Big 5 = "most desired" schools, not necessarily "the best"

[Anonymous]

For those who are interested in stats of all sorts (count me in), Bethesda Magazine does its annual schools feature in the September/October issue, now on the newstands.

One section of the issue looks at where kids from 6 local public high schools (B-CC, Walt Whitman, Walter Johnson, Winston Churchill and Montgomery Blair) are going to college. The stats are presented as # Applied and # Accepted, which seems like a useful break. So, for example, last year 27 kids from B-CC applied to Cornell and 7 got in. For Whitman it was 33/9, for Walter Johnson it was 26/1, for Churchill it was 42/11, for Blair it was 49/19, and for Wootton it was 71/18.

Unfortunately, there's nothing on DC high schools (this being a Bethesda magazine). Or on the privates (the information being proprietary, I would guess).

Another section of the issue looks at whether the Newsweek and U.S. News rankings of high schools live up to the hype. Interesting reading.

This post should come with the usual disclaimer: % accepted into the Ivies shouldn't be your only measure of how appropriate the school is for your kid and your family, for so many, many reasons. (It's just one year of data; every kid is different; some kids were legacies; going to B-CC doesn't guarantee that your kid will get into Case Western, which was 2 for 2 last year, et cetera).

But again, I find this sort of thing helpful as one more datapoint in the midst of DCUM debates that seem to be based on subjective evaluations and school loyalties.

[Anonymous]

Good Lord, what a collection of geeks.

[Anonymous]

And proud of it, too!

See this thread: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/66752.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good Lord, what a collection of geeks.

You prefer rumor, innuendo, subjective opinions and blatant school partisanship as a way to gather information on your DC's future school? And the never, ever-ending threads that talk about who deserves to belong in the "Big 3" and the "Big 5"? Because personally those were starting to wear really thin for me!

[Anonymous]

According to Cornell's website, about 19% of applicants are accepted (6,564 admits out of 34,371 applicants, here: http://admissions.cornell.edu/downloads/EnteringClassProfile.pdf). According to the stats on MD publics given above, the Cornell admit percentages work out to 26% for B-CC, 27% for Whitman, 4% for Walter Johnson, 26% for Churchill, 39% for Blair, and 25% for Wootton. (Yes, I'm a huge numbers nerd, so shoot me.) This surprises me, because almost all the MD publics did better than the Cornell's national acceptance rate. Of course, this is only one year of data, and only one university, so it would be wrong to draw firm conclusions.

I'm pretty confident that the acceptance rate for top DC privates is high too, unfortunately I can't prove it with actual numbers. For example, Sidwell doesn't post college stats and the St. Albans page merely says that "2 or more" kids attended Cornell over the last 5 years (and I'm staying the heck away from the whole GDS/Maret thing). According to NCS' website, 12 kids matriculated at Cornell from 2003-2007, or about 2-3 per year. Unfortunately comparing the NCS matriculation numbers to the MD publics' applications versus acceptances numbers is really apples-to-oranges. So I've ground to a halt here, unless somebody has other suggestions for bringing the privates into the comparison.

[Anonymous]

GDS seems to have sent 3 kids to Cornell this year and at least one last year. This is just matriculation data -- not acceptances or applications. And it looks like they didn't provide numbers in 2008:

http://www.gds.org/img/tier2/alumni/enews/collegematriculation2009.pdf
http://www.gds.org/img/tier2/alumni/enews/collegematriculation2008.pdf

[Anonymous]

I'm guessing, as you probably are too, that additional kids from GDS were accepted at Cornell. But a kid who gets into Cornell probably gets accepted to other top schools too, and some may have chosen to go elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

More data re Ivy admissions. It's a few years old (2003), though. NCS/StA/Sidwell/GDS all made the list and did better than TJ, no doubt because of legacies:

http://webreprints.djreprints.com/wsj_tuition_040104.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing, as you probably are too, that additional kids from GDS were accepted at Cornell. But a kid who gets into Cornell probably gets accepted to other top schools too, and some may have chosen to go elsewhere.

Yes. And I know, for example, that at least one of the kids who went to Yale also got into Princeton, so even though Princeton isn't on the matriculation list, it would be on an acceptances list.

[Anonymous]

Anyone get the feeling GDS is a little over-represented on this thread?

[Anonymous]

So jump in and give is some Maret stats, or from some other school!

[Anonymous]

Good Lord, give it a rest. If you feel some school is under-represented, then post its data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So jump in and give is some Maret stats, or from some other school!

Why are you picking on Maret?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone get the feeling GDS is a little over-represented on this thread?

I'm 12:39 and I don't have a kid at GDS (and never have). I was just using the previous GDS post to underscore the distinction between matriculation and acceptance numbers. So there may just be one GDS poster. FWIW.

[Anonymous]

I can't help but think that for those of you obssessed with the Ivies, that this is trickling down to your children and putting undue pressure upon them. I am hearing that to be accepted to these schools is the "be all and end all" and universally-accepted form of educational success.

As an Ivy grad (from a long line of Ivy grads) and married to another double Ivy grad, I will say that our college preferences for our child is not with the Ivies. These schools have changed dramatically since you might have known them. Most students now communicate and have their papers and tests graded by their TAs (teaching assistants) and maybe only a passing knowledge of their professors. Professors now are being directed by their universities to focus on R and D.

The smart money is on the smaller colleges where students learn directly from their professors with small class sizes. Look at the schools like Amherst, Williams and Middlebury. Or the smaller honors colleges within schools like the U of MI. For women, studies show overwhelmingly that the most successful women are grads of women's colleges.

A child who is smart and personally driven will thrive anywhere. Sometimes the advantage is greater within a smaller pond.