International | Studying for success

Should you send your children to private school?

As shortcuts to elite universities, American schools work better than British ones

a school playing field as money
Image: Rose Wong

ETON COLLEGE can boast of educating more than a third of Britain’s 57 prime ministers over its 583 years. Less impressive is the fact that the number of its pupils winning places at the universities of Oxford or Cambridge fell by more than half between 2014 and the 2021-2022 school year. Some parents pick private schools in the hope that their kids will benefit from more attention or less bullying. Others bet that these institutions will lead to a better education, higher grades and a place at a venerable university. But soaring costs and changing university admissions policies are prompting discussion of whether the crests and crenellations are worth it.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Should you send your children to private school?”

Ukraine strikes back

From the June 10th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from International

An illustration showing a man and woman holding a baby together and smiling. Through a window behind them a woman can be seen in a hospital bed and a doctor is closing the blinds.

As adoptions collapse, demand for international surrogacy is soaring

Yet it is facing a growing backlash from religious conservatives and some feminists

An illustration of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping sititing at a table carving up a globe on a plate with knives and forks. Steam is rising from the globe.

A big, beautiful Trump deal with China?

Washington hawks puzzle over calls for China to help in Ukraine, and hints of a possible TikTok reprieve


An illustration of a plug and a socket separated but a fence with barbed wire.

Why don’t more countries import their electricity? 

The economics make sense, but the geopolitics are nerve-racking


Trump unmasks American selfishness, say cynics

But sceptics are wrong to call America First business as usual

Inside the Houthis’ moneymaking machine

After a ceasefire in Gaza, they may continue their Red Sea racket

Marco Rubio will find China is hard to beat in Latin America

China buys lithium, copper and bull semen, and doesn’t export its ideology