Does private schooling help to get a nice career?

av_raje

Didn't want to hijack the other thread, so I am starting a new one. Hope it is ok.

DD1 goes to private school (reception) and DD2 starts in the same school this september. The fees are £2500/term based in Northwest. DD1 is doing quite well and I am happy with the school.

I am generally wondering if pupils who went to private school end up in well paid jobs? If you, your kids or people you know went to private schools how are they doing? Your observation/experience in this context is much appreciated. Many thanks.

I hope this doesn't turn into a debate about private school/state school.

Marcheline

Hi OP, good thread. I must admit I am not convinced private schooling helps one get a good job, it is more down to the drive and ambition of the individual. Many of my classmates from a private school have gone on to get very good careers, but many have not. Also, I know of a number of people from state schools who have managed to get very good jobs. I think it is mainly down to the personality of the pupil! However, I will be doing everything in my power to get my daughter a private education if at all possible: the pastoral care is brilliant, class sizes smaller and horizons broadened. In my opinion the job at the end of it wouldn't really come into it!

juno

I went to a private school. I work in retail.

SP123_3

Firstly, I suppose it depends what you mean by a nicer career. What one person considers a great career is another person's idea of misery.

I know lots of people who experienced private schooling, and lots who didn't. However, all of them went to university and went into a wide variety of careers. What's interesting is that as a body of people, the privately schooled people are a bit more self assured. In my experience the state-educated folk are a bit less confident and do have slightly lower expectations. A significant number of my state-educated friends have had careers which many people would consider prestigious, yet have decided it's not for them any more and are changing to something completely different. Just because a career is considered 'good' does not make it right and fundamentally a person's happiness and wellbeing are a lot more important.

Sadly, there are some professions where the old school tie does still count. However, in the vast majority of cases where you went to university counts for a whole lot more.

Beyond that, I'm not sure there is any great difference in the long run.

elsien

I'm a triplet - one brother is a dentist and doing very well thank you, one is a university lecturer but paywise not doing great, and I'm the black sheep and I manage a residential home for people with learning disabilities - a great job but I'm never going to make my fortune.
Depends on the school and the person - the private school we went to at age 11 was the only one my parents could find to take the 3 of us together (army brats) - it was a boys school that had only just started taking in girls. Suited my brothers down to the ground, I was the alien species that they didn't have a clue how to handle, so I ran amok and no-one knew quite what to do with me.
I could have got a better degree and more of a career, but the fact that I didn't is I think more to do with being at boarding school and the particular school I went to, rather than whether it was state or private. And because I was a bolshie so-and-so who couldn't abide being told what to do - I'd probably have gone off the rails a bit, whichever school I ended up at.

MrsTinks

Mmmm Dh went to a private school and in theory it should help him through networking etc... however he's got to where he is by ruddy hard graft

I went to a private school too - again I don't think it made any difference in getting to where I am... would I say it would have been worth £2500 a term? ehhhh NO!!!!!!! My parents certainly paid nowhere near that amount for my schooling! I'd have been mortified if they had too...

Soubrette

This is personal experience and so I do not believe holds true in the majority of cases but I was once friendly with a chap who had gone to a private boys school. We were walking in the centre of Bristol, I was listening while he was extolling the virtues of a private education in general and of single sex school in particular.

In the middle of a monologue about the career prospects to be gained by this style of education, he paused and nodded at an unkempt individual with a sandwich board on.

'Who was that?' I asked 'Oh someone I went to school with' was the airy answer.

This is not made up

Sou

olly300

av_raje wrote: »

I am generally wondering if pupils who went to private school end up in well paid jobs? .

From my family, friends and acquaintances the answer is yes and no.

If you and they:
1. value education
2. doing other activities outside school that people think are respectable i.e. sports, musical instruments,
and you point them in the direction of careers they can earn a lot of money in then yes.

However if you don't think money is then end all and be all then they won't necessarily find a well paid job.

Misty_Blue

SP123 wrote: »

Sadly, there are some professions where the old school tie does still count.

Rightly or wrongly, this is definitely true. I started a new job in October last year. A few weeks ago my boss and I were chatting and she told me that there were two stand-out candidates at the interview for my job - myself and another girl. She said there was nothing at all to choose between us, so she picked me because I went to the same private school as her children.

I definitely think a good private school gives a child an advantage over a good state school, but it is down to the child as to whether they take the chances offered to them or not. In other words, private schooling in no way guarantees a good career, in the same way that state schooling does not guarantee the lack of a good career.

Peer pressure and higher expectations tend to mean better exam results etc, at private school, and the opportunities and breadth of offered experiences are far greater than at state schools. Well, this is true in my local area at least. As an example, at the school I went to, we learned a second language from age 7. The state schools around here don't start until 13/14.

olly300

Misty_Blue wrote: »

Peer pressure and higher expectations tend to mean better exam results etc, at private school, and the opportunities and breadth of offered experiences are far greater than at state schools. Well, this is true in my local area at least. As an example, at the school I went to, we learned a second language from age 7. The state schools around here don't start until 13/14.

The schools that seem to get the best results in my area are voluntary aided selective schools.

This is because they tell pupils to leave if they don't consider the pupils results good enough.

Soubrette

Misty_Blue wrote: »

Rightly or wrongly, this is definitely true. I started a new job in October last year. A few weeks ago my boss and I were chatting and she told me that there were two stand-out candidates at the interview for my job - myself and another girl. She said there was nothing at all to choose between us, so she picked me because I went to the same private school as her children.

In this example though it's just the coincidence of where her children and you went to school - if you had all gone to the same state school then she may have jumped that way in her choice

Sou