OT: How do you "shop" for a private HS? Best in SE Mich.?
For those familiar with the Michigan private school landscape, how does a family determine, for example, Detroit Country Day over Cranbrook, Roeper, Greenhills, Liggett, Notre Dame Prep, UofD-Jesuit, & Brother Rice/Marian? I'd like to say it's largely geographical, but I know families that lived in Bloomfield Hills and sent the boys to UofD-Jesuit, Grosse Pointe families that drove the kids all the way to Country Day, and Detroit proper families that commuted to Cranbrook. And there are apparently a decent amount of Ann Arbor families that send their boys to Catholic Central in Novi, over nearby FGR and Greenhills.
Is there really much academic difference between these schools, or is it a reputation and "so and so's go to X, so and so's go to Y" sort of thing?
August 17th, 2015 at 10:26 PM ^
August 17th, 2015 at 10:30 PM ^
Was a bunch of dirty cheats. The center kept trying to tackle me ( was playing nose tackle ) and I finally complained to the ref. Kid got called for holding 3 plays in a row and then taken out of the game.
Came in later then tried to punch me in the balls.
F_ck Cranbrook.
EDIT:
Also I went to ND Prep before it was ND Prep. Sucked. I hear money fixed a lot of its problems.
August 17th, 2015 at 10:49 PM ^
Nice, way to pave the way brotha. Are you an Oakland Catholic or Pontiac Catholic? I went NDP back in the "early days" and even compared to then, the place is barely recognizable these days.
To the OP, if you go the NDP, your kid will do swell (and probably any of the other places that have come up on this thread (except Royal Oak Shrine, if they go there, they'll end up a degenerate ne'er-do-well)).
August 17th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
Well, I know the first place I'D look is a blog dedicated to Michigan sports that is notorious for having snarky commentors.
But seriously, as a parent myself, it all depends on what you want out of the school. Want connections? Probably send him/her to a boarding school out East. My wife works for an UES school, and if you like spending $45k+ there is a very good chance your kid will meet the children of billionaires and, I guess, get a leg up on working for a hedge fund. If it's just a good education in state, probably all of them are good enough.
August 18th, 2015 at 12:24 AM ^
These privates are mega feeders to the University, sending a higher % of their grads to UM than any other schools in the nation. So, I don't think it's a bad place to ask. And among the sarcasm, I count at least 20 alums of these fine preps, which is impressive (where else can you get that depth on this sort of topic?). Snark is fine. A thread can be both informative and humorous.
August 17th, 2015 at 10:31 PM ^
August 17th, 2015 at 10:35 PM ^
I think I liked your old screen name Dupont Circle better.
As someone who grew up in Bloomfield attended some, and had tons of friends at various private schools my best advice would be to send them to the one you live closest too, or move close to the school you want.
Nothing worse than long school commutes, having no neighborhood kids in your class etc.
It may not see like a big deal, but it is.
August 17th, 2015 at 10:54 PM ^
for your jabberwock to bond with. See attached photo....
August 17th, 2015 at 10:50 PM ^
Former Roeper student here (2nd through 8th grade in late '90s/early '00s - left for reasons I'll describe below). At the risk of sounding like a disgruntled Amazon employee, I had a great experience overall, but would look elsewhere if you're looking for a rigorous high school academic environment.
The lower grades are great - I think the non-traditional culture provides better learning opportunities at a young age - but by the time I got to 6th/7th grade it was clear that the inmates ran the asylum. At least once a week, we would show up to class and, if it was a nice day, or someone's birthday, or the teacher just didn't feel like teaching that day, we would take an impromptu walk to the local Dairy Mat, or Kroger, or whatever. Hard to justify paying tens of thousands of dollars for that. Even setting those instances aside, the academics became kind of a joke.
I'm not going to go into the Roeper Philosophy, because "no politics," but let's just say that Bernie Sanders is probably too far right for most of the students/parents/faculty.
Ultimately, I left for a strong public school in the area, because I knew that I'd be better off getting a glimpse of the real world before I went off to college and was thrown into it.
Roeper exists inside its own bubble, which works great when you're in 2nd grade and learning how to tie your shoelaces, but isn't the best if you're in high school and actually trying to learn how to function in the "real world." I'd take them off the list.
August 17th, 2015 at 10:51 PM ^
Jabber beat me to it. You named some great schools. Select one that you like and is an easy commute.
I've heard great things about Country Day. Shrine was mentioned and it does not belong on the list.
My kids attended Troy High. It was a wonderful school for them. Troy, B'ham, Rochester and Bloomfield schools would all be great for your kids.
August 17th, 2015 at 11:03 PM ^
1 vote for greenhills
August 17th, 2015 at 11:23 PM ^
The mod schedule was great as well.
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August 17th, 2015 at 11:42 PM ^
August 18th, 2015 at 12:11 AM ^
IA is an alternative public school for elite students in part of Oakland County.
August 18th, 2015 at 10:44 AM ^
Thanks for clearing that up for me. I didn't attend but know a few that did. I just recall always seeing it high up in the rankings.
August 18th, 2015 at 12:11 AM ^
August 18th, 2015 at 5:35 PM ^
Assassinations* RFK > JFK. I'm convinced of that.
August 18th, 2015 at 12:19 AM ^
August 18th, 2015 at 1:15 AM ^
I went to Brother Rice and graduated 10 years ago. I liked it and thought that it prepared me well for engineering school at Michigan.
August 18th, 2015 at 7:25 AM ^
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August 18th, 2015 at 8:15 AM ^
I live in a fairly wealthy northern OC suburb with a top 5 public school literally at the end of our neighborhood. My wife and I both went to public school and got into Michigan and good grads schools and had fabulous careers. Moved back to MI from Northern Cal to raise our kids and be near family. Picked our location baseed on the public schoools. It was a great decision.
My son is an 8th grader so we are going thru this decision now. Money really isn't a huge consideration although its a factgor.
What gets me about the public school is that it really is not cool to be smart. My son gets straight As in advanced classes with out trying very hard and has very few friends in his classes. . Most of the kids he competes with for grades are asian kids who he gets along great with but there are some cultural things that make it harder to have deep friendships. We have a huge Chinese population in our area and the families really focus on education which brings up the top end a lot but culturally he doesn't quite fit into any group as a consequence. He is also a very good athlete in one sport and the sports at our public school are actually very good but dominated by coaches who I don't really care for and who are known for favoring kids in the youth football program which is like a cult. I'll just leave it at that because if I say more I'll sound nuts.
So we are looking at...
-NDP seems to have good academics and is smallish (200 per class) boys and girls. Not sure yet if their academics are real or just marketing. Lists of colleges who the kids get into aren't all that impressive. Average test scores are pretty good.
-Cranbrook . Not too thrilled about paying $30k for HS. 2 more younger siblings could not really afford that for all 3 and pay for college with out taking out loans. Maybe if he gets a scholarship.
-Rice but mainly because they are interested in him for a sport. Seems to have more focus on sports and discipline but not sure about the competiton or academics. School is not impresive at all and is all boys which I don't think he wants. Have also heard iit can be a bit elitist but friend who went there did well and are not.
August 18th, 2015 at 10:26 AM ^
If your son is that smart he better get used to working with asians now since he will likely be surrounded by them in college and in his professional career.
August 18th, 2015 at 12:36 PM ^
2) Could the cultural differences keeping your son from bonding with his AP classmates be parent driven? His & theirs? Maybe invite a couple of kids he thinks he might like to know better over and see if their parents are available as well.
3) Unless you're pushing him into the financial sector, any high-acheiving field will be full of "un-cool" smart people, lots of them Asian & Indian. In the financial sector they will not find being smart about anything but money to be the least bit useful or "cool".
August 18th, 2015 at 6:22 PM ^
Great contribution. That said, also get what he's saying about the high-achieving grinds, many of which are a little anti-social/awkward, and often Asian. Overall, I do think it is "cooler" to be sharp, driven, and hyper-involved at privates. Knowing how to write clean code, starting a fundraiser and raising $50K, just being an all-around superkid is how to gain status at a tony private (or International Academy, to be fair). But at the average public, you can just be the QB or the party animal class clown and control the school.
August 18th, 2015 at 6:31 PM ^
Rochester Hills or Oakland Twp? NDP seems to be a popular choice with that area.
August 18th, 2015 at 9:05 AM ^
waiting for this....
August 18th, 2015 at 9:40 AM ^
are a giant douche canoe.
August 18th, 2015 at 10:29 AM ^
Tier 1: Brother Rice and Catholic Central
Tier 2: UofD Jesuit, Warren De La Salle, Bishop Foley, Divine Child, ND Prep
Tier 3: The rest
August 18th, 2015 at 11:19 AM ^
Might be worth adding Farmington Hills Harrison and Cass Tech to the top tier of those football rankings. Probably Clarkston too.
August 18th, 2015 at 3:34 PM ^
Ranking the private schools in SE michigan.
Harrison might get closed and cass tech is a DPS school
August 18th, 2015 at 3:53 PM ^
Yea, I was just kidding. I know those were all public schools I mentioned adding. Just seemed like the aforementioned list was based more off of football reputation than anything else. All good schools, but I don't know that Divine Child or Bishop Foley fit the academic reputation of those others on the list. Seems UofD and NDP might inch ahead of them (given the long history of UofD and NDP IB program/test scores (ave ACT of 27)). But that's just my opinion (and an admittedly biased one).
August 18th, 2015 at 10:46 AM ^
I learned that Cranbrook is a Private School while watching 8 Mile. That's all, thanks Eminem.
August 18th, 2015 at 11:45 AM ^
What kind of arrogant, elitist, douchebag goes on a Michigan SPORTS blog to discuss the finer points of private education and patrician sports??? If you want to brag about the size of your IRA, try WSJ.com. No matter what you say on here, this discussion is not about what is best for your children, it is completely about stroking your ego.
August 18th, 2015 at 1:47 PM ^
This also isn't necessarily about the tuition. As with any economic decision, it's about the pros & cons. Seems to me the three factors that would tip the OP into a private school for his kids would fall into one or a mixture of the following:
- If the OP is particularly wealthy, then the extra $30K per year per kid isn't going to make a huge impact on his family budget anyway. If that's the case, then tuition shouldn't be a major consideration.
- If the OP's current neighborhood public schools are downright lousy, then even if the extra tuition takes a big bite out of his discretionary income, it might be worth it to get his kids into a significantly better school. On the other hand, it might be cheaper to just move over one or two towns to a better school district.
- Cultural considerations or educational philosophy. (Christian/Catholic schools; montessori education, etc.). If its important to impart a certain worldview on the kid that is distinctly different than the public schools, then a private school might be an attractive option even if issues #1 and #2 don't really apply.
Personally though, I won't be sending my daughter to private schools. My public school system is solid, and the top 10-20% of the high school class ends up going to Ivy League & similar caliber schools (Michigan; U Chicago; Northwestern; etc.). My point is, I pay outrageous property taxes (Illinois) as it is, and I believe that the school infrastructure like opportunities to take AP classes, join strong extracirriculars, etc. are ample. Whether or not my kid gets into a top notch college is entirely within her/our power. It'll depend on focus, study habits, reinforcement at home, etc. The school environment & resources won't be the thing holding her back.
At any rate, yes, this topic is totally OT. It's also August and we've got a submarine on our hands, so I don't mind the distraction for an afternoon. Slow news day.
August 18th, 2015 at 3:55 PM ^
for Divine Child High School in Dearborn. I grew up with practically no knowledge of the school until just a couple of years ago and I have to say that it is a phenomenal institution. Prob not the time or place for a list of reasons why I truly believe it is that good, but if you take a visit you will definitely be impressed.