Any Parents Privately Disappointed with College Placement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yup. And that's before we get to the whole "the happy bottom quarter" policy. Wonder if that still exists.

Wasn't the "happy bottom quarter" traditionally the kids of the wealthy and connected? In which case it may still exist. I doubt it's as high as 25% these days, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Be careful guessing about public high school college counseling. While a public high school might have extensive database about where kids have gone in the past, my experience is the counselors know almost nothing personal about the kids whom they are counseling.

But the good news is that the public high school counselors don't have to know anything (or at least much) about our kids. You just go online and enter DC's SAT scores, GPA, and a college DC is interested in. Up pops a graph with SATs on one axis, GPA on another access, and little x's for rejected kids and circles for kids from the MoCo HS who were accepted at that particular college. For some colleges there have been hundreds of applicants, so you start to get a fairly good picture of what's going on with that college.

There are a few downsides. You don't know much else about the kids who were accepted or rejected, like their extracurriculars or sports talent. And another tricky part for which I'd like some counseling input, is what schools are best for, say, a kid who wants to become an architect or a medieval history expert. But for that, asking professionals in the fields is probably the way to go. Is the concern that DC would do better at a smaller school than a larger one? I think I can handle that and steer DC to Amherst instead of Cornell.

I still think, though, that the private school counselor's connections to college admissions offices could help, if the counselor is inclined (not a given) to go to bat for your kid.

[Anonymous]

Yikes. "GPAs on another axis", not access.

[Anonymous]

Originally that may have been true, but by the time I got there it had morphed into a more arts/athletics/entrepreneurial kind of thing -- i.e kids whose form of excellence (center of gravity) wasn't particularly academic. And it may have been the case that some of those kids benefit from/gave back as much or more to Harvard as the PBK type kids.

[Anonymous]

That is actually what I meant: at Harvard, for every blows-you-away student, there are three or four just excellent students.

And now, all of the "excellent" students have a hook -- athletics, minority status, or VERY VERY rich and connected legacy. So for most of us, forget about Harvard. Focus your DC's attention on other great schools.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, places like Swarthmore and other Ivies are almost as hard to get into....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't agree with 13:37 more. My goal for my kids was to send them to a school where they would learn how to *learn,* to learn how to study; to think critically and to be exposed to great teaching in a stimulating environment. From the list of college acceptances at our school, I assume my kids will do just fine. I think there's a better shot of getting into a very good school from private when you're not necessarily at the top of your class then if you're in the middle at a big public. I could care less about the Ivy League - there are so many first-rate colleges and universities in this country and great grad schools also. In addition, I assume that my kids will be very well prepared for college as a result of their education in high school, unlike their dear old mom.

But a kid who is in the middle of his class at an academically competitive private perhaps would have been at the top of the class at a public.

not at a langley, a yorktown or mclean HS.

[Anonymous]

Not true pp. The Washingtonian Magazine had a story a few years ago where the head of admissions at Georgetown and UVA said they only looked at TJ and didn't think the other no VA schools were good enough

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't agree with 13:37 more. My goal for my kids was to send them to a school where they would learn how to *learn,* to learn how to study; to think critically and to be exposed to great teaching in a stimulating environment. From the list of college acceptances at our school, I assume my kids will do just fine. I think there's a better shot of getting into a very good school from private when you're not necessarily at the top of your class then if you're in the middle at a big public. I could care less about the Ivy League - there are so many first-rate colleges and universities in this country and great grad schools also. In addition, I assume that my kids will be very well prepared for college as a result of their education in high school, unlike their dear old mom.

But a kid who is in the middle of his class at an academically competitive private perhaps would have been at the top of the class at a public.

Why would you think that?

[Anonymous]

Because the private schools have placement tests and can take the cream of the crop -- whereas public schools have to take everyone

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because the private schools have placement tests and can take the cream of the crop -- whereas public schools have to take everyone

but the cream of the crop at publics is just as good as the cream of the crop at privates - except at Thomas Jefferson of course, where it's better thn the privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because the private schools have placement tests and can take the cream of the crop -- whereas public schools have to take everyone

but the cream of the crop at publics is just as good as the cream of the crop at privates - except at Thomas Jefferson of course, where it's better thn the privates.

Yes, this.

The ignorance of that statement is just staggering.

Money cannot buy intelligence, motivation, or analytical ability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because the private schools have placement tests and can take the cream of the crop -- whereas public schools have to take everyone

but the cream of the crop at publics is just as good as the cream of the crop at privates - except at Thomas Jefferson of course, where it's better thn the privates.

Yes, this.

The ignorance of that statement is just staggering.

Money cannot buy intelligence, motivation, or analytical ability.

which statement? 16:30 or 17:09?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because the private schools have placement tests and can take the cream of the crop -- whereas public schools have to take everyone

but the cream of the crop at publics is just as good as the cream of the crop at privates - except at Thomas Jefferson of course, where it's better thn the privates.

ITA too. The difference between the cream of the publics and the top privates is family money, not brains.

In fact, it's not even about the money, often it's a choice to go public. We turned down a top 2 for a MoCo magnet. We know 6-7 other families who made the same choice, turning down Sidwell or the cathedral schools. Kids who "made the cut" for the top privates, but who are in public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you bring up a valid point though you'd be hard pressed to find people to open up and admit it.

Private schools, especially those like Flint Hill that seem to accommodate children with minor learning issues, are not merely for those who scored in the top 5% of testing. Privates are often times used by those parents who believe they will provide extra attention, extra nurturing, or extra sensitivity to their child's needs. For example I know of a parent who put her child at a private simply to accommodate his extreme sensitivity to loud noises. Public schools would never have done that. I know of many parents who brought their children to privates because their children had dyslexia or add or some kind of LD.

Potomac isn't generally known to accommodate children with these or any kind of learning issues, however. But I was told by one Ivy league graduate who went to Potomac that one third of her grad class went to Univ of Va. Univ of Va is a good school but not in the league of Duke, Yale, Georgetown, etc.. and it's reasonable to expect the kids from Potomac would have fared better.

I spoke to a few parents at another private, however, who said they'd be thrilled if their child went to Univ of Va though. So it all depends on the private.

Not to hijack the thread, but you can't possibly be serious that Duke and Georgetown are better than UVA? That is an uninformed comment.