If you ever wondered which private school Prince Harry attended or where Daniel Radcliffe went, here are the answers. Sometimes I think popular culture is just a tad too obsessed with stars and famous people. They are, after all, just humans like you and me. Or are they? In any case the good start which many famous people got in private school doesn't hurt.

I was rather appalled to read that Andrews Osborne Academy had withdrawn from the Ohio High School Athletic Association. Not appalled that the school had withdrawn, but that it felt it had to.

I just don't get this sort of prejudice, for that's how it looks to me. If an international student is accepted at an American private school, he or she should be accorded the rights of an American student. Period. Full stop. That is the essence of I-20 student visas, work permits and so on. You are here legally. You should be accorded all the rights and privileges that legal standing accords you.

Perhaps there is more to this story than I am able to see. Anybody care to post their thoughts and comments in the Private Schools Forum?

Now's the time to get your PFS completed and filed. Bear in mind that this economy is taking its toll on private school endowments. Typically schools use some of the return on their investments (endowments) to put into their financial aid pool. My advice is simple: get to the front of the line. Brian Fisher over at AdmissionsQuest makes some good points about financial aid in Thoughts on the Opening of the Boarding School Financial Aid Season. In a nutshell, you probably stand a better chance at getting more financial aid when you apply to a school which really wants you.

When I started writing about private schools years ago, print guidebooks about private schools had the field pretty much to themselves. Then along came the Internet which rapidly made a lot of data about private schools available to anyone who cared to look for it, like me.

Fortunately for the writers of guidebooks, their services are still needed. After all, who, except for a nutcase like me, is going to have the time or the inclination, or the expertise for that matter, to poke around and find all that information. Then, when all is said and done, you won't really have much more than a lot of data and statistics anyway, because private schools are remarkably secretive about certain bits of information. (They can do that because they are private.)

Have a look at Private School Guidebooks. Errors, omissions and comments will be gratefully received.