I'm a girl and looking into various high schools near Los Angeles and Pasadena.Are private schools in Pasadena & LA a lot different? Whats good/bad and whats different? I heard tuition for the schools in the Pasadena area are a lot cheaper. (for example, if you look at La Salle/Mayfield/Maranatha and Buckley/Harvard-Westlake/Marymount ..etc, the tuition are a whole lot different.) Are the academics more rigorous in LA private schools?. Created by Arialle Walker. education-reference-en - primary-secondary-education-en

Pasadena or Los Angeles Private Schools?

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The most rigorous private schools are Flintridge Prep, Poly, Westridge, and HW. The Pasadena area schools seem to have closer communities, and closer relationships with the other local schools. It's like everyone in the Pasadena area (Arcadia to La Canada-Flintridge) knows everyone else.

Comparable schools in LA and Pasadena are very close in tuition costs when you add everything up. The westside schools (which include the valley schools that westsiders attend) are just more expensive because the westside is more expensive, but there isn't much of a difference. (Pasadena is old money, won't pay inflated costs, even though Pasadena area schools pay the teachers the most, but again, it's very close.) The good non-religious prep schools are all around $30,000.

La Salle ($13,250), Mayfield ($20,395), Maranatha ($16,260) are less expensive than non-religious prep schools because they are Catholic and Christian, and generally they cost less. If you want to compare those to LA or westside schools, you would compare them to Immaculate Heart ($10,300), St. Monica Catholic High School ($7900), Notre Dame Academy ($10,350), etc. You really can't base how good a school is on tuition cost.

Go to the best fit private school near your home, you don't want to spend time in the car. If you attend an extremely rigorous school, you will have 5+ hours of homework a night (if you're one of the top students, or else it will be more), plus about the same amount on the weekends, plus at least 2 hours of sports practice or arts rehearsal, after clubs. If you didn't attend an extremely rigorous private K - 8, you will be shocked at how tough school can be. These schools are very stressful for most students.

Schools that are a bit less rigorous are Mayfield, Brentwood, and Buckley. Marlborough, LaSalle, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, Alverno, Marymount, Maranatha are less so, but still great schools. You can expect 2 - 4 hours of homework a night, and it won't be as tough. Just because classes have the same titles, doesn't mean they have the same curriculum, there can be a huge difference.

What are you looking for? La Salle has a wide variety of students and great 4 year programs in theater, media, etc. Mayfield has a wonderful dance program, really nice girls. Flintridge Prep is an extremely happy school (especially considering how rigorous it is), kids are very supportive of each other, very low drama. Every school has something to offer. The best thing you can do is to attend Open Houses and see which school is the right fit for you. Trust your instincts, and don't buy the PR certain schools put out there because sometimes it's way off.

Find the school you will get A's at (must get A's now to go to a good college) and that you will get to have a life at. While colleges know the curriculum of all high schools, you don't get that nearly as much of a gpa bump as you deserve if you attend a school like Westridge compared to a not-so-good public school. This is one reason many of my son's very bright friends, after being in an extremely rigorous K - 8, chose less rigorous private high schools, they wanted a life and know it won't matter that much for college admissions.

The 35 kids from my son's private 8th grade class went off to 10 different private schools, and they are all very happy with their choices. Even schools that are extremely similar in their curriculum, stats, etc can be very different. Find the one that feels right to you.

Single-sex schools have been more in favor in the Pasadena area the last few years than previously. The single-sex schools in Pasadena have more girl/boy social events (with their brother/sister schools), than the co-ed schools, there is plenty of opportunity to socialize with the opposite sex.

Don't choose a school based on college matriculation, because often it has more to do with the student's family (legacy) or other advantages that not every student has. (My dh participates in the admissions process for his Ivy alma mater, so I know how it works.)

Study for the ISEE and HSPT, even if the schools tell you not too, everyone else is! Find out if it makes a difference for admission to the Catholic schools you are interested in if you take the HSPT at another school. Sometimes if you take the HSPT at another school they consider that they are not your first choice, and it can make a difference with admissions. (My son only applied to one Catholic school, but his friends who applied to several took the HSPT several times.) Sometimes it's due to the essay, some schools require them, some don't. Or because different schools give different versions of the HSPT and they want to compare scores on the exact same tests. You only take the ISEE once.

Private Schools in LA Co

http://www.privateschoolreview.com/county_private_...

Pasadena Area Private Schools http://www.pasadenaareaschools.org/

Good luck!

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