For many people, high school can
be a defining experience, as well as a stepping stone to success. Successful
parents view high school as a key part of their children’s developmental
process and go to great lengths to find an institution that best matches their
objectives.
We recently surveyed 394 individuals with a minimum net worth
of $5 million and questioned them about their strategies for evaluating and
selecting a school, the application process, their perspectives on cost versus
value and, finally, their level of involvement with the institution.
We found two distinct outlooks among affluent parents when it
comes to the significance of and rationale for high school (Exhibit 1). The
first segment of parents we identified as aspirational in nature, viewing high
school as a way for their children to set the stage for future success. The
other segment sees secondary education as experiential, valuing it as part of an
overall plan that produces well-rounded humans on their way to
self-actualization. Both types of parents had basically the same-size
families.
Most of the students discussed in the survey were being
educated at private institutions and, proportionately, more of the experiential
parents than the aspirational ones send their children to private school
(Exhibit 2).
Of the roughly 40 percent of parents whose children attend
public school, a similar number had moved in order to access a stronger school
system (Exhibit 3), citing high personal standards. Experiential parents were
more inclined to move in order to find the appropriate level of school.
Similarly, the experiential parents are more inclined to
consider a larger number of private schools than the aspirational parents during
the selection process, with experiential families considering an average of 3.6
schools and aspirational families considering 2.3. The primary reason behind
experiential parents’ more extensive search process lies in the amorphous nature
of their objectives for education.
Affluent individuals and families are increasingly turning to
specialists for assistance—and education is no different. About two-thirds of
respondents have retained an educational consultant to help them select a high
school and develop an application strategy (Exhibit 4). While more than half of
both segments use professionals, the experiential parents were more likely to
have done so, citing the consultant’s assistance in solidifying goals and
desires for their children.
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