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Old 04-18-2016, 10:00 AM
 
Location: My House
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TinkaMcKirk View Post
That would suck. They say that financial aid requests do not have any impact on acceptance decisions.
I absolutely agree. But, I do wonder how they manage if they know they can only afford to accommodate X number of kids who require financial aid that the school has to provide (and not just loans).
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Old 04-18-2016, 10:53 AM
 
Location: Cary, NC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RedZin View Post
I absolutely agree. But, I do wonder how they manage if they know they can only afford to accommodate X number of kids who require financial aid that the school has to provide (and not just loans).
They may be need-blind admissions, but financial aid awards are probably not admissions-blind. So if once they make admissions decisions for a given year, if the overall need is greater than their aid budget, they'll likely prioritize and some will be awarded less than they need or none at all.
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Old 04-18-2016, 10:56 AM
 
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I would save the money and send my child to one of the local public high schools.
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Old 04-18-2016, 11:08 AM
 
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Originally Posted by rnarasi View Post
Thank you all so much for the information.

We bought a house based on the school assignment - GHHS but were also interested in a non-religious private school - hence Cary Academy. It looks like both schools have a good learning environment with one being a lot larger than the other. To us academic acheivement is important but we also want a happy well rounded child who loves the school. IT seems like we won' t be making a mistake with either school.

We have 2 more questions and appreciate all the responses:
1. College prep - is there a good % of kids going to the ivies or top universities at GHHS, do many of these colleges/universities come to GHHS
2. The average SAT scores at GHHS is 1900 and CA is 2040 but the averages mean nothing - does anyone have any information on the median range at both these schools.

Yes, students of local top tier high schools go to top universities, including Ivys, Stanford, etc. There are differences between sending your child to the school that will prepare them the best (or at least well enough) for college vs. doing what you need to do to enable your child to have the best chance to be accepted to a local top tier public university (UNC, NCSU, etc). There are many thousands of students at West Cary high schools who fit into the academic "over-achiever" category - due to culture, socio-economics, home environment, etc. So while the academic environment can be rigorous, it is more difficult to differentiate oneself from others when at one of these schools (GHHS, Panther Creek, Apex, + many other Wake county ones I didn't list, CHHS, ECHS, etc.) compared to a smaller school in a less populated area.
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Old 04-18-2016, 12:08 PM
 
Location: My House
34,937 posts, read 36,086,369 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SFspiderman View Post
They may be need-blind admissions, but financial aid awards are probably not admissions-blind. So if once they make admissions decisions for a given year, if the overall need is greater than their aid budget, they'll likely prioritize and some will be awarded less than they need or none at all.
That's a good point. Which makes me wonder if maybe once they get down to zero on aid for a family whose financials clearly demonstrate that the school is out of reach without the aid, do they just turn the kids down?

I say this because they make you give them SO much info to apply there. I have never seen a school ask for so much personal information. It's part of the reason we decided we had no interest in sending our daughter and since she wasn't eager to go, that cinched us not going through that wringer.
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Old 04-19-2016, 03:28 AM
 
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Originally Posted by JONOV View Post
I'm not trying to be snarky, but what will that tell you? CA has the option of literally picking their students and can weed out the bottom third or half or whatever and it skews the data, compared to GHHS where almost everyone living in the zone is going to take the test.


No I don't think you are being snarky, it is a legitimate question. I completely understand the different demographics and ability of a private school to be picky. That is why averages mean nothing, there are huge outlyiers on the high and low side - but median provides a better picture. Since my kid is on neither side of the outlyers, a median compared to the mean provides me better insight.
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Old 04-19-2016, 06:33 AM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
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Median still doesn't tell you anything - how do you know your kid would be in the bottom 50% of his class at CA? How do you know your kid wouldn't be in the top 10% of his class at GHHS?
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Old 04-19-2016, 11:26 AM
 
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Originally Posted by pierretong1991 View Post
Median still doesn't tell you anything - how do you know your kid would be in the bottom 50% of his class at CA? How do you know your kid wouldn't be in the top 10% of his class at GHHS?
I was trying to get a ballpark, with many factors involved. Don't mean to agrue but lets choose to disagree on the value of the information. Thanks.
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