GDS and Sidwell comparison?

[Anonymous]

ED / this has nothing to do with comparing GDS and SFS lower schools.

[Anonymous]

… I encourage parents applying to these schools to be highly skeptical of what gets posted here over the next few months. Ask the schools you're applying to if they can put you in touch with real parents who you can talk to. Use your friend networks to find real parents to talk to. Real people will have more honest, and reasonable, views that what gets posted here on DCUM during silly season.

Thanks for this, and I'm sure there's truth to this. I think if parents and kids could visit schools in person it would help a lot, but some schools (these two in particular) aren't allowing that. And a zoom call just isn't enough, so we grasp for whatever information we can find. Someone said last year these schools allowed admitted students to tour in person. Not sure if that will include their parents, but even if it's just the kids that would help a great deal.

PP responding. No doubt Covid makes it harder because you can sometimes get a vibe (good or bad) from visiting a school and seeing the teachers and admin in action. And for middle and high school, your child will surely want to get a feel for the place. But recognize that those tours are fairly heavily curated for all schools. I strongly suggest talking with current parents at any school you’re seriously considering. Having those one-on-one discussions where you can ask direct questions and judge tone is invaluable. Best would be if you can meet another parent to go for an outside walk and talk, so you can hear answers in person. My kids’ school solicits parents who are active and friendly to talk to prospective parents. When we get contacted, we provide honest feedback on both positive and negative. Take advantage of this!

I’d suggest though that you not do this right now. Wait until March (?) when admissions results come out, and make your calls then. If you want to do something productive now, check your extended social network to find people who have kids at these schools and ask them if they’d be willing to talk with you in a couple months after you get admission results.

No school is perfect, so you’re surely going to find things you don’t like. Just try to learn as much as possible in advance. These places are stupid expensive, and it can be challenging to switch later, so you want to avoid buyers remorse.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell college admissions a disaster this year in the early round...parents are up in arms. For some reason GDS and St Albans are doing better, not great but OK. It's a strange year but worth noting Sidwell College admissions have been in flux for several years.

Really? I know of at least 30 kids from the grade who got in to their ED's. How is that a disaster?

Most kids who took the most challenge math and science courses didn't get in to their ED/EA.

College admissions to the top schools (EA/ED) this year is either legacy or $$$ or sports or some special hook such as URM, etc.

Maybe kids who excel in math/science but have no hook should go to public high schools like TJ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell college admissions a disaster this year in the early round...parents are up in arms. For some reason GDS and St Albans are doing better, not great but OK. It's a strange year but worth noting Sidwell College admissions have been in flux for several years.

Really? I know of at least 30 kids from the grade who got in to their ED's. How is that a disaster?

Most kids who took the most challenge math and science courses didn't get in to their ED/EA.

I'm a Sidwell parent, not of a Senior but one whose child takes these courses, and this doesn't bother me. It would seem that these kids are going to reach for the most competitive schools and the chances of getting into a single school of that caliber ED/EA is still a crapshoot. My guess is these kids will eventually end up at a highly competitive school when they cast their net to include a larger list of such schools. It is not a failure of the Sidwell college admissions team if your hard curriculum, high stats kid is not accepted EA/AD to a lottery school that has 10 kids just like you for each spot.

[Anonymous]

Question:
How long been at the school?
Why apply, why pick it? (And does this apply to your child or family, at all)
Surprises to the upside and downside. Tell the me the good, the bad, the ugly about the school.
What one or two things would you like to change or improve.
If you had to move 500 miles away to another city, how confident would you be in your child’s existing knowledge and skills. And why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

… I encourage parents applying to these schools to be highly skeptical of what gets posted here over the next few months. Ask the schools you're applying to if they can put you in touch with real parents who you can talk to. Use your friend networks to find real parents to talk to. Real people will have more honest, and reasonable, views that what gets posted here on DCUM during silly season.

Thanks for this, and I'm sure there's truth to this. I think if parents and kids could visit schools in person it would help a lot, but some schools (these two in particular) aren't allowing that. And a zoom call just isn't enough, so we grasp for whatever information we can find. Someone said last year these schools allowed admitted students to tour in person. Not sure if that will include their parents, but even if it's just the kids that would help a great deal.

PP responding. No doubt Covid makes it harder because you can sometimes get a vibe (good or bad) from visiting a school and seeing the teachers and admin in action. And for middle and high school, your child will surely want to get a feel for the place. But recognize that those tours are fairly heavily curated for all schools. I strongly suggest talking with current parents at any school you’re seriously considering. Having those one-on-one discussions where you can ask direct questions and judge tone is invaluable. Best would be if you can meet another parent to go for an outside walk and talk, so you can hear answers in person. My kids’ school solicits parents who are active and friendly to talk to prospective parents. When we get contacted, we provide honest feedback on both positive and negative. Take advantage of this!

I’d suggest though that you not do this right now. Wait until March (?) when admissions results come out, and make your calls then. If you want to do something productive now, check your extended social network to find people who have kids at these schools and ask them if they’d be willing to talk with you in a couple months after you get admission results.

No school is perfect, so you’re surely going to find things you don’t like. Just try to learn as much as possible in advance. These places are stupid expensive, and it can be challenging to switch later, so you want to avoid buyers remorse.

Good luck!

Thanks for this, and you're right, I'd feel more comfortable doing this after we know we got in. They give you 2 weeks to decide, yes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell college admissions a disaster this year in the early round...parents are up in arms. For some reason GDS and St Albans are doing better, not great but OK. It's a strange year but worth noting Sidwell College admissions have been in flux for several years.

Really? I know of at least 30 kids from the grade who got in to their ED's. How is that a disaster?

Most kids who took the most challenge math and science courses didn't get in to their ED/EA.

While this is probably a true statement, given percentages, exactly how many ED acceptances out of 125 kids in a grade, or say, 60 taking advanced math AND science, would be a successful number. Remember now, most of these kids are applying to schools with singe or low double digit acceptance rates.

[Anonymous]

“ Thanks for this, and you're right, I'd feel more comfortable doing this after we know we got in. They give you 2 weeks to decide, yes?”

Correct. That’s why you want to find people now, and line them up to talk to later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell college admissions a disaster this year in the early round...parents are up in arms. For some reason GDS and St Albans are doing better, not great but OK. It's a strange year but worth noting Sidwell College admissions have been in flux for several years.

Really? I know of at least 30 kids from the grade who got in to their ED's. How is that a disaster?

Most kids who took the most challenge math and science courses didn't get in to their ED/EA.

While this is probably a true statement, given percentages, exactly how many ED acceptances out of 125 kids in a grade, or say, 60 taking advanced math AND science, would be a successful number. Remember now, most of these kids are applying to schools with singe or low double digit acceptance rates.

Only less than 15 kids taking both advanced Math and science

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“ Thanks for this, and you're right, I'd feel more comfortable doing this after we know we got in. They give you 2 weeks to decide, yes?”

Correct. That’s why you want to find people now, and line them up to talk to later.

Ask the school the tough questions too, once your in.

Parents or friends of friends currently at the school may still only say or exaggerate positive things, since they don’t want to admit they aren’t that happy with their investment.
It’s also why you find out in June who is leaving the school, not during the year or in March. You get pestered and have nothing good to say so you provide generic reasons.

[Anonymous]

I want to echo something the PP said about talking to current families, even ones that are in your social circle. There are many, many reasons that current families—including those you’re friends with—won’t tell you as much as you think they might or be as unvarnished as you think they will be. To be sure, many families really like the school they chose, or at least like it well enough, so I’m not saying anyone is being dishonest. However, as someone who talked to many current families of schools where our child was admitted, I can say in hindsight that most of those conversations weren’t terribly revealing, even though I asked some hard questions.

At bottom, once you know where you get in, you really will have to just take a leap of faith as to which one you think will work best for your kid. No one knows for sure how something is going to work out before it unfolds. School is an experience good.

[Anonymous]

And you can always make a change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell college admissions a disaster this year in the early round...parents are up in arms. For some reason GDS and St Albans are doing better, not great but OK. It's a strange year but worth noting Sidwell College admissions have been in flux for several years.

Really? I know of at least 30 kids from the grade who got in to their ED's. How is that a disaster?

Most kids who took the most challenge math and science courses didn't get in to their ED/EA.

what schools did they unsuccessfully apply to for EA/ED

It’s incredible that they would pretend to know which schools all of 60 kids have applied to and which they have been accepted to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“ Thanks for this, and you're right, I'd feel more comfortable doing this after we know we got in. They give you 2 weeks to decide, yes?”

Correct. That’s why you want to find people now, and line them up to talk to later.

Ask the school the tough questions too, once your in.

Parents or friends of friends currently at the school may still only say or exaggerate positive things, since they don’t want to admit they aren’t that happy with their investment.
It’s also why you find out in June who is leaving the school, not during the year or in March. You get pestered and have nothing good to say so you provide generic reasons.

Meh. My kids have been at one of these schools for many years now. I don’t think anyone is protecting any “investment.” People who are irritated with the school are pretty happy to talk about it to friends; people whose kids leave (not very many IME) don’t have trouble saying so. But usually their unhappiness with the school or the kid leaving is because of a personal family struggle and there are hard feelings involved (eg, kid struggling academically or socially, behavior issues, other conflicts) so it’s not the kind of stuff you’d readily share with a stranger. No one is unhappy or leaving because the LS student-teacher ratio is 1:11 instead of 1:10, or because of how many hours of unstructured recess kids are getting. Ask questions about the school. No one really has anything to gain by sugarcoating it. The simple fact is that most families like these schools. They’re good schools, parents are involved and interesting, school teachers are focused on the kids, and the kids are smart. What’s not to like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell college admissions a disaster this year in the early round...parents are up in arms. For some reason GDS and St Albans are doing better, not great but OK. It's a strange year but worth noting Sidwell College admissions have been in flux for several years.

Really? I know of at least 30 kids from the grade who got in to their ED's. How is that a disaster?

Most kids who took the most challenge math and science courses didn't get in to their ED/EA.

what schools did they unsuccessfully apply to for EA/ED

It’s incredible that they would pretend to know which schools all of 60 kids have applied to and which they have been accepted to.

huh?
-It's all posted on social media by kids as soon as the results are out. Then they update their instagram heading: "Duke '26" or whatever. My kid in in 9th grade at a different Big3 and she and all her friends talk about where the seniors they know (and don't know) got in and where they didn't.
Granted, this is a bit nuts for a 9th grader to be thinking about but that is another conversation.
-also it sounds like the kids this poster is referring to is a group of about 15 in the highest math/science track and not a school-wide group of 60. Those 15 definitely know who got in and who did not get in.