My kids graduated from Sidwell. I agree with much that the first poster above says -- except for the part about college counseling. Sidwell's strength in the US is a faculty and peer group which combine to create a robust intellectual experience. The college counseling program is fine, but not exceptional. |
But college counseling at Sidwell starts with a class junior year, no? That's more than most privates and certainly more than any public. |
Most of the Sidwell grads I know, including my own kids, would say that the college counseling workshop was not all that. |
Still. They took time out of the day during junior year to give some thought as to what kind of college they wanted, big/small, urban/rural, what they wanted to do there, and more. That's a blessing. |
Any more updates on this thread? Where do the kids at the lower end of the Sidwell class go to college? |
Great schools, but none attended that "#1 ranked International Business School - South Carolina" or that fine institution Indiana. They settled for Top 25 schools and selective SLACs. |
I'm not going to read the whole thread but you know this has been well publicized. Colleges like geographic diversity, especially the top ones. A straight A student from some podunk public school in North Dakota with good test scores is always going to beat out a middling student at a school like Sidwell. Just how it is. |
Sidwell kids do well on the SAT because the SAT is highly correlated with family income. |
Why do you think that is? One explanation: the SAT measures intelligence (it is one test accepted for admission to MENSA) and there is surely some correlation between intelligence and family income. |
Correlation ? causation |
Over the years I've met plenty of people that had perfect or near perfect scores on the SAT and none of them were dumb (some were unlikable, but that's a different story).
On the other hand, I've met many 4.0 (or higher) students who were genuinely dumb. Grade inflation is a reality and there is no uniform standard across schools. The SAT is the best metric available, though it is not perfect. |
This is true, but not especially relevant for this thread. There isn't a school in the country that is looking for DCUM-type kids based on "geographic diversity." NW DC, Lower MoCo and NoVa are well represented everywhere. It's places like North Dakota or Alaska where you'll get that bump. |
This is incorrect -- not every student from sidwell went to a top 25 school. that is a ridiculous claim and sidwell does not publish college results so there is no evidence. I however personally know 3 recent grads of sidwell that did not got to a top 25 college -- one was U Maryland, one was Connecticut college and the third was sewanne. That's a sample size of 3 but discredit your claim. |
Connecticut College and Sewanee are selective SLACs |
I know a 2013 Sidwell grad who went to a different LAC well below below the top 25 USNWR LAC rankings. I happen to think the rankings are useless, but the point is that the first PP is full of it. |