Fort Wayne - School comparison (lawyers, homes, school rankings)

[alwayspositive]

Excuse me for taking up a slightly touchy subject of school rankings/comparison etc. I have been looking into greatschools.net and trying to determine which schools are the best at Elementary/Middle and High School levels. I know everybody will say that Canterbury is good at all levels but the real question is it really that far ahead of Homestead Middle & High School? I see on Canterbury's website (canterburyschool.org/) that a lot of their grads are going to Ivy League and comparable Universities, which I believe is the only means available to determine if the school is good or not. Can Homestead or any other Public School in Fort Wayne claim that kind of record and if yes then which?

Of course people always say that what matters is what you do with kids at home but how about you do at home and the school also does at school and then does it stack up as a home run? Basically is the investment in Canterbury really worth it in terms that do the kids at Canterbury have an edge when it comes to top university admissions, and maybe also overall personality development? What really are the results from the top Public Schools in Fort Wayne?

[hulagirlfw]

What did you decide - and what resources did you use for your research? I am asking the same question and my daughter starts Kindergarten next year

[domergurl]

isn't caterbury a private school while homestead is public?

[belovenow]

I looked into the same thing this past summer for my Kindergartner. Fort Wayne's Canterbury is a great private school but the price for the lower school is absolutely outrageous. $14k for a Kindergartner (when all the fees are tallied up) is out of this world stupid in my opinion unless that sum of money is really no object for you and your family annually.

Now regarding High School - I can only tell you that the reality is that you won't see more than perhaps 1-3 Seniors from Homestead (if that) go on to an Ivy League college/university from any graduating class. By comparison, you can see from Canturbury's marketing materials a significant percentage of each graduating class go on to Ivy League or 1st tier college programs. That said, what you don't know is how many of those children were accepted to those schools because they were legacy children (their parents went to Harvard or Yale, etc, so they gain acceptance pretty easily as the children of former graduates).

Lastly, Homestead High School is a great school and parents need to realize that. A lot of very successful/wealthy Fort Wayne-based Doctors/Lawyers/Business Owners actually graduated from there. Many of my friends are included in that group, and none of them would ever say anything bad about Homestead. In fact I've a friend who is among the wealthiest in Fort Wayne, and guess where he sent his two children? Yeap, even with money being no object, he and his wife felt that Homestead High School was an awesome educational value.

My advice for anyone comparing schools is to understand that sites like GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community are useful tools, but that is it. The best thing you can do is to actually tour the schools and ask a lot of relevant questions to the admin.

[wh15395]

No, Homestead can not even touch Canterbury in academics, and if your child takes all of the accelerated classes at Homestead, they will still get into a good college. But even the high level classes at Homestead are not as good as the regular classes at Canterbury.