I should have kept my kid at Wilson; college admits are much better than the Big3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The initial premise of this tread that is horrified that Wilson kids should be qualified or allowed to go to top colleges is clearly provocative. There are so many layers here!
By definition sending kids to elite big 3-5 schools is elitist. It comes with an attitude that those kids are more special and entitled to go to better colleges. The higher cost comes with lots of homework and constant stress to excel - and paid for the ability to cope much better during a global pandemic by having money to throw at the problem and smaller sizes of cherry picked kids to deal with. College admissions are used to nearly all the kids from these schools to get As and Bs. There’s a forced culture of achievement - and grade inflation. The amount of homework and stress aren’t proven to do much that’s really positive for kids. Proportionately these kids will always get into great colleges and do fine in life. Most of the kids are born on third base and think they hit a triple.
Wilson has for generations been “Yale or jail” - a reflection mostly of having higher income and low income families. The kids from higher income families at Wilson are very similar to those at the big 3-5 but the private school parents are so bought into the value of the schools they are paying for, they need to believe those kids won’t be able to cut it in college. Which is ridiculous. Yes many of the parents are just as insufferable as those at privates. But the private parents have chosen an intentionally elitist path. The demographics at Wilson have also changed in the recent 10-15 years and is continuing to change in make up. More and more kids are from higher income families are at Wilson than before. So the numbers applying for top schools and getting in will go up. Grade inflation has become a thing. The W schools in MoCo and the McLean and Fairfax schools have been doing it for while, with about 1/3 of classes getting all A’s.
Just a rant that private school parents can just feel happy with your privilege without kicking down at Wilson.

You lost all credibility in your post when you said that the Big3 have grade inflation. There is marked grade deflation over public and many Bs and Cs are given. The top student at my kid's Big3 last year had a 3.9.

Nearly every kid gets all As and Bs. The parents paying demand no less. You can call that grading on a curve or you can call that grade inflation. A small percentage or kids get Cs with any regularity and those parents go apoplectic that their kid has to settle for Tulane or Wisconsin.

You are so bought into the private culture you can’t see straight.

Say a kid who goes to Wilson gets a 5 in calculus and tests out of 2 semesters of calc at an Ivy - but did about half the homework at Wilson as a Big 3 kid. (True story by the way) are they still less than?

There is so much academic pressure theater at the Big 3s to justify the price tag and feeling of elitism it really warps any perspective.

Talk about not seeing straight. 58% of B-CC graduates have weighted GPAs > 4.00. That’s 300 kids per year graduating from one school with GPAs > 4.0. The amount of grade inflation in MCPS is crazy.

That’s because an A in AP and IB classes counts as a 5. Colleges don’t look at weighted GPAs anyway, they look at unweighted grades. Many even take apart your kid’s transcript and rebuild it with their own proprietary weighting systems. So enough about the weighed grades already, thanks.

Okay. So 55% of B-CC graduates have unweighted cumulative GPAs of 3.51 or better.

It’s funny how area public schools sound eerily familiar to your idea of the problems with the “elitist” private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
The other thing that is that my kid and other friends who left DCPS for private (Big5 and otherwise) are having a hard time with academics this fall. It hasn't been easy to suddenly be accountable for writing and reading.
Don't get me wrong--it's been AWESOME to watch as a parent (my kid is learning!!!) and they're all getting there. But the learning curve has been straight up. My kid is getting his/her first B (ever).
Meanwhile, their peers left in DCPS will have better college outcomes, having done 10% of the work. I just shake my head.

And to the poster who said that the kids at Wilson are disadvantaged unlike their coddled private peers? Give me a break. We're talking about wealthy, upper NW white people at Wilson.
Many are wealthier than I am. In fact, most are. These kids are at no disadvantage. They're just attending a high school that asks nothing of them and the colleges are non the wiser.

I doubt the colleges are nonetheless wiser. Listen, we make in the 300K range (sort of middle class for DC) and have kids at Wilson. But we also have kids in college so we could not afford a private high school too. I wish my Wilson kids were getting that high quality education that yours is getting. But I wouldn’t trade it for the emotional well-being of NOT being overloaded with stress and NOT being surrounded by uber wealth. Not worth it in my book as they have the rest of their lives to do any lost learning. They are already good writers/readers however.

Ya ok, you are middle class in DC! Ridiculous! This thread is a magnet for delusional people from all sides

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The initial premise of this tread that is horrified that Wilson kids should be qualified or allowed to go to top colleges is clearly provocative. There are so many layers here!
By definition sending kids to elite big 3-5 schools is elitist. It comes with an attitude that those kids are more special and entitled to go to better colleges. The higher cost comes with lots of homework and constant stress to excel - and paid for the ability to cope much better during a global pandemic by having money to throw at the problem and smaller sizes of cherry picked kids to deal with. College admissions are used to nearly all the kids from these schools to get As and Bs. There’s a forced culture of achievement - and grade inflation. The amount of homework and stress aren’t proven to do much that’s really positive for kids. Proportionately these kids will always get into great colleges and do fine in life. Most of the kids are born on third base and think they hit a triple.
Wilson has for generations been “Yale or jail” - a reflection mostly of having higher income and low income families. The kids from higher income families at Wilson are very similar to those at the big 3-5 but the private school parents are so bought into the value of the schools they are paying for, they need to believe those kids won’t be able to cut it in college. Which is ridiculous. Yes many of the parents are just as insufferable as those at privates. But the private parents have chosen an intentionally elitist path. The demographics at Wilson have also changed in the recent 10-15 years and is continuing to change in make up. More and more kids are from higher income families are at Wilson than before. So the numbers applying for top schools and getting in will go up. Grade inflation has become a thing. The W schools in MoCo and the McLean and Fairfax schools have been doing it for while, with about 1/3 of classes getting all A’s.
Just a rant that private school parents can just feel happy with your privilege without kicking down at Wilson.

You lost all credibility in your post when you said that the Big3 have grade inflation. There is marked grade deflation over public and many Bs and Cs are given. The top student at my kid's Big3 last year had a 3.9.

Nearly every kid gets all As and Bs. The parents paying demand no less. You can call that grading on a curve or you can call that grade inflation. A small percentage or kids get Cs with any regularity and those parents go apoplectic that their kid has to settle for Tulane or Wisconsin.

You are so bought into the private culture you can’t see straight.

Say a kid who goes to Wilson gets a 5 in calculus and tests out of 2 semesters of calc at an Ivy - but did about half the homework at Wilson as a Big 3 kid. (True story by the way) are they still less than?

There is so much academic pressure theater at the Big 3s to justify the price tag and feeling of elitism it really warps any perspective.

Talk about not seeing straight. 58% of B-CC graduates have weighted GPAs > 4.00. That’s 300 kids per year graduating from one school with GPAs > 4.0. The amount of grade inflation in MCPS is crazy.

That’s because an A in AP and IB classes counts as a 5. Colleges don’t look at weighted GPAs anyway, they look at unweighted grades. Many even take apart your kid’s transcript and rebuild it with their own proprietary weighting systems. So enough about the weighed grades already, thanks.

Okay. So 55% of B-CC graduates have unweighted cumulative GPAs of 3.51 or better.

It’s funny how area public schools sound eerily familiar to your idea of the problems with the “elitist” private schools.

Harvard is known for rampant grade inflation. I guess it trickles down from the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know PP gets this idea that Big 3 Privates are filled with Uber wealth or that somehow being around driven and successful people is somehow going to crush their kid.

First off, at our Big 3 Private about 1/3 of the students are getting about 60- 75 percent FA and many are from Wards 1 & 4 - having lived there for a decade before those neighborhoods became Hip

There isn’t any real UBER wealth in DC anyway. It’s Washington, not a Swiss Boarding school for Christ’s sake

Lawyers, Finance guys and Fed Govt Admin - hardly UBER anything lol

Just successful enough to stir a little determination to succeed, which is a good thing

I don’t know about your private school but my kids are at GDS and there are many Uber wealthy people. I know 3 billionaires who have kids there and many other parents who make 1M+.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The initial premise of this tread that is horrified that Wilson kids should be qualified or allowed to go to top colleges is clearly provocative. There are so many layers here!
By definition sending kids to elite big 3-5 schools is elitist. It comes with an attitude that those kids are more special and entitled to go to better colleges. The higher cost comes with lots of homework and constant stress to excel - and paid for the ability to cope much better during a global pandemic by having money to throw at the problem and smaller sizes of cherry picked kids to deal with. College admissions are used to nearly all the kids from these schools to get As and Bs. There’s a forced culture of achievement - and grade inflation. The amount of homework and stress aren’t proven to do much that’s really positive for kids. Proportionately these kids will always get into great colleges and do fine in life. Most of the kids are born on third base and think they hit a triple.
Wilson has for generations been “Yale or jail” - a reflection mostly of having higher income and low income families. The kids from higher income families at Wilson are very similar to those at the big 3-5 but the private school parents are so bought into the value of the schools they are paying for, they need to believe those kids won’t be able to cut it in college. Which is ridiculous. Yes many of the parents are just as insufferable as those at privates. But the private parents have chosen an intentionally elitist path. The demographics at Wilson have also changed in the recent 10-15 years and is continuing to change in make up. More and more kids are from higher income families are at Wilson than before. So the numbers applying for top schools and getting in will go up. Grade inflation has become a thing. The W schools in MoCo and the McLean and Fairfax schools have been doing it for while, with about 1/3 of classes getting all A’s.
Just a rant that private school parents can just feel happy with your privilege without kicking down at Wilson.

You lost all credibility in your post when you said that the Big3 have grade inflation. There is marked grade deflation over public and many Bs and Cs are given. The top student at my kid's Big3 last year had a 3.9.

Nearly every kid gets all As and Bs. The parents paying demand no less. You can call that grading on a curve or you can call that grade inflation. A small percentage or kids get Cs with any regularity and those parents go apoplectic that their kid has to settle for Tulane or Wisconsin.

You are so bought into the private culture you can’t see straight.

Say a kid who goes to Wilson gets a 5 in calculus and tests out of 2 semesters of calc at an Ivy - but did about half the homework at Wilson as a Big 3 kid. (True story by the way) are they still less than?

There is so much academic pressure theater at the Big 3s to justify the price tag and feeling of elitism it really warps any perspective.

Talk about not seeing straight. 58% of B-CC graduates have weighted GPAs > 4.00. That’s 300 kids per year graduating from one school with GPAs > 4.0. The amount of grade inflation in MCPS is crazy.

That’s because an A in AP and IB classes counts as a 5. Colleges don’t look at weighted GPAs anyway, they look at unweighted grades. Many even take apart your kid’s transcript and rebuild it with their own proprietary weighting systems. So enough about the weighed grades already, thanks.

Okay. So 55% of B-CC graduates have unweighted cumulative GPAs of 3.51 or better.

It’s funny how area public schools sound eerily familiar to your idea of the problems with the “elitist” private schools.

I’m a private school teacher and there definitely is grade inflation at private schools. The administration is not happy if we give out too many Cs and Ds. They want to see majority As and Bs. Parent complaints are taken very seriously as admin want to keep parents happy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The initial premise of this tread that is horrified that Wilson kids should be qualified or allowed to go to top colleges is clearly provocative. There are so many layers here!
By definition sending kids to elite big 3-5 schools is elitist. It comes with an attitude that those kids are more special and entitled to go to better colleges. The higher cost comes with lots of homework and constant stress to excel - and paid for the ability to cope much better during a global pandemic by having money to throw at the problem and smaller sizes of cherry picked kids to deal with. College admissions are used to nearly all the kids from these schools to get As and Bs. There’s a forced culture of achievement - and grade inflation. The amount of homework and stress aren’t proven to do much that’s really positive for kids. Proportionately these kids will always get into great colleges and do fine in life. Most of the kids are born on third base and think they hit a triple.
Wilson has for generations been “Yale or jail” - a reflection mostly of having higher income and low income families. The kids from higher income families at Wilson are very similar to those at the big 3-5 but the private school parents are so bought into the value of the schools they are paying for, they need to believe those kids won’t be able to cut it in college. Which is ridiculous. Yes many of the parents are just as insufferable as those at privates. But the private parents have chosen an intentionally elitist path. The demographics at Wilson have also changed in the recent 10-15 years and is continuing to change in make up. More and more kids are from higher income families are at Wilson than before. So the numbers applying for top schools and getting in will go up. Grade inflation has become a thing. The W schools in MoCo and the McLean and Fairfax schools have been doing it for while, with about 1/3 of classes getting all A’s.
Just a rant that private school parents can just feel happy with your privilege without kicking down at Wilson.

You lost all credibility in your post when you said that the Big3 have grade inflation. There is marked grade deflation over public and many Bs and Cs are given. The top student at my kid's Big3 last year had a 3.9.

Nearly every kid gets all As and Bs. The parents paying demand no less. You can call that grading on a curve or you can call that grade inflation. A small percentage or kids get Cs with any regularity and those parents go apoplectic that their kid has to settle for Tulane or Wisconsin.

You are so bought into the private culture you can’t see straight.

Say a kid who goes to Wilson gets a 5 in calculus and tests out of 2 semesters of calc at an Ivy - but did about half the homework at Wilson as a Big 3 kid. (True story by the way) are they still less than?

There is so much academic pressure theater at the Big 3s to justify the price tag and feeling of elitism it really warps any perspective.

Talk about not seeing straight. 58% of B-CC graduates have weighted GPAs > 4.00. That’s 300 kids per year graduating from one school with GPAs > 4.0. The amount of grade inflation in MCPS is crazy.

That’s because an A in AP and IB classes counts as a 5. Colleges don’t look at weighted GPAs anyway, they look at unweighted grades. Many even take apart your kid’s transcript and rebuild it with their own proprietary weighting systems. So enough about the weighed grades already, thanks.

Okay. So 55% of B-CC graduates have unweighted cumulative GPAs of 3.51 or better.

It’s funny how area public schools sound eerily familiar to your idea of the problems with the “elitist” private schools.

I’m a private school teacher and there definitely is grade inflation at private schools. The administration is not happy if we give out too many Cs and Ds. They want to see majority As and Bs. Parent complaints are taken very seriously as admin want to keep parents happy

Sure. But it sure is interesting that area public schools don’t give out Cs or Ds either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know PP gets this idea that Big 3 Privates are filled with Uber wealth or that somehow being around driven and successful people is somehow going to crush their kid.

First off, at our Big 3 Private about 1/3 of the students are getting about 60- 75 percent FA and many are from Wards 1 & 4 - having lived there for a decade before those neighborhoods became Hip

There isn’t any real UBER wealth in DC anyway. It’s Washington, not a Swiss Boarding school for Christ’s sake

Lawyers, Finance guys and Fed Govt Admin - hardly UBER anything lol

Just successful enough to stir a little determination to succeed, which is a good thing

I don’t know about your private school but my kids are at GDS and there are many Uber wealthy people. I know 3 billionaires who have kids there and many other parents who make 1M+.

A Law Partner's annual bonus alone is about 800k, but a Million a year does not constitute Upper Class. It's still Upper Middle Class

Upper class is Royalty, 4th-5th Generational Wealth ( Mellon, Carnegie, Ford, Pew, etc.. ) DC does not have that class of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know PP gets this idea that Big 3 Privates are filled with Uber wealth or that somehow being around driven and successful people is somehow going to crush their kid.

First off, at our Big 3 Private about 1/3 of the students are getting about 60- 75 percent FA and many are from Wards 1 & 4 - having lived there for a decade before those neighborhoods became Hip

There isn’t any real UBER wealth in DC anyway. It’s Washington, not a Swiss Boarding school for Christ’s sake

Lawyers, Finance guys and Fed Govt Admin - hardly UBER anything lol

Just successful enough to stir a little determination to succeed, which is a good thing

I don’t know about your private school but my kids are at GDS and there are many Uber wealthy people. I know 3 billionaires who have kids there and many other parents who make 1M+.

A Law Partner's annual bonus alone is about 800k, but a Million a year does not constitute Upper Class. It's still Upper Middle Class

Upper class is Royalty, 4th-5th Generational Wealth ( Mellon, Carnegie, Ford, Pew, etc.. ) DC does not have that class of people.

LOL, keep telling yourself that 1 mill/year is UMC: https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/family-finance/articles/where-do-i-fall-in-the-american-economic-class-system

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The initial premise of this tread that is horrified that Wilson kids should be qualified or allowed to go to top colleges is clearly provocative. There are so many layers here!
By definition sending kids to elite big 3-5 schools is elitist. It comes with an attitude that those kids are more special and entitled to go to better colleges. The higher cost comes with lots of homework and constant stress to excel - and paid for the ability to cope much better during a global pandemic by having money to throw at the problem and smaller sizes of cherry picked kids to deal with. College admissions are used to nearly all the kids from these schools to get As and Bs. There’s a forced culture of achievement - and grade inflation. The amount of homework and stress aren’t proven to do much that’s really positive for kids. Proportionately these kids will always get into great colleges and do fine in life. Most of the kids are born on third base and think they hit a triple.
Wilson has for generations been “Yale or jail” - a reflection mostly of having higher income and low income families. The kids from higher income families at Wilson are very similar to those at the big 3-5 but the private school parents are so bought into the value of the schools they are paying for, they need to believe those kids won’t be able to cut it in college. Which is ridiculous. Yes many of the parents are just as insufferable as those at privates. But the private parents have chosen an intentionally elitist path. The demographics at Wilson have also changed in the recent 10-15 years and is continuing to change in make up. More and more kids are from higher income families are at Wilson than before. So the numbers applying for top schools and getting in will go up. Grade inflation has become a thing. The W schools in MoCo and the McLean and Fairfax schools have been doing it for while, with about 1/3 of classes getting all A’s.
Just a rant that private school parents can just feel happy with your privilege without kicking down at Wilson.

You lost all credibility in your post when you said that the Big3 have grade inflation. There is marked grade deflation over public and many Bs and Cs are given. The top student at my kid's Big3 last year had a 3.9.

Nearly every kid gets all As and Bs. The parents paying demand no less. You can call that grading on a curve or you can call that grade inflation. A small percentage or kids get Cs with any regularity and those parents go apoplectic that their kid has to settle for Tulane or Wisconsin.

You are so bought into the private culture you can’t see straight.

Say a kid who goes to Wilson gets a 5 in calculus and tests out of 2 semesters of calc at an Ivy - but did about half the homework at Wilson as a Big 3 kid. (True story by the way) are they still less than?

There is so much academic pressure theater at the Big 3s to justify the price tag and feeling of elitism it really warps any perspective.

Talk about not seeing straight. 58% of B-CC graduates have weighted GPAs > 4.00. That’s 300 kids per year graduating from one school with GPAs > 4.0. The amount of grade inflation in MCPS is crazy.

That’s because an A in AP and IB classes counts as a 5. Colleges don’t look at weighted GPAs anyway, they look at unweighted grades. Many even take apart your kid’s transcript and rebuild it with their own proprietary weighting systems. So enough about the weighed grades already, thanks.

Okay. So 55% of B-CC graduates have unweighted cumulative GPAs of 3.51 or better.

It’s funny how area public schools sound eerily familiar to your idea of the problems with the “elitist” private schools.

I’m a private school teacher and there definitely is grade inflation at private schools. The administration is not happy if we give out too many Cs and Ds. They want to see majority As and Bs. Parent complaints are taken very seriously as admin want to keep parents happy

Sure. But it sure is interesting that area public schools don’t give out Cs or Ds either.

Oh, they definitely do. You kind of have to work to get one, but my neurodivergent rebel children are not to be deterred!

One of my children actually FAILED a class at B-CC during the pandemic. It was impressive, really, what he was able to do with depression and ADHD. No easy feat!

[Anonymous]

There's this odd touch of naivete running through this thread: Do you think the admissions folks at HYPSM aren't well familiar with the Big-3, W schools (including Wilson!), TJ, Blair Magnet, et al? Do you think they don't know that the entire educational experiences at the Big3 and the publics are profoundly different?

Do you imagine some faceless automaton looking at college applications saying to themselves, "Ah, I see an A at Sidwell, and an A at Wilson -- and these are exactly the same!"

Don't kid yourselves: The people reviewing your child's application know a great deal about all of the schools mentioned here.

And for those troubled by grade inflation, you can ease your troubled minds: I have heard from more than one admissions officer at Top-20 schools that they can usually tell if a student is a good candidate for admission without ever looking at their GPAs and test scores. Awards, honors, ec's, essays, connections, recommendations... You can tell a lot about who a student is from their application and resume, without ever examining their transcript.

Students with unremarkable resumes do not get admitted to HYPSM these days no matter how high their stats are, inflated or no. And truly remarkable students will be considered for those schools so long as their GPA / test scores do not diverge wildly from the picture painted by the rest of the application.

Aside from the naivete, there's also an overinflated belief that what you know about another student and their family is all there is to know. College applications can be wonderfully confessional: Students bare their souls and tell secrets to admissions officers they'll never tell YOU. Sure, you may know this one is a concert pianist and that one rowed at this or that regatta: But you don't know about the student who was raped at 13 by their step-father and then called the police when he moved on their younger sister -- and then wrote the most soul-crushing poetry about it, and also an essay exploring legal mechanisms that both protect minors from abuse while also preventing recidivism. Or the quiet nerdy one who has been drawing comics since they were 9, posted some images online, and eventually found themselves co-moderating a massive online community. Their application included not only a thoughtful essay considering the whether the development and methods of policing behavioral norms in online forums with regard to pronoun usage and gender expression might have applicability offline, as well -- and also a link to their portfolio of beautifully-inked, brilliant, edgy comics.

But you think A's and APs and stats and sports and music are the whole deal? Don't get me wrong: they can matter. But it's the resume that makes plain who is climbing the ladder, and who is climbing *exceptionally* well -- and who is actually so good at ladder-climbing that they need to add rungs. The resume shows who is helping others up. Or creating an altogether new way to climb.

In considering whether to send to Wilson or the Big3 or making any other choices, my advice is this: Engage your child in the process of deciding. The extent of their agency and their level of engagement will almost certainly turn out to be greater differentiators than whether they jumped through GDS hoops or Wilson hoops. We know they're different. What we want to know is not how the curricula compare, but who the students are. That's what matters, at the end of the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I moved my kid from Deal to private for 9th. The workload is about 5 times that of DCPS. My kid is finally learning to write and study.
It's night and day over DCPS. I can't stress this enough. It's easily 5 times the workload and my kid is actually learning.. I have kids left in DCPS. This year is another shit-show.
English school english classes that don't read a single book or write a single paper. AP classes that DON'T HAVE A TEACHER so the school is giving every kid an A as a default.

College admits are out and the Wilson admits (of white, upper class kids) are better than those at the Big3. These kids are the siblings
of the my kid's friends. They are getting in (unconnected) to Brown, Yale, Northwestern, Penn, and on and on.
You know how a Big 3 was shut out of Brown? Well, not Wilson. They have several kids going and they're not URM. They're upper middle class white kids.
DCPS grossly inflated grades during the pandemic. 19-20 quarters 3 and 4 counted any assignment as extra-credit. So if you did anything (EVEN ONE ASSIGNMENT) quarters 3 and 4 you
got an A. They those quarters were added to 1 and 2 and rounded up. It was almost impossible to get a B. Like statistically impossible if you turned in a SINGLE assignment.
Then last year (20-21) they barely had school and the lowest grade anyone could get was a B. Anything lower than a B was a "P".
You could get As for breathing (and my kids did). I can't emphasize enough how easy it was and is. It was insanity. My kids (19-20 and 20-21) had 98%+ in all classes
with next to no work). It was really stressful for us (and a lot of parents) because we knew our kids weren't learning anything. As such, many of us pulled our kids out.
But now, the kids graduating with this DCPS education are getting the top acceptances out of DC. I'm happy for them but it just seems insane.

I'm sure I'll get crucified for this but it's wacky. These kids are in some giant loophole or elite college admissions. Colleges are not taking the suburban public kids either
(with their 1600 SATs and 15 APs). Urban is where it's out--whether or not anything was learned.

Of course it is better to come from a "worse" HS than a "better" HS for application purposes! I thought everyone knew this??

So everyone knows something that is patently untrue? Fascinating.

40% of the Harvard freshman class graduated from private schools, but sure it’s the kids from Anacostis HS that have the easiest time getting in. [/quote

] PP, you are overlooking that a significant portion of that 40 percent admitted to Harvard from Private schools are kids who might have been admitted to their Private BECAUSE they were growing up in Anacostia or places like Wards 7,8 in other US cities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I moved my kid from Deal to private for 9th. The workload is about 5 times that of DCPS. My kid is finally learning to write and study.
It's night and day over DCPS. I can't stress this enough. It's easily 5 times the workload and my kid is actually learning.. I have kids left in DCPS. This year is another shit-show.
English school english classes that don't read a single book or write a single paper. AP classes that DON'T HAVE A TEACHER so the school is giving every kid an A as a default.

College admits are out and the Wilson admits (of white, upper class kids) are better than those at the Big3. These kids are the siblings
of the my kid's friends. They are getting in (unconnected) to Brown, Yale, Northwestern, Penn, and on and on.
You know how a Big 3 was shut out of Brown? Well, not Wilson. They have several kids going and they're not URM. They're upper middle class white kids.
DCPS grossly inflated grades during the pandemic. 19-20 quarters 3 and 4 counted any assignment as extra-credit. So if you did anything (EVEN ONE ASSIGNMENT) quarters 3 and 4 you
got an A. They those quarters were added to 1 and 2 and rounded up. It was almost impossible to get a B. Like statistically impossible if you turned in a SINGLE assignment.
Then last year (20-21) they barely had school and the lowest grade anyone could get was a B. Anything lower than a B was a "P".
You could get As for breathing (and my kids did). I can't emphasize enough how easy it was and is. It was insanity. My kids (19-20 and 20-21) had 98%+ in all classes
with next to no work). It was really stressful for us (and a lot of parents) because we knew our kids weren't learning anything. As such, many of us pulled our kids out.
But now, the kids graduating with this DCPS education are getting the top acceptances out of DC. I'm happy for them but it just seems insane.

I'm sure I'll get crucified for this but it's wacky. These kids are in some giant loophole or elite college admissions. Colleges are not taking the suburban public kids either
(with their 1600 SATs and 15 APs). Urban is where it's out--whether or not anything was learned.

Of course it is better to come from a "worse" HS than a "better" HS for application purposes! I thought everyone knew this??

So everyone knows something that is patently untrue? Fascinating.

40% of the Harvard freshman class graduated from private schools, but sure it’s the kids from Anacostis HS that have the easiest time getting in. [/quote

] PP, you are overlooking that a significant portion of that 40 percent admitted to Harvard from Private schools are kids who might have been admitted to their Private BECAUSE they were growing up in Anacostia or places like Wards 7,8 in other US cities

Significant? Numbers, please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know PP gets this idea that Big 3 Privates are filled with Uber wealth or that somehow being around driven and successful people is somehow going to crush their kid.

First off, at our Big 3 Private about 1/3 of the students are getting about 60- 75 percent FA and many are from Wards 1 & 4 - having lived there for a decade before those neighborhoods became Hip

There isn’t any real UBER wealth in DC anyway. It’s Washington, not a Swiss Boarding school for Christ’s sake

Lawyers, Finance guys and Fed Govt Admin - hardly UBER anything lol

Just successful enough to stir a little determination to succeed, which is a good thing

I don’t know about your private school but my kids are at GDS and there are many Uber wealthy people. I know 3 billionaires who have kids there and many other parents who make 1M+.

A Law Partner's annual bonus alone is about 800k, but a Million a year does not constitute Upper Class. It's still Upper Middle Class

Upper class is Royalty, 4th-5th Generational Wealth ( Mellon, Carnegie, Ford, Pew, etc.. ) DC does not have that class of people.

LOL, keep telling yourself that 1 mill/year is UMC: https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/family-finance/articles/where-do-i-fall-in-the-american-economic-class-system

It absolutely is UMC .

Taxes reduce it to 750k, 3 kids in Private reduces it to about 550k once you factor in annual giving expectations and college tuition of 80k a year per kid

Decent house is 2.5-5 million so, unless you pay cash, is about a 200 k a year in mortgage

So, now you are down to 350k from which to live on, invest, plan for retirement and maybe pay for assisted living of MC parents

That’s far from the real Upper Class, which is a very small entity of people who can draw millions in annual income without having to work ( unless they wish to ) just from living off of their GGGF invested wealth as do all their family today and for generations to come.

The latter is Upper Class . The former is Upper Middle Class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's this odd touch of naivete running through this thread: Do you think the admissions folks at HYPSM aren't well familiar with the Big-3, W schools (including Wilson!), TJ, Blair Magnet, et al? Do you think they don't know that the entire educational experiences at the Big3 and the publics are profoundly different?

Do you imagine some faceless automaton looking at college applications saying to themselves, "Ah, I see an A at Sidwell, and an A at Wilson -- and these are exactly the same!"

Don't kid yourselves: The people reviewing your child's application know a great deal about all of the schools mentioned here.

And for those troubled by grade inflation, you can ease your troubled minds: I have heard from more than one admissions officer at Top-20 schools that they can usually tell if a student is a good candidate for admission without ever looking at their GPAs and test scores. Awards, honors, ec's, essays, connections, recommendations... You can tell a lot about who a student is from their application and resume, without ever examining their transcript.

Students with unremarkable resumes do not get admitted to HYPSM these days no matter how high their stats are, inflated or no. And truly remarkable students will be considered for those schools so long as their GPA / test scores do not diverge wildly from the picture painted by the rest of the application.

Aside from the naivete, there's also an overinflated belief that what you know about another student and their family is all there is to know. College applications can be wonderfully confessional: Students bare their souls and tell secrets to admissions officers they'll never tell YOU. Sure, you may know this one is a concert pianist and that one rowed at this or that regatta: But you don't know about the student who was raped at 13 by their step-father and then called the police when he moved on their younger sister -- and then wrote the most soul-crushing poetry about it, and also an essay exploring legal mechanisms that both protect minors from abuse while also preventing recidivism. Or the quiet nerdy one who has been drawing comics since they were 9, posted some images online, and eventually found themselves co-moderating a massive online community. Their application included not only a thoughtful essay considering the whether the development and methods of policing behavioral norms in online forums with regard to pronoun usage and gender expression might have applicability offline, as well -- and also a link to their portfolio of beautifully-inked, brilliant, edgy comics.

But you think A's and APs and stats and sports and music are the whole deal? Don't get me wrong: they can matter. But it's the resume that makes plain who is climbing the ladder, and who is climbing *exceptionally* well -- and who is actually so good at ladder-climbing that they need to add rungs. The resume shows who is helping others up. Or creating an altogether new way to climb.

In considering whether to send to Wilson or the Big3 or making any other choices, my advice is this: Engage your child in the process of deciding. The extent of their agency and their level of engagement will almost certainly turn out to be greater differentiators than whether they jumped through GDS hoops or Wilson hoops. We know they're different. What we want to know is not how the curricula compare, but who the students are. That's what matters, at the end of the day.

Thank you for all of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The initial premise of this tread that is horrified that Wilson kids should be qualified or allowed to go to top colleges is clearly provocative. There are so many layers here!
By definition sending kids to elite big 3-5 schools is elitist. It comes with an attitude that those kids are more special and entitled to go to better colleges. The higher cost comes with lots of homework and constant stress to excel - and paid for the ability to cope much better during a global pandemic by having money to throw at the problem and smaller sizes of cherry picked kids to deal with. College admissions are used to nearly all the kids from these schools to get As and Bs. There’s a forced culture of achievement - and grade inflation. The amount of homework and stress aren’t proven to do much that’s really positive for kids. Proportionately these kids will always get into great colleges and do fine in life. Most of the kids are born on third base and think they hit a triple.
Wilson has for generations been “Yale or jail” - a reflection mostly of having higher income and low income families. The kids from higher income families at Wilson are very similar to those at the big 3-5 but the private school parents are so bought into the value of the schools they are paying for, they need to believe those kids won’t be able to cut it in college. Which is ridiculous. Yes many of the parents are just as insufferable as those at privates. But the private parents have chosen an intentionally elitist path. The demographics at Wilson have also changed in the recent 10-15 years and is continuing to change in make up. More and more kids are from higher income families are at Wilson than before. So the numbers applying for top schools and getting in will go up. Grade inflation has become a thing. The W schools in MoCo and the McLean and Fairfax schools have been doing it for while, with about 1/3 of classes getting all A’s.
Just a rant that private school parents can just feel happy with your privilege without kicking down at Wilson.

You lost all credibility in your post when you said that the Big3 have grade inflation. There is marked grade deflation over public and many Bs and Cs are given. The top student at my kid's Big3 last year had a 3.9.

Nearly every kid gets all As and Bs. The parents paying demand no less. You can call that grading on a curve or you can call that grade inflation. A small percentage or kids get Cs with any regularity and those parents go apoplectic that their kid has to settle for Tulane or Wisconsin.

You are so bought into the private culture you can’t see straight.

Say a kid who goes to Wilson gets a 5 in calculus and tests out of 2 semesters of calc at an Ivy - but did about half the homework at Wilson as a Big 3 kid. (True story by the way) are they still less than?

There is so much academic pressure theater at the Big 3s to justify the price tag and feeling of elitism it really warps any perspective.

I think what is warped is any value system that treats “ getting in “ to an Ivy as being so important that it does t matter if one got a sh@@ty education for 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 & 22 and is going off to college to fall flat on their face and likely burn the bridge for future grads from their school

Versus a B student from Private who has spent the last 9 years working their A&& off , will do extremely well in college as a result of being well prepared for the work and as a result will score great Internships, letters of Rec for Grad school from their Profs , etc….