What role does culture play in the decision to attend private high school?

1. Interview of Laya Singh by Kunal Shah Stuyvesant High School in New York City What role does culture play in the decision to attend private high school?

2. Background • Laya is a Biology major with a pre-medical professional emphasis at MIT. She is graduating in the Spring of 2014 and is planning on working at a hospital in NYC before eventually going to Med School • Laya Plans to eventually specialize in endo-neurochronology and eventually become a neurological trauma surgeon.

3. Parents’ influence • Laya’s father is a well revered nuclear engineer, and also has a Masters in Business Administration from NYU.

4. Her choice to attend private high school • Q: Laya, do you believe that your parents and your culture have influenced your career and educational track and direction? • A: Yes indeed Kunal. My parents’ exemplified that a powerful education is pertinent in self-progression and lifetime achievement. My vocational and personal goals both screamed at the necessity to challenge myself academically.

5. The initial requirements • Q: It is apparent even from a cursory glimpse at your resume that you’re an academically far-reaching individual. From stuyvesant high school to MIT, you have displayed outmost vocational potential. When did you first know you wanted to follow such a challenging track and what did you have to do to get there, starting at your application to Stuyvesant. • A:Thanks for asking Kunal. I wanted to be a doctor since I was very young and I began to realize how incredibly challenging this field would be in later years, especially if I wanted to specialize. I knew I needed to get ahead with a powerful pre-college program. Stuyvesant High School is one of the most science-focused institutions in country and one of the most highly regarded in the northeast. Although I was just in middle school, I knew this would be my first step in my being a doctor.

6. The application itself • Q: It must have been quite a tribulation for a middle schooler to have to apply to such a selective school. What was your experience like in attempting to gain admission to Stuyvesant and your reaction after being admitted? • A: The application process itself was very much like the college admission process I underwent senior year and the medical school application process I and currently so occupied with. I had to take a test similar to the SAT, which I prepared thoroughly for, and after my application was sent all I could do was wait. After hearing of my admittance, I was elated to an amplitude unprecedented.

7. The implications of Private school • Q: I can imagine how excited you must have been. However, how did you estimate the entirety of the ramification of attending private school, including the altitudinous price tag? • A: My parents have always been supportive of my decision to attend private high school. Yes, it was quite expensive but I feel as if by investing in my education I was investing in my own future. Also, my earning potential as a successful physician would much help alleviate the fiscal deficit of having attending Stuyvesant. Although it did help that a large portion of tuition was offset by the government, which helps fund charter schools so that the most merited students may attend rather than the most financially privileged.

8. The value of private school • Laya, here’s the big question. Do you believe that your investment, of time and money, in private school was worth it, compared to having attended public school. • I’m afraid I simply cannot answer that question, Kunal, mostly because I never attended public high school. Would I have not been able to achieve my long term goals without Private School, I doubt it. I also don’t believe it has been a life-changing experience. What I did gain from Stuyvesant was from the teachers, all of whom were very gifted and passionate about their respective fields. However, I cannot compare this experience to public high school or say that I had a significant advantage during college because of having attended an elite high school, because a number of my friends had attended public schools and many of them have done just as well, and even better, than I have at MIT.

9. Would you recommend • Q: Given what you know about public high school compared to private and charter schools, would you recommend a conflicted student towards one or the other? • A: Kunal, I believe the answer in that question lies entirely in the short and long term goals of the individual. I do believe public high school better prepares a student for life in the real world, as one is more likely to experience and interact with a more diverse student body, socioeconomically and otherwise. Students who are interested in a much broader range of study than just science and math. Stuyvesant is particularly notorious for attracting biology and physics future college majors, and it is rare to find a student passionate about much else than nanotechnology and cellular biology etc. However, if such an environment is what the student is in search for, he or she may find it to be especially rewarding.

10. In Conclusion Laya believes that a private high school may be beneficial only to the most vocationally focused of individuals. She suggests that those in pursuit of a challenging career in science and technology contemplate the possibility of charter schools or private high schools. However, she very much believes public high school will prepare an individual for the real world much more thoroughly than private high school, as the student will be exposed to and interact with a multitude of students interested in a wide breadth of interests, passions, and academic fields. In conclusion, a student’s familial culture does influence his or her decision to attend private high school, but ever more significant is the students personal goals and ambitions.