Sidwell, 3.93 1570 Junior - T10 prospects?

[Anonymous]

For the completely unhooked, an “A” in Math III and Math IV means a whole lot more (exponentially more) and is more likely to be correlated with a teacher recommendation that reads “truly gifted in math and is one of the best math students I have seen in my 30 year teaching career” than an “A” in Calculus 1 and Calculus 2 (which are both great courses by the way) and is more likely to be correlated with a teacher recommendation that reads “has a strong aptitude for math and should excel in college level math”. These distinctions really matter, especially when applying to T10 schools for the UNHOOKED.

These distinctions do not matter for the hooked, however. VIP, legacy, URM (previously), ROTC willingness, and athletes are hooked and they do not need to worry about this in the way that the unhooked do. Yes, many hooked applicants are strong students, but there are simply different rules for the unhooked. It’s not a value judgment about the hooked, but you are naive if you think your unhooked applicant is calibrated the same way as the hooked applicant.

The reality is most students should probably not be in Math III and Math IV because it’s not their thing to the level it needs to be and, yes, it’s probably better to get an A in Calculus 1 and Calculus 2 and take the AB Calculus exam to show proficiency to optimize one’s chances. These are all great courses and sadly this gets lots in shuffle of college admissions game theory.

[Anonymous]

OP your kid can definitely shoot for HPSM, could maybe get into one of them. M likes math rigor so that would be least likely. Penn, Duke, Yale, Columbia I could see 2 acceptances with great essays. The rest of the schools should feel well within range.

[Anonymous]

Look broadly and shoot high but keep everything in perspective. All the most selective schools are ultimately random to a large degree. Agree that the CCO is really good at trying to dampen expectations and limit applications. For good reason -- it's competitive and random. Our kid ended up applying to a lot of schools, and it was a lot of essays, but ultimately the school they will probably attend (pending the last decisions) is one that the CCO would have cut off as too much of a long-shot. The CCO is really important for pushing paper out to the colleges. But not so great for giving straight answers to anything ("Q: should I send my quarter grades? A: what do you think?").

[Anonymous]

Might be better to sim for T10-20….better odds in ED??

[Anonymous]

OP, please ignore it all, including me but please hear this: your kid is doing amazingly well. I’ve read this thread and I think it’s mostly ridiculous to possibly purposefully misleading. Apply to T10 and beyond. It’ll work out.

[Anonymous]

Soon you and your kid will get access to Scior, which is what SFS uses instead of Naviance. There you can input your child's GPA and test scores and see how they stand up to the past 4 or so years of Sidwell applicants. The GPA is not weighted, so course rigor won't be included. Nor does Scoir indicate whether an applicant is an athlete, legacy or other sought after type of student. Nonetheless, I suspect you'll see that your non-stem child will be competitive at most of the top 10 schools (excluding the MIT, CalTech and H Mudd, as someone noted, which are STEM focused). The application are far more than numbers, of course, but you'll see that you're in a very strong position based on the numbers. Agree with others that ED or REA is the way to go.

[Anonymous]

Naviance can be misleading. For one thing, data that is 4 years old is obsolete. It was easier to get into T25 colleges in 2020 and 2021 than it is now. Next, probably at least half of Sidwell kids have some type of hook, so the Naviance results look way better than the reality faced by an unhooked kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will never understand why the parents of kids attending one of the nation’s most elite prep schools and paying tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege have to come to this website and seek anonymous advice about their children’s college admissions prospects. What are you paying for? Doesn’t Sidwell have a guidance department? It’s just so odd.

Agree with what the other PP answered and will add that the parent community is oddly hush hush about these things....and the school doesn't wish to hear anything (or it becomes clear they won't be changing anything)...so people are left to let it out here.

It really is sad. Unfortunate. I wish they would genuinely invest on changing the culture for the kids, improve relationship with parents, encourage more mentoring among teachers, and take a stab at improving other aspects where there is clear room for improvement.
Perhaps there could be some hope that some of this can slowly be desired and accomplished by the new leadership in HS.

And parents know their kid’s biggest competition is other SFS students so they don’t talk about it except to their private college consultants. Weird, I agree.

NP. Sidwell CCO (like much of the rest of Sidwell admin) has mastered the art of being superficially pleasant while being vague to the point of utter uselessness. Our kid is already in ED at their top choice. But I would give zero credit to the CCO.

This

[Anonymous]

Northeastern might be your best option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern might be your best option.

Or worse. Look outside the T1000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Naviance can be misleading. For one thing, data that is 4 years old is obsolete. It was easier to get into T25 colleges in 2020 and 2021 than it is now. Next, probably at least half of Sidwell kids have some type of hook, so the Naviance results look way better than the reality faced by an unhooked kid.

In 2020, sort of. 2021 and now are the same, post COVID, everything changed even more than it had before.

[Anonymous]

Median GPA at Sidwell is 3.55-3.6. Median SAT is around 1510. Your stats place you in the top 10-15 percent of the class. Lots is possibilities, esp with hooks. Give it your best shot

[Anonymous]

Lots of kids chose to deffer/delay admission in both 2020 and 2021, but I agree that 2021 was similar to now. 2020 and any year before 2020 is a totally different ballgame than the current situation.

[Anonymous]

The 2022 and 2023 placements will be closest to the current year unless the race ruling by the Supreme Court has a major effect on RD outcomes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my non-DMV private, this kid, with a niche liberal arts major could def get into Columbia/penn/Northwestern/Duke and that ilk.

Decent chance at Northwestern and Columbia. Duke and Penn will be tougher.