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Gumboula, thanks for the book recommendation. However, I think boarding schools are very different. It's not something that would be right for our family.
As far as being asked to contribute to endowment funds, we would probably need a little bit of financial aid to enroll. Does anyone have any idea if families on financial aid throughout the private schools in metro Atlanta are still asked to contribute?
magny13, you mentioned in an earlier post that you're "middle class". I could be mistaken, but I think schools like Westminster are, in practice, out of reach for the true middle class. I assume that a sizable majority of students are from families that have the means to pay the tuition (and contribute to the endowment and provide the extras such as European trips). The schools also generously admit some students on financial aid, but I think that aid tends to be directed to deserving students from truly poor families.
If you live in a nice suburban home, have decent cars, take vacation trips to the Florida theme parks, provide your kids with dance and music lessons outside of the school, and the like, but couldn't cover the tuition at an elite private school - well, you probably need to be making sure you reside in a good public school district. Maybe with enough determination you could find your child a subsidized place in an elite private school, but that can't be by any means easy to do.
Good points Rainy! I plan to go through the financial aid process and see for what we qualify. I know they give out a range of awards (anything from $1500 to almost the whole $20K tuition). That means not all of the families on financial aid are poor. It's a common misconception. Some are actually paying more than 17K out of pocket. That being said, I know they probably are less generous toward a Kindergarten student who has no track record showing she will be an asset to the school.
I'm less inclined to uproot our lives and stretch our mortgage dollars to move to a "good" public school district. I'm scared to discover we don't like it and then be stuck there. Thank goodness for the Catholic school option. We know we can afford that without any aid so it's a good back-up.
1.) Gifted and advanced programs differ greatly from school district to school district. We live in Fulton County, which has both a gifted program (called TAG) and then Advanced/Accelerated programs for Math and Language Arts at the elementary school. (Don't have kids in middle/high school yet, so don't know as much about what happens there.)
For TAG, the kids are pulled out one day a week and study interdisciplinary units. For Advanced/Accelerated programs, kids are grouped with kids of like abilities and have different work. We have children in both of these programs, and are very, very impressed. One of my kids is an entire grade level ahead, and her curriculum/textbooks reflect that.
2.) You are not necessarily spending more money to live in the best school districts here. I can think of several top school districts in the suburbs where $250K buys you a nice 4-bedroom home. (You'll spend some more in-town.) But Atlanta is not like other big US cities where living in an area with top public schools means you automatically spend $700K on a home. I don't know your budget, or where in the area you are looking to live. But I'm assuming that if you're considering private school here, you might have more options than you think.
One thing to think about is making sure you have enough socked away for private college tuition, if that's what your child is interested in. I have friends who spent a small fortune sending their daughter to one of the elite private K-12 schools, only to have her wind up at UGA because they didn't have enough money to send her to the Ivy that she was accepted to. Cost of attendance (COA) at private universities is steep. This year COA at Emory is $53 K per year. Other top private universities are around this much or even more.
^If an elite private college is the goal, aim for the Ivy League level schools and they usually have large enough endowments to pay tuition for middle class students (under 100k income). Unfortunately for my parents, my alma mater implemented this a year after my younger brother graduated (3 yrs after me). While we were there, they did provide between 10-20k/yr in scholarships for each of us since my parents had semi-retired and their income was fairly low. I graduated w/ 15k in student loan debt while my younger brother finished w/ 20k. Not too bad given ~40k/yr cost. Honestly if they get into a private school outside of the top ~20 and have to take on more than 50% as debt, UGA/GT will do just fine.
To be honest, I think school districts rankings are overblown. If you raise your children to have high levels of intellectual curiosity and solid family support (seems to be the case given you're that focused on finding the best schools), they will do well so long as there are even relatively mediocre teachers. As long as they are in a safe environment, they can do just fine. My parents moved us to the Shiloh district (from the similarly bad Central Gwinnett), in the early '90's when it was a far better district than it is today. By the time we all got into HS, the area was in a steady decline w/ teacher/admin changes and falling test scores. We made do by pushing the school to allow independent study when they didn't offer the AP course or to bypass courses if AP's were taught simultaneously. Even though my parents kept my older brother out of Emory(finaid wasn't there so cost/benefit was really bad), he did just fine at GT -> GSU MBA and onto a bulge bracket bank. The worst outcome for my parents has probably been their complete lack of home value appreciation in the Snellville area but given they haven't had a mortgage in 15 yrs, I think they're ok w/ it.
Private schools get great results b/c they generally cherry pick the best students/most involved parents. Parents spending 5 figures for grade school tuition tend to either be on their kids or have the means to pay for someone to be watching their kids. Private schools like to take far more credit than they're due. I would find the best school district you can afford w/o sacrificing tens of thousands of dollars w/ the hope they'll improve the chances the kid will go to a top college. Invest time in the PTA, teacher relationships, and engaging your children in intellectual pursuits and they'll do fine.
One thing to think about is making sure you have enough socked away for private college tuition, if that's what your child is interested in. I have friends who spent a small fortune sending their daughter to one of the elite private K-12 schools, only to have her wind up at UGA because they didn't have enough money to send her to the Ivy that she was accepted to.
I've never operated in the educational stratosphere, but I would think UGA (especially the Honors Program if you can get in) could hold its own with any place other perhaps the most elite Ivys.
Regarding the money, things may have changed at the Ivys but in my day they said the most talented students would always be able to attend, regardless of finances.
Arjay is right. I'm not too worried about college because the most talented students are able to attend good colleges without worrying about finances. Those colleges want the best students and are able and willing to make it financially worthwhile for them.
I think the public has been sold a bill of goods about saving for college. The way the system stands now, I believe you're much better off putting your money into making sure your child is in a position to be wanted by a good college.
Arjay is right. I'm not too worried about college because the most talented students are able to attend good colleges without worrying about finances. Those colleges want the best students and are able and willing to make it financially worthwhile for them.
I think the public has been sold a bill of goods about saving for college. The way the system stands now, I believe you're much better off putting your money into making sure your child is in a position to be wanted by a good college.
I have a child in 11th grade (public) and I bought into the "bill of goods" i.e. the conventional wisdom, which says that college savings are more important than sending a child to private for K-12. It's probably true that "the most talented students are able to attend good colleges without worrying about finances. Those colleges want the best students and are able and willing to make it financially worthwhile for them." However, that's a very small group of students, isn't it? My daughter's SAT scores are around the 97th percentile and she's an excellent student, in the top 2% of her class at a large, very competitive suburban high school, but frankly, I don't see her going to an Ivy. White suburban girls with her kind of grades are a dime a dozen as far as Harvard et al. are concerned, and she hasn't done anything spectacular in her spare time, like founding a major charity, being a star athlete, etc.
I don't mean to sound grumpy about this. As a new American, I didn't grow up in the culture of Ivy League aspirations, so I'm more concerned about the quality of the university than its cachet (although of course these are related). My daughter is interested in Georgia Tech and I think that's a super choice for many reasons, and I suspect Tech will will offer her a place.
magny13, in an earlier post on this thread you wrote of your child, "I'm thinking of a more intimate less competitive setting for the early years when how good of a student she is really is a question mark." So evidently your child is fairly young, and your comment is wise and objective. That being the case, though, does it make sense to bank on her turning out to be such a great student that you don't need to save for her college education? A 529 plan just might be a better investment than private school tuition.
My daughter's SAT scores are around the 97th percentile and she's an excellent student, in the top 2% of her class at a large, very competitive suburban high school, but frankly, I don't see her going to an Ivy. White suburban girls with her kind of grades are a dime a dozen as far as Harvard et al. are concerned, and she hasn't done anything spectacular in her spare time, like founding a major charity, being a star athlete, etc.
True, although that would still be the case if you'd saved up a few hundred thousand dollars for college.
Why not consider sending your daughter to Honors at UGA? It's hard to find a cooler college town. Very safe, beautiful, walkable, and with a great music and arts scene. Far enough away for them to have a true college experience but still close enough to the big city if you want to visit or they want to come home.
And it sounds like she'd qualify for the Honors Program. The Honors Program is like a unique, super high quality college within a college, with only 2350 students. Classes are very small and taught by senior faculty members. Stats are pretty impressive, too:
Honors Program Students 2350
2010–2011 First-Year Class 525
Average First-Year High School GPA 4.06
Average First-Year SAT 1471*
Middle-Range SAT 1440 – 1490
Foundation Fellows (FF) 73
Average First-Year High School GPA 4.2
Average First-Year SAT 1553*
Ramsey Scholars (RS) 35
Average First-Year High School GPA 4.23
Average First-Year SAT 1551*
Plus, with all that money you'll save on tuition, you can give them a trip to wherever they want to go, maybe a new car or a down payment on a home. That's what I've told my younguns and grandchildren.
I have a child in 11th grade (public) and I bought into the "bill of goods" i.e. the conventional wisdom, which says that college savings are more important than sending a child to private for K-12. It's probably true that "the most talented students are able to attend good colleges without worrying about finances. Those colleges want the best students and are able and willing to make it financially worthwhile for them."
Rainy, I think it's a good thing you bought into the bill of goods. No one knows the long-term future of the HOPE scholarship here. No one really knows how much financial aid the government will hand out in the future.
I think it's better to be safe than sorry.
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