Abacus Mom

Private Schools Ranked by College Admissions Data

For better or for worse, lots of people are very interested in where NYC private school grads go on to college.  From time to time, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, Worth and other publications publish studies.  Now a new website has the data, with a handy dandy sort feature.

American and British Private School Applications Still Up Despite the Recession?

Many thanks to NYC Private Schools Blog , the new, awesome blog about, as you might have guessed, NYC private schools, for drawing our attention to a fascinating article in this week's Economist about trends in private school admission in bad economic times.

The article's author claims that demand so outstrips supply for top private schools that competition will continue unmitigated despite economic turmoil.  My only concern is that the article uses Fieldston admissions data from last year (+14% applicants) which doesn't convince me, given that the recession only hit in October, after many people had applied.  I will be more interested in next year's statistics.

The author's discussion of schools' reputation and the strong tie with longevity and Ivy admissions rates is right on the mark.  I was very interested in the explanation of the barriers to entry for new private schools and the comparison between what's happening in the US and the UK.  I think you will be too.

College Entry in China

The New York Times published an article chronicling the arduous ordeal Chinese students must go through in order to attend college.  Entry is solely determined by an exam, so naturally, test prep rules the day.  Many Chinese students attend cram schools for years.

Cram school culture in the New York area is way up.  I see cram schools everywhere: Queens, the Upper East Side, wealthy New York suburbs, attracting Asian as well as non-Asian students. 

Luckily, in the United States, there are many paths to success. The Times' article reminds us of the cost of cram schools.   Let's not just consign our kids to years of test prepping.  And schools should take responsibility for entrance standards, recognizing how their decisions affect kids' quality of life.

Work Experience Often More Valuable than School Experience

The New York Times describes the experience of a student who took a year off to work after high school before going to college:  In a Year Off the Beaten Path, a New Direction for Life.  Lauren Clark spent  spent half a year helping villagers in Ghana and the other half studying art history in Italy.  She writes that going to Ghana was a formative experience for her, as it introduced her to the field of international development.

When I look back at my own life, it is my work and life experience as much as my school experience that helped me have the career I have today.  Nowadays the single-minded pursuit of top grades and college recommendations may be cheating students out of even more important experiences. 

High School Students Have No Time to Eat Lunch

Winnie Hu writes in the Times today that Busy Students Get a New Required Course:Lunch.  The gist is that high school students who dream of attending top colleges would rather cram to get ahead than take care of basic bodily needs.   

Madeline Levine, a psychologist and author of The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids, says in the article:

“Kids who are not eating, or eating under stressful circumstances are not cultivating healthy eating habits,” she said in an interview this week. “We want to send the message that a big part of growing up is how to manage yourself and not just getting good grades.”

Levine has it exactly right.  In the article, a harassed high school junior with out-of-wack priorities, says, “I would never put lunch before work."  Sadly, her attitude is not atypical among students in better schools these days.  Hopefully, more adults can follow Levine's lead in lessening this unnecessary, unhealthy pressure.   

Ivy League Skills?

Did you see this New York Times article, Elite Korean Schools, Forging Ivy League Skills ?  It came out over a month ago, but I am still simmering over it.  The article discusses two elite schools in Seoul where students study ALL the time and have no life at all outside their books.  And what do they get for being such uber-grinds?  Admission to HYP. 

“Even my worst students are great,” said Joseph Foster, a Williams College graduate who teaches writing at Daewon. “They’re professionals; if I teach them, they’ll learn it. I get e-mails at 2 a.m. I’ll respond and go to bed. When I get up, I’ll find a follow-up question mailed at 5 a.m.”

If brand-name colleges take these kids, other kids, who choose to sleep, daydream, and do other normal and healthy adolescent things, lose out.  That's not the right message for good colleges to be sending.