The Los Angeles Guide to Private Schools

Rating:
Summary: Limited View of LA schools
Review: This book lists many of the well known private schools in the LA area, however it omits many others. Even when describing the schools selected, more information is given about the better known schools. The information in this book is also very out of date. I suggest getting this book from a library.

Rating:
Summary: OUTDATED
Review: This book seemed great at first but the more involved i got in my search for the right school the more i realized how outdated and limited it is. Many phone numbers and alot of the information is old and it barely scratches the surface of all the schools out there.

Rating:
Summary: A good effort, but lacking in some areas
Review: To be fair, accurately covering every private school in Los Angeles is a tall order, since they change drastically year by year, and sometimes month to month, depending on the students, shifting faculty, and erratic funds. But, that said, Ms. Goldman's guide was disappointing in its clear bias toward the well-known, prestigious L.A. school like Harvard/Westlake, Curtis, Marlboro, Loyola, etc. I must say that the smaller, alternative schools don't get much of a fair shake in this edition. I'm a grandparent, raising a teenage granddaughter with many problems (which we needn't go into here), and, smart and lovely and talented as she is, she just isn't going to get into Harvard-Westlake at the moment. Nor do I make enough money to send her to Campbell Hall. This is a good book if you happen to be a Spielberg, and your kid is a straight A student; but it's limited on information for those of us looking for feasible alternatives. Plus, I need to know REAL issues: what's the social situation at some of these places? What kind of substances are floating around? How much smoke is in the bathroom? I may be asking a lot, but the truth of the matter is, academics, faculty-to-student ratio, and course offerings are just a small part of school. We need somebody to give us the real scoop.