Big 3 College Placement 2018-19 Cycle

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking as a Sidwell parent, and has one who has had 2 older children graduate from Sidwell, the College Counseling office is the strongest it’s ever been. There are unique years when the caliber of the students + the make-up of the class (legacy + recruited athletes) result in seemingly phenomenal ED results (the class of 2017 comes to mind when ED results were off the charts positive.) That was one of the “best years” in recent memory (8-10 to Yale, 4-5 to Harvard, 7-8 to Penn, 3-4 Stanford, 7-8 Northwestern, multiple to Columbia, Princeton, etc.) The SAME head of counseling (who is fantastic, btw) was there for that killer year, is there this year. The class make-up at any school has an enormous amount to do with ED results.

Sad to say, the quality of the staff varies tremendously from B- to F. That is indefensible.

If you are really a SFS parent, pick up the phone and call the Head of School. This is the least effective way to share your perspective in an attempt to encourage change that I can think of.

[Anonymous]

Laughing. Previous Sidwell parent here and this is like ground hog day. Been here before and it seems to go in 5 year cycles. I think the SFS counselors, in my opinion, are very candid and realistic with the kids when building their college lists. And that rattles a lot of parents who are insulted when they are told that HYP are not realistic options. And so it’s the counselors fault that he/she can’t get every kid into an Ivy, or Stanford, or whatever. Some things never change. If kids build realistic lists, they have much better chances of having a range of acceptances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking as a Sidwell parent, and has one who has had 2 older children graduate from Sidwell, the College Counseling office is the strongest it’s ever been. There are unique years when the caliber of the students + the make-up of the class (legacy + recruited athletes) result in seemingly phenomenal ED results (the class of 2017 comes to mind when ED results were off the charts positive.) That was one of the “best years” in recent memory (8-10 to Yale, 4-5 to Harvard, 7-8 to Penn, 3-4 Stanford, 7-8 Northwestern, multiple to Columbia, Princeton, etc.) The SAME head of counseling (who is fantastic, btw) was there for that killer year, is there this year. The class make-up at any school has an enormous amount to do with ED results.

Sad to say, the quality of the staff varies tremendously from B- to F. That is indefensible.

If you are really a SFS parent, pick up the phone and call the Head of School. This is the least effective way to share your perspective in an attempt to encourage change that I can think of.

The ‘F’-grade will be gone at the end of the school year, but too late for one third of the senior class.

[Anonymous]

Burke got 2 into Brown and 1 into Princeton. That is pretty good for a class of 60 kids.

[Anonymous]

The kids may have had something to do with it as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Burke got 2 into Brown and 1 into Princeton. That is pretty good for a class of 60 kids.

Eh, I guess. I went to a public school that had better results than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think anyone is in denial. Most of the posters say it helps. It’s a question of whether you can draw any general conclusions about the legacy pool or claim that you must be hooked to be admitted.

Exactly. It's the folks dismissing certain admit as merely "legacies" who are, without any evidence, implying that these students were somehow less qualified or deserving on the merits. When in fact the opposite is generally true.

Schools would be a lot less white if they didn't take legacy status into account. Just look at schools where legacies matter (Harvard) and ones where they don't matter (MIT).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke got 2 into Brown and 1 into Princeton. That is pretty good for a class of 60 kids.

Eh, I guess. I went to a public school that had better results than that.

You should go defend the public schools you love so much in their forums. They seem to be getting shredded over there for everything from over crowded, vaping, fighting, etc. Those forums do not paint a nice picture of a public education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Burke got 2 into Brown and 1 into Princeton. That is pretty good for a class of 60 kids.

Excellent. Burke may be the new GDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think anyone is in denial. Most of the posters say it helps. It’s a question of whether you can draw any general conclusions about the legacy pool or claim that you must be hooked to be admitted.

Exactly. It's the folks dismissing certain admit as merely "legacies" who are, without any evidence, implying that these students were somehow less qualified or deserving on the merits. When in fact the opposite is generally true.

Schools would be a lot less white if they didn't take legacy status into account. Just look at schools where legacies matter (Harvard) and ones where they don't matter (MIT).

Jesus. These schools already boast that they’re at 50 percent “people of color”? What do you want? Eighty percent?! Let’s get rid of racial preferences and admit based on merit. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking as a Sidwell parent, and has one who has had 2 older children graduate from Sidwell, the College Counseling office is the strongest it’s ever been. There are unique years when the caliber of the students + the make-up of the class (legacy + recruited athletes) result in seemingly phenomenal ED results (the class of 2017 comes to mind when ED results were off the charts positive.) That was one of the “best years” in recent memory (8-10 to Yale, 4-5 to Harvard, 7-8 to Penn, 3-4 Stanford, 7-8 Northwestern, multiple to Columbia, Princeton, etc.) The SAME head of counseling (who is fantastic, btw) was there for that killer year, is there this year. The class make-up at any school has an enormous amount to do with ED results.

Sad to say, the quality of the staff varies tremendously from B- to F. That is indefensible.

If you are really a SFS parent, pick up the phone and call the Head of School. This is the least effective way to share your perspective in an attempt to encourage change that I can think of.

The ‘F’-grade will be gone at the end of the school year, but too late for one third of the senior class.

Why is F considered an F?

[Anonymous]

Is that the one who sent one student’s confidential college list to the entire class?

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry. What?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe results were lost somewhere in this thread for SFS...but I have not seen any posters responding to what the EA/ED results were for SFS. Can someone post their findings? Thanks!

You won't get a straight answer. The GDS results posted earlier are not accurate.

I heard that GDS is having a very good year so far. Sidwell, not so much.

GDS is having a good year - most (but not all) kids I know got into their ED/EA schools

Please give it a rest, GDS mom.

But most of them were legacies. Feel better now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think anyone is in denial. Most of the posters say it helps. It’s a question of whether you can draw any general conclusions about the legacy pool or claim that you must be hooked to be admitted.

Exactly. It's the folks dismissing certain admit as merely "legacies" who are, without any evidence, implying that these students were somehow less qualified or deserving on the merits. When in fact the opposite is generally true.

Schools would be a lot less white if they didn't take legacy status into account. Just look at schools where legacies matter (Harvard) and ones where they don't matter (MIT).

Jesus. These schools already boast that they’re at 50 percent “people of color”? What do you want? Eighty percent?! Let’s get rid of racial preferences and admit based on merit. Period.

If they did that schools would be 80% people of color. They’d all be Asian and white people would still complain and try to find a new way to rig the system. Face it, all white people want is a system where their less qualified kid gets in. You throw around the word merit but that’s not what you want.