My son got into several top Atlanta private high schools. Go private or stay in public school?

Nope.

So it's a choice between leaning nothing and learning about Jesus riding dinosaurs... Tough call, my dude.

Are you ITP it OTP?

I am currently a public high school teacher (not ATL, other side of the country, actually), but I went to private schools K-12. Here's my perspective:

Something to keep in mind is that peers play a huge role in the education process. One of the big advantages of private schools is that the school can accept/reject whoever they like, and the pool of candidates is self-selecting in the first place. How big a difference this makes depends on the exact nature of the private school(s) in question (are they super competitive to get into? Or are they accepting almost everyone that is ready/willing/able to pay?) and the nature of the public school your son would attend (if your son was accepted to these private schools based on academic merit/potential, are there still a good number of similar students at the public HS in question, and does the HS offer sufficient academic and other programs to appropriately challenge them, like AP or honors classes, certain clubs, etc).

The differences in instruction and other programs that private schools are able to offer are largely a result of the fact that they are only educating a given slice of the student population. Public schools have to devote a huge amount of time and resources to bottom 1/3rd of kids. Private schools don't have to do that if they don't want/need to.

TL:DR - How different are the kids at the private school(s) in question vs the kids in the public school classes (if he would be in honors/AP/IB) your kid attend, how different are the programs/classes/clubs offered, and are these differences worth the cost of tuition?

ITP or OTP*

It depends on which county, and which schools you're districted in. Some of the public schools are among the best in the nation. Gwinnett's Math & Science high school is better than any private school in the area.

It also depends on whether you're most interested in academics or sports.

If you or your son’s goal is to get into and be successful in college, you cannot go wrong with those private high schools you listed.

I recently left a position as an admissions counselor at a college in North Carolina. Not to get into the details of how we created admissions scores for each applicant, but all things equal, students from those four schools would receive a higher admissions score and be more likely to have success at our college than any student from any public high school in Georgia.

Ughhh move to a decent county? I went to Grayson, got into Emory but chose GA tech. Private schools in the south are not necessary.

Why was the comment that "the best predictive factor for a school is demographics" removed?

It's not PC, but it's true.

Unless you are talking about the absolute best private schools in the country, with a national reputation, like Exeter, Andover, Dalton, and about a dozen others mostly in the Northeast, you do not get a recruiting advantage to top colleges by going private. If you go to a very good public school and do very well, you'll do better in college admissions than going to your garden variety good to top regional private school. Check admissions results in the past to confirm this. Spending over $100k on your child's high school alone so that s/he can go to Syracuse is not worth it.

Have you looked at Woodward Academy in College Park, GA or is it too far of a commute?

Also, to be noted, private schools will almost always pay attention to parental resources in making admissions decisions, so that they don't even accept the best students, but the best students whose parents can pay full price. I know several people rejected by Exeter who had better grades and test scores, as well as athletic/music ability, than other classmates accepted, but who needed a lot of financial aid.

It changed with 2020 (test optional + more affirmative action), but "normal" schools (ranked between 25-100 on Niche) would always send most of the top 10% of their graduating class to Ivies (or Ivy-tier colleges).

I look every year at my alma mater's school decisions, and (in a school of 120 per grade) there are typically 7-10 Ivies, another 7 "Ivy-tier" (ranging from Stanford to WashU), and then a few more in the T20. It was better 4 years ago, but those are still good numbers.

Probably because "demographics" implies it is based on race, when a lot of the data indicates that "the best predictive factor for a school is the socio-economic status of its students body."

In other words, $$$, not skin color.

I would lean private if you can afford it especially if you are talking Atlanta City schools. Suburban schools around Atlanta might have a better case.

Wesfly is a Lovett grad.

City schools, for this reason, perform best among public education.

You must be so proud

Wow. Lots of responses. I'll try to address some of the questions/statements.

"He got in, huh? You mean several schools that you will PAY for him to attend would like him as a student so they can receive your money? Fascinating!"

Yes. Similar to a college or university. He had to apply, interview, write essays (for some), have recommendations, take placement tests, etc.

"As a general rule..." - I'm not looking at a general rule. I'm looking specifically these (an a couple other) schools.

Your (2) opinions are very short-sighted.

We are in a decent school district, but most parents and students that I've talked with that have experience with the public high school and one of the private schools agree that the private school they experienced was better in several ways.