Switching Schools? I need some help.

In My Humble Opinion
1

So I’ve been thinking of switching schools for a while now, mostly because i’m stuck in a private school and its just guys. so i would love being in a co-ed school.(plus i really dont have a lot of good friends there, mostly because theres a huge gap between the white guys and the asians and only a few of the asians are my kind of people.)

but the thing is when i was talking to my mom about this so she could swap me, she kept on bringing up that im going to a very good private school right now (i defended my claim by telling her that there were so many people who do drugs and crap and can only go to the school because of their huge ass family money,(me i’m not quite so rich and dumb)) so she says to put it up on a message board and see what other peoples opinions would be. so yeah thats basically it. i hope you guys can help me out.

2

Why would it be GOOD for you to switch? Where do you want to go? Why?

I’m a mom of an 18 year old boy, and what would persuade me more than anything else is a clear, well-researched list of pros and cons of all of your educational options.

Find out what the percent of graduates who go on to a 4 year university is at your school, and at your optional school. Find out the crime rate - how many times have kids been arrested or expelled at each school? Find out the cost difference - don’t limit this to the current school year. True, your current school is expensive, but does going there strengthen your chances of getting a scholarship to a good college? Your mom may be looking more long term than you are.

Look into non-tangible pros and cons. Is the other school close enough to walk to, instead of Mom driving you everyday? (I don’t know if she does, just trying to think of every angle of advantage and disadvantage here.) Would that give you extra exercise? Does the other school offer any extra-curricular activities, clubs or teams that you find interesting? Those things look good on college applications!

Does the other school have AP classes or subjects like Physics or Calculus that your current school doesn’t have? AP classes can get you college credit while you’re in high school. Sometimes public schools have better lab classes than private schools, even expensive ones, so even if your school offers physics, the public one might be a better class. Or not. This is research you have to do. :wink:

Most of all, try not to make your mom feel bad for sending you to your current school. If you harsh on it too badly, she’s likely to get defensive, and that makes people really unwilling to change. She’d basically have to admit she was wrong, and people don’t like to admit they’re wrong! Instead, focus on the positive things you find out about the other school.

Also, ask her why she made her choice. She may have had great reasons for it that she never shared with you. Maybe it will help you see the advantages of your current school, or maybe not. But it *will *give you some insight into what’s important to HER, and addressing that is more likely to affect change. If you’re focused on meeting girls, and she sent you to that school because she didn’t want you getting distracted by girls, that’s not the best way to change her mind! While social development is important, and going to a co-ed school can help with that, what I’ve read on this board about “Asian parents” (and I totally apologize for the broad stereotype!), focusing on academics instead of meeting girls will probably go over way better. :wink:

If my son showed me through solid research why he wanted to change schools and how good it could be for him, I’d know a few things. First, I’d know what’s important to him. But more importantly, if he did a lot of work to gather the information, I’d know it was really important to him, and not just a whim or a bad week at school. That alone would make me take him more seriously.

3

Since you’re looking for advice, I’ll move this to our advice-giving forum, IMHO.

twickster, MPSIMS moderator

4

well the good things for me to switch would be that i would be able to hang out with girls a lot more, and since there isnt that much of a barrier between races at the school im wanting to go to it just seems like a better alternative socially. i want to go to this public school.
(BTW I live in australia)

Well the school i’m currently going to (lets refer to it as ‘A’) has a much better average VCE score but the thing is going to B wouldnt hinder my chances of going to a university though, statistics mean nothing in the way of an individual (awkward phrasing i know) but im trying to say that if i get a 99% VCE score at this school or get 99% at the other school the universities wont be looking at what school i went to but rather the score i got. Crime really isnt that much of a problem at both schools, at A a lot of students smoke,drink and a tiny portion smoke weed. at B there are less people who do that kind of thing. but really noone ever gets arrested or expelled at any school in my area. it costs 50 k a year for me at A. at B well its basically free, all i have to pay for are the books and things like that which would be less than 1000 dollars a year. yeah going there will only hinder my chances of getting a good scholarship if i dont do well in VCE.

the other school is close enough to walk to, and i would come home every day. yeah that would give me a lot of extra exercise or i could always take the tram/bus/train. the same extra curricular activities are offered at both schools.

yeah both schools have AP classes and both have subjects like physics, calculus etc. the inside facilities are much better but the buildings themselves arent that great at B.

my mom will let me change she just wants me to sleep on it for a bit longer

yeah, i talked about it with her she shared her POV and i did as well. i understand where shes coming from but its not changing my decision.

5

Glad you had a chat with her. I’m not really replying because I have anything new to say, but to “bump” the thread in the local time zones to see if anyone else has something to add who just hasn’t seen it yet. :slight_smile:

Good luck!

6

Make her a deal: you get to go to your school of choice for one term. If your academic performance suffers, or you get into trouble, she can ship you back to boarding school.

7

Tell her that boys schools cripple social development. Explain to her how you’d go about asking a girl out, then ask your mom if that’s where she wants you to be when you’re 20.

I’m only partly joking. Social development is important. There are plenty of good coed schools. And RNATB, I know you were joking, but I went to a coed boarding school and have no regrets. You get to live away from home with a bunch of your (not yet met) friends.

8

I wasn’t joking. I went to a coed boarding school too. Several, in fact.

9

50k a year for high school? Shit, son. In America 50k a year would provide a **very **nice college education.

Can you guys talk about putting that cash in a trust for when you go off to college, since if you didn’t change schools she’d be spending it anyway?

10

And if those are Australian dollars, it’s more like $52k US.

11

Bloody hell. It only costs the equivalent of 45,000 AUD per year to go to Eton. What sort of school is this?

12

I taught at a private college prep school in Switzerland that currently costs about $75,000 tuition/room/board per year. It is co-ed.

To be honest, it sounds like the school you are going to now is quite good - but you are, to be blunt, the typical horny dude who might think a co-ed school is chock full of great sexual opportunities and thrills. Yes, there will be girls - and there will most certainly be more interaction and learning of social skills on that part, but in the grand scheme of things, not sure if that alone is worth leaving a school that you will be leaving soon anyway after graduation.

You might be surprised to learn girls like to go out with guys who are smart and going to a great university with perhaps a lucrative career path. You won’t have any problems finding some lovely lady in a prestigious college/university, grad-school in years to come.

My advice would be to stay where you are and concentrate on getting a jump start on a great career. How many rich, successful guys have you seen who can NOT find an attractive woman to be by his side?

13

@Dmark
actually i still have 3 long ass years… which for me seems like quite a bit of time and its half of all of my high school time

yeah but being in a sausage fest for 5 years? give me a break.

look i dont even know what im going to be after school. and yeah you do see a lot of rich successful guys with a gorgeous girl on their shoulder but they’re usually gold diggers xD

@Really Not All That Bright

scotch, 50k was stretching it a bit, its around 43-5k… school & boarding & Various other expenses

@everyone
talked to mum again on the weekend, she told me im staying, im not going to be boarding anymore and if i didn’t like it (not in these words but basically just piss off and get more A’s). i guess i’m staying then. pretty shattered. oh well.

14

So you’re at Scotch and you want to transfer to a government run Secondary College? What sort of a moron are you anyway? :smiley:

For those who want to know, Scotch College is one of the most prestigious private schools in Australia. It has a history of providing one of the best educations that money can buy, and has drawn its pupils from (originally) the upper-crust of Melbourne and the Squattocracy from regional Australia (it’s also a boarding school). In latter years with the influx of migration from Asia, it has also been a school of choice for hard-working Asian families who value education above all else…sending one’s kids to Scotch was a guarantee of getting them entry to the professional world, something that a government school cannot assure.

KevinShi…please listen to yer’ mum. She truly knows what’s best. Go wander down Glenferrie Road to MLC if you want to check out chicks :stuck_out_tongue: but stay at Scotch and knuckle down. When you’re earning 50k first year out of Uni, and not having to work at Coles or Maccas to make ends meet, you’ll thank your lucky stars your mum had the sense that you don’t.

15

To add:

If you’re just an average student Kevin, then going to Scotch is going to give you a heap of advantages that you certainly won’t be able to access in a government school. I can assure you that you will come out of VCE with a higher ENTER score (or whatever they call it nowadays) from Scotch than you will from the local secondary college. It’s not that the commitment from teachers is any less at the SecCollege, but they are dealing with kids from such a diverse range of backgrounds that they just don’t have the resources to accomodate all abilities that somewhere like Scotch does.

You want to be schlepping it out as a data-entry drone at Telstra in five years?

Or do you want to be looking forward to paying off your BMW, living in a comfy flat in South Yarra/Fitzroy/St Kilda, and working at a job that gives you some degree of satisfaction and pride?

Your pick mate.

I know which one I’d choose…with the benefit of age and hindsight of course! :stuck_out_tongue:

16

Um, yeah. You’re getting a ride through Scotch? Stay there. Stay right there and don’t fucking move. Sure, it doesn’t matter from a FEE-Help standpoint what school you went to, as long as your TER is fine, but Scotch has an Old Boys’ Network that is very, very, very influential on the Eastern Seaboard. This isn’t just about getting you into Uni, it’s about setting you up for the rest of your life.

17

If you feel comfortable KevinShi, would you mind sharing which Sec College you were thinking of going to? Is it one of the ‘selective schools’? I’m guessing it’s not somewhere like Sydney Road Community School. Not that there’s anything wrong with SRCS, just sayin’. :smiley: