The "Private School" system is designed to allow parents to buy their kids a guaranteed place in the University system.
In my day (Melbourne Grammar) the school boasted that Ninety plus percent of its graduates went to university - we applied for places in the following order:
Melbourne Medicine
Melbourne Law (first pick depends if your Dad was Doctor or lawyer)
Monash Medicine
Monash Law
Melbourne Arts
Monash Arts
Melbourne Engineering
Monash Engineering
Melbourne Science
Monash Science
A few hippy malcontents did something different but the bulk did exactly as above.
Of course in those days University courses were FREE, so the public school kids whose parents had bought their way into the system made a handsome return on their investment. To this day, going into Owen Dixon chambers makes me think I'm at an old boys meeting - so many familiar faces.
As far as I can tell, most private schools are still merely crammers for university entrance, especially Melbourne Grammar, and provide a simply rotten education for anyone not focussed on University attendance, I unfortunately know several kids who fell by the wayside from that system.
Moi? I got kicked out of Two Universities, worked for a while, got resurrected by RMIT and Swinburne and never looked back.
Last edited by Sunfish; 14th May 2012 at 22:15.