My niece in San Jose has to get in High School come this fall. Admission in Private High School is suppose to be very difficult and one has to consider and discuss pros and cons of getting education in these very Prestigious and Costly ( fees are in the range of 25-40 K/annually). Last Saturday ,when I visited them, the discussion was in the full swing. My other sister and Bro-I-L, whose two sons have studied here in South San Jose, pitched in. Strong and weak points of each school,the distance from home,possibility of Carpooling,time spent commuting was all discussed. It was more intense that the discussion one has in India for Undergrad education. One good thing about education in India is,that there are not too many options and Choice is limited. Unlike US where for everything there are multiple Choices and after all the discussion when you make a choice,you are not sure that it is correct one. Reminds you of your CET/GRE/GMAT ?

My niece was very tense. She was counting days for this tension to get over. March 18 or thereabout is date when she is expecting the letter informing her whether her application is approved or not. Then there is big question of Fees. At 40K/yr it was more than fees at undergrad/post grad level. Besides you cant do part time job to ease the burden. So I asked her 'what about Public School?' and She answered 'I would rather not study or study at Home.' It seems Public School of their area though good, was not preferred by many parents.

This really surprised me. When we were looking for house to buy last year, we paid so much attention to School District,Performance of the school,it's ranking etc etc. Areas in Santa Clara or in Fremont, houses were costly as they had very good school district. I remember reading edits in TOI, praising Public Schools system of US and compared them to abysmal condition of imparting education in Municipal/Govt. run schools in India. One of the reason cited was that in US even Rich and Elite parents sent their children to Public School and hence they were better staffed and equipped.If rich and Elite parents in India sent their children to Mun/Govt school then they would improve and will provide quality education ( These edits were during Nehru/Indira Gandhi Socialist era). Today parents in US, if they can afford would send their children to Private School. What a change.