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I never understood Ivy league undergrad.....why not go to UNC/NCSU undergrad at a discount then go to Ivy league master program (in the North, a UNC diploma is worth as much as some of the Ivy league schools)?
Ivy League schools are mostly a "prestige" thing for Northeasterners with money or from "blue blood" families. Generally people who grow up in NC rarely even think about them. As you say, this state has numerous good schools comparable at much lower costs.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Originally Posted by Francois
Ivy League schools are mostly a "prestige" thing for Northeasterners with money or from "blue blood" families. Generally people who grow up in NC rarely even think about them. As you say, this state has numerous good schools comparable at much lower costs.
Ivy League schools are hardly a prestige things for only Northeasterners. Seriously? They are always ranked at the very top of all US colleges in the US. I am sure PLENTY of people who grow up in NC think about them. And while there are three excellent schools in NC (Duke, Wake Forest, and UNC), only UNC would be considered to have a much lower cost than Ivys since the other two are private and very expensive. And I say this as someone who went to a large, public university, not an Ivy, so no bias there.
As a parent of two kids who go to DA, I can vouch for it. My older child moved in the middle of high school and has thrived academically and socially. We were happy with his experience and chose to move our younger one there after 5th grade at the local elementary school. The teachers are nurturing and challenge the kids appropriately. I don't know much about Ravenscroft. We had considered both Cary Academy and DA and went with DA. Cary Academy was very snooty and uppity(just dealing with the admissions office). I am sure both are good schools. DA just felt like a better fit for our kids. I did not apply to Ravenscroft for my kids. DA has more of an academic atmosphere as majority of the kids are kids of faculty from UNC and Duke, who seem to value education more than football or a 5 star campus.
I am going to start by saying that I generally prefer public schools. I have a M.Ed. and I am very committed to the idea (however lofty and idealistic) that all kids deserve a great education.
My twins are 3 and we have them at the Friends School here. My SO went to private schools his whole life. With the exception of his undergrad, but he is just all about private school. I did a combination of private and public schooling. I almost went to a boarding high school in the Northeast.
I can't comment on some of the schools mentioned here as we didn't even give them a thought. We're a gay couple, so we never considered any overtly Christian school. Anything that my kids learn about God will be from us. But I totally appreciate that some people want their kids to have a Christian education.
We did tour Ravenscroft and DA. I think other than the facilities, DA has nothing negative. I can't say anything negative about Ravenscroft either. Every school we looked at met our needs academically - I mean, they're in pre-K, I am not concerned with them getting into Ivy League/Elite schools. I liked the atmosphere of their school and that was a huge reason we decided to send them there. I want them to progress at their own pace. I can't say that my kids will always be at Friends. Since we've gotten in the groove, I find that a lot of the kids they have play dates with go to DA so we might revisit schools later on down the line. And, I will also give them the option of going public at some point as well.
Thank you
I did look at Cary Academy and Thales. Cary Academy does seem like a wonderful school but it is exclusively upper school. No lower school or middle school.
We also looked at Thales. Wow. That is a very different school. Shockingly different. Not at all of interest to us. I think most people considering Ravenscroft, Durham Academy, Cary Academy, or even St. Timothy's, St. David's, The raleigh School or Duke School would not consider Thales. They are just VERY, VERY different. I'm sure the school is appealing to many but not right for our kids who are very creative and outside the box thinkers.
You must not have looked too deeply at Thales or you would have reached a completely different conclusion. I guess you arent as "outside of the box" as your children are.
Most of the Thales kids I kow of are quite creative and the school faculty puts a high stress on citical thinking.
We were just notified by Durham Academy that we are on a wait list. Our children meet their criteria, but there is not enough space for them. Does anyone have experience with this? Should we be hopeful or look at other options? I really appreciate any feedback.
as an alternative to fretting about getting the opportunity to spend a fortune you could spend the additional $40,000 or less a year on a house in a great school district and get the same or better education, particularly in high school
if you want prestige you could buy "inside the beltline" and shoot for Lacy, Martin or Daniels and Broughton. I would say these are equivilent to Ravenscroft in status with many parents being doctors, lawyers and NC St. professors
if you want as good an education for half the home cost buy in Apex and be among regular working professionals from RTP
we been through the process from start to near college graduation, including being denied at the local Catholic middle school, and I see no benefit for the cost. in fact I'd say in highschool it's hard for the private schools to keep up with the top flight of public school students
if you're dead set against public schools with no consideration period I'll be happy to delete the comment
i kind of agree. what is the real cost/benefit to paying 20K for 1 year of high school? 80K for a high school education seems a little unwise, but people seem to be doing it. Whats the draw?? if the students are basically getting into the same colleges are WCPSS it doesnt seem worth it.
i kind of agree. what is the real cost/benefit to paying 20K for 1 year of high school? 80K for a high school education seems a little unwise, but people seem to be doing it. Whats the draw?? if the students are basically getting into the same colleges are WCPSS it doesnt seem worth it.
I think it benefits kids who maybe aren't in the top 10%-20% or so, but I'm not even sure of that. for the brightest kids I think there are actually less offerings and less competiton, but below that level the additional teacher attention may be a benefit. Apex sends a lot of kids to every state school though so kids at all levels get opportunites. Appalachian St. is a big favorite and Apex sends about 50-60 kids a year there. Same colors and same A.
also more opportunity to play sports for an average athlete since Wake highschools are pretty competitive for sports
my kids are in college and from everything I can gather they're as if not better prepared. I'm amazed at what they do
OP -- some of the negative comments posted here may be coming from people who cannot afford to send their kids to private school, and who therefore belittle the benefits, or from those who would simply rather spend any extra money on their own toys rather than on their kids' educations all the while bloviating about this and that. Further complicating matters, the typical RTP "professional" now has basically the same job security as a waitress, not to mention stagnant wages. In other words, parental finances are down. OTOH, the public schools really are acceptably good in Wake County for the most part.
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