Faisal Shariff
Age: 21
Hometown: Granger, IN
Senior Science-Business major, Poverty Studies minor
Middle School: Private – The Montessori Academy at Edison Lakes
When choosing a high school to attend, my parents and I did quite a bit of exploration of both the public and private schools in the area. I shadowed at Adams and Trinity while taking a tour of St. Joe and Penn. My parents wanted an academically rigorous school that would prepare me for college. But they also wanted a school with diversity and a decently-sized student body. My middle school had a graduating class of ten. Clay was an option as well but never really under serious consideration.
Adams seemed like the logical choice in South Bend given the IB program. I had a lot of friends from my middle school who were Adams-bound. The school felt diverse, the mock trial team was known to be amazing. I had heard about one teacher, Mr. Longenecker, a science teacher who was supposed to be phenomenal.
Trinity is a small catholic private school. It wasn’t particularly diverse. But we had friends that were enrolled at the school and had heard good things about it. It was clear that the students got lot of individual attention. I think I didn’t end up choosing Trinity because I wanted something different from my middle school experience.
St. Joseph also seemed like a good option with rigorous academics and a strong science program. It had a medium sized student body. It wasn’t particularly diverse socioeconomically given that it was a private school. This turned my parents off a bit I believe.
Penn: People call this school, Penn University because it has a student body of 3,600 students. This fact could be intimidating but also a taste of the real world and could provide an enriching environment to learn in from people with different backgrounds. It has a plethora of resources and countless activities and clubs. Additionally, it is known to be pretty competitive. This school was also in my district.
In the end, I think academic rigor was the priority along with safety and a rich learning environment. Penn, St. Joe and Adams were the finalists. I think we realized that we could get as good of an education at public schools so it might not be necessary to pay the high private school tuition, even though my family is financially stable. Further, with Penn being in my district, transportation wouldn’t be a big issue. We did go against the grain a bit in terms of not listening to peer-reviews of the high school, however, which is unique from most situations according to the literature.