus isn't New York City. Affluent Suburban public schools in Columbus are much better than inner-city Columbus schools, and private schools in the Columbus area. All of the listed schools have the option of PSEOP, which allows your students to take any courses from Otterbein and Ohio State for college credits. No exam is required to be taken in order to earn the credit, and many of the credits are transferable to wherever your child might go in the future. This option is not available with the listed private schools. The International Baccalaureate (IB) program is offered at Westerville and Dublin. This world-class curriculum is accepted from universities around the world, and not offered at the listed private schools, which by the way, can give you up to 17 credits after two years of going through the IBDP. Also, I don't think either of those private schools put much emphasis on earning college credits. You would be paying $20,000 every year for high school classes that colleges probably won't accept. The Columbus academy is in Gahanna, which is a terrible place in terms of traffic and living in general. They have a Horizon academy over there on Morse Road, which is a charter school for poor areas. Not to mention how many weirdos you see over there. I heard over there that they are looking for someone who keeps randomly streaking for no apparent reason, and there are quite a few people over there who hold up signs for money. You could kind-of compare Gahanna/Blacklick to Ferguson. The eastern side of Columbus, disregarding New Albany, is sort-of a weird place in general. You're getting the idea of what kind of place it is, and that's exactly where the Columbus academy is. the Wellington School is in inner-city Columbus, and inner-city Columbus doesn't have a good reputation with their education. The Columbus City School District (CCSD) is always under scandals, and not too many years ago, they had a kid slit another kid's throat. The Wellington School is in the CCSD, and again, you're going to deal with the inner-city traffic. Again I don't know where you are from! If you're from New York City, then I can understand why you don't think too highly of public schools. If you have money, private schools are the way to go in that city. Columbus is much smaller, and in my opinion, a lot better than New York City in terms of living standards. In Columbus, and any smaller city (like Indianapolis) in general, you need to learn how the structure of education works. You have inner-city schools, which are normally bad all around. Then, you've got the rural schools if you're living outside of Columbus and those schools offer nothing but don't include the violence and such of inner-city schools. After that we have the suburban schools which thrive because of the community (the parents of Dublin are active in the school system, trust me), and because of how Ohio collects funding for education through higher property taxes from some of the higher-priced suburban homes. Anyway, you have smaller city schools all around Ohio which are just slightly better than rural and inner-city schools in terms of community involvement and what they can offer. Lastly, you have the private schools, and there are two types of private schools in Ohio. You have amish private schools and the ones you brought up. Private schooling isn't a big thing in Ohio. If you want a local opinion, I would say don't waste your $20,000 every year on something you're going to end up regretting, and put that money away for their college fund and send them to Dublin-Coffman High School, or someplace similar.
WTF? You may want to lay off the eggnog. Horizon Academy is in north central Columbus. It's closer to Upper Arlington than Gahanna. As for Columbus Academy, it sits on over two hundred acres of preserve off of scenic Cherry Bottom Rd. surrounded by homes valued north of $400k. I occasionally ride my bike that way when crisscrossing the various bike trails in the metro area and have never witnessed anything of the sort that you describe.
WTF? You may want to lay off the eggnog. Horizon Academy is in north central Columbus. It's closer to Upper Arlington than Gahanna. As for Columbus Academy, it sits on over two hundred acres of preserve off of scenic Cherry Bottom Rd. surrounded by homes valued north of $400k. I occasionally ride my bike that way when crisscrossing the various bike trails in the metro area and have never witnessed anything of the sort that you describe.
I disagree. I would say it's about the same distance. Gahanna and UA are parallel. Even if it's not in either place, it's still close enough that you have all of that inner-city attitude leaking into the UA and Gahanna suburbs, unlike the northwestern part of Columbus, and Morse Road, are you kidding me? Maybe that's because you're on bike trails? You need to go through some of the major roads during the heat of the summer, and see what kind of things are over there. I read the streaking things on the news. The police are still looking for him, and this was just before I went to California, so it would have been less than a month ago. I'm still not supporting private schools, or that vicinity in general.
I disagree. I would say it's about the same distance. Gahanna and UA are parallel. Even if it's not in either place, it's still close enough that you have all of that inner-city attitude leaking into the UA and Gahanna suburbs, unlike the northwestern part of Columbus, and Morse Road, are you kidding me? Maybe that's because you're on bike trails? You need to go through some of the major roads during the heat of the summer, and see what kind of things are over there. I read the streaking things on the news. The police are still looking for him, and this was just before I went to California, so it would have been less than a month ago. I'm still not supporting private schools, or that vicinity in general.
Congratulations - I suspect you may be the first person to link Upper Arlington and inner-city attitude. Now, if you had described Upper Arlington using such adjectives as preppy, elitist, old-money and sheltered, then you would probably hold the view that 99.9% of people in metro Columbus have of UA. The area around Columbus Academy is perfectly fine, as is Gahanna. Typical middle-class suburbia.
As for your views of private schools, that's fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for some people, private schools make sense. They might like the smaller size, rules, religious teachings, etc. Despite your insistence that private schools aren't big in Columbus, I can think of at least a dozen off the top of my head - Academy, CSG, Wellington, St. Charles, Bishop Watterson, St. Francis DeSales, Bishop Ready, Bishop Hartley, Village Academy, Harvest Prep, Worthington Christian, Grove City Christian and I'm sure there are several more. So clearly, there is a market for them.
Congratulations - I suspect you may be the first person to link Upper Arlington and inner-city attitude. Now, if you had described Upper Arlington using such adjectives as preppy, elitist, old-money and sheltered, then you would probably hold the view that 99.9% of people in metro Columbus have of UA. The area around Columbus Academy is perfectly fine, as is Gahanna. Typical middle-class suburbia.
As for your views of private schools, that's fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for some people, private schools make sense. They might like the smaller size, rules, religious teachings, etc. Despite your insistence that private schools aren't big in Columbus, I can think of at least a dozen off the top of my head - Academy, CSG, Wellington, St. Charles, Bishop Watterson, St. Francis DeSales, Bishop Ready, Bishop Hartley, Village Academy, Harvest Prep, Worthington Christian, Grove City Christian and I'm sure there are several more. So clearly, there is a market for them.
Maybe that's because I'm the 0.01% who actually knows how a city like Columbus works, and I'm not trying to compare it to New York City like some people. Also, Gahanna may be middle class, but middle class doesn't cut it when you're living in a larger city, maybe if you were living in Delaware, it would be alright. Ever been through Mount Vernon?
Alright, now let's analyze down the second part of your post. As for smaller class sizes, that's why places like Dublin and Hilliard have three high schools. Rules? Elaborate. I don't see how their rules are different. Religious teachings are very old school, not that I don't believe in a religion, but forcing a religion on someone is 18th century, and we live in the 21st century, but it makes sense. Private schools are old school, and so are their beliefs. Wow, it's equatable. Plus, over half of those private schools you mentioned on your post retain an average tuition of $5,000. You could easily manage that, even if you were middle class without any financial aid, although I don't know of many who would do that. Usually it's the lower middle class who have the dump-all-your-money-away-and-go-in-debt type of attitude when it comes to education. It's still a waste of money. 12 years, and you could have $60,000 saved up. Enough for 4 years at a modest college that doesn't charge a lot of tuition, but still... In the older days, I read that Harvard used to be $136, I think?
When we talked to both CA and Wellington, I think the racial diversity was about 15% kids of color at each, which really isn't that different from our local suburban school district.
I was much more concerned about the lack of economic diversity at the private schools AND the way that "scholarship kids" were handled at one of the private schools. I saw a scholarship sponsorship letter from one of the schools that listed the race and neighborhood of one of the scholarship recipients in a letter (I can't remember if it was a solicitation letter or a thank you for supporting the scholarship) which made this kid completely identifiable to his/her classmates. The person who received the letter told me they used to even include the scholarship students' photos. The person who shared this information with me let me know that the school was "very concerned" about the difficulty retaining kids of color (even with those with scholarships) and I can understand why that might be a problem if you are advertising their economic status to their classmates' families. (We didn't need a scholarhip, btw, but this information really turned me against the school in question and left a bad taste in my mouth. I had heard things about the elitist culture of this school, so it was just one more strike against it for us.)
Supergrrl7 - if you would be willing to share the name of the school you are referring to please send me a PM. And how long ago that was. That is exactly the sort of information I am looking for that will help us make a decision. Things like that really tell you a lot about the culture of the school.
Supergrrl7 - if you would be willing to share the name of the school you are referring to please send me a PM. And how long ago that was. That is exactly the sort of information I am looking for that will help us make a decision. Things like that really tell you a lot about the culture of the school.
Wait, are you telling her to keep it a secret from the community? Why would she want to do that? If schools are doing things like that, then they deserve to be shamed for acting like snobs. If a school does something that's wrong, then it needs to be discussed. Schools (especially) the administration, love it when you keep things a secret. Don't be afraid. Tell us everything about it. By the way, situations like the one being mentioned by super girl could easily be avoided by the affluent suburban public school system.
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