Thirty-eight thousand dollars is a hefty sum of money. It can pay for a new Audi A4, a luxurious worldwide vacation or over 40 pairs of metallic strappy sandals by Manolo Blahnik. It is also the approximate median price of last year's tuition for boarding students at elite private elementary and secondary schools throughout the Northeast, according to the National Association of Independent Schools.
And this year, despite rising tuition prices and the wavering economy, application rates for private schools have generally held steady or even increased, according to Roxana Reid, founder of Smart City Kids — a New York City-based organization that assists hundreds of families seeking to gain private-school admission for their children.
"We're in the business of maximizing their chances," Reid said. "And our business is becoming more and more in demand."
Applications to the recently-founded Sage School have also remained steady, despite the recession, according to Head of School and Tufts graduate Timothy Monroe (A '87).
The school, located in Foxboro, Mass., specializes in teaching "gifted children," a status generally determined by test scores, Monroe said.
"We serve very specific children," he said. "We exist for the gifted elementary school kids with different academic needs … The first graders at Sage are probably doing second- or third- grade work, but since the curriculum is advanced for everyone, the students don't have to slow down for others."
Families now start seeking out elite schools even before elementary school; selective private preschools are increasingly hot commodities. According to Reid, some of the most exclusive Manhattan preschools receive enough applicants to fill their classes four times over. These preschools boast a lower overall acceptance rate than Tufts.
"These schools just have such a great demand that they don't even need to advertise," Reid, who works with families of children as young as three years old, explained. "There are a handful of schools that everyone wants to get into. The families want them, not the other way around."
For many parents seeking to provide their children with the best education possible, private schools seem to offer an educationally rigorous option, though the financial drain can often times be too much of a burden.
Massachusetts resident Joan Munnelly, whose autistic son currently attends private school while her daughter attends public school, voiced concerns that not every family can provide the necessary tuition money. "It really costs a lot," she said. "You have to be financially ready. The economy is so bad right now that even though I would like to send my daughter to private school, I don't think that's an option."
Leslie Tsui, also of Massachusetts, agreed with Munnelly's assessment. Her two children are waiting to receive decisions from the private schools they recently applied to for sixth and eighth grades. "It's a lot of money," she said. "I'm not surprised exactly by the cost — most schools that we looked at are 34 or 35 thousand dollars per year — but I am surprised by how many people can afford that."
Tsui admitted that her decision to look at private schools in the midst of a recession may seem counterintuitive, but she believes that private schools could be safer bets in the long run. "At least private schools aren't subject to the economy," she said. "The overrides for public education here just haven't been passing, and the public schools' budgets get cut year after year."
But it's not always the hefty price tag that deters potential applicants. According to parents who have gone through the application procedures with their children, the intensive process alone is a mental drain.
The application process for preschoolers is weighted more heavily on the family than on the child, according to Reid. Most nursery schools do not require formal tests, but rather evaluate candidates on informal "playgroups." Reid estimated that most children apply to at least eight schools.
According to Reid, the process of navigating the application process can be stressful for children and parents alike. "Some of the rules are very clear, but others are unclear," she said. "It's nerve-racking, because parents don't want to mess up. They don't want to do a disservice to their child. These institutions have powerful influences."
The process, if anything, only gets more taxing as children get older. "It's a very competitive system," Munnelly said. "I've done the searches, I've gone through the process and it's exhausting."
Tsui agreed. "It's a very tiring process for the parents and even more so for the kids," she said. "The applications are a lot of work for them, especially on top of their regular academic and extracurricular schedule. But hopefully, the private schools we're waiting to hear back from will really prepare our kids for the future."
Although it comes with financial and mental demands, some feel that private school education is a useful option for some students.
According to Monroe, schools like Sage are important for academically advanced students, because they can promote social and emotional confidence as well as traditional scholarly skills. "The students at Sage are not self-conscious about their abilities. They can be themselves and thrive in that advanced setting."
Munnelly feels the small class sizes and personal attention characteristic of private schools can make them worth the substantial cost.
"It depends on the child," she said. "But I think it's worth it, because I didn't think public school was successful for my son."
Though independent schools often claim the credit for the success of their graduates, it may be that private schools simply attract the students best poised to succeed, according to Tufts Assistant Professor of Child Development Tama Leventhal. "The key context is the families," she said. "It's not entirely the schools that shape the children."
Leventhal explained that children at private schools are not a random selection, but rather a highly specific group. "These children are a unique subset, because they're coming from families with motivated parents who care about education," she said. "Also, the families of private school children have money, and there's a whole other host of advantages that go along with that."
According to Tufts' profile of its class of 2012, the majority of freshmen — 62 percent — came from public schools. Thirty-one percent hailed from independent schools and the remaining seven percent attended religious or parochial schools.
Sophomore Suzi Shapira, who has attended only private schools since preschool, said that she enjoyed the experience but has never thought of herself as having an edge over former public school attendees.
"I loved my schools. I was always happy to be there," she said. "But honestly, when I came to college I didn't notice any difference in abilities between private school and public school kids.
Freshman Jazmon Prenatt, who went to public school, agreed with Shapira. "Public and private education have different methods, but they both get the job done," she said. "I definitely do not feel at a disadvantage here because I didn't go to private school."
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Private Schools | By the Numbers
6.1 million: prekindergarten - 12th grade students enrolled in private schools in America
29,000: private schools in America
82: percent of private schools that are religiously-affiliated
20: percent of students who come from families that make $100,000 a year or more that attend private schools
55: percent of parents who currently send their children to public schools who would want to send them to private schools
553: the average SAT verbal score of students from independent schools in 2005. The national average was 508.2
31: percent of parents of students attending private, parochial or home school who are completely or somewhat satisfied with the quality of the nation's education, compared to 56 percent of students attending public school
$43,500: the tuition for day students at The Forman School, the most expensive private school in the country (For boarders, the cost is $53,000.)
35: percent of students at The Forman School who receive financial aid
—compiled from Council for American Private Education, theformanschool.org and
gallup.com by Sarah Butrymowicz
