GDS college enrolmments

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What were the college placements at NCS?

Holton and NCS are pretty much the same — mix of Ivies, Ivy+, and hard to get into state schools like Michigan.

Stone Ridge is right behind but not quite as many top schools.

As a parent at one of the above schools I can say Sidwell did better than all three of the girls’ schools. Really impressive.

NCS is much much better than Holton this year. Definitely not the same. I see 1 Ivy or Ivy+ admit at Holton in the RD round. The rest is state schools or third tier

This year, Holton has about 20 percent of the class going to Ivy+ schools and about 35 percent to top 20 schools (Ivy+, Vanderbilt, Berkeley, UMichigan and WashU)

There are girls going to Yale, Princeton, Duke, UChicago, Cornell, UPenn who haven’t posted their results yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I don't know if an exceptionally connected cohort at Sidwell, a strong reputation or grades that are slightly bumped up. My guess is that's a combo of all 3. On the last point, if you grade to a class average of a 3.7 you're going to have much better results across all kids than if you grade to a 3.5. Some of the other privates are still grading to something like a 3.5 (like it's still 1998). I imagine Sidwell has adjusted upwards as college results have become more difficult and this is why they're doing better across the board.

Sidwell does NOT bump up grades...sometimes it feels like they purposefully make it harder for students. Sidwell so far has not done great this year with the Ivies, I am surprised people are staying that...the ones who did get in to certain schools used connections...the two Harvard admits are purely deserving and great students...some of the rest? Not so much

Sidwell still has 16 Ivies and 12 U. Chicago, plus a couple of Stanford.

There are 17 Ivies posted on Sidwell’s IG account, and I know of at least one other Ivy admit that hasn’t posted. There are actually 15 UChicago admits, but only 12 have posted. And there are 2 Duke admits, but one hasn’t posted. There’s also an Oxford-bound student.

If you include the 2 Stanford admits, that’s 37 Ivy plus admits, or 30% of the grade. If you expand the list to T25 universities/T10 SLACs, about 50-60% of the class will attend those schools. I know some of y’all love to hate Sidwell, but you have to admit that sending over half the grade to T25U/T10S is impressive. That percentage doesn’t even include reputable schools like NYU, BC, and Tufts.

Very impressive.

Or you could say that these are kids who were born on third base and you're acting like they hit a triple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What were the college placements at NCS?

Holton and NCS are pretty much the same — mix of Ivies, Ivy+, and hard to get into state schools like Michigan.

Stone Ridge is right behind but not quite as many top schools.

As a parent at one of the above schools I can say Sidwell did better than all three of the girls’ schools. Really impressive.

NCS is much much better than Holton this year. Definitely not the same. I see 1 Ivy or Ivy+ admit at Holton in the RD round. The rest is state schools or third tier

This year, Holton has about 20 percent of the class going to Ivy+ schools and about 35 percent to top 20 schools (Ivy+, Vanderbilt, Berkeley, UMichigan and WashU)

There are girls going to Yale, Princeton, Duke, UChicago, Cornell, UPenn who haven’t posted their results yet.

Thats awesome! Go Holton!

[Anonymous]

IDK if people know this, but GDS limits the amount of colleges you're allowed to apply to at 12, and 5 of them have to be "safety/foundational" schools if you hit the max. This means that people really think about where they want to apply to and if they like the school! I don't know a single person at GDS that's upset with where they're going to college and I feel like that's all that really matters

-GDS senior

[Anonymous]

What is “foundational” defined as? Because there’s no reason for 5 out of 12 applications to be safety schools. If foundational means target, then ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IDK if people know this, but GDS limits the amount of colleges you're allowed to apply to at 12, and 5 of them have to be "safety/foundational" schools if you hit the max. This means that people really think about where they want to apply to and if they like the school! I don't know a single person at GDS that's upset with where they're going to college and I feel like that's all that really matters

-GDS senior

GDS’ college application cap is one of the reasons we turned it down, after my son was admitted (there were other reasons as well). It’s a stupid rule, and none of the administrators could offer a reasonable explanation. My son is a junior at Sidwell now, and he can’t even think of 2 safety schools he wants to attend/are good fits for what he’s looking for in a college. I’m baffled why anyone would need to apply to more than 2-3 safeties—they’re called safeties for a reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IDK if people know this, but GDS limits the amount of colleges you're allowed to apply to at 12, and 5 of them have to be "safety/foundational" schools if you hit the max. This means that people really think about where they want to apply to and if they like the school! I don't know a single person at GDS that's upset with where they're going to college and I feel like that's all that really matters

-GDS senior

GDS’ college application cap is one of the reasons we turned it down, after my son was admitted (there were other reasons as well). It’s a stupid rule, and none of the administrators could offer a reasonable explanation. My son is a junior at Sidwell now, and he can’t even think of 2 safety schools he wants to attend/are good fits for what he’s looking for in a college. I’m baffled why anyone would need to apply to more than 2-3 safeties—they’re called safeties for a reason.

I wouldn't be on such a high horse if my son were a junior at Sidwell right now. That grade (class of '27) is known for rampant cheating and misbehavior. The Science department has been left traumatized. I'm sure the college outcomes at Sidwell will dip next year because of how many kids were sent to the Honor Committee or reported to the school for cheating on assessments.

[Anonymous]

I am a GDS parent. We’re just getting underway re this. While I don’t love the cap, it has logic. Kids we know at other schools are applying to 18-22 colleges. That seems pretty nutty. I would be surprised if these kids can really execute successfully on that many school applications. Plus there are cases where top students run the table on all the top schools making it harder for everyone else. Sidwell does seem to have joined the private school-to-uchicago thing quite effectively as have some NY private schools. Beyond that, there are a lot of hooked kids in all these private schools for the Ivy League in particular. So I, at least, take the whole thing w a degree of humility. I certainly wouldn’t have picked another school for my kids based on this.

[Anonymous]

The cap works against kids who are in a hard to place sitution. Unhooked, mismatch between grades and test scores, not pointy, etc. These kid are truly applying into a black hole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IDK if people know this, but GDS limits the amount of colleges you're allowed to apply to at 12, and 5 of them have to be "safety/foundational" schools if you hit the max. This means that people really think about where they want to apply to and if they like the school! I don't know a single person at GDS that's upset with where they're going to college and I feel like that's all that really matters

-GDS senior

GDS’ college application cap is one of the reasons we turned it down, after my son was admitted (there were other reasons as well). It’s a stupid rule, and none of the administrators could offer a reasonable explanation. My son is a junior at Sidwell now, and he can’t even think of 2 safety schools he wants to attend/are good fits for what he’s looking for in a college. I’m baffled why anyone would need to apply to more than 2-3 safeties—they’re called safeties for a reason.

I wouldn't be on such a high horse if my son were a junior at Sidwell right now. That grade (class of '27) is known for rampant cheating and misbehavior. The Science department has been left traumatized. I'm sure the college outcomes at Sidwell will dip next year because of how many kids were sent to the Honor Committee or reported to the school for cheating on assessments.

There’s no high horse here. I don’t have a problem acknowledging the good and the bad at Sidwell. Rampant cheating in my son’s grade has definitely been an issue (and not just in the science department). Thankfully, my son doesn’t cheat and he’s never been called before the Honor Committee. That said, let’s return to the topic at hand: GDS’ 2026 college results generally, and the application cap specifically. The point I was trying to make is that I think GDS’ application cap (which includes a 5 safety school minimum) is doing a disservice to students. They should raise the cap to at least 15, and reduce the safety requirement to 2-3 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IDK if people know this, but GDS limits the amount of colleges you're allowed to apply to at 12, and 5 of them have to be "safety/foundational" schools if you hit the max. This means that people really think about where they want to apply to and if they like the school! I don't know a single person at GDS that's upset with where they're going to college and I feel like that's all that really matters

-GDS senior

GDS’ college application cap is one of the reasons we turned it down, after my son was admitted (there were other reasons as well). It’s a stupid rule, and none of the administrators could offer a reasonable explanation. My son is a junior at Sidwell now, and he can’t even think of 2 safety schools he wants to attend/are good fits for what he’s looking for in a college. I’m baffled why anyone would need to apply to more than 2-3 safeties—they’re called safeties for a reason.

I wouldn't be on such a high horse if my son were a junior at Sidwell right now. That grade (class of '27) is known for rampant cheating and misbehavior. The Science department has been left traumatized. I'm sure the college outcomes at Sidwell will dip next year because of how many kids were sent to the Honor Committee or reported to the school for cheating on assessments.

There’s no high horse here. I don’t have a problem acknowledging the good and the bad at Sidwell. Rampant cheating in my son’s grade has definitely been an issue (and not just in the science department). Thankfully, my son doesn’t cheat and he’s never been called before the Honor Committee. That said, let’s return to the topic at hand: GDS’ 2026 college results generally, and the application cap specifically. The point I was trying to make is that I think GDS’ application cap (which includes a 5 safety school minimum) is doing a disservice to students. They should raise the cap to at least 15, and reduce the safety requirement to 2-3 schools.

The cap has changed over the years, but currently it's up to 7 non-safety schools ("Reach" and "Target") and 3 to 5 safeties ("Foundation"). I'd prefer the non-safety cap be 8 or 9, but not sure if more beyond that is truly helpful. We'll see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a GDS parent. We’re just getting underway re this. While I don’t love the cap, it has logic. Kids we know at other schools are applying to 18-22 colleges. That seems pretty nutty. I would be surprised if these kids can really execute successfully on that many school applications. Plus there are cases where top students run the table on all the top schools making it harder for everyone else. Sidwell does seem to have joined the private school-to-uchicago thing quite effectively as have some NY private schools. Beyond that, there are a lot of hooked kids in all these private schools for the Ivy League in particular. So I, at least, take the whole thing w a degree of humility. I certainly wouldn’t have picked another school for my kids based on this.

Oooh, is that why WIS sends so many to UChicago? That was one of the things that surprised me on their matriculation list. I expected more of an international spread (with, of course, the usual Ivies and top American schools), but UChicago showed up a lot. I had no idea it was "a thing".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IDK if people know this, but GDS limits the amount of colleges you're allowed to apply to at 12, and 5 of them have to be "safety/foundational" schools if you hit the max. This means that people really think about where they want to apply to and if they like the school! I don't know a single person at GDS that's upset with where they're going to college and I feel like that's all that really matters

-GDS senior

GDS’ college application cap is one of the reasons we turned it down, after my son was admitted (there were other reasons as well). It’s a stupid rule, and none of the administrators could offer a reasonable explanation. My son is a junior at Sidwell now, and he can’t even think of 2 safety schools he wants to attend/are good fits for what he’s looking for in a college. I’m baffled why anyone would need to apply to more than 2-3 safeties—they’re called safeties for a reason.

I think it’s a great rule. At our school, so many kids apply to the same school and then a few kids get into a lot of them with everyone else being shut out. 12 schools is enough is you have a few safeties you’d be happy to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IDK if people know this, but GDS limits the amount of colleges you're allowed to apply to at 12, and 5 of them have to be "safety/foundational" schools if you hit the max. This means that people really think about where they want to apply to and if they like the school! I don't know a single person at GDS that's upset with where they're going to college and I feel like that's all that really matters

-GDS senior

GDS’ college application cap is one of the reasons we turned it down, after my son was admitted (there were other reasons as well). It’s a stupid rule, and none of the administrators could offer a reasonable explanation. My son is a junior at Sidwell now, and he can’t even think of 2 safety schools he wants to attend/are good fits for what he’s looking for in a college. I’m baffled why anyone would need to apply to more than 2-3 safeties—they’re called safeties for a reason.

I think it’s a great rule. At our school, so many kids apply to the same school and then a few kids get into a lot of them with everyone else being shut out. 12 schools is enough is you have a few safeties you’d be happy to attend.

Agreed! And there is no way a kid is doing much more than 12 high quality applications... they are so exhausting and if they are competitive, they have other things going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a GDS parent. We’re just getting underway re this. While I don’t love the cap, it has logic. Kids we know at other schools are applying to 18-22 colleges. That seems pretty nutty. I would be surprised if these kids can really execute successfully on that many school applications. Plus there are cases where top students run the table on all the top schools making it harder for everyone else. Sidwell does seem to have joined the private school-to-uchicago thing quite effectively as have some NY private schools. Beyond that, there are a lot of hooked kids in all these private schools for the Ivy League in particular. So I, at least, take the whole thing w a degree of humility. I certainly wouldn’t have picked another school for my kids based on this.

Oooh, is that why WIS sends so many to UChicago? That was one of the things that surprised me on their matriculation list. I expected more of an international spread (with, of course, the usual Ivies and top American schools), but UChicago showed up a lot. I had no idea it was "a thing".

WIS does not send that many kids to UChicago. Maybe 1 per year.