To think this 'Austerity Day' is one of the most patronising things I've ever seen?

[NoHunsHereHun]

St Paul's Girls school having to eat baked potatoes and fresh fruit for lunch. For a day. I mean FFS, there are SO many better ways to help. Volunteering at a food bank for one.
www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-44578499

I know that Needmoresleep but simply using the generic term "US Universities" could mean the girls have ended up in places other than Harvard and MIT...

"Stronger international aademic reputations."

For their post grad work, not their undergrad.

US sats are not an equivilent to A level, which is why Harvard et al ask for 5-6 AP courses passed at a high level as well as very high SAT scores, but offer places based on 3 A levels to students here.

Yes all the top UK schools have a bunch of students going to much less exalted places than Harvard and Yale. I guess it sounds glam and papers over the fact that despite enormous fees their DC aren't headed for Oxbridge. It's very, very easy to get into the less well known places if you have the money (but admittedly very hard to get into the very top Ivies). Win win.

Precisely goodbyestranger. It saves the indignity of Saffron's parents having to admit she's off to Manchester Met...

TBH, if you have the spare cash and a DC with a good but less than stellar academic profile, there are good reasons for shopping for HE outside your home country.

"there are good reasons for shopping for HE outside your home country"

Yes its called the glass floor.

It’s not that straightforward. You can often get a better learning experience and academic trajectory by moving country.

topcat, I dont disagree but the numbers of top international students applying to places like Stamford and Harvard have been increasing significantly over the past few years, and competition is seriously fierce. This has engendered a certain panic amongst expat parents that their children may not be able to access the same type of education that they did. Oxbridge may be considered the be-all and end-all for British parents but it does not carry the same brand recognition elsewhere, certainly in non-Commonwealth countries. (Where, oddly places like Imperial and LSE enjoy similar status.) The competition is very very tough, and the requirements from applicants from advantaged backgrounds are much broader. (And has also started a trend of US based parents considering Universities like Oxbridge and Edinburgh as fall-backs should they not get one of their chosen top US Unversities.)

SATS are an aptitude test like HAT or BMAT. The kids DD knew started practicing them two or three years in advance as top scores were needed. A levels to some extent were less relevent as results come after places are offered.

I could not find a list of US Universities on the SPGS website but would expect it to be similar to Westminsters, namely:
University of Chicago (USA) 2
Columbia (USA) 2
Dartmouth (USA) 1
Harvard (USA) 2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) 1
Princeton (USA) 2
Stanford (USA) 2
UCLA (USA) 1
Wellesley (USA) 1
Williams (USA) 1

certainly the sort of place Paulinas we knew went.

Educational strategists (at the service of parents) are a growing business sector. And they charge £££!

It is unlikely a St Paul's girl will end up at London Met although they may be slumming it with my sons who are not at Oxbridge.

A levels are still relevant because ( like the AP courses) certain results need to be obtained for admission.

Our observation was that if kids were not heading to one of the top US Univeresities they would opt for a British one. Somewhere like Newcastle. Quicker and cheaper, and less easy for fellow Americans to determine the status of.

Xenia - the girlfriend of one of our DCs is at Trinity Cambridge, as is her older brother. Both NatScis. Both went to very big standard comprehensives. Two of their first cousins went to SPGS and are slumming it at bottom range RG universities!

Bog

Love the educational snobbery on here, but its all I would expect from someone who buys their children's privileges and then portrays them as earned on merit.

topcat, I think the point is that affluent Central/West London is now a very different world, and not really subject to the class analysis many MN posters enjoy. To some extent its an off-shore state, peopled with nomdoms, trustafarians and oligarchs. Different problems involving Saudi princesses and the children of people who have fallen out with Putin. An interesting experience but many of these children do not have easy lives, and we have witnessed a few too many car-crashes. .

I don't think that's an accurate description of the population of the school in question.

Some, not the majority.

Although user, that is not the norm; the 8% at private schools get 50% of the best university places. I have been perfectly happy to pay fees and how my children have ended up so far. It's been worth every penny just as plenty of state school parents are happy too. Each to their own. i don't know why it ever has to be any kind of major batter or trying to do the other "side" down (and no one from my sons' fee paying school who applied (mine did not apply) last year got an Oxbridge place).

Because you described others as "slumming it at London Met", therefore people tend to get their hackles up.

Just like when I tell you that you bought your kids their success, it isn't earned, no one at private school earned their place at a university like someone in a state. Yet you pretend otherwise.

Xenia - what we all really care about is the end game, is whether our DC manage to get self-supporting careers in jobs they enjoy well enough and find personal happiness. University entrance is only one step in that path. I agree that a disproportionate number of privately educated DC manage to snag the places in the seemingly most desirable universities. Some of them have some nasty surprises three years later in the jobs market. Parents paying school fees can be a very sheltering experience for DC, especially in the less academic sort of private school.

"Some, not the majority."

I dont disagree but representative of those frantically pursuing extra-curricular in order to boost their US applications, and more strongly represented at the very high-achieving SPGS than perhaps any other London school. SPGS is THE girls school whilst SPS faces competition from elsewhere.

Luckily DD was never considered socially or academically equal, so did not have to engage in the competition. The worst was how disparaging some of the mothers were even about their own children's friends. And it was sufficiently odd for several American families to opt out, either by selecting different schools or moving to other parts of London.

It must be quite tough to always feel you need to be the best.

Yes well again I thank my lucky stars that we didn't join in this educational rat race but ended up at pretty much the same destination, without the fees and the angst but with the bonus of a seaside location. The thought of everything being likened to a military campaign is exhausting, especially in this heat. Do real people really act like this?

For some reason I used to be asked quite often if I was a 'Paulina'. I'd always taken the question as a compliment back in the '80's. I now realise the question must have been laden with opprobrium (except presumably when asked by Paulinas themselves). It's odd because all the 'Paulinas' I've come across have really been pretty ok.

"Do real people really act like this? "

Yes, its can be very competitive, like a nuclear version of school gate bragging,. but with spreadsheets, tutors and SMART targets.

I agree that it must be exhausting.

Can I also just point out that there are some brilliant professional people who attended less than stellar universities who are absolutely ripping up trees in the workplace.

The pursuit of happiness may well get lost along the way topcat1980.