Talk About a Lil' Kiddo 'Reality' Check

I was just Skyping a good friend of mine who runs a dynamite school design firm based out of Chicago called BrainSpaces.

She just fired me off an article from the Chicago Tribune about the fierce competition to get one's kiddo into the select private-, parochial-, montessori-type schools in Chicago these days. One montessori in particular has a 4% acceptance rate. Harvard, on the other hand, has a 9% acceptance rate. Holy admissions testing fees!

One mom's reaction:

"I've spent more time on this process than in I did trying to get into college or law school," Moran said. "There's so much stress and uncertainty right now, I feel sort of panicked about what's going to happen."

One of the advantages to having 2 parents who work at 2 different preK-12, college-prep, private schools is that Beckett (and any future siblings to-be-named in the free agent market) are in decent shape as far as the application process once we're ready for he (them) to go to real school one day.

Occasionally the teacher salary devil lurking on my shoulder reminds me that I could make far more money back in my previous career designing schools.

Off-set such a salary arc against 12+ years of private school tuition (not even thinking college costs yet) x 2 or more kiddos, however, and suddenly being paid less than 90% of professionals or even a public school teacher seems not so bad these days.

Add to that the knowledge that the admissions process will be far easier for us than most families, and I really begin to feel grateful on a # of fronts.

Now all we have to do is worry about Harvard's admissions team.

Comments

[Sam Jackson]

I say this not just as a Yalie but as a general recently-applied-to-colleges student in chiding and reminded, watch out on the Harvard prestige, and make sure you make the admissions process focused around your kid, rather than the schools you think would be best for him! That only leads to sadness and stress.

[Christian Long]

Sam: So well said. And if we could get the majority of parents to 'get it', we'd be a much healthier school-to-college society.

Disclaimer: My wife and I both went to grad school at Harvard, so we have a bit of skin-on-the-table with dem Crimson folks.

At the same time, I don't even consider college to be a guarantee when Beckett will be 18. The opportunities he and his peers will have 'by then' are beyond my comprehension, and it'll be much more about 'match' and 'life passion' than it will be about the 'name' of the school.

Again, well said! Thanks for touching base!

[Ben Fulton]

Boggling to me that anyone would choose to live in a big city under those conditions.