Average GPA at SWW (DC "magnet") is 3.93 unweighted; this is what private kids are up against

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Insane grade inflation in DCPS:
https://www.swwrookery.com/post/hugely-inflated-are-pandemic-era-grading-policies-doing-more-harm-than-good
A's are given for "any effort at all"

SWW has fantastic college admissions again this year--better than any private. This is what the DC private school kids are up against with their
3.4's for working their a$$es off. 🙁

Can you provide evidence for that?

They're probably the best in the DC for getting unhooked (white/Asian, non-legacy, non athletic recruit) kids into Ivies. This year I don't know exactly but it's probably as many as 10 kids.
Some are on their Instagram, others I just know about. In contrast, the Big 3s' are maybe getting in 2 of these kids per class this year. I have a Big3 kid who attended DCPS until middle school
so we know Walls kids very well as many of my kid's friends attend Walls.

This.And it happening at MCPS also (Whitman and BCC). Incredible years for college acceptances. It's really great to see such success for these kids who had some really crappy covid years.

SWW’s 7 total acceptances to Yale (1), Penn (2), Cornell (3), and Barnard (1) is nice for an academic magnet high school. However, 7 admissions out of 150 to 160 students is not “incredible.”

. Barnard is counting as an Ivy these days??

I’m trying to help Walls by including Ivy-adjacent Barnard in their count.

The Barnard degree says Columbia University so there is that. It is one of Columbia's colleges. But not sure why people here care so much about whats going on at SWW. You made a choice for your kid. Just focus on that and the mental health of your kids.

No matter how we choose to educate our children, we are free to discuss anything we want. If you don’t like it, too bad. You can only control yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I

Because I’m not the OP. I’m simply asking a question. Instagram posts show that Walls is sending 7 students to Ivies (I’m generously including Barnard). Perhaps Walls is having “better” placement than some privates this years, but it’s certainly not better than Sidwell.

There are plenty of kids at SWW whose parents went to the schools listed - ie legacy applicants.

I don't know or care about the particulars this year, but certainly in prior years hooked students benefited from this.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Insane grade inflation in DCPS:
https://www.swwrookery.com/post/hugely-inflated-are-pandemic-era-grading-policies-doing-more-harm-than-good
A's are given for "any effort at all"

SWW has fantastic college admissions again this year--better than any private. This is what the DC private school kids are up against with their
3.4's for working their a$$es off. 🙁

Can you provide evidence for that?

They're probably the best in the DC for getting unhooked (white/Asian, non-legacy, non athletic recruit) kids into Ivies. This year I don't know exactly but it's probably as many as 10 kids.
Some are on their Instagram, others I just know about. In contrast, the Big 3s' are maybe getting in 2 of these kids per class this year. I have a Big3 kid who attended DCPS until middle school
so we know Walls kids very well as many of my kid's friends attend Walls.

Are you saying Walls is the best public school doing this?

Based on Instagram posts alone, Sidwell is sending 11 students to Ivies this year (and Ivy equivalents—MIT and U of C). Sidwell also has 25 fewer students per grade than Walls.

Did you read my post? Walls is getting UNHOOKED kids into the Ivies. white/Asian/non-legacy/non athletes.
My understanding is that pretty much all the Sidwell kids are hooked. You can tell by their Instagram and by some quick googling.
For example, Princeton at Sidwell: one URM, two legacies. One legacy is also a VIP's kid, I believe the other has a parent who has been active at Princeton post graduation.

Anyway, this is the trend with most if not all Ivy admits from Big3 schools this year.

You do realize that legacy status alone won’t get you into any Ivy, right? A closer look? Perhaps, but that’s it. I know top students (grades and test scores) who are double Ivy legacies but they were not admitted to their parents’ alma mater.

sure, it doesn't get you in but it gets you about a 30% chance vs 3% for the general population.

Citation for the 30% please? The citation should only include legacies who are NOT also URM, recruited athletes, and the children of big donors.

In fact, a recent Harvard Crimson survey of the 2021 class found that an astounding 29 percent of students — nearly a third — had a relation (parent, grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle etc.) who attended Harvard. This is almost double the proportion in the survey (16.3 percent) who said their parents lack a four-year college degree. NBC News and the Crimson

The 29% that you cite (without a link) does not apply here. Harvard only considers children of Harvard College (not University) to be legacies for purposes of admission. You are NOT a legacy if your aunt/uncle/grandparents/siblings graduated from Harvard College. You are also not considered to be a legacy applicant if your parents graduated from HBS/HLS/or another Harvard University graduate program.

“Are my chances of admission enhanced if a relative has attended Harvard?

The application process is the same for all candidates. Among a group of similarly distinguished applicants, the children of Harvard College alumni/ae may receive an additional look.”

https://college.harvard.edu/resources/faq

When it comes to kicking the unfair “extra look” colleges give to legacy applicants, Harvard is falling behind, and its peers are taking the lead. Just last Wednesday, Amherst College announced that it will be doing away with legacy admissions — joining the ranks of schools such as Caltech and MIT, who already do not consider legacy status.

It doesn’t take much to recognize that the Harvard admissions process is grossly competitive — after all, the acceptance rate for the Class of 2025 was a staggering low of 3.43 percent. The children of alumni have excelled in this hypercompetitive environment. Between 2014 and 2019, the acceptance rate for legacies, 33 percent, dwarfed Harvard’s overall acceptance rate of only 6 percent.
Harvard Crimson 10/28/2021

[Anonymous]

^ Once again, for those in the cheap seats: What is Harvard’s legacy admit rate for legacies who are NOT also URM, recruited athletes, and the children of big donors? It’s not 33%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But for YEARS everyone has been saying that they're just competing against the others in their school. So, that's not correct?

It this year. I think the grading differences are so severe that colleges are now entirely passing on private school kids with sun 3.5 GPAs.

Maybe the college actually knows what they are doing?
Maybe they realize the privilege the private school child was afforded.
Do you really think readers of applications are not aware of how private schools grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So does this mean you are for SATS now as a distinguishing input?

Because Money (Private Test Prep) does not align with higher SAT scores

You know there are actual studies that urban kids do better on ACT vs SAT - but for some reason DCPS only pays for free taking of SAT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But for YEARS everyone has been saying that they're just competing against the others in their school. So, that's not correct?

It this year. I think the grading differences are so severe that colleges are now entirely passing on private school kids with sun 3.5 GPAs.

Maybe the college actually knows what they are doing?
Maybe they realize the privilege the private school child was afforded.
Do you really think readers of applications are not aware of how private schools grade?

That "privilege" comment makes no sense at all. So what if a kid's parents struggled to afford them a private school education? So what if they put a kid in private school because they were being bullied in public school? So what if a kid was brilliant and got a scholarship to a private school? Why would you want this count against them in college applications? Why does it matter? Focus on the education the kid got and their preparedness to take on what your college has to offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Insane grade inflation in DCPS:
https://www.swwrookery.com/post/hugely-inflated-are-pandemic-era-grading-policies-doing-more-harm-than-good
A's are given for "any effort at all"

SWW has fantastic college admissions again this year--better than any private. This is what the DC private school kids are up against with their
3.4's for working their a$$es off. 🙁

SWW weights grades: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ee0f425c4f3ed4b48c52995/t/5f35f984ead1ce6d7d275ad1/1597372804296/GradeBumpDoc_rev011016.pdf

3.3 unweighted seemed to be the midpoint at my kids’ private. 3.93 at SWW seems comparable.

No, we can only compare apples to apples. What is SWW’s average unweighted GPA?

This is where it really matters and is so vastly different form private school grading:

"The upside to the more permissive grading policy is that it can help students present an impeccable — or close to impeccable — transcript to college admissions offices, even if they feel more pressure to maintain that record. Not all students see an issue with that. “Personally, the 63 is better than a zero,” Michael McCleod (‘24) said, “and I’ve got a lot of 63s that have really saved my grade. That’s a good thing.”

“It’s definitely helped my grades so much so that I don’t have to really worry about them as much,” Malcolm Douglas (‘23) said. “I know that there’s going to be a 63 percent if I turn in the assignment, at the lowest, and then if I don’t do the work, it’ll be a WS, which is a 50 percent. So knowing [that], I’ve kind of worked the system a bit and can get by.” "

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Insane grade inflation in DCPS:
https://www.swwrookery.com/post/hugely-inflated-are-pandemic-era-grading-policies-doing-more-harm-than-good
A's are given for "any effort at all"

SWW has fantastic college admissions again this year--better than any private. This is what the DC private school kids are up against with their
3.4's for working their a$$es off. 🙁

Move your kids to where they are at advantage. Use part of money you save for tutors and SAT prep to supplement their education and extracurriculars at public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I’m not in the DC area but from an area with a similar competitive private school landscape, also with grade inflated public schools, and as far as I can tell the privates are doing just fine in college admissions even for unhooked kids. Is this a DC thing?

It’s a DC thing to be perpetually unhappy with your school choice and claim that other choices are messing up your own. The “public school kids are cheating private school kids out of college admissions” is a fun new twist, though.

It's so fun to see these parents who have spent $1 million on their precious Larla's education only to have them end up at worse colleges than the SWW and JR kids. Probably very healthy for the kids though. In the real world at last!

I’m the poster from out of DC and you seem crazy to me. But this whole thread seems crazy.

+1 Lots of privileged kids at SWW. Don't kid yourself.

[Anonymous]

It is pretty shocking to see the SWW hate here. The school has crappy facilities, the students aren’t coddled, and the school still must contend with DCPS bureaucracy. And lots of their families there can’t afford to go to the schools you drool over, even though their kids get in. If kids can navigate all that and still end up at Cornell or Yale, good for them! Even more impressive are the kids who got full rides or massive amounts of merit aid to highly regarded schools. Walls is a rare DCPS success story. Anyone who pays taxes in the city should celebrate this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Insane grade inflation in DCPS:
https://www.swwrookery.com/post/hugely-inflated-are-pandemic-era-grading-policies-doing-more-harm-than-good
A's are given for "any effort at all"

SWW has fantastic college admissions again this year--better than any private. This is what the DC private school kids are up against with their
3.4's for working their a$$es off. 🙁

“SWW has fantastic college admissions again this year--better than any private.”

Absolutely untrue. Off the top of my head, Walls’ college 2023 admissions were NOT better than Holton, Sidwell, GDS, and WIS. All of those schools have far fewer students than Walls, and it wasn’t even close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But for YEARS everyone has been saying that they're just competing against the others in their school. So, that's not correct?

It this year. I think the grading differences are so severe that colleges are now entirely passing on private school kids with sun 3.5 GPAs.

Maybe the college actually knows what they are doing?
Maybe they realize the privilege the private school child was afforded.
Do you really think readers of applications are not aware of how private schools grade?

That "privilege" comment makes no sense at all. So what if a kid's parents struggled to afford them a private school education? So what if they put a kid in private school because they were being bullied in public school? So what if a kid was brilliant and got a scholarship to a private school? Why would you want this count against them in college applications? Why does it matter? Focus on the education the kid got and their preparedness to take on what your college has to offer.

Your child is privileged in comparison to the kid who is stuck in public school being bullied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares? Signed - Big 3 parent whose high stats kid has been caught in the changing tides. We will all be fine. Stop worrying about other people. Congrats to the kids at SWW (and any other school) with their acceptances.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But for YEARS everyone has been saying that they're just competing against the others in their school. So, that's not correct?

It this year. I think the grading differences are so severe that colleges are now entirely passing on private school kids with sun 3.5 GPAs.

Maybe the college actually knows what they are doing?
Maybe they realize the privilege the private school child was afforded.
Do you really think readers of applications are not aware of how private schools grade?

That "privilege" comment makes no sense at all. So what if a kid's parents struggled to afford them a private school education? So what if they put a kid in private school because they were being bullied in public school? So what if a kid was brilliant and got a scholarship to a private school? Why would you want this count against them in college applications? Why does it matter? Focus on the education the kid got and their preparedness to take on what your college has to offer.

Your child is privileged in comparison to the kid who is stuck in public school being bullied.

There will always be children who are more privileged than others. Stop trying to compete in the Oppression Olympics.