Where do b students from big 3 schools go?
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Anonymous
| What are Big 3 high schools? Just moved her from Iowa. Thank you. |
Anonymous
High schools that are ranked in the top 3 basketball or football rankings by the Washington Post. |
Anonymous
But seriously. It is what this board considers to be a top local high school where parents pay 40k per kid. Generally, they are biased to the top schools in DC: Sidwell and National Cathedral/Saint Alban's (one is boys and one is girls) are considered top. There is usually a debate as to who is third. Georgetown Day and Maret are usually in the mix for third. Some non-DC folks argue that Potomac (in Maryland) is there and Maryland people argue Holton Arms (girls school) though not its brother school, Landon. Those are the ones in the usual mix. Other privates are perceived to be a notch below such as Gonzaga, Georgetown Visitation (girls school), Flint Hill, etc. The perception is that Sidwell, NCS, Albans, Maret, Potomac, and GDS tend to do the best in college acceptances. What it doesn't account for is legacy, athletes, and underrepresented minorities. Lot of them get in because of these reasons. |
Anonymous
Sorry meant Virginia for Potomac not Maryland |
Anonymous
| To PP from Iowa to answer Big 3 question there is already a thread on this. But the argument around which are Big 3 Is always about 4 schools Sidwell, GDS and St Albans and Nat Cathedral (which some people count as one). Potomac and Maret are also Top 5. Holton should probably be included in the elite as well. Best to look at college acceptances and other factors and make your own call. |
Anonymous
NP: While the kids at the top of public and private may be equally strong, and while the academic content may be similar, grading is very different. Only 9 students will come close to straight As by the end of senior year at our private school, and the head of school referred to that as unprecedented, an exceptionally strong class. No grade weighting, so the #10 student in the class has lower than 4.0, and also probably took the equivalent of 11 AP classes. |
Anonymous
PP, I have a B student now at GDS. Which schools did the recent graduates go to? |
Anonymous
We had only ten with straight A’s at our public after 11th grade, for those in the heavy-AP, highest rigor cohort. The private school parent perspective that public schools offer easy A’s is silly. (Though I grant it’s undoubtedly much easier to glide for those not choosing to challenge themselves. “Reg” classes are dumb-easy for kids who are capable of more advanced work.) As an aside, acceptances we’ve heard about so far from the top kids: Penn (Wharton), Stanford, Swarthmore, MIT, Georgia Tech. |
Anonymous
That really won't make much of a difference in admissions for a solid B student. The pool of schools becomes wide and varied at this level. |
Anonymous
In the last three years? Not according to our prep school Naviance. No one below 1400, no one below 3.7 UW. |
Anonymous
| Then your prep school has a problem. |
Anonymous
What school? Not Big 3. |
Anonymous
That's insane that your DS is not getting in at more places. He sounds incredible! I have a DS who's getting in at respectable places, but has nowhere near the motivation of your kid. I'm quite sure your DS will thrive in whatever he does. |
Anonymous
The average across all years, yes, that makes the chances look very good; but not the last three only -- you can't see that in Naviance, but the counselor will tell you. There has been a drastic shift. |
Anonymous
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States are pressuring their schools to take more and more in state students, so the stats required for full pay out of state students has risen a lot in the last three years.
Also, look at private schools like NYU, where four years ago the medial sat was in the 1300s and last year it was 1500. Naviance becomes far less helpful when you have drastic admissions shift like this at a given school. |