Sidwell College Admissions This Year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So sick of this fake fairness argument. On the one hand, SFS CCO strongly advises against getting a private Counsellor. On the other, they appear not to be providing the kind of services applicants need. Provide the high level of service to all that ask for it, problem solved. There, got that off my chest….

I completely agree. As the parent of a senior, we regretted not hiring one.

what kind of services do they provide that you regret not seeking out?
thx for any thoughts (current underclass parent here).

Help student strategize where to apply ED/SCEA and EA. Recommend which activities and in what order should be listed on the CA. Share essays of prior clients that worked. Brainstorming essay prompts. Prioritize which essays to work on for the next meeting. Tell kids when an essay doesn’t work and help them go in a different directions. A friend’s kid, had a college counselor that created a spread sheet where item’s went from red to green as they were completed.

[Anonymous]

As a sophomore parent I was impressed by the initial presentation and follow-up materials shared by the Director of CCO. Disheartening to see some of the posts by senior parents. Surprised also by the early results reported here about the top 5-10% performing students w/o a hook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Meh...my 3.8 SFS senior didn't apply to any Ivies.

Following....we have a similar student who will most likely not apply to Ivies (or maybe just one for RD).

Was your DC successful in EA/ED? What types of schools did they apply to (as many non-Ivy/Stanford/MIT schools are also a crapshoot)

I cannot answer without outing my kid, but they generally wanted bigger schools with more opportunities, so no SLACs or Ivies. Focus was on national universities in vibrant areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Meh...my 3.8 SFS senior didn't apply to any Ivies.

Following....we have a similar student who will most likely not apply to Ivies (or maybe just one for RD).

Was your DC successful in EA/ED? What types of schools did they apply to (as many non-Ivy/Stanford/MIT schools are also a crapshoot)

I cannot answer without outing my kid, but they generally wanted bigger schools with more opportunities, so no SLACs or Ivies. Focus was on national universities in vibrant areas.

Thanks. Were they successful in EA/ED?

[Anonymous]

We have a 3.9 in top math class Big3 kid who won't be looking at Ivys. Too much application stress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a sophomore parent I was impressed by the initial presentation and follow-up materials shared by the Director of CCO. Disheartening to see some of the posts by senior parents. Surprised also by the early results reported here about the top 5-10% performing students w/o a hook.

And here, in a nutshell, is the problem.

PP, if you are a sophomore class parent, you need to read and understand this now. It should not come as a "surprise" that top-performing students at Sidwell are not getting into top schools ED unless they have a hook. That should not come as a surprise to anyone, because that is the reality now. If the school is at fault for anything, it is for not constantly articulating that but, as I'm afraid is displayed here, parents simply do not want to hear it.

This will be your child in 2 years. It will be extremely difficult to get into any top school in the country unless your child is a direct legacy or a coveted athlete. Please accept that now and plan accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Meh...my 3.8 SFS senior didn't apply to any Ivies.

Following....we have a similar student who will most likely not apply to Ivies (or maybe just one for RD).

Was your DC successful in EA/ED? What types of schools did they apply to (as many non-Ivy/Stanford/MIT schools are also a crapshoot)

I cannot answer without outing my kid, but they generally wanted bigger schools with more opportunities, so no SLACs or Ivies. Focus was on national universities in vibrant areas.

Thanks. Were they successful in EA/ED?

Some good options, awaiting RD notifications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, exactly. Waiting for the phone to ring. They are NOT calling AO's - no one does that any more.

But they said that this is actually a very busy time advocating for and supporting seniors within the CCO. Why would that be?

I thought some schools like Tulane still did

Who cares about #42 school

Why must you be so rude?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a sophomore parent I was impressed by the initial presentation and follow-up materials shared by the Director of CCO. Disheartening to see some of the posts by senior parents. Surprised also by the early results reported here about the top 5-10% performing students w/o a hook.

And here, in a nutshell, is the problem.

PP, if you are a sophomore class parent, you need to read and understand this now. It should not come as a "surprise" that top-performing students at Sidwell are not getting into top schools ED unless they have a hook. That should not come as a surprise to anyone, because that is the reality now. If the school is at fault for anything, it is for not constantly articulating that but, as I'm afraid is displayed here, parents simply do not want to hear it.

This will be your child in 2 years. It will be extremely difficult to get into any top school in the country unless your child is a direct legacy or a coveted athlete. Please accept that now and plan accordingly.

Or URM.


I don't know why many parents at the Big3 don't get this. I was at an athletic competition this fall and all the junior/senior parents were talking about college visits and their tours of the Ivies. All I could think was "why the heck do you think your kids are getting into the Ivy league? They're not at the top of the class,
recruited athletes or URM. It's NOT HAPPENING. If you look at the schools the previous seniors attended, 85% of them did not attend an Ivy. The ones who did almost universally were one of the above hooks. There were maybe 1-2 who did not and they were the absolute top of the class. And yet there was I was on the sidelines with a random group of 8 families who were all thinking of visiting and then applying. There is some major disconnect. I guess hope does spring eternal.

[Anonymous]

Help student strategize where to apply ED/SCEA and EA. Recommend which activities and in what order should be listed on the CA. Share essays of prior clients that worked. Brainstorming essay prompts. Prioritize which essays to work on for the next meeting. Tell kids when an essay doesn’t work and help them go in a different directions. A friend’s kid, had a college counselor that created a spread sheet where item’s went from red to green as they were completed.

This is exactly what we were looking for from our Sidwell counselor and sadly did not get. Counselor read the Common App application - said it was good - and provided absolutely no additional comments. I agree the essay was strong but there are always ways to improve it. We still don't understand how the CCO did not have a single, solitary, sad comment to provide. As far as the EC list is concerned, the CCO said that also looked fine but gave no feedback at all on whether kid needed to change the order or focus of the ECs.

Our older kid graduated from another local private - not Big 3 - where a counselor read the Common App essay about our kid's struggle with a temporary disability. The counselor commented that the essay felt a little heavy/depressing as the kid talked too much about the struggle while colleges want to know a little about the struggle but are much more interested in how the kid "overcame/resolved" the issue. My kid appreciated that targeted comment and changed the essay around significantly to give it a much more positive tone. Truthfully, the resolution in real life of that disability was not as easy but at least the College Counselor had the wisdom to tell us that AOs like positive endings. Their advice worked and our kid got into several T-20 schools (didn't apply to any Ivies).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a sophomore parent I was impressed by the initial presentation and follow-up materials shared by the Director of CCO. Disheartening to see some of the posts by senior parents. Surprised also by the early results reported here about the top 5-10% performing students w/o a hook.

And here, in a nutshell, is the problem.

PP, if you are a sophomore class parent, you need to read and understand this now. It should not come as a "surprise" that top-performing students at Sidwell are not getting into top schools ED unless they have a hook. That should not come as a surprise to anyone, because that is the reality now. If the school is at fault for anything, it is for not constantly articulating that but, as I'm afraid is displayed here, parents simply do not want to hear it.

This will be your child in 2 years. It will be extremely difficult to get into any top school in the country unless your child is a direct legacy or a coveted athlete. Please accept that now and plan accordingly.

I've been watching the admissions closely at two of the Big3 schools (that my kids attend) over the past 2 years and legacy is not enough. Kids need legacy plus something else. 1)URM, 2)very top student or top student plus super impressive extracurricular 3)VIP--i.e. the legacy parent is a nationally known politician or sports figure or doctor or judge or something. A household name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a sophomore parent I was impressed by the initial presentation and follow-up materials shared by the Director of CCO. Disheartening to see some of the posts by senior parents. Surprised also by the early results reported here about the top 5-10% performing students w/o a hook.

And here, in a nutshell, is the problem.

PP, if you are a sophomore class parent, you need to read and understand this now. It should not come as a "surprise" that top-performing students at Sidwell are not getting into top schools ED unless they have a hook. That should not come as a surprise to anyone, because that is the reality now. If the school is at fault for anything, it is for not constantly articulating that but, as I'm afraid is displayed here, parents simply do not want to hear it.

This will be your child in 2 years. It will be extremely difficult to get into any top school in the country unless your child is a direct legacy or a coveted athlete. Please accept that now and plan accordingly.

Parents do want to hear it if it is the truth, but the school is terrified about being more transparent and providing actual data and information to families. Because they know that it will destroy the school's gloss and allure.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell and the other private schools should tell parents when they apply to high school "not to expect to get a leg up in college admissions by being here." Maybe it would turn away some families, but this is where it should start.

[Anonymous]

Publish the high school profile to parents. Provide the past years' matriculation lists (even if it's anonymous if privacy is really the concern). Make Naviance accessible to families outside the CCO. These are pieces of information that a school could provide in order to help families develop reasonable expectations. Sidwell does not do any of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So sick of this fake fairness argument. On the one hand, SFS CCO strongly advises against getting a private Counsellor. On the other, they appear not to be providing the kind of services applicants need. Provide the high level of service to all that ask for it, problem solved. There, got that off my chest….

I completely agree. As the parent of a senior, we regretted not hiring one.

what kind of services do they provide that you regret not seeking out?
thx for any thoughts (current underclass parent here).

Help student strategize where to apply ED/SCEA and EA. Recommend which activities and in what order should be listed on the CA. Share essays of prior clients that worked. Brainstorming essay prompts. Prioritize which essays to work on for the next meeting. Tell kids when an essay doesn’t work and help them go in a different directions. A friend’s kid, had a college counselor that created a spread sheet where item’s went from red to green as they were completed.

+1

They need to be more direct. Tell kids and parents the unvarnished truth early and get the family agitation out of the way -- better than learning it at the end. CCO also needs to think more holistically -- what are the implications of so many colleges going test-optional? Tell families that too. Definitely get the sense they think their only obligation is to send out email reminders, send transcripts to colleges, and do the usual "condescending Sidwell employee" routine.