In article , beeswing wrote:
I posted this question in the financial aid thread, but I'd really like to
discuss it further. Could anyone please give me some input on this?

If one can (potentially, maybe) pay for instate, public university education
*OR* private school (especially at the critical middle-school level), how da
heck does one decide, anyway. Either? Both, with the hope of a windfall? What
makes the biggest difference to the character of a growing girl?

I don't know about "character", but a public university education is a
far better educational investment than a private middle school. In 10
years no one is going to care much whether she went to a good or a
mediocre middle school, but going to a good university will affect her
choices for the rest of her life.

If I remember right, you are in Seattle, where going to private
schools is highly fashionable (over 1/3 of all students do), but there
are still decent public schools available. Far better to go to a
decent public school and have enough money to afford 4+ years of
university than to go to a ritzy middle school and then only be able
to afford an AA degree.


--
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Professor of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
Affiliations for identification only.